2009年考研英语阅读理解精读100篇（高分版）TEXT 10

难句突破：

(1) Moreover, a study carried out eight years ago by researchers at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, revealed that women who suffered the death of a child or spouse from some catastrophic illness around the time they conceived were much more likely to give birth to girls than to boys.

[主体句式] A study revealed that...

[结构分析]这是一个复合句，主语后面是一个过去分词短语做定语；revealed后面的宾语从句比较复杂，从句的主体句式为women or spouse were likely to ...，状语中that 引导的定语从句用来修饰time, 第一个主语women后有一个以who引导的定语从句。

[句子译文] 。而且，八年前奥尔胡斯大学研究者们做的一项研究也表明经过了第一个孩子死亡的妇女或在怀孕期间经历过一些灾难性疾病的夫妇更有可能生女孩。

(2) If a mother's stress adversely affects the development of herfetus then selectively aborting boys, rather than wasting time and resources on bringing them to term, would make evolutionary sense.

[主体句式] If... then selectively aborting boys...would make sense.

[结构分析] 这是一个带有条件状语从句的复合句，主语由现在分词短语构成。

[句子译文]如果母亲的压力对胎儿的发展起了相反的影响，选择性地将男孩流产，而不是浪费时间和资源将他们养足月，那么就能说明进化的问题了。