16. Yet the research revealed that the U.S. factories of Honda, Nissan, and Toyota achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of their Japanese counterparts—a result of the training that U.S. workers received on the job.
【分析】復合句。句子主干是 the research revealed that...。that 引導賓語從句,其中名詞短語 a result of the training 補充說明 the U.S. factories...Japanese counterparts,training 由 that 引導的定語從句修飾。
【譯文】然而,研究表明,由田,尼桑和豐田在美國工廠的生產率達到了日本同行的95%——這歸功于美國工人進行的在崗培訓。
【點撥】counterpart 指“與雙方地位作用相當的人(或物),對應物”。
17. More, recently, while examining housing construction, the researchers discovered that illiterate, non-English-speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards despite the complexity of the building industry's work.
【分析】復合句。句子主干為 the researchers discovered that...,其中 that 引導的從句作賓語。賓語從句中 despite 引出的介詞短語作讓步狀語。句首的“while + 分詞短語”結構是省略主語和系動詞的狀語從句 while the researchers were examining...。
【譯文】最近,研究者在調查房屋建筑業時發現,盡管建筑行業的工作非常復雜,但是德克薩斯州休斯頓市的那些不識字、不會說英語的墨西哥工人卻總能達到勞動生產率的最高標準。
【點撥】1) illiterate 意為“文盲的”,是 literate“有讀寫能力的,識字的”的反義詞。2)despite 用作介詞,意思是“不管,盡管”,其后跟名詞(短語)。
【臨摹】盡管她事業有成,但和丈夫相比總覺遜色。