9. Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively;and 26 of George Bush's predecessors ( including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half.

【分析】并列句。本句是由and連接的兩個(gè)并列分句。第一個(gè)分句中賓語(yǔ)surnames后的分詞結(jié)構(gòu)starting with…作其后置定語(yǔ);第二個(gè)分句賓語(yǔ)后緊跟的介詞結(jié)構(gòu) in the first half of the alphabet 作其定語(yǔ)，against just 16后省略了 of George Bush's... had surnames。

【譯文】美國(guó)的總統(tǒng)和副總統(tǒng)的姓氏分別以B和C開(kāi)頭；喬治·布什的前任中（包括他的父親）有26位的姓氏排在字母表的前半部分，而只有16個(gè)在后半部分。

【點(diǎn)撥】respectively為副詞，意為“各自地，分別地”。

10. One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early.

【分析】復(fù)合句。句子主干為One theory…is that...，that 引導(dǎo)表語(yǔ)從句。句子的主語(yǔ)與be動(dòng)詞被過(guò)去分詞短語(yǔ) dreamt up...disadvantaged 分隔。過(guò)去分詞短語(yǔ) dreamt up…作后置定語(yǔ)，修飾theory。過(guò)去分詞短語(yǔ)enjoyed by…為 all the spare time 的后置定語(yǔ)。the alphabetically disadvantaged的作用相當(dāng)于名詞，指一類(lèi)人。

【譯文】那些在字母表中排序處于劣勢(shì)的人花去所有的業(yè)余時(shí)間杜撰出一種理論，認(rèn)為在很早的時(shí)候情況就已經(jīng)開(kāi)始不妙了。

【點(diǎn)撥】1)rot原意為“腐爛，腐蝕，敗壞”，此處的意思是“一連串的不利”，指因?yàn)樾帐系氖鬃帜冈谧帜副碇械奈恢每亢笏馐艿钠缫暋?)set in“開(kāi)始，到來(lái)；上漲；插入，嵌入”。