新概念英语上的两个句子不太懂（欢迎高手）新概念第四册Unit1Lesson2(Sparethatspider)1Spidersarenotinsects,asmanypeoplethink,norevennearlyrelatedtothem.(很多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫,但他们不是昆虫,甚

Question

新概念英语上的两个句子不太懂（欢迎高手）
新概念第四册Unit 1 Lesson 2 (Spare that spider)
1 Spiders are not insects,as many people think,nor even nearly related to them.
(很多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫,但他们不是昆虫,甚至与昆虫毫无关系)
2 It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many insects they kill.
（我们简直无法猜测蜘蛛一年中消灭了多少昆虫）
我觉得第一句译文应该按字面意思翻译：正如像很多人知道的那样,蜘蛛是昆虫.而译文与我的恰好相反,为什么这么翻译?
里面的more 为什么这么翻译?

Answer 1

1Spiders are not insects but many people think that spiders are insects,.
many people think that spiders are insects but it's not.
as many people think 位于主句之后,think 后也可说是省略了 spiders are insects,意思是“ 许多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫,而事实上蜘蛛不是昆虫”,换句话说,许多人的看法是错误的；如果原文中的as many people think 位于句首,意思就不相同了,变成“ 许多人认为蜘蛛不是昆虫”,那么许多人的
看法就是对的,由此可见,在英语句子中,有些词语所处的位置不同,意思随之改变.
后半句 nor even nearly related to them,即 and spiders are not even nearly related to insects ； 这里的 nearly 和 nor 连用,修饰 related,不能逐词理解为“ 几乎没有” ；
not ...nearly ...（是：nor are spiders even nearly related to them 、倒装句的省略形式）,表示强调的意思,相当于“ not at all”,可译为“一点不”、“ 根本不”,后半句应译为“（ 蜘蛛）甚至和昆虫根本没有什么联系”.
综上所述,试译：与许多人的看法不同,蜘蛛并不是昆虫,甚至与昆虫根本没有任何亲缘关系.
2make a guess at :猜 make wild guess 瞎猜
more than the wildest guess at 最高程度由你猜