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【往期回顾】
每课一句：新概念第2册第70课 今天我们接着来看第71课的“每课一句”。 一、课文原文Lesson 71 A famous clock When you visit London, one of the first things you will see is Big Ben, the famous clock which can be heard all over the world on the B.B.C. If the Houses of Parliament had hot been burned down in 1834, the great clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name from Sir Benjamin Hall who was responsible for the making of the clock when the new Houses of Parliament were being built. It is not only of immense size, but is extremely accurate as well. Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day. On the B.B.C. you can hear the clock when it is actually striking because microphones are connected to the clock tower. Big Ben has rarely gone wrong. Once, however, it failed to give the correct time. A painter who had been working on the tower hung a pot of paint on one of the hands and slowed it down! ——选自《新概念英语》第二册，外语教学与研究出版社，1997年10月第1版 二、每课一句 Big Ben takes its name from Sir Benjamin Hall who was responsible for the making of the clock when the new Houses of Parliament were being built.注意本句话中的三个谓语动词的时态变化，即： takes its name was responsible for were being built
这三个谓语动词的时态变化，非常典型地体现了英语时态的严格要求与灵活性。下面我们就来看看这三个分句： 1. Big Ben takes its name from Sir Benjamin Hall 这句话的意思是：大本钟得名于本杰明·霍尔爵士。这句话的动词take之所以采用一般现在时，是因为该句话表述的是客观事实。
2. ...who was responsible for the making of the clock 这句话其实是Sir Benjamin Hall的定语从句，用来说明霍尔爵士的身份。这句话的动词be之所以采用一般过去时，是因为该句话描述的是霍尔爵士当年是负责大本钟建造的人，是过去发生的事情。
3. when the new Houses of Parliament were being built 这句话其实是who引导的定语从句中的时间状语从句，是从句中的从句。而这句话描述的是当霍尔爵士负责建造大本钟的时候，新的国会大厦正在建造中（其实，大本钟就是国会大厦的一部分），所以该句话的动词build采用了过去进行时were being built。
三、更多拓展 When you visit London, one of the first things you will see is Big Ben, the famous clock which can be heard all over the world on the B.B.C.注意这句话中的“the famous clock which can be heard all over the world on the B.B.C”，这其实是个名词短语，which引导的定语从句是用来修饰the famous clock的。该名词短语是Big Ben的同位语，用来补充说明Big Ben是什么。 正因为该名词短语是同位语，只是起着补充说明的作用，所以在实际阅读中，如果要进行快速阅读或者跳跃式阅读，其实是可以跳过该短语，直接读下文的。 在参加各类英语考试中，如果在阅读中碰到同位语成分时，大多可以考虑跳过去不看。但是，碰到下面的情况则不能跳过： A warm thought suddenly came to me that I might use the pocket money to buy some flowers for my mother's birthday．
上句中的that引导的从句就是同位语从句，用来说明a warm thought的具体内容。 因为a warm thought并不能表达清楚具体的内容，所以读者必须要读完后面的同位语从句，才能理解整句话的意思。 所以，一般来说，如果同位语或同位语从句所修饰的名词是个抽象名词，在阅读时是不能跳过的。 但是，如果同位语或同位语从句所修饰的名词表达的是具体的人或物时，则可以跳过。
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