从托福雅思阅读机经谈独立主格

独立主格（absolute phrases）这个语法点在托福雅思阅读中并不少见。独立主格部分的主语与主句的主语不一致，独立主格的一种形式是以【名词、名词短语、或者代词 + 非谓语】的形式呈现，非谓语可以是现在分词、过去分词、形容词、介词短语或者是名词。另一种形式则是在名词部分和非谓语之前再加 with，也就是【with + 名词、名词短语、或者代词 + 非谓语】。

遇到独立主格，可以在两句话之间加上连词（往往是 and），将独立主格的非谓语变成谓语形式，这样处理，句子看上去更加顺眼。

下面我们看一个来自托福阅读机经（The Domination of the Earth by the Dinosaurs）的句子：

For 30 million years, dinosaurs and crurotarsans lived side by side with neither dominating the planet.

这句话独立主格的形式是【with + 代词 + 现在分词】。意为三千万年中，恐龙和一种叫 C 的动物共存，谁都没能统治地球。这句话改成并列句是：

For 30 million years, dinosaurs and crurotarsans lived side by side, and neither dominated the planet.

在今年 3 月 18 号雅思阅读考试第一篇关于研究壁虎爬行原理的仿生学文章（Designs from Nature）中，有这样一句话：

In reality, gecko feet aren’t sticky—they’re dry and smooth to the touch—and owe their remarkable adhesion to some two billion spatula-tipped filaments per square centimeter on their toe pads, each filament only a hundred nanometers thick.

这句话末尾独立主格的形式是【名词 +（数字 + 单位 + 形容词）】。意为事实上，壁虎的脚没有粘性，干燥且平滑，它们有吸附能力是因为脚掌上（toe pad）的 filaments，每一份 filament 只有一百纳米那么厚。这句话改成并列句是：

In reality, gecko feet aren’t sticky—they’re dry and smooth to the touch—and owe their remarkable adhesion to some two billion spatula-tipped filaments per square centimeter on their toe pads, and each filament was only a hundred nanometers thick.

在剑桥雅思四的第一篇文章（C4T1P1）中，便出现了独立主格：

Perhaps encouragingly, more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforest, some personalizing the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’.

这句话末尾独立主格的形式是【代词 + 现在分词】。意为让人感到鼓舞的是，超过一半学生认为人类活动破坏了雨林，有些学生用“我们”这个词来把责任归于人。这句话改成并列句是：

Perhaps encouragingly, more than half of the pupils (59%) identified that it is human activities which are destroying rainforest, and some (pupils) personalized the responsibility by the use of terms such as ‘we are’.

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练习

请将以下句子改写成独立主格形式：

01.Odysseus comes to shore, and the skin is torn from his hands, and the sea water is gushing from his mouth and nostrils.

请将以下句子合并成独立主格形式：

02.The wolf trots away. His head and tail are erect. His hips are slightly to one side and out of line with his shoulders.

答案

01.Odysseus comes to shore, the skin torn from his hands, the sea water gushing from his mouth and nostrils.

02.The wolf trots away, his head and tail erect, his hips slightly to one side and out of line with his shoulders.

参考资料

https://www.thoughtco.com/revising-sentences-with-absolute-phrases-1689690

https://www.thoughtco.com/sentence-building-with-absolutes-in-english-1692206