Societies Vertebrate I Increasingly Impressed Insect Functional Structural

意群训练： As my own studie s have advanced , I have bee n increasingly impressed with th e functional similaritie s between insect an d vertebrate societies and less so with the structural difference s that seem , at first glance , to constitute such a n immense gul f between them .

标志： /As my own studies have advanced, / I have been increasingly impressed /with the functional similarities (between insect societies and vertebrate societies)/ and less so (less so = I have been increasingly less impressed 的省略形式 ）/with the structural differences (that seem , at first glance , to constitute such an immense gulf between them.)/

译文： /随着我自己的研究不断推进，/我 越来越留下深刻的印象 /于后面两者之间的功能上的相似性 ，（这两者是在昆虫社会 和 脊椎动物的社会之间）；并且就越来越感觉不 /到它们之间的结构上的差异 ，（此差异 乍看上去 似乎构成了二者之间的巨大鸿沟。）

解释： 本句子的中间一段（impressed with the functional similarities between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences）容易令人看晕，其中的insect and vertebrate societies and less so with由两个and连接了三个部分，然而它们其实不是同一层次的并列，第一个and实际上是between insect societies and vertebrate societies的一部分，insect后面省略了与后面一样的societies ；第二个and表示其后的所有内容与前面整个的句子是并列的，而and之后的less so with其实是对于一个完整的表达方式I have been increasingly less impressed with的省略形式，去掉了与前面重复的成分。

后面修饰structural differences的定语从句（that seem, at first glance, to constitute such an immense gulf between them.）中，又出现了一个别扭的插入语at first glance，把应该连在一起的seem to粗暴地分开，令不熟悉此类难句的人倍感不适。