Grammer Smart2

Male: In fact, your ears are your most effective teaching tools. The 1)trick is merely to fine tune 1 them, to hear more 2)subtle problems in the language. For instance, you hear a mistake in the following sentence? “Sister Cody does the hoochie-coochie like a true professional.”

Female: Well, not in the grammar anyway. I’m not sure about sister Cody though.

Male: Well, be that as it may, you’re right about the grammar. In this case the 3)subject, sister Cody, is 4)singular and so is the verb “does” Ñ “she does”.

Female: Well, how about this? “Sister Cody, not to mention her many disciples 2, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of 5)Lettuce 3, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the 6)watchful 4 eyes of the same master teachers, do the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

Male: And you thought my example was strange. No, I hear no errors in that sentence either.

Female: Well, that’s where you’re wrong and that’s where so many people 7)run into problems. Remember, the basic rule you want to follow is that singular subjects must have singular verbs while 8)plural 5 subjects should have plural verbs. In very brief sentences, this isn’t tough to hear.

Male: As it was with, “Sister Cody does the hoochie-coochie.”

Female: Right. But in longer sentences with lots of extra phrases and clauses, separating the subject from the verb, the agreement can be harder to hear.

Male: As it was with, “Sister Cody, not to mention her many disciples, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of Lettuce, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the watchful eyes of the same master teachers, do the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

Female: What’s the subject in that rather 9)convoluted 6 sentence? In other words, who is actually doing the 10)hoochie-coochie?

Male: Sister Cody.

Female: Right, but look at the verb. The sentence reads “do the hoochie-coochie”. Now you’d never say, “Sister Cody do the hoochie-coochie.” Would you?

Male: I’d never say, “Sister Cody do” anything.

Female: But as it’s 11)stated now that’s exactly what the sentence is saying only you don’t hear it, because there are so many other plural nouns in between the subject and verb.

Male: But those plurals 7 are introduced by the phrase “not to mention”. Doesn’t that add them to the original subject and make them all plural?

Female: Nope. I’m afraid not. “Not to mention” as a matter of fact, keeps the items that it introduces separate from the subject of the sentence. We’ll cover that problem in greater detail later. For now, just take my word for it. The 12)sure-fire way to 13)side-step this little problem, one that crops up time and time again in both spoken and written English is to remove the stuff from between the subject and the verb and then see if they agree. When the subject and verb are placed right next to each other, there’s no mistaking whether they agree.

Male: That’s how you came up with “Sister Cody do”.

Female: Exactly. Now it’s easy to fix. Just change the verb to agree with the subject, they should both be singular. Go ahead.

Male: All right, but I’m a little nervous.

Female: Oh for Pete’s sake, just do it.

Male: Well Ok. But...

Female: Do it!

Male: “Sister Cody, not to mention her many disciples, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of Lettuce, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the watchful eyes of the same master teachers, does the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

Female: There, now wasn’t that easy?CE

21、巧学语法(二)

男∶其实，耳朵是你最有效的教学工具。办法就是不断地调整，多听出语言中的一些微妙问题。例如，你听到下列句子有错吗？襍ister Cody does the hoochie-coochie like a true professional.”

女∶这个嘛，语法上没错。不过克蒂姐姐（sister Cody）是不是这样我就不能肯定了。

男∶或许是吧，语法你说得没错。在这种情况下，主语sister Cody是单数，所以要用动词does——“she does”。

女∶唔，这句怎样？襍ister Cody, not to mention her many disciples, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of Lettuce, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the watchful eyes of the same master teachers, do the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

男：你刚才还觉得我的例子很怪呢。不，我也没听到里面有什么错误。

女：那就是你错了，这也是许多人出问题的地方。记住，你要遵循的基本原则就是：主语单数跟动词单数，主语复数跟动词复数。在简短句中是不难听到这点的。

男：就像是在“Sister Cody does the hoochie-coochie.”这句中一样。

女：对。但在带有附加短语和从句的较长的句子里，主语与动词不相连，这条原理就难辨一些。

男：正如：襍ister Cody, not to mention her many disciples, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of Lettuce, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the watchful eyes of the same master teachers, do the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

女：在颇饶舌的这句话中，主语是什么？换句话也就是：究竟是谁在跳胡奇库奇舞？

男：是Sister Cody。

女：对了，但看一看动词。句中的是襠o the hoochie-coochie印Ｏ衷谀憔霾换崴怠癝ister Cody do the hoochie-coochie.樱?遣皇牵¿

男：我决不会说什么“Sister Cody do”任何事。

女：既然有规定可循，句子的确是这么说了，只是你没听到罢了，因为在主语和动词之间夹了许多别的复数名词。

男：可那些复数名词是由短语“not to mention”引出的。那是否会把它们连同原主语一起全部变为复数呢？

女：不会。恐怕不会。“not to mention”实际让它引带的部分同句子主语分离开了。以后我们会对此问题进行更详细的阐述。现在先记住我的话好了。要避免这种一次又一次发生在口语和书面语上的小问题，稳妥的办法是把主语和动词间的部分去掉，然后看它们是否一致。若主语和动词衔接正确，则不会出现不一致的毛病。

男：所以你才会说出了“Sister Cody do”。

女：正是如此。要改过来也很容易。只要让动词与主语一致就行了，它们都应是单数形式。你来改。

男：好吧，可我有些紧张。

女：哦，老天，你就改吧。

男：这个嘛，行。但是……

女：改！

男∶“Sister Cody, not to mention her many disciples, Mona Foot, Perfidia, Head of Lettuce, and of course Lester Loud, all of whom learned to apply their many trades under the watchful eyes of the same master teachers, does the hoochie-coochie with style and grace.”

女：瞧，这不是很简单吗？CE

1)      trick [trik] n. 奸计，骗局

2)      subtle [5sQtEl] a. 微妙的

3) subject [5sQbdVikt] n. 主语

4) singular [5siNgjulEr] a. 单数的

5) lettuce [5letis] n. 莴苣，生菜

6) watchful [5wCtFful] a. 警惕的，注意的

7) run into 使陷于

8) plural [5pluErEl] a. 复数的

9) convoluted [5kCnvElu:tid] a. 费解的，旋绕的

10) hoochie-coochie [5hu:tFi5ku:tFi] n. 胡奇库奇舞，一种色情女子舞蹈

11) stated [steitid] a. 规定的

12) sure-fire [FuEr-faiE] a. 稳当的，可靠的

13) side-step [saidstep] v. 避开，逃避