我可以問不倒Q&A專欄 (2020/1-2020/10)

  我可以 問不倒

(2020/01-2020/10)

本Q&A專欄使用原則:
1.優先提供OKE美語之新舊學員任何有關英語學習之提問。
2. 為提供最符合大眾共同學習效益,每周OKE美語及旋元佑老師將均衡選取三則提問給予詳解。
3.提問請點擊右側標籤列#我可以問不倒,至當月份的文章版面。
此篇文章僅供2020年01月至10月提問使用

留言

  1. 老師[2020年1月19日 下午10:02]的舉例 只讓我清楚「具有固定形狀的固體」可以有特稱和通稱,但是「度量衡單位、物質名詞、抽象名詞、動名詞」是否「通稱和特稱都有可能」,我實在舉不出例子,老師能分別舉例說明一下嗎?
    1.
    度量衡單位是通稱還是特稱?
    比如可以說a cent和15 cents,度量衡單位是通稱沒錯吧?
    2.
    物質名詞是通稱還是特稱?
    比如說,我們可以說three bottles of water,這裡的介繫詞片語of water中,water不加限定詞,它就是特稱吧?但是the water的時候,它可以是「這個water」或「那個water」,所以它就是通稱吧?
    3.
    抽象名詞cowardice是通稱還是特稱吧?
    平時都是直接用cowardice,看起來是特稱,偶爾又可以看到This was no time for moral cowardice.(來自劍橋字典),也就是有「道德方面的膽怯」,可是也能有「生理方面的膽怯」,好像又是通稱。
    4.
    動名詞是通稱還是特稱?
    I love swimming.裡面的swimming這項運動看起來是特稱,但是there were 3 weddings at this restaurant yesterday.裡面的「3 weddings」看起來是通稱,因為還可以有「4 weddings」之類的,對嗎?

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  2. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  3. 老師把subterranean拆解為sub/terra/(n)ean,字源詮釋為under/earth/(a.)。
    OED好像不認為n是連音,而是把-ne作為形容詞字尾表示……的,圖片如下:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GcHxuDU4vlBThg2VI28-aNU0PiT8sO3N/view?usp=sharing

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fd0vLpzNAJ9P1DRt9fuUMUqHsKi27dOL/view?usp=sharing

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q_0cL7V2qyCR9Xd5zEQLWvPj_QS4iYdM/view?usp=sharing

    subterranean
    Etymology: < classical Latin subterrāneus (see subterrane adj. and n.) + -an suffix. Compare earlier subterraneal adj., subterrestrial adj., and later subterrane adj., subterraneous adj., subterrany adj.
    With the β. forms compare -ian suffix.

    subterrane
    Etymology: < classical Latin subterrāneus underground, subterranean (also with reference to the underworld), situated below the level of the earth, beneath the horizon < sub- sub- prefix + terra earth (see terra n.) + -āneus (see -aneous suffix).

    -aneous, suffix
    Etymology: < classical Latin -āneus (extended form of -eus : see -eous suffix) + -ous suffix.
    Earliest in the 15th and 16th centuries in borrowings, as momentaneous adj., membraneous adj., cutaneous adj. Formations within English are very rare, compare cameranious adj., obitaneously adv.

    請問老師,到底採取哪種說法比較好?我覺得老師的拆解很好理解,可是OED好像又把-ne和-an看作兩個字尾,實在很困惑。

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    1. 如果在terrain這種字裏面,它是名詞字尾。如果在subterranean這種字裏面,它有連音功能,但仍然來自名詞字尾

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  4. 老師您好,想請教以下
    The prime minister was attending the conference, hence all the extra security.
    He's just got a pay rise, hence the new car.
    這裡hence是文法上什麼用法,為什麼一個主句可以 + adverb + N.
    是否是absolute phrase用法,可是absolute phrase的規定除了有主詞又需要有一個participle.
    想請老師解惑,謝謝您!

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  5. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  6. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  7. 老師你好。最近再讀《廣讀學英文》這篇文章,裡面也提及TESOL領域的幾個英文教學方法,較之以前有了更深入的理解。
    請問老師,目前很熱門的「TEFL/TESL/TESOL/CELTA」,有何區別?
    TEFL是研究「EFL」環境下如何學習英文的嗎?
    TESL是研究「ESL」環境下如何學習英文的嗎?
    TESOL是研究「EFL」和「ESL」兩種環境下如何學習英文的嗎?TESOL的理論既適合拿去教台灣人在台灣學英文(EFL),也適合拿去教台灣人移民到美國學英文(ESL),是嗎?
    如果要學習其中一種,是否學習TESOL比較好,因為它包括了EFL和ESL環境下的英文學習理論?

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    1. 你提的幾個問題,基本上答案都是肯定的

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  8. 老師您好
    Today, as many show outraged virtue over the treatment of children, it would be an error to look to history in the belief that we are and have been better than this. But if we look instead to our ethical or religious foundations, that past can still serve a purpose: it can show us just how much there is to rise above.
    1上面的段落是這一篇文章https://time.com/5624256/american-history-protecting-migrant-children-border/ 的結語。it can show us just how much there is to rise above. 是說美國人對其他國家等的小孩之友善程度還有很大的進步空間 ?
    2 outraged virtue是理直氣壯嗎 ?


    The Supreme Court temporarily stayed the Louisiana laws this term, with Roberts joining the four liberal justices; the court may hear the case next term. Kavanaugh dissented, arguing he wouldn’t have blocked the law preemptively in order to see how it affected women’s ability to obtain abortions, and allowing plaintiffs to challenge the law later.
    3既然 Kavanaugh dissented,in order to...就不是他真正的意圖 。為什麼
    in order to..後面不接與過去非事實的語氣 ?

    He voted with a majority over Thomas and Gorsuch’s dissents to stay the execution of a Buddhist man in Texas who requested his spiritual advisor be present.
    4over=despite ?

    Speaking from Texas, where her family got a fresh start after Kennis died, Michaela Cady says she does not blame Instagram for what happened. Her daughter, like most kids who are bullied online, was also bullied in real life. But she does think that social media is too prevalent in society, that the solution isn’t just better technology but less of it. At this point, social media is so central to life, that it’s not realistic to tell kids who are bullied to just turn off their computers or delete their accounts. Yet, Cady says, there needs to be more space between the online and offline worlds. There needs to be more than respite. “With social media,” she says, “there’s just no escape.”
    5 there’s just no escape是否在呼應social media is so central to life, that it’s not realistic to tell kids who are bullied to just turn off their computers or delete their accounts ?


    But the next couple of years will have no shortage of Asian-led projects. Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan will arrive in theaters next year, while Netflix will host the anime adaptation Cowboy Bebop, starring John Cho, and Master of None co-creator Alan Yang’s drama Tigertail. Awkwafina and other Asian-American creators hope to push the door open wider and wider, knowing that the former status quo is barely in the rearview mirror. “You don’t understand how important representation is,” she says, “until you see it and realize you’ve been missing it your whole life.”
    6the former status quo is barely in the rearview mirror的意思是?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      是。今日美國比起從前,當然是好多了。但是,如果回歸宗教與道德的基準來要求,那麼今日美國還有很大的改善空瞥。
      2
      outraged virtue有「自認為理直氣壯」的意思。
      3
      上文的州法若通過,可能會限制到婦女墮胎,美國最高法院暫時將其封殺。這位大法官反對封殺,所持理由是:應該讓它通過,之後就可以觀察一下該法真正實施起來對婦女墮胎會造成怎樣的影響,而且民眾不服還可以抗告,真是惡法的話還可以推翻,不必事先封殺。in order to後面是他真正的意圖。
      4
      是。
      5
      是。
      6
      in the rearview mirror「在汽車後視鏡中」,指「已經過去了」。加上barely,意思是「勉強可見、快要看不到」,表示「即將被完全拋棄」。

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  9. 老師在字彙課堂上和書籍裡面都說過:「字源分析,通常是把外來語翻譯為古英文。」
    可是我在老師的書裡面看到,小部分字源詮釋不是翻譯為古英文,如:單字dyspepsia拆解為dys/peps/ia,字源詮釋為bad/digest/(n.),其中的單字digest並非來自古英文。
    請問老師,字源詮釋部分,只有大部分單字才把外來語翻譯為古英文,並非全部,是嗎?

