English lesson 10 ----- STRANGE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE.
Index
(1) exclamation
(2) as soon as
(3) Bush it is.
(4) The company to be in the black.
(5) How come newspapers use present tense to tell the matter in the past?
(6) include, including
(7) the word (so) at the beginning of a clause
(1) exclamations
Boy, am I hungry!
Wow, did she make a mistake!
Was I furious!
Have you got a surprise coming!
How beautiful are the flowers!
Am I mad!
How come they put ‘am’ in front of ‘I’? Aren’t we supposed to put ‘I am..’, ‘She is..’?
They are exclamations. America speakers may use ordinary (non-negative) question forms in exclamations.
[By the way, the name of this structure of sentence is ‘inversion’. When we put an auxiliary verb (must, should, shall) and non-auxiliary verb (be, do and have) before the subject (he, she, it, John, Peter) of a clause in several different structures.]
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(2)as soon as
(a) I had hardly / scarcely closed my eyes when the phone rang. （我刚关上眼睛，电话就响起了。）
(b) She was hardly / scarcely inside the house before the kids started screaming. （她刚进到屋子里面，孩子们就开始呼叫了。）
(c) I had no sooner closed the door than somebody knocked. （我一关门，有人就敲门了。）
In a formal or literary style, these structures are sometimes used with inverted word order. (see the definition of inversion in number one)
(a) Scarcely had I arrived at the station before the train left.（我刚抵达车站，火车就走了）
(b) Hardly had I arrived at the station when the train left. （我刚抵达车站，火车就走了）
(c) No sooner had I arrived at the station than the train left. （我刚抵达车站，火车就走了）
What do they mean?
They mean:
(a) ..hardly..when / before ... （刚。。。就。。。）
(b) ..scarecely.. when / before .. （刚。。。就。。。）
(c) ..no sooner..than.. （一。。。就。。。）
Anyway, this is old-fashioned English. Today we would say,
‘As soon as I got to the station, the train had left.’ （我刚抵达车站，火车就走了）
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(3)Bush it is.
English is confusing. When the American President was selected. The newspapers said, 'Bush it is' while I don’t know what this means. About 'Bush it is.', does that mean whatever I choose, I can say, 'Something it is.'? If I choose a ball, I can say, 'Ball it is.'? If I choose this girl to be my sex partner, I can say, 'This girl it is.\" ?
ANWER:
‘Bush it is’ - this type of phrase is used when there is some competition between two or more people or teams. So in the US election the fight was between Bush and Gore. Bush won so we might say, ‘Bush it is’ when giving the result.
If you are choosing a ball then we can only say it when we have made a choice. If we had the choice between a ball and a racket and we chose the ball then we could say ‘The ball it is.’ You might say, \"The soccer ball it is\" if you had to choose among several balls.
If we are choosing a partner there has to be a choice between two or more!! If I have the choice between Mary and Ann and I want to choose Ann - I would say ‘Ann it is.’ You might say, \"The red-headed girl it is\" if you were trying to decide which girl you wanted.
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(4) The company to be in the black.
ANWER:
That's rather common form for a newspaper headline. 'To be in the black' means that they will show a profit. 'To be in the red' means that they're losing money. It's an accounting term.
It is a quotation from a newspaper and is another case of 'journalese' where the writer has left out a number of words to give the statement more impact. Newspapers tend to leave out words which are not really necessary in order to make their headlines bigger.
‘The company to be in the’ means ‘The company will be in the black.’ It is correct if it is a headline.
If I was speaking it then I would say, ‘The company will be in the black.’ or ‘The company should be in the black.’ depending on how certain it is.
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(5) In two of the circumstances below,
(a) when people talk
(b) headline of newspapers.
Why do the newspapers use simple present tense when the matter took place in the past? In my opinion, the newspapers should use simple past tense since the matter took place in the past.
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(a) I find that the newspapers use simple present tense when people talk.
For example ----
(1) I heard the children screaming, (says) the girl.
