GRE考試閱讀理解長難句解析（4）

　　As my own studies have advanced，I have been increasingly impressed with the functional similarities between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences that seem，at first glance，to constitute such an immense gulf between them.

　　隨著我的研究不斷深入，我對昆蟲和脊椎動物群落之間的功能類似性印象愈來愈深刻，而對結構上的差異印象愈發(fā)淡漠，雖然這些結構上的差異初看上去似乎構成了二者間一條無法愈越的鴻溝。

　　難句類型：復雜修飾、插入語、省略

　　解釋：本句子的中間一段impressed with the functional similarites between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences容易令人看暈，其中的insect and vertebrate societies and less so with由兩個and連接了三個部分，然而它們其實不是同一層次的并列，第一個and實際上是between insect societies and vertebrate societies的一部分，是并列的，而and之后的less so with其實是對于一個完整的表達方式I have been increasingly less impressed with的省略形式，去掉了與前面重復的成分。

　　后面修飾的structural differences的定語從句that seem, at first glance, to constitute such an immense gulf between them中，又出現(xiàn)了一個別扭的插入語at first glance，把應該連在一起的seem to 粗暴地分開，令人不熟悉此類難句的人倍感不適。