无论是在托福阅读还是SAT阅读中，比较长的句子中对于“and”前后连接的内容的判断对于准确理解句子意思变得非常关键。如果没有认真研究过这个问题，学生可能全凭语感，或者根本没有意识到两者的并列关系。

　　实际上只要关注到这个问题，解决起来非常简单，就是先读and后面的内容，然后在and前面寻找与and后面结构一致的内容，就是与后面构成并列的内容了。例如：

　　1.The key factor in the success of these countries (along with high literacy, which contributed to it) was their ability to adapt to the international division of labor determined by the early industrializers and to stake out areas of specialization in international markets for which they were especially well suited.

　　这个句子and后面是to stake out, 是一个to do的不定式结构，那就去前面找不定式，那找到了to adapt，所以，and前后连接的是to adapt and to stake out。

　　2.According to conventional theory, yawning takes place when people are bored or sleepy and serves the function of increasing alertness by reversing, through deeper breathing, the drop in blood oxygen levels that are caused by the shallow breathing that accompanies lack of sleep or boredom.

　　这个句子and后面是serves, 是动词的第三人称单数，那就去前面找动词第三人称单数，那找到了takes place，所以，and前后连接的是serves and takes place。

　　3.The thing itself--the work of copying and translating business-letters--was a dry and tedious task enough,but had that been all,I should long have borne with the nuisance;I am not of an impatient nature,and influenced by the double desire of getting my living and justifying to myself and others the resolution I had taken to become a tradesman,I should have endured in silence the rust and cramp of my best faculties;I should not have whispered,even inwardly,that I longed for liberty;I should have pent in every sigh by which my heart might have ventured to intimate its distress under the closeness,smoke,monotony,and joyless tumult of Bigben Close,and its panting desire for freer and fresher scenes;I should have set up the image of Duty,the fetish of Perseverance,in my small bedroom at Mrs.King's lodgings,and they two should have been my household gods,from which my darling,my cherished-in-secret,Imagination,the tender and the mighty,should never,either by softness or strength,have severed me.

　　这个句子and后面是its panting desire, 是its加名词结构，那就去前面找its加名词结构，那找到了its distress，所以，and前后连接的是its distress and its panting desire。