Puritan Cultural Appears Contrast Colonies Peculiarly Strong Interest

意群训练： Thus ，what in contrast to the Puritan colonies appears to Davis to be peculiarly Southern —acquisitiveness ，a strong interest in politics and the law ，and a tendency to cultivate metropolitan cultural models —was not only more typically English than the cultural patterns exhibited by Puritan Massachusett s and Connecticut ，but als o almost certainl y characteristic of most other earl y modern British colonie s from Barbados north to Rhode Island and New Hampshire .

标志：Thus ，what/in contrast to the Puritan colonies/ appears /to Davis/ to be peculiarly Southern —acquisitiveness，a strong interest in politics and the law, and a tendency to cultivate metropolitan cultural models —was not only more typically English than the cultural patterns exhibited by Puritan Massachusetts and Connecticut, but also was almost certainly characteristic of most other early modern British colonies from Barbados north to Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

译文： 因此，/与清教徒的殖民地形成了强烈的对比的//在戴维斯/看来是特别有南方色彩的特征 ——如：进取心、对政治及法律的强烈兴趣和培养大都市文化的欲望 ——不仅仅比 由清教的马萨诸塞州和康涅狄格州所展现出来的文化模式/更 具有 典型的英国特征 ，而且 /几乎一定/就是 （大多数其他早期现代英国殖民地的）典型特征 ，（这些殖民地的范围从 巴巴多斯以北到 新罕布什尔州）。

解释： 这个颇长的句子是由一个what从句做主语，此主语what/in contrast to the Puritan colonies/ appears /to Davis/ to be peculiarly Southern 中有又一些插入的修饰成分，其实主干很简单，就是what appears to be Southern。Southern后的两个破折号之间的内容是主语的同位语，实际起到了一个插入语的作用。一直到句子写了五行之后，谓语动词was才姗然出现，难怪读者看得不舒服。but also 之后，省略了与前面一样的was。

笔者在此再次提醒读者，笔者之所以对此类句子做语法分析，是为了让读者熟悉这些语法结构，而不是希望读者在现场阅读时也去分析其语法。正确的方法是通过熟读本书中的种种难句，使大脑习惯这些语言结构；实战的现场阅读时把注意力集中在句子的意思上。比如这句话，只要读出“与D的观念相反，南方的州与清教的殖民地一样，都是有着英国风格的”的意思即可。