一、前言
阅读分为四个层次：词、句、段、章。同学们一般习惯于以词为单位阅读，所以遇到存在“生词”的句子就无从下手了。其实阅读的真正障碍并不在于“生词”，而在于“难句”，因为难句即使每个单词都认识，只要“结构”复杂，可能也读不懂。反之，一旦能够把握“结构”，就可以忽略生词，掌握大意，从而实现“无词阅读”的境界。为此，本人特意为广大同学制作了这一套“难句随身卡”（包括基础篇和提高篇）。

二、难句的构成
英语的难句=主句+从句+短语，不同于汉语的句子全是简单句，没有复杂句。如果把英语的难句比喻成大树，那么主句相当于树干，从句相当于树枝，而短语相当于叶子。只要把握主句，就可理解大意。相比之下，汉语的句子就好比是竹子，一节一节的。
因此，我们在理解英语难句的时候要学会“拆”——把复杂句拆成简单句来理解。也就是说，要学会抓住“树干”，拆掉“枝叶”。

三、如何“拆”
任何句子都必须有谓语动词，所以找到一个谓语动词就可以拆下来一个句子。因此，理解难句的基本步骤是：1）识别出有哪几个谓语动词；2）找出主句的谓语动词，先理解主句；3）再去理解从句和短语。

四、符号说明
1．谓语动词用黑体的斜体字表示，例如：Everyone should know …。
2．从句的引导词用方框表示，例如：where the nearest fire alarm box is located。
3．从句用横线表示，例如：where the nearest fire alarm box is located，表示where引导的从句。
4．插入语成分用括号表示，例如：Keeping your head, (instead of crowding and pushing to get to an exit), may make the difference between…
第二章  插入结构
本章难句列表：
1． A child hears it spoken from morning till night and, what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation¹, right use of words and right structure.
2．Work, for most American and Chinese women aged² 55 and under, involves responsibility for a household, a child or children, and a job outside the home as well.
3．Still, he could not help thinking that if anything should happen, the nearest person he could contact by radio, unless there was a ship nearby, would be on an island 885 miles away.
4．Yet this other life has its interests, its enjoyments³, its satisfaction, and, at certain rare intervals⁴, a peaceful glow or a sudden excitement.
 
5．Our knowledge of social systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate⁵, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries.
6．However, self-fulfillment is important to morality because unfulfilled citizens, no matter how virtuous⁶, can not perform the duties morality assigns them.
7．Information and knowledge will become even more vital, and the people who possess it, whether they work in manufacturing or services, will have the advantage and produce the wealth.
8．What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessary to hand-deliver the advertising⁷ inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper.
9．While we were waiting for the coffee, the head waiter, with an ingratiating smile on his false face, came up to us bearing a large basket full of huge apples.
10．But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that rises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of which you are capable.
11．You found upon that a general law that all hard and green apples are sour; and that, so far as it goes, is a perfect induction⁸.
12．It is, everyone agrees, a huge task that the child performs when he learns to speak, and the fact that he does so in so short a period of time challenges explanation.
13．Computer crime, a phrase denoting illegal and surreptitious attempts to invade data banks in order to steal or modify records, or to release over computer networks software called a virus that corrupts⁹ data and programs, has grown at an alarming rate since the development of computer communications.
14．Britain almost more than any other country in the world must seriously face the problem of building upwards¹⁰, that is to say, of accommodating a considerable proportion of its population in high blocks of flats.