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  10. 《英文字彙》P80。
    Millennials tend to wed later, if at all.(千禧世代如果有結婚的話通常較為晚婚。)
    請問,if at all如何還原?

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  11. 老師您好
    One didn't have to agree with what he professed to condemn his death
    1上句的意思是?

    ...1977 blackout. The earlier event last 25 hours; this time, power began to return after just over three hours. And the lights weren't all that went out: subway service and Broadway shows saw disruptions too.
    2 the lights weren't all that went out的意思是?


    All the lunar competitors are eyeballing the same spot on the surface: the south pole, which is as close to a fertile crescent as exists on the moon.
    3which is ...的意思是?

    The systems have cost about $16 billion so far, some $1.8 billion more than was planned..
    4more than was planned.. 可否改成 more than what was planned..會比較好 ? 

    Booker's biggest moment has been calling out Biden for the former Vice President's past willingness to work with segregationist lawmakers. Booker thought enough of the exchange to fundraise off it , but it did little to lift his campaign.
    5 Booker thought enough of the exchange to fundraise off it 是他認為他跟副總統的交鋒他可以從中得利 ? to fundraise off it 是so that he could fundraise … ?

    Let’s not forget, either, that before The Lion King, Favreau worked some clever magic with another remake: his 2016 Jungle Book, in which computer–generated animals talk, sing, saunter, slink and slither around a live-action boy, Neel Sethi’s Mowgli, has spirit and verve to spare. In fact, the loose-limbed joyousness of The Jungle Book may help put the flaws of The Lion King in perspective-: the latter movie, so steeped in faux–serious themes like the importance of duty, is the kind of material that has to be approached with reverence. Maybe Favreau just couldn’t have any fun with it.

    And that’s the danger of trying to do inventive work for a very serious studio with big money riding on each and every project. Photo-realistic lion hairs, no matter how many millions of them you’ve generated, aren’t by themselves going to get the job done. A filmmaker has to find ways to dance in the margins and get away with it. You can genuflect a little—as long as you keep some space clear for your own personal roar.
    6Maybe Favreau just couldn’t have any fun with it. 是在暗示作者認為 importance of duty不是什麼嚴肅的題材?

    7A filmmaker has to find ways to dance in the margins and get away with it. You can genuflect a little—as long as you keep some space clear for your own personal roar. 的意思是?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      此人被處死刑或者被殺。他宣揚的理念讀者不一定會認同,但同樣都會譴責「殺死死人」的暴行。
      2
      中斷的不只是供電。地鐵與百老匯劇場也同樣中斷。
      3
      那是月球表面最像地球「肥沃月灣」的地方。
      4
      意思一樣。原文的than在一般文法書中稱為準關係代名詞。
      5
      是。此人確實利用此一記錄來募款。
      6
      就是因為題材太嚴肅了,令導演縛手縛腳,無法自由發揮。
      7
      genuflect「行曲膝禮」,喻「導演臣服於電影公司」。作者說這固然不可避免,但一定要保留一點自由發揮的空間。

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  12. 請教老師
    The challenges facing teachers in Kenya, especially in far-flung areas like the Northern region, have cast aspersions on the effectiveness and fairness of the grading system in schools.
    看起來facing teachers in Kenya為現在分詞片語做形容詞用形容challenges,若還原成形容詞子句不就是: The challenges which face teachers in Kenya…
    挑戰是肯亞的老師所面臨的,如此結構不就變成:挑戰面臨肯亞的老師。不知該如何解釋這樣的寫法。我可能會寫成The challenges that teachers in Kenya face

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    1. 你的句型分析正確。不過,這個句子確實可以採用主動,說the challenges are facing teachers。當然你的改法(改為被動)也正確。

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  13. 老師在課堂上講過dilate的字根lat表示bear,還舉了translate的例子。
    可是在《GRE字彙通》P167,老師又講到dilate的字根lat表示side。
    請問,dilate的字根lat應該表示bear還是side?

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    1. 根據Online Etymology Dictionary:
      translate的構造是across/bear
      lateral的構造是side/(a.)
      dilate的構造是apart/expand
      其實3個字的字根都不一樣,這樣很不好記。我在書中把dilate解釋為apart/side,是為了比較好記。

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  14. 老師在課堂上講過disparate的字根par表示prepare,還舉了separate的例子。
    可是在《GRE字彙通》P96,老師又講到disparate的字根par表示peer。
    請問,disparate的字根par應該表示prepare還是peer?
    《GRE字彙通》是否有些地方需要勘誤,如果有,請問在哪裡可以看到勘誤信息?

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    1. 根據OED,disparate的字根par應該解釋為prepare。GRE字彙在disparage中的par才是解釋為peer。兩個字根都拚成par,但意思不同。GRE字彙通p.96中的解釋有誤。

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  15. It takes us down a slippery road, in a worsening series of ruin and devastation.
    請問老師這句裡的兩個介系詞片語為什麼不是用 and 連接? 使用逗點來補充說明的時機為何呢? 謝謝。

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    1. 兩個介系詞片語並不對等,而是分別修飾同一個動詞take。例如:the money for your tuition in the box「箱子裏面給你交學費的錢」。

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    2. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  16. 我在《GRE字彙通》P195看到老師把單字monopolize拆解為mono/pol/ize,字源詮釋為one/sell/(v.)。
    這裡把字根pol詮釋為sell,我看到OED是把字根pol看作字根pole,也是這麼解釋的。如圖:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_tQYJ_a7T2VLJdu9L7XJByNlX3RLX_TE/view?usp=sharing

    可是以前上課時,我記得老師把monopoly拆解為mono/pol/y,字源詮釋為one/fold/(n.)。這裡是字根pol當作字根ble (ple, plic),詮釋為bend, fold。

    請問老師,monopolize和monopoly的字根pol應該詮釋為哪種?字根pol,應該是字根ble (ple, plic),詮釋為bend, fold;還是字根-pole,詮釋為sell?

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    1. 應該解釋為sell。因為這是個冷僻的字根,上課時怕同學不好記,所以用教過的字根來解釋。

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  17. The advantage of starting at the end is that we do not try and cheat, something I am particularly prone to do, by reading the end first and then trying to see how the author gets us there.

    請問老師這句話的 something 指的是 try and cheat 還是 do not try and cheat ? 謝謝。

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    1. 是try and cheat。作者說自己常常會cheat。

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  18. 老師你好:
    想請教help 之後的動詞目前看到很多都不加to。 那是約定俗成嗎??? 還是有什麼特別理由呢??

