such as 用法困惑

There were often odd jobs to be got about the fish-market. Once they each of them earned a franc by loading trucks with innumerable boxes of oranges that had been dumped down on the quay. One day they had a stroke of luck: one of the boarding-masters got a contract to paint a tramp that had come in from Madagascar round the Cape of Good Hope, and they spent several days on a plank hanging over the side, covering the rusty hull with paint. It was a situation that must have appealed to Strickland's sardonic humour. I asked Captain Nichols how he bore himself during these hardships.

"Never knew him say a cross word," answered the Captain. "He'd be a bit surly sometimes, but when we hadn't had a bite since morning, and we hadn't even got the price of a lie down at the Chink's, he'd be as lively as a cricket."

I was not surprised at this. Strickland was just the man to rise superior to circumstances, when they were such as to occasion despondency in most; but whether this was due to equanimity of soul or to contradictoriness it would be difficult to say

这一句 when they were such as to occasion despondency in most 有点难以理解。这里出现的such as，还是such和as不相关，应该是such和as to...呢？

麻烦老师分析一下这句的句法成分结构等，谢谢！

0 条评论
分类：难句分析

最佳答案 2021-04-17 16:05

赞同刘老师关于such as to do的分析。不过我觉得they应该是指代前面的复数名词circumstances，即 When circumstances are such as to occasion (=cause) despondency in most (people)，Strickland was just the man to rise superior to circumstances