大学英语：above all: 首先、首要

After the war, he longed above all to see his wife and family.

　　9. as a rule: 通常、一般而言

　　As a rule, I only watch sports news.

　　Analyze the important sentences among the text:

　　1. First of all, let us consider the earth as a planet revolving around the sun. (p1)

　　译：首先，让我们把地球看作是围绕太阳运行的一颗行星。

　　句子分析：first of all首先，词组：consider sth as sth把…当作…，与之类似的词组还有：

　　look up sth as sth; review sth as sth; treat sth as sth…; revolving around the sun是现在分词短语作定语修饰a planet。

　　2. These nine planets, together with the sun, make up what is called our solar system. (p1)

　　译：这九大行星和太阳一起构成我们所说的太阳系。

　　句子分析：该句主语为：These nine planets;谓语是make up;what is called our solar system是宾语;together with the sun是状语，而并非句子主语。关于该语法内容请见本讲后面的grammar---主谓一致。

　　3. How this wonderful system started and what kept it working with such wonderful accuracy is largely a mystery …… (p1)

　　译：这个奇妙的星系是怎样起源的?什么使它保持极其精确的运转，很大程度上现在还是一个谜。

　　句子分析：这也是一个主语很复杂的句子：How this wonderful system started and what kept it working with such wonderful accuracy是主语，它是一个主语从句。关于该语法内容请见本讲后面的grammar---主谓一致。

　　4. The total water area is about three times as large as the land area. (p4)

　　译：水域的总面积大约是陆地面积的三倍大。

　　句子分析：该句的核心句型是A + be + 倍数+ as + adj + as + B.

　　e.g. The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific Ocean.

　　5. These currents are important because they affected the climate of the land areas close to where they flow and also because they carry large quantities of microscope animal and vegetable life which forms a large part of the food for fishes. (p5)