难句解析：
①A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force.
▲该句是一个并列句，由前后两个转折关系的分句组成，其间的连词为but。but与后一个分句之间又插入一个由if引导的条件状语if properly handled，该状语原来是一个if引导的条件状语从句，即if it(a history of long and effortless success) is properly handled，其中的it is由于和该分句的主句部分主谓语一致而被省略掉了。
△本句结构比较简明，只需注意but与it may become a driving force之间的if结构是一个插入语，并且是一个省略了主语和系动词的被动语态。此外handicap意为“不利条件”。
②Its scientists were the world's best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed.
▲前一句中its workers the most skilled是一个伴随状语，省略了其中的being，补齐成分后应为its workers being the most skilled。后一句中beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians作prosperous的状语，beyond为介词，是“超越，超出”的意思。而whose economies the war had destroyed作定语从句修饰the Europeans and Asians，原形是the war had destroyed the economies of the Europeans and Asians。
△注意beyond一词的意思，它表示“在……之外”。
③For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had invented and which sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty.
▲该句带有一个表语从句，其表语从句中又套有两个并列的定语从句。全句主句部分的主谓结构是it looked...，as though（即as if好像）引导的从句是looked（看上去）的表语。表语从句中主语为the making of semiconductors，谓语为was going to be，而逗号之间的两个which从句是the making of semiconductors的非限定性定语，同时又是插入语。
△注意理解the next casualty的含义，casualty本意为“伤亡”，此处是“被国外产品击败的美国本土产业”。
④Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas.
▲英语的句式词汇一般都比较简练，如果将本句用中国人习惯的语式讲出应该如下：Their sometimes surprising findings about the causes of American's industrial decline are full of the warnings about the growing competition from overseas nations.
△sensational即surprising。另外注意本句的中心意思在句末的the growing competition from overseas。
⑤Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride.
▲attribute... to...将……归功或归咎于……。solely作状语修饰attribute，this指代上一句中的five years of solid growth，此外as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle作宾语such obvious causes的补语。
△yield to是“向……屈服”，即“被取代”。此处使用了现在完成时，证明这种状态到现在已成型。