重点分析

Writing Skill: Parallelism (平行的运用)

Parallelism as a means to achieve coherence of a sentence

or paragraph has the following effects: to lead to clarity in

writing; to gain emphasis; to create a pleasant rhythm in a

prose passage; and to cut down on the number of words

needed to express an idea. The general principle of

parallelism is to express similar ideas in similar grammatical

forms. Almost any kind of sentence element may be placed in

a parallel construction:

Single words The young film star was tall, dark, and

handsome. (Adj.)

They waited four hours at the airport, reading and sleeping. (-

ing forms)

Phrases Buying a car and beginning her job were the next

steps in her life. (-ing phrases)

Clauses A father who spends time with his son and who

thoughtfully answers his son’s questions will be respected

and loved. (Attributive clauses)

Exercises:

1. Reread the text of this unit carefully and identify parallel constructions that quite abound in it.

2. Faulty parallelism occurs when elements that are similar in the idea are not made similar in structure. Revise the following sentences so as to make the structures parallel:

1) Knowing how to study and to learn to budget time are important to college students.

2) Come to the meeting prepared to take notes and with some questions to ask.

3) Peter decided to get a job rather than going to the university.

4) Dr. Brown is a man of many ideas and who knows how to express them.

5) The doctor worried that the patient’s temperature would rise, that his blood pressure would fall, and about the possibility of his wound beginning to bleed.

Key to Exercises:

1. 1) We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfield. (3rd par.)

2) Three month from now, it will be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. (4th par.)

3) Later this month, we’ll spray the orchar d, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive. (4th par.)

4) Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and then, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs.(5th par.)

5) …, we kept warm inside burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it. (6th par.)

2. 1) Knowing how to study and learning how to budget time are important for college students.

2) Come to the meeting prepared to take notes and to ask questions.

3) Peter decided to get a job rather than to go to the universities.

4) Dr. Brown is a man who has many ideas and who knows how to express them.

5) The doctor worried that the patient’s temperature would rise, that his blood pressure would fall, and that his wound would begin to bleed.

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