(2)\" eople are disillusioned.\" She (says).
QUESTION:
What I do not understand is why they use the word \"say\" in present tense. Aren't they supposed to use \"past tense\" as it was in the past. The sentences here can't be wrong as they were taken from \"TIME\" magazine.
ANSWER:
Sorry I didn't comment on the examples from Time magazine. Clearly the reporter is writing about an interview she has done. Using the present tense gives an immediacy and authenticity to her article. It is up-to-the-minute reporting, even if it is not completely correct English.
This is choice of style and the decision is often left up to the writer. In this case, I think the writer wanted to give a feeling of and interview that was going on as you - the reader - were reading it. That is why he used the present tense for the \"say\" verbs. It makes the situation in the article seems more \"now.\" Perhaps the author thought that using the past tense would take away some of the immediacy (the \"now\"ness) of the story.
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(b) I also find that the newspapers use present tense on the headline of newspapers.
For example ----
I saw a newspaper headline tittled ‘DESEASE PEAKED. DOCTOR SAYS.’
QUESTION:
Why do they use present tense for the word “says” on the headline, instead of past tense?
ANSWER:
In a headline like this, it's unusual to use the simple past tense where a present perfect would actually be more suitable: 'disease has peaked, doctor says.'
This is a journalistic convention. The writer uses the present tense as if he is interviewing the doctor as he writes. It makes the news seem more immediate.
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(6)include, including
How come we should use \"include\" in this sentence \"Hobbies include net surfing.\"?
How come we should use \"including\" in this sentence \"I've washed all my clothes this morning, including the bed sheets as well.\"?
When to use include and including?
ANSWER:
In the first sentence, \"include\" is the verb. In the second sentence, the verb is \"washed\" and \"including . . .\" is a participial phrase.
Anyway, I have to correct some of the mistakes in the sentences.
(i) \"My hobbies include net surfing.\"
(`Include' is a verb here.)
(ii) I've washed all my clothes this morning, including the bed sheets.
(Leave out `as well': `including' means `as well'.)
You have misused the present-participle phrase: In this sentence it is functioning as an adjective. It should therefore describe the noun closest to it: `all my clothes'.
So either:
(a) I've washed all my clothes this morning, including my socks. (`All my clothes' is described as `including my socks' It cannot be described by `including the bedsheets' because `the bedsheets' are not included in `my clothes'.)
or
(b) I've washed everything this morning, including the bedsheets.
(`Everything' is described as `including the bedsheets'. Or: `everything' includes `bedsheets'.)
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(7) THE WORD (SO) AT THE BEGINNING OF A CLAUSE
A structure is possible with so at the beginning of a clause, with be, say, hear, understand, tell, believe and a number of other verbs. This structure is used
(1) to say where the speakers opinion comes from
(2) to say you saw/heard what the person say.
(3) to agree with something that has just been mentioned and that you had not noticed or had forgotten
* This structure is not used with the verbs think, hope or suppose
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(1) to say where the speakers opinion comes from
It is going to be a cold winter, or so the newspaper says.
(2) to say you saw/heard what the person say.
A: Mary’s getting married.
B: Yes, so I heard.
A: The professor’s ill.
B: So I understand(heard).
A: I broke my leg.
B: So I see. How did it happen?
A: I hate my dyed hair.
B: So you said.
(3) to agree with something that has just been mentioned and that you had not noticed or had forgotten
A: My eyes are slightly different colours.
B: So they are.
A: That is her brother --- he looks like James Dean.
B: So he does.
A: There, I told you there was a sculpture outside the restaurant.
B: So there is ---- how strange I hadn’t noticed it.
A: I’m sorry I am late.
B: So you should be.
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English lesson 1
http://www.readfree.net/bbs/read.php?tid=37309&fpage=1
English lesson 2
http://www.readfree.net/bbs/read.php?tid=37310&fpage=1
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English lesson 13
http://www.readfree.net/bbs/read.php?tid=37325&fpage=1 |
发表于 2004-9-25 11:02:58