【Although they often lacked enough common ground upon which to adjudicate their disputes and rarely engaged in the self-criticism that is characteristic of genuine philosophy, these thinkers did try to defend their own positions and attack those of their rivals by providing attempts at rational argumentation.】
长句通常是由短句构成，我们来庖丁解牛：1.1. They lacked ground. 他们缺乏理由（根据）。【最简单的结构】1.2. They lacked common ground. 他们缺乏一致性的理由(根据，或共同的基础)。1.3. They often lacked enough common ground. 他们常常缺乏足够的依据。
2. They adjudicated upon their disputes. 他们裁决他们的纷争。【adjudicate upon/on 是固定搭配】
3.1. They often lacked enough common ground to adjudicate upon their disputes. 他们缺乏足够的依据来裁决他们的纷争。3.2. They often lacked enough common ground upon which to adjudicate their disputes. 他们在裁决纷争时所凭借的依据常常很不足。【在行文时，如果想突出“一致性的理由”是重点，可以通过从句的方式来强调】4.1. They rarely engaged in the self-criticism. 他们很少进行自我批评。4.2. The self-criticism is characteristic of genuine philosophy. 这自我批评具有真正的哲学特色。4.3. They rarely engaged in the self-criticism that is characteristic of genuine philosophy. 他们很少进行具有真正哲学特色的自我批评。
5. These thinkers did try to defend their own positions. 这些思想家很努力地去捍卫自己的立场。【did, 起强调，加强语气的作用】
6.1. They attacked their rivals’ positions. 他们攻击对手的立场。6.2. They provided attempts at rational argumentation. 他们在理性论证方面提出尝试。6.3. They attacked their rivals’ positions by providing attempts at rational argumentation. 他们尝试通过理性论证来攻击对手的立场。
7. Although they often lacked enough common ground upon which to adjudicate their disputes and rarely engaged in the self-criticism that is characteristic of genuine philosophy, these thinkers did try to defend their own positions and attack those of their rivals by providing attempts at rational argumentation. 虽然他们在裁决纷争时所凭借的依据常常很不足，且也很少进行具有真正哲学特色的自我批评，然而这些思想家们尝试通过理性论证来攻击对手，很努力地捍卫自己的立场。【把123456句连起来】
如果我们总是这样庖丁解牛来阅读，可能会很累，其实这是不同语言的行文次序问题，只要我们平时多些阅读，慢慢地就习惯了英语的表述。
但是我们必须具备一定的基础，通过一定数量的资料来学习，才能提高我们的阅读能力。这个基础是：词汇积累- 要具备基本的阅读能力，需要8000+的常用词汇；另外对基本句子结构，语法有所了解。
如何解决这些问题呢，看下表【来自《词不离句：英语常用词汇8000分级过关》的统计（蓝色字体是链接）】：
从高频词开始，逐级去攻克这8000多的常用词汇；从分级英语读物开始去阅读，有了这8000多词汇，就可以去阅读篇幅100万字的英语分级读物G-WASRIO啦。相较于100万字，8000词汇只是零头哦，然而，通过这8000多词汇，就可以写出百万，千万字的文章来。
G-WASRIO 是咋样的呢？如下图，标注颜色的文字，就如同前面庖丁解牛，如何把一篇简单的文章（给小孩看的），写成一篇标准的文章（给大人看的）：
通过G-WASRIO这样的材料来阅读，很快就会适应英语的表述习惯，详情请看如下链接：
G-WASRIO：心仪的英语分级读物
语言学习要遵循如下规律： ■语言学习要从听开始，这样才能打通语音与文字之间的连接； ■语言学习要以句子为单位进行输入输出，而非单词！这样去学，才能掌握单词的用法，这样去学，英语就会变得简单起来！ ■语言属于类运动型知识，仅仅背单词，看看书，刷刷题是远远不够的，需要去训练才能掌握！这跟弹钢琴的道理是一样的，看看书，看看乐谱就会弹钢琴？
专题论述如下：英语训练指南（深度好文）
Brother Joe007- 词不离句：用自带的大杀器去学习英语