問：讀報見到以下一句：We suggest the（mainland）authorities
assist dairy farmers to improve production technology and hygiene in order to
regain that confidence（我們建議大陸當局協助乳酪農人改善生產科技及衞生，挽回公眾信心）。句中to
improve兩字，是不是應改為in improving？
答：第四版《朗文當代英文詞典》help條有以下附注：「不要說assist someone to do something，可說assist someone with something或assist
someone in doing something。」根據這說法，assist dairy farmers
to improve production technology宜改為assist dairy farmers
in improving production technology或assist dairy farmers
with the improvement of production technology。
不過，to
assist someone to do something這說法，一般其實不視為錯誤。第七版《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》assist條下，就有以下例子：a course to assist adults to return to the labour
market（協助成人重返勞工市場的課程）。麥美倫出版社的介系詞詞典English Prepositional
Idioms assist條下也有assist a person to do something這說法。據韋氏英文用法詞典Webster's Dictionary of English Usage說，assist someone in doing something這句式最為常用，assist
someone to do something這句式則少用一點，但都是標準用法：The most
commonly met construction is "assist + object + in + gerund".
Standard but somewhat less common is "assist + object + to +
infinitive"。