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    1. 有些文法書是把help視為「半個」使役動詞。它的用法很像let,後面可以用原形動詞。但是它和真正的使役動詞不一樣:後面若接to V也可以(使役動詞就不行)。

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    2. 但是還有問題是
      Do you ever help your mother (to) cook dinner? 這個 to 是可有可無的, Do you ever punch your mother cook dinner? 也有文法說沒有錯...我完全混肴....不是Do you ever punch your mother to cook dinner? 或是換個 Have you ever punched your mother cook dinner? 這樣才對嗎 如果硬要說 your mother cook dinner 是子句那
      cook 不是應該要加s 嗎??倒底動詞跟動間 的to 除了使役動詞外....什麼情況是可以省或是不能省呢? 老師可以幫我解惑一下嗎 十分混肴的學生

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  19. 老師您好:
    請問the sun, the moon, the Earth 為何要加定冠詞 地球不是只有一個嗎?

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    1. 若開頭大寫,Earth不加定冠詞也可以(視為專有名詞)。至於sun與moon則不只一個。每一個恆星對於它的行星而言都是the sun。太陽系有許多行星都擁有衛星,有些還不只一個。

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  20. 老師您好:
    書中提到however, therefore 都是連接性副詞 想請問為何不是單純的連接詞 它們有甚麼特性讓它們是副詞?書中提到副詞也可以修飾名詞 那請問副詞的定義是甚麼?謝謝老師!!

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    1. 副詞是修飾語,修飾的對象包括動詞、形容詞、副詞。however, therefore在字典上都標示為副詞。稱為連接副詞,因為它可以表示兩個子句之間的邏輯關係。但不能稱為連接詞,因為它不具有連接子句的功能。

      有些副詞也可以修飾名詞,但不包括連接副詞在內。

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  21. It takes us down a slippery road, in a worsening series of ruin and devastation.
    再請問老師,我把這句的兩個介系詞片語理解成「既」把我們帶向不歸路「又」領我們進入一連串的災難,這樣看不就兩兩相關,可以用 and 嗎? 還請老師解惑了。謝謝。

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    1. down a slippery road是地方副詞,in a worsening series...是方法狀態的副詞,修飾的角度不一樣。例如童話故事裏的Big Bad Wolf,中間不會加and,因為「大小」與「好壞」是兩個不同的角度。

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  22. 新書《旋元佑英文字彙》P177。
    Success brings with it the danger of complacency.(成功帶來自自滿的危險。)
    請問老師:
    1.
    這個句子是什麼句型,是句型S (Success)-V(brings)嗎?
    2.
    我查到bring是及物動詞,所以bring with不是片語動詞,對嗎?
    後面的with it是介繫詞片語修飾及物動詞bring吧?
    3.
    the danger of complacency是代名詞it的同位格嗎?
    如果是同位格,為什麼在the danger of complacency之前不加「,」?

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    1. 句型是:
      Success(S) brings(V) the danger(O).
      介系詞片語with it修飾動詞brings。介系詞片語of complacency修飾名詞the danger。

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  23. It takes us down a slippery road, in a worsening series of ruin and devastation.
    老師你之前跟我說 in a worsening series ... 是方法狀態的副詞,所以這裡的 in 並非 into 的意思,而是表「用什麼方式」嗎?謝謝。

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  24. 老師好,我想練習使用準關係代名詞,造了相關的句子: ... fulfilling powerful internet services as a supercomputer offers (達到和超級電腦同樣強大效能的網路服務)。請問我的英文句子對嗎?謝謝。

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  25. 正確。如果在powerful前面加上the same或者as會更清楚。

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  26. 老師好,我想請問比較級裡面,關於代名詞的用法。 如例句:The quality of our cars is not as good as that of Japanese ones. 這個句子是由兩個單句比較而成。單句1. The quality of our cars is good. 單句2. The quality of Japanese cars is good. 通常情況下,只有當名詞前冠詞為a/an的時候,對應該名詞的代名詞才是one,可是,Japanese cars前的冠詞只能是零冠詞或者是the,並不是a/an,那麼為什麼例句中指代 cars的代名詞會是ones呢?

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    1. 若無指定,先行詞是單數時用one做代名詞,先行詞是複數時用ones做代名詞。

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  27. 老師您好
    “I want you to consider this kipper,” Johnson told his crowd, punctuating each word with a shake. Traditionally eaten by Brits at breakfast time, the fish was now being used by Johnson to make a point about Brexit. British kipper manufacturers, Johnson said, were having their costs unfairly pushed up by E.U. regulations. When Britain finally leaves the political and economic bloc, Johnson told his crowd, such regulatory nonsense would be a thing of the past. “We will,” he concluded, “get our mojo back.”
    It was classic “Boris,” as he is universally known — soaring rhetoric on gently nationalistic themes, delivered with an attention-grabbing stunt. The fact that the rules governing kipper shipments are in fact set by the U.K., not the E.U., was also characteristic of the man now headed to 10 Downing Street, who has a long history of putting compelling narratives ahead of facts.
    1 The fact that the rules governing kipper shipments are in fact set by the U.K., not the E.U., was also characteristic of the man所要傳達的意思是 ?


    “That little girl was me.” With this five-word statement at the Democrats’ June 27 debate in Miami, Senator Kamala Harris did not just strike a blow against Biden. She showed where the party’s most sensitive sore spots lie.
    Harris explained that she had been bused to her Berkeley, Calif., public school as part of an integration plan; Biden, as a Delaware Senator, had worked to stop the federal government from forcing busing on school districts that resisted integration. On the campaign trail this year, Biden had boasted about being able to work with political opponents, citing his chumminess with Senators who were racists and segregationists. “It was hurtful,” Harris said, “to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States Senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
    It was a powerful appeal, drawn from the personal experience of a woman of color whose life’s course was altered by the public-policy choices made in the halls of power. What was exposed wasn’t so much a real policy difference–after the debate, Harris took essentially the same position as Biden against mandatory busing in today’s still segregated schools–but a dispute about perspective. Biden, clearly ruffled, became defensive and eventually gave up, cutting himself off midsentence: “My time is up.” Biden remains the front runner, but the line had the ring of a campaign epitaph.
    2最後一段說wasn’t so much a real policy difference but a dispute about perspective。 感覺policy difference跟a dispute about perspective是同一件事,可是從上下文推測他們是不同的。麻請老師解答 ?

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    1. 1
      此人另有一個特色是說假話:他告訴人民說是歐盟的規定造成物價上漲,其實是英國自己的規定造成的。
      2
      兩位參選人,若是一位支持mandatory busing、一位反對,那叫作policy difference。但是其實現在兩位都反對,所以政見並無不同。不同的是Biden當時是決策者、Harris是被強迫的對象。

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  28. You’re more likely than not to end up in a connected home one day, whether you mean to or not. Architect Michael Gardner, founder of construction firm Luxus Design Build, says homes are increasingly being built “smart” from the ground up. “It’s such an integral part of the home that we’re designing it from the beginning, where beforehand technology was always an afterthought,” he says. Ultimately, experts say, people will come to see smart-home technology as essential as electricity, refrigeration or air-conditioning. Smart-home tech, and the data it collects, will “be like plumbing,” says Cooley, from electronics-component manufacturer Silicon Labs. “You’ll rely on it.”
    3 beforehand technology was always an afterthought 是說明科技進步太快,最初原本是高科技的產品到後來就變成低階的科技 ?
    4 It’s such an integral part of the home that we’re designing it 句中的It’s such 跟it 這兩個it 是指smart ?


