2013年1月30日星期三

古德明: 測驗作弊




問:看電影,聽到以下一句:You cheated on the test(你測驗作弊)。我向來會說You cheated in the test,是不是錯用了介系詞(preposition)?

答:You cheated in the test絕對是正確英文。第四版《朗文當代英文辭典》cheat字條就有以下例句:He had cheated in the test by using a calculator(他測驗中作弊,用了計算機)。「在測驗中」英文是in a test,不說on a test,例如:(1I failed to answer all the questions in the aptitude test(智能測驗中的問題,我無法全部回答)。(2He did well in the English test(他在英文測驗中取得很好成績)。

You cheated on the test這一句也完全沒有錯。Cheat字之後,往往用on帶出在某件事情上作弊,例如:(1The Chinese Communist Party has cheated on the so-called constitution drafted and adopted by the party itself(中國共產黨沒有遵守他們自己草擬和批准的所謂憲法)。(2A student caught cheating on the examination will be disqualified(考試作弊的學生,被發現之後,考試資格會取消)。To cheat on a teston,與其說是和test連用,不如說是和cheat連用。

此外,英文還有to cheat on somebody這說法,指情侶或夫婦一方對另一方不忠,例如:On her deathbed, she admitted to her husband that she had been cheating on him(她臨終時,向丈夫承認一直給他戴綠帽)。