2012年9月7日星期五

古德明: 集中、昂山素姬的話



問:讀書見到以下一句:Each unit has a vocabulary exercise focused on the unit topic(每一課都有以課題為中心的詞彙練習)。句中的focused是不是應改為focusing

答:Focus(集中、專注)可作及物(transitive)或不及物(intransitive)動詞,即其後有沒有受詞(object)都可以。例如:Our attention focused on the speaker / We focused our attention on the speaker(我們專心聽演講)。讀者說的那一句,同樣可以有兩個方式改寫:Each unit has a vocabulary exercise which focuses on the unit topic / which is focused on the unit topic。關係子句(relative clause)往往可省略為分詞子句(participle clause),所以這一句可省略如下:Each unit has a vocabulary exercise focusing on / focused on the unit topic

問:昂山素姬以下兩句話,是什麼意思?第二句尤其難解:To be forgotten is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity

答:Anchor作動詞,指「以錨固定」,可引伸解作「牢牢的附着」,例如:The bench was anchored to the floor(長椅牢牢固定在地板上)。The links that anchor us to the rest of humanity直譯是「使我們和世上其他人沒有疏離的連繫」。昂山素姬那兩句話是說:「被世人遺忘,等於局部死去,等於和世人有點脫節。」

【代郵】陳先生:「不偏之謂中,不易之謂庸」之「不易」,指「不變」的道理,故應讀「亦」,不讀「義」。