单词：handicap （v.阻碍；使不利）←hand+i(n)+cap，据说源自古代一种赌博：将罚金置于帽子里，手进入帽子抽签，抽中者处不利地位。cultural handicap 文化障碍；language handicap 语言障碍。
unparalleled （无可比拟的）←un+parallel+ed；parallel（n.v.a.平行；相似）即para+llel，para-前缀“在旁边”=beside，llel三个l看作是“平行线”。parallel points in the characters of different men 不同人的个性的相同之处。
predominance （优势）即pre+domin+ance，pre-“在前”，domin词根“支配”（如dominate→domin+ate动词后缀→支配；占优势），-ance名词后缀；predominant（占优势的；起主要作用的）←pre+domin+ant形容词后缀。the predominant feature of sb.'s character 某人性格的主要特征。
sensational （感动的；引起轰动的）即sens(e)+ation+al，sense词根“感觉”，-sation名词后缀，-al形容词后缀。sensational literature 令人激动的作品；a sensational crime 骇人听闻的罪行。
attribute （属性v.归因于）即at+tribute，at-(=to)，tribute词根“给”，于是“把属性给某物”→归因于；contribute /kEn5tribju:t/（v.贡献；捐献；投稿）即con一起+tribute，“一起给”→捐献→引申为“投稿”。
executive （执行的；执行官）可看作exe+cut+ive，exe即“可执行文件”后缀名，cut切，-ive后缀，“执行(exe)官的任务是——如果你不听话，就把你cut掉”。The business system is blessed with a built-in corrective, namely, that one executive's mistakes become his competitor's assets.商界有一条天然的校正法则，即：决策者的失误会变成竞争对手的资产。executive — a person who always decides; sometimes he decides correctly 管理人员——总在做决定的人；有时候他也能做出正确决定。
productivity （生产率）即produc(e)+tiv(e)+ity，produce生产，-tive形容词后缀，-ity名词后缀。raise the labour productivity 提高劳动生产率。
manifest （明白的；v.表明）看作man+if+est，man男人，if是否，est形容词最高级，“男人是否最明白”。No amount of manifest absurdity... could deter those who wanted to believe from believing.无论明显的荒唐有多大……都无法阻止那些由于相信而相信的人。
withdraw（v.撤销；缩回；提取）←with+draw，with-(=back, against)，draw拉，“拉回来”。This is no time for any man to withdraw into some ivory tower and proclaim the right to hold himself aloof from the problems and the agonies of his society.现在对于任何人都不是缩进某座象牙塔并声明自己有权置身于社会问题与痛苦之外的时候。
restructure （v.重组）←re+structure，re-再=again，structure（v.n.构造）。The past has revealed to me the structure of the future.过去向我揭示了未来的结构。
原文请翻译： A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world's best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith. (Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea's LG Electronics in July.) Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America's machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America's industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. "American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, has learnt to be more quick-witted," according to Richard Cavanaugh, executive dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity," says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as "a golden age of business management in the United States."
译文：一段长时间并且不费力而成功的历史可能成为一种可怕的不利因素，但若处理得当，这种不利因素也有可能转化为一种积极的推动力。二战结束后，美国恰好进入了这样的一个辉煌时期，当时，它拥有比任何竞争者大8倍的市场，这使其工业经济具有前所未有的规模经济。美国的科学家是世上最优秀的，它的工人是最富于技术的。美国的国富民强是那些经济遭到战争破坏的欧亚诸国做梦也无法达不到的。 随着其他国家日益强盛，美国的这一优势地位逐渐下降是不可避免的。从优势地位上退出的痛苦也同样是不可避免的。到了80年代中期，面对其日益衰退的工业竞争力，美国人感到不知所措。面对国外竞争，一些大型的美国工业，如消费电子产业，已经萎缩或渐渐消失。到1987年，美国只剩下Zenith这一家电视生产商。（现在一家也没有了：Zenith于当年7月被韩国LG电器公司收购。）外国制造的汽车和纺织品正在大举进入国内市场。美国的机床工业也即将灭亡。人们曾一度感觉下一个在海外品牌面前全军覆没的似乎该轮到美国的半导体制造业了，而在新计算机时代有着核心作用的半导体正是美国人发明的。 所有这一切导致了信任危机。美国不再视繁荣为理所当然之事。他们开始相信自己的商业经营方式不灵了，也相信不久他们的收入也会因此而下降。80年代中期，人们对美国工业衰退的成因作了一次又一次的探寻。在美国人那些有时耸人听闻的发现中充满着对其他国家日益增长的经济竞争的警告之词。 情况的变化真快！1995年，当日本还在奋力拼搏的时候，美国却可以对5年的稳固发展作一回顾了。没几个美国人将这一巨变单纯归因于美元贬值或商业周期循环这些显而易见的原因。到如今，对自身的怀疑已被盲目乐观所取代。“美国的工业已经改变了结构，消除了滞胀，学会了明智”，这是哈佛大学肯尼迪管理学院行政院长理查德·卡佛纳的看法。华盛顿特区的智囊团——卡托研究院的史蒂芬·莫尔说：“看到我们的企业正在提高自身的生产率，作为一个美国人，我感到自豪。”哈佛商学院的威廉·萨尔曼相信人们将会把这一时期视为“美国企业管理的黄金时代”。
精彩句子：1.
