托福阅读备考之长难句分析：城区土地扩展

 　　托福阅读长难句：城区土地扩展

　　The new accessibility of land around the periphery¹ of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl².

　　(宾语从句what we now know as)

　　现在可以获得这些环绕几乎每个大城市边缘地区的土地，这一可能性激发了一场房地产开发的热潮并造成了我们现在称为城区无计划扩展的现象。

　　分句1：The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled

　　分句2：what we now know as urban sprawl

　　分句2嵌套在分句1里，即分句1是主句，分句2是宾语从句，主句结构经过精简应该是The new accessibility of land sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled urban sprawl.

　　整句话的谓语动词是 sparked 和 fueled, 两个并列的动词。

　　本句的理解困难还来自于抽象词fuel，它作为名词的含义广为人知，是能源、燃料，作为动词的时候的意思就可以引申为(供给燃料)激发，促使、造成。

1 periphery   

n.(圆体的)外面；周围

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe.从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。
• The periphery of the retina is very sensitive to motion.视网膜的外围对运动非常敏感。

2 sprawl   

vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延

参考例句：

• In our garden,bushes are allowed to sprawl as they will.在我们园子里，灌木丛爱怎么蔓延就怎么蔓延。
• He is lying in a sprawl on the bed.他伸开四肢躺在床上。