Exercise

It’s an activity you turn to for pleasure, not something that you have to do, like helping with the dishes.

While I was waiting to enter university, I saw advertised in a local newspaper a teaching post at a school in a suburb of London about ten miles from where I lived.

I launched into a variation of the speech I had made for years, about how excessive tax rates can take away the incentive to produce, and how cutting taxes can generate growth.

要點(diǎn)分析和參考譯文

要點(diǎn)：“an activity”及”not something”在句中作并列表語(yǔ)。介詞短語(yǔ)”like helping…” 與 “that” 從句共同作定語(yǔ)，修飾”something”，此定語(yǔ)被that ”從句分割”。
參考譯文：這是一種使你尋求快樂(lè)的活動(dòng)，而不是諸如幫助刷盤(pán)子那種你非做不可的事情。

要點(diǎn)：此句的賓語(yǔ)” a teaching post” 之所以放在” in a local newspaper” 之后是因?yàn)樗鼛в休^長(zhǎng)的后置定語(yǔ)，其目的是為了避免句子“頭重腳輕”。
參考譯文：在我等待進(jìn)入大學(xué)期間，我在一份地方報(bào)紙上看到一則廣告，說(shuō)是在離我住處大約10英里的倫敦某郊區(qū)有所學(xué)校要招聘一名教師。

要點(diǎn)：the speech本應(yīng)緊連著介詞about的短語(yǔ)，即the speech about how…and how…，但由于定語(yǔ)從句I had made for years 與 speech在意義連接上更為密切，所以把speech和about短語(yǔ)分隔開(kāi)了。介詞about后面跟的是兩個(gè)并列的介詞賓語(yǔ)從句” how excessive tax rates can take away……”和” how cutting taxes can generate……”
參考譯文：我發(fā)表了一篇內(nèi)容與幾年前不同的講話，談的是稅率過(guò)高會(huì)使生產(chǎn)失去刺激以及減稅會(huì)使經(jīng)濟(jì)得到增長(zhǎng)。