    As such, the phrase “binge watching” was just starting to gain currency when the first season of Orange—all 13 hours of it—showed up on Netflix. Viewers who now regularly consume a full season’s worth of a given series within 24 hours still weren’t sure that they could get used to this new form of couch potato–dom. Kohan’s show played no small part in converting skeptics. I remember marathoning the season in a weekend, spurred on by my impatience to know everyone in Orange’s tremendous cast of characters. For better or worse, bingeing is now so common that a term for watching one episode of TV at a time would be more useful.
    5 would be more useful.是過去事實的猜測 ? 如果改成would have been useful (從現在的角度猜過去) 是否可以 ? would be more useful.及would have been useful語意上相同嗎
    謝謝老師

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  29. 3
    之前的情況是:房子先蓋好之後才想到科技這回事,於是再加裝一些科技設備。現在則是從打地基開始就把科技管線預留在裏頭。
    4
    指下文的technology
    5
    語意不同。這裏用would be more useful講的是現在時間。現在有一個專門用語叫做binge watching,表示一口氣看完一整個系列。作者說這已經司空見慣,目前反而需要一個特別用語來表示「一次只看一集」。因為講的是「目前」,所以用的是現在時間非事實語氣(事實上沒有這種術語)。

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  30. 老師您好:
    最近讀了您的英文文法書 覺得獲益良多 我是一個喜歡讀小說但不喜歡英文文法的人 想請問應該向哪個方向才能寫出優美正確的英文 有沒有推薦的書

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    1. 文學作品建議多看海明威。新聞方面多看Time雜誌。

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  31. The sales techniques and selling ideas here have all been effective at some stage. Many are still widely used.
    請問老師
    1. 第一句裡 be 動詞的現在完成式指的是已完成的事情還是到現在都還在持續發生的事?
    2. BE 動詞沒有現在進行式,所以像是 You've been helpful to me. 指的是持續的事,該怎麼區分已完成根持續呢?
    謝謝。

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    1. have been effective, have been helpful,指的都是「截至目前為止」,只有完成狀態,沒有進行狀態。也就是:都沒有表示「持續」。要搭配Ving才有持續的意思,例如have been living in Taipei for 10 years(已經住了10年、現在還在住)。

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  32. 老師您好
    It’s only one of many infuriating discoveries made by the team of private investigators who finally helped turn the tide in Meek’s favor after he returned to prison in 2017, in a decision that drew the outrage of fans and activists. Brinkley had sentenced him to an additional two-to-four years in prison for popping a wheelie on a motorcycle in New York—despite the fact that authorities there had dropped the charges against him. The final two episodes follow his allies’ ultimately successful efforts to extricate him from her grasp. (On July 24, his original conviction was finally overturned.) If the transition from deep dive into recent history to present-tense detective story feels a bit bumpy, both parts of the narrative are equally important. Only someone from Meek’s background could end up ensnared in a saga like this one—and only someone with the cultural footprint he’s established since his arrest could make such common injustices front-page news.
    1 If the transition from deep dive into recent history to present-tense detective story feels a bit bumpy, both parts of the narrative are equally important. 所要傳達的意思是 ?

    Coming-of-age narratives set in disadvantaged communities too often escalate into battles between extraordinary protagonists and the relationships that tie them to that environment. We’re supposed to want the Davids of the world to ascend to college, career and financial security without looking back. Undertones of exceptionalism or bootstrapping imply that these kids’ less ambitious friends and family members deserve the poverty they were born into
    2 battles between... 如果從上下文,可否解釋為against all odds, protagonists succeed ?


    Morrison didn't peddle her personality, performing the role of a great writer,yet she was the most formidable mind of our times.
    3Morrison didn't peddle her personality的意思是 ?

    The uprising shift society: long before Trump's Inauguration, resistance marches emerged across country, mirroing Ferguson in tenacity and power, centered on their own victims of police violence.
    4 mirroing Ferguson... centered on... 可否寫成 resistance marches mirroing Ferguson while resistance marches centered … ?
    5 resistance marches emerged across country, mirroing Ferguson 中的 country及mirroing中間用哪個連接詞連接會比較好 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      這是一篇紀錄片的影評。該片前面幾集,深入探討主角幾年前的經歷(deep dive into the recent past)。最後兩集轉而介紹幾名私家偵探如何挖掘出新證據、終於促成主角獲得釋放(present-tense detective story)。前段與後段的風格、主題都大不相同,所以銜接不是很順暢(bumpy transition)。
      2
      有這個暗示。
      3
      可以這樣解讀:Morrison didn't peddle her personality "by" performing the role of a great writer.。上下文是說:要評價Morrison,得看她的作品、不是看她的身分(諾貝爾文學獎得主)。本句則是說:她本人也不以大作家自居、不憑藉大作家的身分來謀利。
      4, 5
      可以還原為while resistance marches mirrored Ferguson in tenacity and power and are centered on their own victims of police violence。


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  33. 新書《旋元佑英文字彙》P106。
    The chance of success is almost nil.(成功的概率差不多是零。)
    請問,書里這個例句中,副詞almost是修飾動詞is,還是修飾名詞nil?為什麼?

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    1. 修飾nil。almost是程度副詞,這種副詞一般都放在修飾對象的前面。

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  34. 單字diplomat拆解為di/pl/oma/t,字源詮釋為「two/fold/(n.)/?」。
    請問老師,單字裡面的t如何詮釋?
    注:我查到只有名詞字尾-oma的存在,沒有-omat的存在。

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    1. diploma是「文憑」,ma是名詞字尾。diplomat是「外交官」,mat也是名詞字眉,但是代表「人」。

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  35. 句1: The class focuses on U.S. English, as distinct from British English.
    句2: She's a personal assistant, as distinct from a secretary.(她是私人助理而不是秘書。)
    新書《旋元佑英文字彙》P124裡面講到distinct是形容詞。
    請問,在句1和句2裡面,為何形容詞distinct可以放在as後面?是被減化了嗎?如果是,如何還原?

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    1. 有些文法書會說它是準關係代名詞。我的看法是這兩句可以分別還原如下:
      The class focuses on U.S. English, as "something that is" distinct from British English.
      She's a personal assistant, as "something that is" distinct from a secretary.
      若還原為as something,那麼as就是介系詞。

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  36. 老師好:
    有關冠詞部分,已經熟讀書中及上課的講述道理,但對有些還是不明白
    1. The Himalaya, 加the是因為省略mountain. 但為什麼Jade Mountain, Mount Everest, Mount Fiji就不用加the
    2. The Atlantic ocean加the是因為ocean, 但為什麼tokyo bay 不用加,卻The Taiwan Strait要加the
    3. Wall street不用加the, 為什麽,不是應該也要加嗎?街道這麼多?Roosevelt Street羅斯福路也不用加?
    4.時代雜誌Time不用加the?它不是應該要是Time Magazine?

    先謝謝老師的回答!
    學生敬上
    PS. Sun, Moon等我有查到老師之前已回過,已了解!

