一、原文：

①It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. ②Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoë Zysman. ③English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. ④Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.

话题：字母顺序带来的歧视（不公）

二、步骤

1.分意群（根据标志词分意群：标点前、连词前、介词前、动词前）

2.定属性（根据意群的相对位置定属性：连接词后是“从句”、）

3.调语序（根据属性调整意群的语序：定语提前或名词反复说两遍、状语提前）

4.理翻译（根据调整后的语序调整翻译：结合语境和单词感觉，调整措辞和翻译）

三、演练

1.分意群：

It has long been known //that a taxi firm /called AAAA cars /has a big advantage /over Zodiac cars //when customers /thumb through their phone directories. 

它早被人们知道/一家出租车公司/叫作AAAA cars/有一个很大的优势/比Zodiac cars//当顾客/翻阅他们的电话簿。

2.定属性：

①It + 谓语动词（或系表）+ that，that引导的主语从句后置，用it代替主语，为形式主语

It has long been known that ......

正常主谓宾语序应该为 That...... has long been known，由于主语太长，所以通常后置

②名词+过去分词-ed，过去分词作后置定语，修饰前面的名词

called AAAA cars：被“称作AAAA cars的”

当一个句子中出现两个动词（没有并列连词），必然只有一个是作谓语，has、be等一定是作谓语动词；-ed形式的动词，可以是过去时（此时是谓语动词），也可能是过去分词（此时作定语）。区分过去时和过去分词的方法就是看该动词前面名词的关系，如果是被动关系，如被称作“AAAA cars”的出租车公司，为被动关系，即为过去分词作定语。

③主句+when状语从句，when从句翻译在主句前：“当......时”

when customers thumb through their phone directories

3.调语序：

①名词+过去分词，过去分词作后置定语

a taxi firm called AAAA cars

翻译成“名为AAAA的出租车公司”

②has a big advantage over Zodiac cars

over在这里表示比较的意思，翻译在前面：“比Zodiac出租公司更有优势”

4.理翻译：

难点：cars；over；AAAA及Zodiac；big；thumb through

cars在这里可以不用翻译

over在这里表比较的意思，或者优于

big advantage中big不翻译成“大”，翻译为“更有优势”就行

AAAA及Zodiac这样的英文大写字母专有名词，在翻译时可以直接照抄，直接翻译成AAAA及Zodiac

thumb拇指，thumb through表示翻寻、翻阅的意思

四、理解

It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. 

全句翻译：长久以来人们都知道，当顾客翻寻电话号码簿的时候，名为AAAA的出租公司就比名为Zodiac的公司更有优势。