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.
話題：字母順序帶來(lái)的歧視（不公）
 二、步驟
1. 分意群（根據(jù)標(biāo)志詞分意群：標(biāo)點(diǎn)前、連詞前、介詞前、動(dòng)詞前）
2. 定屬性（根據(jù)意群的相對(duì)位置定屬性：連接詞后是“從句”、）
3. 調(diào)語(yǔ)序（根據(jù)屬性調(diào)整意群的語(yǔ)序：定語(yǔ)提前或名詞反復(fù)說(shuō)兩遍、狀語(yǔ)提前）
4. 理翻譯（根據(jù)調(diào)整后的語(yǔ)序調(diào)整翻譯：結(jié)合語(yǔ)境和單詞感覺(jué)，調(diào)整措辭和翻譯）
 三、演練
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.
它早被人們知道/一家出租車公司/叫作AAAA cars/有一個(gè)很大的優(yōu)勢(shì)/比Zodiac cars//當(dāng)顧客/翻閱他們的電話簿。
 
2. 定屬性：
①It + 謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞（或系表）+ that，that引導(dǎo)的主語(yǔ)從句后置，用it代替主語(yǔ)，為形式主語(yǔ)It has long been known that ......
正常主謂賓語(yǔ)序應(yīng)該為 That...... has long been known，由于主語(yǔ)太長(zhǎng)，所以通常后置
②名詞+過(guò)去分詞-ed，過(guò)去分詞作后置定語(yǔ)，修飾前面的名詞
called AAAA cars：被“稱作AAAA cars的”
當(dāng)一個(gè)句子中出現(xiàn)兩個(gè)動(dòng)詞（沒(méi)有并列連詞），必然只有一個(gè)是作謂語(yǔ)，has、be等一定是作謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞；-ed形式的動(dòng)詞，可以是過(guò)去時(shí)（此時(shí)是謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞），也可能是過(guò)去分詞（此時(shí)作定語(yǔ)）。區(qū)分過(guò)去時(shí)和過(guò)去分詞的方法就是看該動(dòng)詞前面名詞的關(guān)系，如果是被動(dòng)關(guān)系，如被稱作“AAAA cars”的出租車公司，為被動(dòng)關(guān)系，即為過(guò)去分詞作定語(yǔ)。
③主句+when狀語(yǔ)從句，when從句翻譯在主句前：“當(dāng)......時(shí)”when customers thumb through their phone directories
 
 
3. 調(diào)語(yǔ)序：
①名詞+過(guò)去分詞，過(guò)去分詞作后置定語(yǔ)a taxi firm called AAAA cars
翻譯成“名為AAAA的出租車公司”
②has a big advantage over Zodiac cars
over在這里表示比較的意思，翻譯在前面：“比Zodiac出租公司更有優(yōu)勢(shì)”
 
4. 理翻譯：
難點(diǎn)：cars；over；AAAA及Zodiac；big；thumb through
l cars在這里可以不用翻譯
l over在這里表比較的意思，或者優(yōu)于
l big advantage中big不翻譯成“大”，翻譯為“更有優(yōu)勢(shì)”就行
l AAAA及Zodiac這樣的英文大寫字母專有名詞，在翻譯時(shí)可以直接照抄，直接翻譯成AAAA及Zodiac
l thumb拇指，thumb through表示翻尋、翻閱的意思
 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.
全句翻譯：長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)人們都知道，當(dāng)顧客翻尋電話號(hào)碼簿的時(shí)候，名為AAAA的出租公司就比名為Zodiac的公司更有優(yōu)勢(shì)。