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    1. Mount Everest與Mount Fuji這兩個名詞片語,在名詞位置都是特稱(專有名詞,分別是Everest與Fuji),這和the Himalaya Mountains的情況不同:它的名詞位置卻是通稱(普通名詞Mountains),所以要加the。

      至於Jade Mountain,那是台灣非正式的翻譯。若要符合文法,應該是Mountain Jade。其實真正的譯法是Yushan。

      但也不能說是錯譯。其實名字的用法是「名從主人」。除了你舉的幾個例子之外,像是哈佛大學Harvard University,按照文法也應該加the,但慣例就是不加。

      我們在文法課上學的是一般的原則。但是名字的用法有很大一部分是由傳統、習慣決定。

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    2. 謝謝老師!對於冠詞還是有好多例外,是否我不用這麼糾結,把握你上課說的幾個原則就好?

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  37. 新書《旋元佑英文字彙》P148。
    老師把diurnal拆解為diem/urn/al,可我查到字典都是說di-來自dies。
    請問老師,diem是否是筆誤,是否應該改為dies?
    附:Etymology: < Latin diurnālis daily, < diēs day. Compare French diurnal (admitted by the Academy 1694), Italian giornale (Florio 1598: now only noun) and see journal adj. and n.

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    1. 字根是dies,不過拉丁文有一個常見的片語carpe diem,直譯為英文是seize the day,意思是「把握時光」。在拉丁文中diem就是day,所以和dies是一樣的。

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  38. I felt constrained to refuse.
    請問老師這裡為何會用不定詞片語?還原成子句會長怎樣?謝謝。

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    1. I felt constrained so that I must refuse.
      因為constrain有「強制」的意思,所以牽涉的語氣是must或have to。

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  39. Bob struck up a conversation with him, as if nothing had happened between them.
    1 請問老師該如何判斷 as if 子句講的是事實(確實之前沒發生什麼事)還是假設語氣(之前有事發生)?
    2 as if nothing had happened between them 若事實是以前兩人之間發生了點事,這句用的是假設語氣,我的問題就來了:這句的動詞是肯定的,符合事實,怎麼還會說是假設語氣呢?
    謝謝。

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  40. 事實:
    Something happened between them.「有事發生」
    Then, Bob struck up a conversation with him.

    寫成as if nothing had happened between them「好像沒事發生一樣」,和事實相反,所以是非事實語氣。

    語氣是由動詞表達的,判斷語氣主要也是看動詞:採用過去來表達非事實。

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  41. 老師好,我要請教假設語氣。
    例一
    事實:Something happened between them.
    寫成as if nothing had happened between them「好像沒事發生一樣」,和事實相反,所以是非事實語氣。

    例二
    事實:15年前這些事沒發生。
    說成 None of this could have happened 15 years ago. 要用假設語氣,因為動詞表達的是會發生,和事實相反。
    既然如此,例一的事實是有事發生,as if 子句的動詞也表示發生,為何要用假設語氣? 謝謝老師。

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    1. 來做個思想實驗。今天的人可以上網查資料、可以用手機和世界彼端的人聊天、可以到醫院做超音波檢查。

      All of this is happening now.
      以上是事實語氣(現在真的在發生)。

      All of this can happen tomorrow.
      以上是用語氣助動詞表示不確定語氣(將來有可能發生)。

      None of this happened 150 years ago.
      以上是事實語氣(當時真的沒有發生)。

      若要表達「過去沒有可能發生」,這仍然是不確定語氣(用到語氣助動詞來表達或然率)。但是語氣助動詞無法明確表達過去時間,要搭配完成式,成為:
      None of this could have happened 150 years ago.
      意思是「當時沒有可能發生過」。需要用完成式have happend來表示「發生過」,又要用could not或者none...could來表示「不可能」,就成為could not have happened或none could have happened。

      你的觀察有道理。這句或許不該稱為非事實語氣,而要稱為不確定語氣,屬於語氣助動詞的猜測用法(猜過去)。

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  42. 有這麼一條idiom:still waters run deep。
    請問老師,water是不可數名詞,為何water後面加上複數字尾-s?

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  43. 老師好,上一次向您請教 None of this could have happened 150 years ago. 這一句的語氣,您說這應該看做不確定語氣。同理,以下這句的 could have imagined 是不是也該看作不確定語氣,表猜測過去?謝謝。
    But when the fateful demonstration began last Tuesday, few participant could have imagined that it would result in agony and anguish ...

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  44. Power is felt, quite literally, right at the fingertips.
    請問老師這句的插入語該判為修飾前面的動詞還是後面的介系詞片語?

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  45. 新書《旋元佑英文字彙》P266。
    It is impossible to convey how sorry I feel.(我無法表達我的歉意。)
    請問老師,這句話是想表達以下哪種含義?
    1. 想讓我表達歉意,門都沒有!——我不可能給你道歉的。
    2. 我對你的傷害太大了,千言萬語都表達不盡我的歉意,我非常願意給你道歉。

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  46. 請問老師,動詞片語和片語動詞,有哪裡不一樣呢?

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    1. 這些是動詞片語:
      will go, don't want, have done, may have been doing, was done, is being done等等。
      包括語氣助動詞+原形動詞;文法助動詞+原形動詞(否定句、疑問句);各種時態。

      這些是片語動詞:
      run across(碰見), turn off(關掉), look out(小心), come down with(病倒), look up to(尊敬)等等
      包括動詞+介副詞;動詞+介副詞+介系詞等等組合,結果會產生出新的意思。

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  47. 請問老師,新書旋元佑文法第78頁中的句子,最後一行with her,可以寫成with herself嗎?

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    1. She must bring every student back to school with her(self).
      介系詞with後面也是受詞,所以也可以用反身代名詞herself。不過,如果說with herself,好像是說「她帶自己和學生回校」,意思有點奇怪。文法沒錯。

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  48. All but the most rabid of French regionalists will tell you that there is no call to be more royalist than the king in these matters.
    請問老師 there is no call to be more royalist than the king in these matters 是什麼意思?
    「任何呼籲都不比國王還要保皇」?謝謝。

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    1. There is no call的意思是there is no reason或there is no need。「這種事,沒道理站在比國王本身還更保皇的立場。」

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  49. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  50. 我在《GRE字彙通》P84看到老師把字根cult詮釋為cover。
    可是在字彙課有這麼一個例句:In The Story of Civilization, Will Durant compares "civilization" with "culture" thus: civilization comes from the growth of cities, whereas culture comes from agriculture, cultivation of the land.,老師說,這兒是在拆字,把culture的字根cult詮釋為「耕種」。
    請問老師,單字culture, occult, uncultivated的字根cult詮釋為cover,還是詮釋為「耕種」比較合適?

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  51. 其實是一樣的。agriculture字面上是cultivation of the land「耕種土地」。字根agr是land,字根cult是cover。所謂耕種,就是用農作物cover土地。

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  52. The development of flexible electronics does not focus on continuous improvement in
    the specifications or functions of existing electronics but taps into a new market.
    請問老師上句使用 not A but B 有沒有對稱呢?

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  53. 有。does not focus on something but taps into something else,這是兩個動詞focus on與tap into在對稱。

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  54. 老師您好
    How did a high-profile, high-risk prisoner have access to items he could use to hang himself? What procedures were and weren’t followed? These questions must be answered. If Barr cares about DOJ’s reputation, he should step aside and let career people conduct and oversee the investigation. If he does this, and if the investigation is exhaustive with results promptly made public, it would be a step in the long process of restoring faith in our justice system. All of us — especially Epstein’s victims, who have already been subjected to unthinkable trauma — are entitled to no less.
    1 All of us are entitled to no less.所要傳達的意思是:如果 Barr能下台,而且讓其他人著手調查,那麼就可以還給所有人公道 ?