For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
▲该句带有一个表语从句，其表语从句中又套有两个并列的定语从句。全句主句部分的主谓结构是it looked...，as though（即as if好像）引导的从句是looked（看上去）的表语。表语从句中主语为the making of semiconductors，谓语为was going to be，而逗号之间的两个which从句是the making of semiconductors的非限定性定语，同时又是插入语。△注意理解the next casualty的含义，casualty本意为“伤亡”，此处是“被国外产品击败的美国本土产业”。
2.
Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
▲英语的句式词汇一般都比较简练，如果将本句用中国人习惯的语式讲出应该如下：Their sometimes surprising findings about the causes of American's industrial decline are full of the warnings about the growing competition from overseas nations.
△sensational即surprising。另外注意本句的中心意思在句末的the growing competition from overseas。
3.
Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride.
▲attribute... to...将……归功或归咎于……。solely作状语修饰attribute，this指代上一句中的five years of solid growth，此外as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle作宾语such obvious causes的补语。△yield to是“向……屈服”，即“被取代”。此处使用了现在完成时，证明这种状态到现在已成型。
英语倍数句型及其译法
1．倍数增加
（1）A is n times as great（long，much，…）as B.（①）
A is n times greater （longer， more，…）than B.（②）
A is n times the size （length， amount，…）of B.(③)
以上三句都应译为；A的大小（长度，数量，……）是B的n倍[或A比日大（长，多，……）n-1倍]. 例如：
This book is three times as long as （three times longer than，three times the length of ）that one，
这本书的篇幅是那本书的3倍（即长两倍）。
注：当相比的对象B很明显时，than（as，of）B常被省去。
（2）increase to n times（④）
increase n times／n-fold（⑤）
increase by n times（⑥）
increase by a factor of n（⑦）
以上四式均应译为：增加到n倍（或：增加n-1倍）。例如：
The production of integrated circuits has been increased to three times as compared with last year。
集成电路的产量比去年增加了两倍。
The output of chemical fertilizer has been raised five times as against l986．化肥产量比1986年增加了4倍。
That can increase metabolic rates by two or three times。
那可使代谢率提高到原来的2倍或3倍（即提高1倍或2倍）。
The drain voltage has been increased by a factor of four.
漏电压增加了3借（即增加到原来的4倍）。
注：在这类句型中increase常被raise，grow，go/step up，multiply等词所替代。
（3）There is a n-fold increase/growth…应译为：增加n-倍（或增至n倍）。（⑧）这个句型还有其它一些形式，如：
A record high increase in value of four times was reported.
据报道,价值破记录地增长了3倍。
（4）double【增加1倍】，treble（增加2倍），quadruple（增加3倍）。(⑨)例如：
The efficiency of the machines has been more than trebled or quadrupled．这些机器的效率已提高了2倍或3倍多。
(5)此外，英语中还有一种用again而不用倍数词来比较倍数的方法，如：
A is as much （large，long，…）again as B.【= A is twice as much （large，long，…）as B.】（⑩）应译为：A比B多（大，长，……）1倍。
A is half as much （large， 1ong，…）again as B.【= A is one and a half times as much （large， 1ong，…）as B.】（11）
应译为:A比B多（大，长……）一半（即A是B的一倍半）。
2、倍数减少
（1）A is n times as small （light，slow，…）as B.（12）
A is n times smaller （lighter， slower，…）than B.（13）
以上两句均应译为：A的大小（重量，速度，……）是B的1/n[或A比B小（轻，慢，……）（n-1）/n]。例如：
The hydrogen atom is near1y l6 times as light as the oxygen atom.氢原子的重量约为氧原子的1/16（即比氧原子约轻15／16）。
This sort of membrane is twice thinner than ordinary paper.
这种薄膜比普通纸张要薄一半（即是普通纸厚度的1／2）。
注：当相比的对象B很明显时，than/as B常被省去。
（2）decrease n times／n一fold （14）
decrease by n times（15）
decrease by a factor of n（16）
以上三式均译为：减少到1／n[或：减少（n-1）／n]。decrease常被reduce， shorten， go／slow down等词替代。例如：
Switching time of the new-type transistor is shortened 3 times。新型晶体管的开关时间缩短了1／3（即缩短到2／3）。
When the voltage is stepped up by ten times， the strength of the current is stepped down by ten times。电压升高9倍，电流强度便降低9／10（即90％）。
The equipment reduced the error probability by a factor of 5.
该设备误差概率降低了4/5。
（3）There is a n-fold decrease／reduction…应译为：减至1／n
[或：减少（n一1）／n]。（17）这个句型还有其它一些形式，如：
A rapid decrease by a factor of 7 was observed．发现迅速减少到1／7。
The principal advantage of the products is a two-fold reduction in weight；这些产品的主要优点是重量减轻了1／2。
从上列倍数增减句型及其译法中不难看出：与汉语不同的是，英语在表述或比较倍数时，无论使用什么句型（除了不含倍数词的again句型外）都包括基础倍数在内，因此都不是净增或净减n倍，而是净增或净减n-1倍。所以句型⑤、③表示的倍数增量=句型④；句型(13)表示的倍数比差＝句型12，且decrease（by） 3 times应译为“减少2／3”，而不是“减少3／4”。
补充几个数量的表达方法
A hundred and one factories = a lot of factories
A long hundred 100多
A long hour 足足1小时
A small gross 十打（120个）
A score 二十
A decade 十
At nine hundred hours 9：00
Twenty odd = twenty and odd 二十多
今日练习：分析句子：
A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force.
