難句解析：
①Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe.
▲whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe是Japan的定語從句。
△千萬注意hardly是否定詞，相當(dāng)于not。
②The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teen-agers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs.
▲本句的主語是The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market，謂語是have limited，賓語是the opportunities of teen-agers，而who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs是賓語的定語從句，該從句中involved in climbing Japan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs又是personal sacrifices的補(bǔ)語。
△age是“時(shí)代”，表示這一代已經(jīng)成為社會(huì)的主力軍；baby boom指在戰(zhàn)后的“生育高峰，嬰兒潮”；questioning的意思是“質(zhì)問，質(zhì)疑”；involved in指“與某事有關(guān)，由某事引起”。
③Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then education minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II had weakened the "Japanese morality of respect for parents."
▲本句主語是Mitsuo Setoyama，謂語是raised eyebrows，who was then education minister是主語的定語，when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II had weakened the "Japanese morality of respect for parents."是全句的時(shí)間狀語從句，其中that引導(dǎo)的從句是argued的賓語，該賓語從句中主語是liberal reforms，謂語是had weakened，賓語是the "Japanese morality of respect for parents"，introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II是liberal reforms的補(bǔ)語。
△注意raised eyebrows是“瞋目”的意思，此處指“瞪起眼睛，情緒激憤”。
④With economic growth has come centralization; fully 76 percent of Japan's 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two-generation households.
▲has come centralization是一個(gè)倒裝結(jié)構(gòu)，原形為centralization has come。Where引導(dǎo)的定語從句修飾cities。
△本句中須弄清一些詞匯的含義，如：centralization集中化；community禮俗社會(huì)；extended family多代同堂式的家庭；in favor of由…取代；households家庭。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/kaoyan/201406/305304.shtml