    Long before the city streets became a battleground, China had already begun waging a war for Hong Kong’s soul. Under President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has quietly used its levers of social control: the freest courts, schools, media and economy on Chinese soil. “Just as he’s cracked down on any signs of dissidence in mainland China,” says Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, there has been a “whittling away of free speech, the autonomy of universities, an undermining of the rule of law, and that’s increased people’s anxieties.”
    2從上下文推斷, the freest courts, schools, media and economy是 social control的對象,會不會改寫成 used its levers of social control on the freest courts, schools... 這樣會比較清楚 ?

    If the view from Hong Kong is one of impending doom, the view from mainland China has been one of irritation. China is a nation of 1.4 billion people, and Hong Kong no longer a key portal. Its residents are seen as spoiled and disloyal, the problem as distant and isolated. Beijing is seasoned in dealing with what it sees as “troublemakers” agitating for democratic change, discrediting opposition and leveraging nationalist sentiment to vilify them as enemies of the state.


    3If the view from Hong Kong is one of impending doom可以解釋為香港的前景堪憂 ? 可是 the view from Hong Kong 看過去是大陸,從上下文推斷,也不可能是大陸的前景堪憂。不太清楚是不是句子出了什問題之類 的?
    Its residents are seen as spoiled and disloyal, the problem as distant and isolated.
    4 the problem的先行詞是否為Its residents are seen as spoiled and disloyal ?若是, the problem前就沒有省略連接詞之類的 ?
    5 the problem as的as是什麼意思? 可以省略嗎 ?

    In explaning the decision to sanction Deripaska, the department cited allegations that he had bribed a government officail....
    6In explaning the decision =In a statement explaning … ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      差不多。意思是「至少要做到這樣才行」。
      2
      the freest court等等就是the levers of social control的同位格。所以,「暗中拉動社會控制的槓桿」就是「讓香港擁有全中國找不到的自由、以圖籠絡人心」。
      3
      這裏看的就是「香港問題」。港人看到的是「大難臨頭」。中國看到的是「一件麻煩事」。
      4, 5
      可以還原為:Its residents are seen as spoiled and disloyal, (while) the problem (is seen) as distant and isolated.
      6
      In explaining the decision to sanction Deripaska可以還原為副詞子句While it explained the decision to sanction Deripaska

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  57. 老師您好
    The other story, which intersects with Nora’s, is told by Lurie, a wandering miscreant immigrant from Yugoslavia who’s recounting his life to a friend. Perhaps because of his early childhood years spent as a grave robber, he can talk to the dead, though if he does, they deposit their deepest desires within him and he begins to want what they wanted. This may be why the friend he chooses to talk to is a particularly good listener, and also a camel.
    1 they deposit their deepest desires within him 的意思是 ?


    She never lived for seven years in one place again until moving to New York City as an adult. It created a resilience in her, a sense that she knew she could just stand up, stretch into a new shape and start again. She doesn’t even really have a mother tongue. English is her best language, but not her first. She could quote entire English-language movies before she understood what they meant, just by learning the sounds. “Home for me has never really been tied to a sense of physical place,” she says. Thus, she’s fascinated by the sense of agreement her Irish husband, writer Dan Sheehan, and his old friends and family have about certain places or events, a shared wealth of fixed points from which to navigate life. “Certainty is home,” she says. “This notion of feeling at home in a place, or feeling at home in a situation; it’s anchored to certainty.”
    2 (1)home 不是實體的地方。但又說(2) ... certain places or events, a shared wealth of fixed points from which to navigate life. Certainty is home , 即
    certain places with certainty is home,所以 home 是實體的地方,只是這個實體的地方是有certainty . 感覺(1)及(2)的說法有衝突 ?


    In explaning the decision to sanction Deripaska, the department cited allegations that he had bribed a government officail....
    3In explaining the decision to sanction Deripaska可以還原為副詞子句While it explained the decision to sanction Deripaska ,那In為什麼不省略? In 在這的意思是 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      死人把藏在內心最深處的慾望留在他心中。
      2
      她從小居無定所,沒有個固定的家。但是她老公與其友人都有固定的家、有個根。因而她會感慨:要有個根才是家。
      3
      那個in也可以不要。如果沒有in,分詞構句explaining...可還原為時間副詞子句,感覺像是「在這樣做的時候」。加上in,感覺像是「在這個動作中」。差別不大。

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  58. 老師您好
    The tax cut Trump signed in 2017 gave the economy a sugar high... It's hard to see how the short-term sugar high can come close to balancing the long-term costs of ignoring cliamte change. Actually, not hard. Impossible.
    1 Impossible是it's impossible to see how.. . 跟 It's hard to see how...所持的立場是一致的 (tax cut 不能解決長期的成本) 。但 not hard在這又跟前面所持的立場不一致,不知如何解釋。


     CARICATURE refers to an imitation or representation of a person or thing, in drawing, writing, or performance, that ludicrously exaggerates its distinguishing features; ; a PARODY ridicules a written work or writer by imitating the style closely, esp. so as to point up its peculiarities or affectations, and by distorting the content nonsensically or changing it to something absurdly incongruous
    2以上是Webster's new world的解釋。可是我覺得兩個字的意思真的很像,不知他們的差別是 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      not this but that,意思是「說hard還不貼切,該說impossible才對」,用來加強語氣。
      2
      caricature出自繪畫,parody出自音樂,可以當同義字。

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  59. 《旋元佑英文字彙》P329有這麼一個例句:
    He whipped the crowd up into a frenzy with his oratory.(他透過慷慨激昂的演說挑起群眾的情緒,使他們陷入狂熱。)
    可是我查詢到只有以下片語動詞:whip sb into sth(使某人快速進入某種狀態)、whip sth up(煽動;激起),沒有片語動詞:whip sb 「up」 into sth。
    請問老師,例句中的up是否應該刪去?

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whip%20into
    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whip%20up
    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/zhs/詞典/英語-漢語-繁體/whip-sb-into-sth
    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/zhs/詞典/英語-漢語-繁體/whip-sth-up

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  60. 參看韋氏字典https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whip%20up底下第1項定義:whip up the crowd就是whip the crowd up(whip up是可以拆開的片語動詞)。後面的介系詞片語into something是可有可無的修飾語。

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  61. Health is a reflection of the balance between the different aspects of ourselves (body, mind, soul) and our environment, our experiences, our associations and our food. There cannot be sickness in any of these categories without its being reflected to some degree in all of the others.
    請問老師最後一句話是什麼意思? 是說不可能只有一個地方出毛病,要出毛病就是所有地方都會有嗎?但最後的 the others 指的是那些?我沒看到是怎麼區分成 one/some 跟 the others 的。謝謝解惑。

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    1. 你的解讀正確。原句可以還原如下:
      There cannot be sickness in any of these categories while the sickness is not reflected to some degree in all of the other categories.
      其中while引導的副詞子句減化為without引導的介系詞片語,就是原句。

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  62. 老師您好
    老師的文法書提到關係副詞how可以有先行詞the way,不過the way how這種寫法不是古文法才有的嗎?
    我在其他文法書看到說the way how是錯的,現在的英文沒有這種寫法,但是有the way that,另外how也沒有被當作關係副詞了,目前關係副詞只有where/when/why三個,
    請老師幫忙解答學生的疑惑,謝謝!

