2018考研英语长难句分析指导（七）

But even more important，it was the farthest that scientists had been able to look into the past，for what they were seeing were the patterns and structures that existed 15 billion years ago.

结构分析:句子的框架是it was the farthest that…。但It was…that…在本句中不是强调句型。it是指上句中所提到的150亿年前形成的巨大云团(a strip of enormous cosmic clouds some 15 billion light-years from earth);that引导的应是一个定语从句，修饰先行词the farthest。for引导的是表示原因的分句，分句中还有that引导的定语从句，修饰the patterns and structure。

译文：但更重要的是，这是科学家们所能观测到的有关过去的最为遥远的景象，因为他们看到的是150亿年前宇宙云的形状和结构。