The party didn‘t break up until midnight. 宴会到午夜才结束。
相关词汇：to break down 损坏，（精神、健康）垮下来
to break into 强行闯入
to break out 爆发，突然出现
2.in favour of ： 赞成，支持；有利于
Most people are in favour of the newly-elected president. 大多数人支持新当选的总统。
The council has voted in favour of a $200 million housing development. 参议会投票通过了一项两亿美元的住宅开发计划。
3.to carry on： 经营，进行；继续
He began to carry on the leather business last year. 他去年开始经营皮革生意。
You just have to carry on as if nothing‘s happened. 你们接着干吧，就当什么事也没发生。
They decided to carry on in spite of the weather. 他们决定不管天气好坏都继续下去。
II.课文分析
The American Tow-party System
No one now living in the United Sates can remember when the contest began between the Democratic and the Republican parties.① It has been going on for more than a century， making it one of the oldest political rivalries in the world.②
1.No one now living in the United States can remember when the contest began between the Democratic and the Republican parties. （para.1）
living in the United States是现在分词作定语，修饰one.
when 引导宾语从句
2.It has been going on for more than a century， making it one of the oldest political rivalries in the world. （para.1）
1） has been going on 用的是现在完成进行时。2） making 是现在分词作状语，其中oldest 是形容词最高级的形式
The American political system is a classical example of the two-party system. When we say that we have a tow-party system in the United States we do not mean that we have only two parties. Usually about a dozen parties nominate presidential candidates. We call it a two-party system because we have two large parties and a number of small parties， and the large parties are so large that we often forget about the rest. Usually the small parties collectively poll less than 5per cent of the vote cast in national elections.
The Democratic and Republican parties are the largest and most competitive organizations in the American community. They organize the electorate very simply by maintaining the two-parry system…… Americans almost inevitably become Democrats or Republicans because there is usually no other place for them to go. Moreover， because the rivalry of these parties is very old， most Americans know where they belong in the system…… As a consequence of the dominance of the Democrats. Attempts to break up this old system have been made in every presidential election in the past one hundred years， but the system has survived all assaults.③
3.Attempts to break up this old system have been made in every presidential election in the past one hundred years， but the system has survived all assaults. （para.3）
Attempt 后面的 “to break up this old system” 是动词不定式作定语，修饰attempt.此句谓语动词用的是现在完成时的被动语态。make attempt to do sth. 表示“企图，打算做某事”。
How does it happen that the two-party system is so strongly rooted in American politics？ ④The explanation is probably to be found in the way elections are conducted. In the United States， unlike countries with a parliamentary system of government， we elect not only the President， but a large number of other officials， about 800，000 of them. We also elect 435 members of the House of Representatives from 435 districts （there are a few exceptions ）， one member for each district. Statistically， this kind of election favors the major parties. The system of elections makes it easy for the major parties to maintain their dominant position， because they are likely to win more than their share of the offices.⑤
4.How does it happen that the two-party system is so strongly rooted in American politics？
句中it 是形式主语，实际主语是that引导的主语从句。（para.4）
rooted是过去分词在本句中用于被动语态。root 作动词表示“（使）扎根，（使）生根”
e.g. The story is firmly rooted in reality.这个故事深深扎根于现实。
发表于 2008-2-3 09:33:59