Absentthis kind of early instruction, absentthe building of this moral shield, no congressional law, nopresidential executive order,no fiery rhetoric will salvage a child s conduct norlocate a missing moral care
【翻译】没这种早期教育,没这种道德盾牌的形成,国会的任何法律、总统的任何命令、任何慷慨激昂的陈词,都不可以拯救孩子的行为,也不可以树立所缺少的道德核心
【我的疑问】
① 我把absent理解为动词,但答案上说,两个absent的句子是用了虚拟语气,用倒装表示假设,还原为正常形式是:
Ifthis kind of early instructionis absent,ifthe building of this moral shieldis absent
如此看来absent就是形容词?我翻了语法书也没找到,这种用倒装表示假设的虚拟语气
② no....no....nor nor可以和no连用吗?
Absent this kind of early instruction, absent the building of this moral shield, no congressional law, no presidential executive order, no fiery rhetoric will salvage a child s conduct nor locate a missing moral care.
本句,原剖析有误,没出现虚拟语气的动词形式,哪来的虚拟?恰恰相反,句子谓语动词是will + 原形——陈述语气。
这里,absent 不是形容词,而是介词,意思上等于without,表示“条件”。这是美国英语比较正式的文体。以下为词典注释:
absent:PREP 若没;假设没
If you say that absent one thing, another thing will happen, you mean that if the first thing does not happen, the second thing will happen.
Absent a solution, people like Sue Godfrey will just keep on fighting.
倘若得不到解决方法,像休·戈弗雷如此的人就会一直坚持斗争下去。
就本句的句子结构而言,两个absent 介词短语并列(作条件状语),三个no 并列(修饰句子主语),中间都没加and。这是“排比”修辞格的运用,旨在加大语气和气势,收到条理分明的成效。