考研英语长难句详解(60)

　　60. This succession was based primarily on a series of deposits and events not directly related to glacial and interglacial periods，rather than on the more usual modern method of studying biological remains found in interglacial beds themselves interstratified within glacial deposits. (4) 这一序列演替(succession)所依据的，主要是一系列与冰川期和间冰期并不直接相关的地质沉积物和地质事件，而不是依据更为普遍的现代方法，去研究间冰层(interglacial bed)中所发现的生物残留物，而这些间冰层本身又在冰川沉积物发生间层化(interstatified)。

　　难句类型：复杂修饰、省略、易淆指代

　　解释：句子中的rather than 之后省略了与前面重复的being based,直接加上了介词on。Modern method后面的部分都是修饰method的。其中的remains既可以作动词也可以作名词，此处是名词的用法，biological remains指的是类似于动物化石之类的遗迹。读到这里我们看到了句子的难点，themselves既可以指前面离得很远的modern method，也可以指前面离得较远的biological remains，亦可以指紧挨着的interglacial beds，到底是指代哪一个，只有通过理解句意，才能确定在此处指biological remains。

　　意群训练：This succession was based primarily on a series of deposits and events not directly related to glacial and interglacial periods，rather than on the more usual modern method of studying biological remains found in interglacial beds themselves interstratified within glacial deposits.