The new observation capabilities would result in simply a mass of details were it not for the fact that theoretical understanding has reached the stage at which it is becoming possible to indicate the kind of measurements required for reliable weather forecasting.
were it not 是一个虚拟语气吗???怎么会有这种形式的虚拟语气

Quote:

引用第3楼weileizhe于2007-01-14 23:11发表的:
首先可以这样断句：The new observation capabilities would result in simply a mass of details /were it not for the fact that/ theoretical understanding has reached the stage at which /it is becoming possible to indicate the kind of measurements required for reliable weather forecasting.
  were it not for ...=if it were not for ...这正是楼主所想的虚拟语气，只不过变个样子罢了。楼主可以查一下《张道真英语语法》这本书，那里有详尽的解释。
  汉语 翻译如下：如果不是基于这个事实——理论上的成果已经达到可以指出准确可靠天气预报所需的测量手段，那么新的观察能力只能给我们带来大量的细节而已。个人认为这样翻译更顺一些，因楼主没有发原文，所以不知适当与否，敬请不吝指正。

  好像就是这样的,翻译的太准确了