时间:2019-02-05 作者:英语课 分类:托福英语


英语课

  我曾经有个很幼稚的幻想,看不懂,把单词背下来不就行了吗?可是单词以后呢?


  看下面的句子:


  The social progress is not so much the improvement of tools as the sparkling minds of some geniuses.


  就算单词都认识,也很难理解not so much A as B,究竟是什么意思,想把它翻成“改进工具不如天才的灵机一动多”,又不是“人话”。


  读得多了,才发现,英语表达中有个很难的not结构.  这种结构有好多,都有一个共同特点,英语有not,中文没not, 或者反之,英语没有not,中文却是否定含义。


  不信你瞧:


  I didn’t leave until 8 o’clock. 你不能翻译成“直到八点前,我没有离开”吧?可以你翻译成“到了八点我才走。”中文倒是顺了,可是not又在哪呢?这句话还算简单的,如果来一句“The complete written record of English didn’t exist until seventhcentury.”又是什么意思?“什么叫七世纪前,完整的英语书面记录没有存在?”其实应该是,“到了七世纪,才存在完整的英语书面记 录。”


  英语有not,中文无not, 或者反之,英语无not, 中文有not, 不习惯这些结构,阅读的速度怎么可能快?


  通常来讲,英语的否定结构从简单到复杂有十种以上,一半归为三类:


  第一类:比较简单:


  1)not…until, 以及it was notuntil +时间+that+句子其他成分


  2)no sooner had …than…以及Hardly…when…


  这 种结构没有什么挑战,看两遍也就会了。前者把not…until想成“才。。。就。。。)例如:It was not until 1945 that the World War II came to an end. (第二次世界大战直到1945年才结束。)。后者把no soonerthan, hardly when想成as soon as, 例如:Hardly had I entered when the telephone rang. (我刚进门,电话铃就响了。)


  第二类:略显复杂,通常和一些词汇有关:


  1)  动词否定: fail todo something,overlook something, neglect something, ignore something,deprivesomebody of something, lack, 此类词汇的解释通常含有否定的内涵,但是中文感觉不到,看英语释义才行。比如fail to do的内涵是:If you overlook some problems, you don’t notice it, ordon’t realize how important it is. (Collins Cobuild Dictionary); 这些词汇的否定含义都藏在英语解释里,和中文释义关系不大。


  2)  形容词否定:如be farfrom being, 字面上是“远”,其实还是否定,如It is far from being a good solution.类似的还有:be short of等,还有一大堆un-,im-形容词否定前缀构成的派生词。


  第三类:虚拟语气和双重否定句。


  这 就比较复杂了,需要慢慢积累。比如CharlesDickens就经常写一些这类的句子。不仔细读,就跟迷宫一样,比如,在Oliver Twist(雾都孤儿)的第三章,说到Oliver Twist的命运的时候,有这样一句话,It appeared, at first sight, not unreasonable 1 to suppose,that, if he had entertained a becoming feeling of respect for the prediction ofthe gentle man in the white coat, he would have established that sage 2 individual’s prophetic character, once and for ever, by typing one end of hispocket handkerchief to a hook in the wall, and attaching himself to the other. 天哪!Dickens到底在说什么呢?OliverTwist死了还是没死?它的死亡方式又是什么呢?你可以猜一猜!到了第八章,Dickens又写了一 个类似的句子,In fact, if it had not been for a good-hearted turnpike-man, and a benevolent 3 old lady, Oliver’s troubles would have been shortened by the very same process which put an end to his mother’s;in other word, he would most assuredly have fallen dead upon the king’shighway. 这种语言风格比较“高冷”,如打哑谜,玩文字游戏,我们一起猜猜Dickens到底说的是什么?


  阅读理解里也出现一些如it is not uncommon 4 that…It is not unusual that…,含义是it is common, itis usual?不过语气的强弱不同。


  第四类:最难的还是第四种,文字的内涵和熟词僻义


  比 如too…to,就是否定的内涵,I amtoo busy to visit my aunt. 但是too的前边加上一个not, 就不见得反应得过来,如You can’t learn too much. 到底是不能学太多,还是学得再多也不为过?再比如,英国大诗人William Blake在Chimney Sweeper系列中有一句,If you follow the God, you shall never want joy. 到底是不想快乐,还是不缺快乐?want的一个意思是:If you want something, you lack something(Collins Cobuild),所以这里WilliamBlake的意思If you follow the God, you shall never lack joy. 即“听从上帝的旨意,你就不缺幸福了.“


  再想一想英文字母表,一串dis-,一串mis-,一串mal-,一串im-, 一串un-,全是否定前缀,看吧,一时记不住,不看吧,受不了“良心”的谴责。


  这样看,英语真是一个越学越没技巧的事,越简单的东西越复杂,比如这个not。



adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的
  • I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
  • They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。
n.圣人,哲人;adj.贤明的,明智的
  • I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
  • The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。
adj.仁慈的,乐善好施的
  • His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
  • He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人,连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的
  • Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
  • Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。
标签: 语法
学英语单词
0831
aberrant behavior
anti-biological warfare
antizymes
auto-lumbomassage
be barred from
bioscientists
biotin complex of yeast
bipolarmos
black rots
body surfing
bowl vent valve
butenafine
certificate on progress
class or representative action
combining characters
common lead method
cospace
delugeth
description of forest
Diclinixin
diffuse tissue
diphasic strain
Diplosporium
direct dialing-in
Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich
don't rush me
epidemic encephalitis
ethnoculturally
exponential time base
fact-checkers
feudal rush
fiorinia linderae
Fuck it all!
Geluwe
golden image
Gorelovka
guayule rubber (fer-thenium argentum)
Hall angular displacement transducer
harlon
Hassidic
high magnification
high pressure jet
homograft reaction
hot air distributor
IAAG
It never rains but it pours
Ivdel'
left averted photography
look through the fingers at
louzeiro
lower tail coverts
market body
mcilvaine
metaperceptual
Meyer's organ
national labor relations act
nonextended address space
Novadel
nutritional agents
orthopraxy
Ottawa R.
overvolted
Pambula
pathogenic dryness
pernio bullosus
photographic mapping
pissane
potassium phosphate,tribasic
previvation
Priupskiy
pulverized fuel line
ralph bunches
range octagon
rare earth doped glasses
reduced inspection
relations
representation of plans
reserve factor
reset router
reticulated veins
retrospective
root bend test
S. G.
solid state power amplifier
spectral projector
staurolite kyanite subfacies
steel pipe pile
string together
STX
take sb in tow
telluric method
the lid
translate
turbine locomotive
tyre inflator
value voter
valve three way
VITC
wind egg
withered zone
wordmongers