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    1. the place where, the time when, the reason why, the way how,這4種用法完全相同,都是先行詞加關係副詞,也都是正確的用法。只是在修辭上稍嫌重複,例如the place是指「地方」,where也是指「地方」,所以如果改為the place that比較好(避免重複),但是the place where等等並沒有錯。

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  63. In a major victory for the LGBT community, the conservative leaning US Supreme Court has ruled that it's illegal for an employer to fire an employee over their sexual orientation or gender identity.
    請問老師句首的 In 是什麼意思?謝謝。

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    1. in a major victory字面上是「在一場重大勝利中」。

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  64. He's slowly catching up with his classmates in exam grades.

    老師,您好,想請問三個字的片語動詞,為什麼最後一個是介系詞(with)呢?如果它算是介系詞,with his classmates是介系詞片語嗎?

    謝謝您的回覆!

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  65. 片語動詞(phrasal verbs)以兩個字的居多,也有三個字的。若是兩個字的,通常是動詞搭配一個介副詞(修飾動詞)。例如:
    The plane just took off.
    句中的took off(起飛)是雙字動詞:動詞took搭配介副詞off修飾動詞,不及物。
    He took off his hat.
    句中的took off(脫掉)是雙字動詞:動詞took搭配介副詞off修飾動詞,及物(his hat是受詞)。這組雙字動詞可以拆開,如下:
    He took his hat off.
    另外:
    I came across a problem in my research.
    句中的came across是雙字動詞:動詞came搭配介副詞across修飾動詞,及物(受詞是a problem)。這組雙字動詞不可拆開。

    三字動詞通常是動詞+介副詞+介系詞,例如:
    He came down with a cold.
    句中的came down with是三字動詞:動詞came搭配介副詞down修飾動詞,後面還有一個介系詞片語with a cold同樣修飾動詞came。來看看你問的問題:
    catch up with his classmates裏面的catch up with是三字動詞,動詞catch後面有介副詞up修飾它,再來就是一個介系詞片語with his classmates同樣修飾動詞。

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    1. 謝謝老師!還想再問一下

      所以“片語動詞”與“一般動詞加上修飾詞(副詞、介系詞片語)”的差別,是片語動詞裡的修飾詞是必須的、會影響詞性、意思等;一般動詞加上的修飾詞,其修飾詞算是可有可無,對動詞不會有詞性、意思的影響。這樣解釋對嗎?

      謝謝您的回覆!

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  66. 老師在書里講到5種英語教學法:文法翻譯法、句型練習法、溝通法、閱讀法、綜合法。
    老師的文法課使用了文法翻譯法教學,TIME使用了閱讀法教學。
    想請問,老師的字彙課、寫作課分別屬於以上哪種教學法?

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    1. 我在課堂上使用的教學法,除了句型練習法之外,其他或多或少都有採用。字彙課的重點在字源分析,寫作課則是實作課程,重點在學生要動手參與。這兩個課程,同樣也不限於哪一種教學法,而是都有採用。

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  67. 旋老師,我對書里講到的美國推出「句型練習法」的目的有疑問,特此請教。
    美軍通過句型練習法的目的是訓練在地人擔任軍中翻譯官。可是這些將要成為軍中翻譯官(candidates)的人畢竟是在地人,在地人未必都懂英文,未必都聽得懂英文,美軍又如何全程採用英文教學呢?還是說,這些有資格成為軍中翻譯官的在地人都是接受文法翻譯法的文化人,簡單的全英文教學還是聽得懂的?

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  68. 當然,在軍中要想擔任翻譯官的,多少都已經具備一點英文基礎。在此前提之下採用句型練習法搭配實況會話,是可以達到學習目標的。

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  69. 老師好
    以下這句是奧地利網球名將蒂姆針對最近巡迴網球賽造成多人染新冠肺炎後,對外表達的一句話:
    Our behavior was a mistake, we acted too euphorically.
    按標準文法,應該是...a mistake and we acted...
    而非用逗點取代and 我發現在小說哩,這個使用狀況很頻繁
    兩個獨立子句間使用逗點取代連接詞and 該如何解釋其道理呢?

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    1. 如果兩個子句都很短,尤其是內容平行對稱,可以直接寫在一起,中間只打逗點。英國桂冠詩人Tennyson有一句名言就是這樣:Man is a hunter, woman is his prey。

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  70. 老師您好
    There's a darker side, of course—not just the hunger for undeserved fame and fortune, but the cynical managers and hangers-on who exploit naive wannabes like Austyn (a 16-year-old live streamer). Yet as Mandelup subtly demonstrates in this doc, these unsavory elements only further tie social-media stars to the teen-idol industries of years past. Same as it ever was.
    1 these unsavory elements...是在暗示過往時代的teen idols也是盲目追求虛名,而且他們也是被cynical managers and hangers-on 所利用 ?
    As casual as it is cutting-edge, this restaurant upends the traditional notion of a fancy Thai meal with friendly, not fussy, service; progressvie wine pairings...
    2As casual as it is cutting-edge的意思是 ?



    Considering the scope of her career, it is hard to find the line where children’s entertainer segues into intellectual property. The closest parallel might be Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, whose conglomerate Dualstar exceeded a billion dollars in retail sales in 2011. But as the Olsens graduated from Full House, their empire matured to include tween entertainment and, later, their understated adult fashion line the Row. At 16, JoJo is still rainbows and sparkles. Watching from afar, it’s hard to believe that the star will not soon outgrow her brand.
    3 it is hard to find the line where children’s entertainer segues into intellectual property所要表達的意思是 ?

    “There has never really been someone who has done what I’ve done,” she said. “I’m live-action. I’m the first real-life license—the first human, who is not playing a character, to be licensed as a brand.”
    One only needs to look as far as Kim Kardashian to see this isn’t exactly true. But in the entertainment world, as in psychology, it’s hard to say for sure where being yourself gives way to projecting a public persona. In any case, the sentiment remains: Siwa takes pride in her image empire and loves to partake in the work that it entails. She can sound like a workaday Joe married to her job: “I have a [learner’s] permit in California. I could drive by myself if I had a free hour to go get my license.”
    4 it’s hard to say for sure where being yourself gives way to projecting a public persona意思是說藝人的真實面跟她在外所呈現給人的印象已沒差別 (因為下面有說她的生活跟工作已結合) ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      是。
      2
      This restaurant is very casual.
      This restaurant is very cutting-edge.
      這兩句用as...as連接成為比較級的複句:
      This restaurant is as casual as it is cutting-edge.
      意思是說它「氣氛不拘束,風格前衛」。
      然後再減化為as casual as it is cutting-edge。
      3
      「不容易看出此人在何時從演藝人員轉變為一個品牌商品」。
      4

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  71. 老師您好
    She hopes she can give her daughter a better life than she had growing up. Her dad served in Vietnam and her mom always scraped by on odd jobs, she says, but it’s harder to string together a living these days. She lives a couple of miles from where she grew up. Is she really doing better than they did? She tells her daughter that education is the most important thing, that she needs to get good grades, no matter what. “I say, ‘I just want you to be better than me,'” she says. Not that she’d steer her daughter away from waitressing, necessarily. If you’re a people person, Munce says, it can be fun to talk to strangers all day. Depending on them for tips, though, is something else.
    1Not that she’d steer her daughter away from waitressing, necessarily = it may not be the case that she’d steer her daughter away from waitressing ?

