考研英語：歷年真題閱讀要點(diǎn)之1991-Text 1（一）

　　A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people.

　　the only thing necessary在此necessary形容詞充當(dāng)后置定語，修飾限定the only thing;some urgent things則是urgent形容詞充當(dāng)前置定語，同樣起到修飾限定的作用。也就是說形容詞充當(dāng)定語既可以前置又可以后置。triumph表示“勝利”，形容詞形式triumphant，triumphant return就表示“凱旋”。evil既可以充當(dāng)名詞表示“罪惡，邪惡”又可以充當(dāng)形容詞表示“罪惡的，邪惡的”。

　　Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability.

　　struggle to do表示“努力做某事”;hold back“抑制，阻止”;Stagnation in home sales is holding back economic recovery. 住房銷售的停滯正阻礙著經(jīng)濟(jì)的復(fù)蘇。tidal“潮汐的”，a tidal wave of crime就是“犯罪的浪潮”。go wrong with“出毛病”，也可以說“have something wrong with”。Some people may think that those who don’t agree with them have something wrong with them.有些人可能認(rèn)為那些和自己觀點(diǎn)不一致的人有點(diǎn)兒不正常。ingredient“要素”;accountability“責(zé)任”，形容詞形式accountable，常見搭配be accountalbe to“對...負(fù)責(zé)任”。

　　Accountability isn’t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences.

　　be responsible for對...負(fù)責(zé)任;and連接兩個(gè)并列分句;be liable for=be responsible for;their consequences指的是“行為所導(dǎo)致的后果”。

　　Of the many values that hold civilization together -- honesty, kindness, and so on -- accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law -- and, ultimately, no society.

　　hold...together“結(jié)合”;civilization“文明”;kindness=kind+ness，其中，kind為形容詞，-ness表示名詞的后綴。因此，kindness就是名詞“善良”。