今日长难句：

Nicola Sturgeon's speech last Tuesday setting out the Scottish government's legislative programme for the year ahead confirmed what was already pretty clear.

上周二，尼古拉·斯特金在演讲中阐述了苏格兰政府未来一年的立法计划，证实了已经相当清楚的事实。

第一步 划分句子成分，进行断句

Nicola Sturgeon's speech/ last Tuesday /setting out the Scottish government's legislative programme /for the year ahead/ confirmed what was already pretty clear.

第二步 抓动词、主语，句子主框架显现

Nicola Sturgeon's speech/ last Tuesday /setting out the Scottish government's legislative programme /for the year ahead/ confirmed what was already pretty clear.

得到的信息就是 动词confirm, speech做主语, 宾语是一个从句

His speech confirmed sth （sth这里是what was already pretty clear就是已经很清楚的事情）

第三步我们再看修饰补充类型成分的细节，添加到已获取的主框架里，包括这里的时间状语和非谓语结构

last Tuesday 的时间指的是speech

For the year ahead的时间指的是government's legislative programme 政府的立法计划

非谓语结构 setting out 阐述，主语也是speech，主动关系，因此这里是现在分词形式。

分析到此，整个句子已经非常清楚。我们从头再来加深一下理解。

Nicola Sturgeon's speech/ last Tuesday /setting out the Scottish government's legislative programme /for the year ahead/ confirmed what was already pretty clear.

核心要点：

1. set out 安排；动身出发 阐述

They set out for Paris early in the morning.

2. confirm 证实 确认

My second meeting with him confirmed my first impression.

He is indeed a very polite and trustworthy man.

3. legislative 立法的

Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.

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