生活中的學習… What I've learned in life…

Woe is I

首先,來個英文考試:

I started dinner after the guests ___________ .
(a) arrive (b) arrived (c) have arrived (d) had arrived

每一個學英文的人都會在某些英文用法上遇到困難。對我個人來說,我在學英文的時候遇到的最大困難就是articles (a, an, the)和prepositions (at, on, in…etc.)。我雖然來美國已經好幾年,而且這幾年都不停的在寫研究報告,我還是常常搞不清楚到底什麼時候該加the什麼時候不該加the;然後是什麼時候該用at,什麼時候用on,什麼時候又該用in。Anyway,寫這篇文章的重點不是要跟你們說我的英文弱點,而是要跟你們介紹我最近在讀的一本書:”Woe is I.”

很怪的書名,但是卻是一本很有趣的書。其實不只是我們這些外國人在學英文的時候會遇到困難,很多美國人在講英文或是寫文章的時候也會犯很多文法上或是語法上的錯誤。(其實很多美國人寫文章寫的亂七八糟,因為他們常常把口語上的非正式用法寫到文章裡去。這點只要改過美國大學生的報告的人都應該有所體會。)Woe is I這本書的作者Patricia T. O’Conner是紐約時報書評的前任編輯,她把許多人在使用英文時常會犯的錯誤整理出來成為了這本書。也許你會以為這是一本很枯燥乏味的文法書,相信我,這本書絕對比你在台灣讀過的那些英文文法書有趣上百倍。以下讓我擷取書中的一段來跟你麼分享:

The Silent Scream: The Exclamation Point (!)

The exclamation point is like the horn of your car — use it only when you have to. A chorus of exclamation points says two things about your writing: First, you’re not confident that what you’re saying is important, so you need bells and whistles to get attention. Second, you don’t know a really startling idea when you see one.
When you do use an exclamation point, remember this:

  • Use it alone (don’t add a comma afterward): “Holy cow!” said Phil.

And keep your voice down. (p. 142)

最後,公布前面那題英文測驗的正確答案: (b). It is said in the book:

No matter what the tense of the main part of a sentence, and no matter how complicated, the verb that follows after should be in either the simple present (arrive) or the simple past (arrived). (p. 78)

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