1. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas--legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another.
解读:legends作sagas的同位语,后接被动分词短语做定语。
基本结构：主＋定＋谓＋宾＋同位。
翻译:他们保存历史的唯一方法是把历史作为英雄故事讲述--由说书者代代相传。
2.One can tell the difference almost at a glance for the spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.
解读:主谓宾 原因状语（省略句）
an insect never more than six 应该理解为昆虫只有六条腿而不是昆虫绝不多于六条腿,全句翻译如下:
翻译:谁都可以一眼就看出蜘蛛与昆虫不同,蜘蛛都是八条腿,而昆虫最多只有六条。
3. Such inns as there were dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine.
解读:第二个分句中,simply是副词，意为“食物只有.......”，而accompanied含被动意思，说明人们把陈面包和乳酪搭配着吃，并不是乳酪自己同面包相配。第二句作者把谓语省略了。
翻译：那里的小旅店通常又肮脏，跳蚤又多．吃的食物仅仅是当地产的乳酪加上存放了一年之久的面包，大家只能就着下等酒把它们吞下去．
4.The gorilla is something of a paradox in the African scene.
解读：这里的paradox并不是说猩猩是自相矛盾的动物，而是指人们对其捉摸不透。
翻译：大猩猩是非洲景观中有点让人捉摸不透的家伙。
5.All this and many other things remain almost as much a mystery as they were when the French explorer Du Chaillu first described the animal to the civilized world a century ago.
解读:句子是一个比较复杂的主从复合长句，应该采用分句法，逆序法来译，先将when引导的状语从句译，再译出主句。
翻译：100年前法国探险家Du Chaillu第一次向文明世界叙述过这种动物，如今这一切和其他许多事情几乎像100年前一样，仍然是个谜。
6.I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking.
解读:identity指的是与众不同的个性，不是指身份
翻译：假如有人认为我是一个麻烦的话，我一定会感到十分得意。至少，被人看成问题会使别人在某种程度上认识我是谁。这点正是年轻人所热衷追求的事情之一。
7.On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling of local patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise.
解读：local patriotism是热爱本乡本土之心，注意不要理解成地方主义（localism）
翻译：当你在乡村的草坪上比赛时，随意分为两边，并不存在热不热爱本地区的问题，只有这个时候才有可能为了娱乐和锻炼而进行比赛。
8.In textile areas it has long been customary for mothers to go out to work, but this practice has become so widespread that the working mother is now a not unusual factor in a child's home life, the number of married women in employment having more than doubled in the last twenty-five years.joozone.com