高樓低廈,人潮起伏,
名爭利逐,千萬家悲歡離合。

閑雲偶過,新月初現,
燈耀海城,天地間留我孤獨。

舊史再提,故書重讀,
冷眼閑眺,關山未變寂寞!

念人老江湖,心碎家國,
百年瞬息,得失滄海一粟!

徐訏《新年偶感》

2012年11月23日星期五

古德明: 連續、租金




問:Continuouscontinualcontinued三字,用來形容support,應選擇哪一個?三字有什麼分別?

答:這三個字都有「連續」的意思,但continuous是指「沒有間斷的」,continual是「偶有停頓的」,continued則多指「不改變的(行為)」,例如:(1His continued refusal to listen to reason was very annoying(跟他講道理,他總是不聽,十分討厭)。(2The continual ringing of the telephone distracted me from my work(電話鈴聲頻頻響起,使我無法集中精神工作)。(3The patient is in continuous pain(病人痛個不停)。

Continuouscontinualcontinued三字都可以形容support,但要說「不改的支持」,當然是continued最好,例如:I look forward to your continued support/cooperation(希望你繼續支持 / 合作)。


問:說「租金」,rentrental有什麼分別?「租金收據」是rent receipt還是rental receipt

答:Rentrental都可以指「租金」,用法沒有什麼分別,例如:(1I paid a monthly rent/rental of $12,000 for the house(我租這棟房子,每月付一萬二千元)。(2My landlord gave me a rent/rental receipt(房東給我一張租金收據)。第七版《牛津高階英漢詞典》rent條下的解釋很清楚:The amount of money that you pay to rent something is "rent" or "rental" (more formal). When you hire something you pay a "hire charge"。換言之,rent語氣上較rental隨便一點。而腳踏車、汽車等短期租賃的租金,則叫hire charge