第1个回答 2014-11-13
not so much...as...是一个常用的并列连词,其含义相当于rather than,意为"与其说是……倒不如说是……"。和其它连接词一样,它可以连接词与词,短语与短语以及句子与句子。例如:
He isn't so much ill as depressed.(=He's depressed rather than ill.)他不是生病,而是情绪低落。
Oceans don't?so much divide the world as unite it.(=Oceans unite the world rather than divide it.)与其说海洋分隔了世界,倒不如说海洋联结了世界各国。
当连接句子时,not so much...as...连接的往往是because或that引起的从句,意思是"倒不是因为……而是因为……"。as后的that有时可省去。例如:
You feel lost,sick at heart before such unmasked hatred,not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light.面对这毫不掩饰的仇恨,你感到不知所措,惶恐不安,这倒不是因为它威胁了你,而是因为它显示了人类居然如此没有人性。
It's not so much that the machine is out of order as(that)I have not learned to operate it.倒不是机器出了故障,而是我还没有学会操作。
该并列连词中的as可用but(rather)替换,即出现该连词的一种变体:not somuch...but(rather)...。例如:
It is not so much the actual population of the world but its rate of increase which is important.重要的与其说是实际的世界人口总数,倒不如说是世界人口增长率。