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 ofen 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.
解读：作为一个复合句，原文包含三个意思，主要应当注意几个动词的不同时态，从而分清楚三层意思之间的关系。
翻译：虽然在那些纺织工业区，母亲出去上班早已司空见惯，但是现在这种现象更为普遍，如今儿童的家庭生活中，母亲去上班已经是习以为常的事情了。因为在最近二十五年中，已婚妇女就业的人数已经增加了一倍多。

9. It is unusual now for father to pursue his trade or other employment at home, and his children rarely, if ever, see him at his place of work.
翻译：现在做父亲的一般都不在家里干本行活计或者其他行当，而他的孩子们即便有可能的话，也很少能在他的工作场所见到他。

10. Everyone knows that if he shouts in the vicinity of a wall or a mountainside, an echo will come back.
翻译：大家都知道，假如一个人在墙壁附近或是山腰里大声呼喊，就会产生一个回音。

11. In our new society there is a growing dislike of original, creative men. The manipulated do not understand them; the manipulators fear them. The tidy committee men regard them with horror, knowing that no pigeonholes can be found for them.
解读:主要考虑"tidy"的讽刺语气。
翻译:在现代社会里，人们对开拓型的有创造力的人有一种与日俱增的厌恶情绪。受人摆布的人不理解他们，摆布别人的人害怕他们。衣冠楚楚的委员们知道不可能使他们就范，因此怀着恐惧的心理看待他们。

12. These days, it is differences in national regulations, far more than tariffs, that put sand in the wheels of trade between rich countries.