    Yet the report card is hardly one of straight A’s. The President’s trade policies are the major obstacle to growth and leave him with a mixed record. The aluminum and steel tariffs hurt consumers of metals far more than they helped U.S. producers. The negotiations to transform the North American Free Trade Agreement into the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement were costly and achieved little–if the deal even gets ratified. The periodic threats of tariffs on Mexico or on imported autos or other goods and trading partners are part of an environment that has suppressed trade and diminished global growth, with negative effects on the U.S. economy. And while Trump correctly identified China as the culprit, his punitive-tariffs approach amounted to a $100 billion (annualized) tax hike on Americans.
    2 The negotiations to transform the North American Free Trade Agreement into the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement were costly and achieved little–if the deal even gets ratified.
    were costly and achieved little是簡單過去式。後面又加上if the deal even gets ratified表示即時現在這個deal 通過了,成本就現在來講也是很高 ?
    3 with negative effects on the U.S. economy是前面所指的an environment has negative effects on the U.S. Economy ?

    謝謝老師

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  72. 1

    2
    談判的成本已經發生,談判的成效也已經看到,所以這兩項採用過去式。不過目前國會尚未批准。if...所說的是「假如批准的話」,所以採用現在式。
    3
    修飾的是the periodic threats of tariffs,所以是「關稅帶來的影響」。

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  75. 老師您好
    This restaurant is as casual as it is cutting-edge.是由This restaurant is very casual.
    及This restaurant is very cutting-edge而來。
    1 This restaurant is very casual及This restaurant is the most casual的差別在於前者是跟自己比,後都是跟其他的餐廰比 ?
    2This restaurant is as casual as it is cutting-edge是氣氛不拘束,風格前衛。我在想: 是不是改成This restaurant is casual as well as cutting-edge, 就語意來講,是不是也相同?(可是看起來又不同。as casual as it is cutting-edge感覺如果casual 是80分的程度,那麼cutting-edge也是80分的程度。casual as well as cutting-edge感覺無法測量casual是幾分的程度,cutting-edge是幾分的程度)
    謝謝老師

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    1. 其實兩句比的是程度副詞。可以先這樣看:
      This restaurant is very much casual.
      This restaurant is very much cutting-edge.
      改寫為比較級的複句,比較點設定在程度副詞much,如下:
      This restaurant is as much casual as it is cutting-edge.
      如果再省掉much,就是原句。

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  76. 關於 2020年6月19日 老師在片語動詞的回覆

    所以“片語動詞”與“一般動詞加上修飾詞(副詞、介系詞片語)”的差別,是片語動詞裡的修飾詞是必須的、會影響詞性、意思等;一般動詞加上的修飾詞,其修飾詞算是可有可無,對動詞不會有詞性、意思的影響。這樣解釋對嗎?

    謝謝您的回覆!

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  77. 正確。例如雙字動詞come across,分開來看come與across都沒有「碰到」的意思,合在一起才產生新的解釋,所以稱為一組片語動詞。

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  78. 老師好
    以下是某坊間成人英語教材中的句子:
    There are more major roads now than there used to be, and hitching is either banned or drivers are not allowed to pull over on these roads.
    我覺得…either…or…的用法不正確,因為其為一組對等連接詞,後面所接的詞性要一致,但此句顯然未符合此文法原則。此句應改為: There are more major roads now than there used to be, and not only hitching is banned but (also) drivers are not allowed to pull over on these roads. 或 There are more major roads now than there used to be, and either hitching is banned or drivers are not allowed to pull over on these roads.
    請老師指正

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    1. 你的看法正確。嚴格要求之下,原句是有錯誤。但是這種錯誤比比皆是,已經是「見怪不怪」。但是在GMAT考試中那就是文法錯誤。

      你的改法,第1句要採取倒裝句成為:...and not only "is hitching banned" but...。因為not only屬於否定副詞,移到句首時,應該採取倒裝句。第2句正確無誤。

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  79. 老師您好
    Smith’s sense of urgency comes from experience. At 60, he is Microsoft’s longest-serving executive, the institutional bridge between the company’s current leadership and its legendary co-founder Bill Gates. 
    1 the institutional bridge前是不是省略了so he is the institutional bridge... ?


    It says something about the nature of those changes that Smith, since becoming Microsoft’s president, has focused as much on external relations as on internal strategy.
    2 It says...的It 是Smith, since becoming Microsoft’s president, has focused as much on external relations as on internal strategy ?

    Gaps, mysteries and missing answers are endemic in trauma literature. Absence is often made manifest because absence is representative not only of trauma but also of the American historical record that these books aim to reexamine. In the novels I teach, “truth” is almost always given the air quotes it deserves.
    3Absence is often...deserves 看不懂所要傳達的意思 ?

    Power has an almost endearing way of not quite understanding the effect she’s having on people. She seems oblivious as to how her height, blaze of red hair, deep voice, résumé or intensity might make others feel inferior. After leaving a prestigious position at Harvard to work in Obama’s senatorial office, she inadvertently came across a chat between two colleagues that described her as attention-seeking and snotty. “I was shocked,” she says. “I didn’t think of myself as high and mighty. I hated that that was the impression that I was leaving.” During our interview, she gets so excited about a story, she grabs my copy of her book to read the passage and begins to tear up as she reads her own words.
    4 Power has an almost endearing way of … 為什麼要用 endearing這個字 ?(從這段落得知:她被人討厭;而且她還撕書)

    5unbridgeable 會跟gulf , divide等字搭配。若跟realities搭配,會是什麼意思 ?



    Her new book, The Education of an Idealist, sounds like it’s going to be the tale of what happens when journalistic rubber meets administrative and political road, when the finger pointer becomes the appointee and finds out how hard it is to solve anything. 
    6 journalistic rubber的意思 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      可以這樣解讀。也可以視為who is...的減化
      2

      3
      trauma是「造成心理傷痕的重大創傷」。trauma文學不可避免會有gaps, mysteries, missing answers─而這些就是下文所謂的absence。以個人而言,trauma可能造成短期的記憶喪失。以整個社會而言,trauma會造成歷史記錄不完整。這種喪失、不完整,表現在文學上就是各種各樣的absence,所以trauma文學中往往會凸顯absence。既然有缺失,所以truth也不是the whole truth,因此要用手指比畫一下、加上雙引號,表示「所謂的truth」
      3
      這個endearing way就是「不自覺」。例如,有個美女,知道自己美,於是處處以美女自居,到處賣弄、要男性俯首稱臣,這是一種性格。另一個美女的表現卻似混然不覺自己很美,舉止自然大方。兩者相比,要以後者更另人覺得可親。文中介紹的Power,此人各方面的條件極為優越,自己卻混然不覺,因此博人好感。當然,也有一些人會覺得她太咄咄逼人,因此在背後對她有所批評,說她傲慢自大。Power風聞這些評語,大出意外。這種反應正好印證她「並不覺得自己怎麼樣」。後面的tear up是「淚水盈眶」,不是撕書
      4
      就是有兩種realities格格不入,而且無法解釋其間的衝突。例如川普是個不折不扣的混球,美國人卻瘋狂支持他。兩者都是事實,但不應該並存、也無法解釋。
      5
      rubber指的是輪胎橡皮,比喻記者。輪胎一上路就會開始磨損,記者一開始報導政治新聞就會被磨去稜角、磨掉理想與銳氣。原先意氣風發的吹哨人變成了接受安撫的分贓者。本來是豪情萬丈、想要一舉解決所有的問題,結果發現什麼都解決不了。這是書名The Education of an Idealist給人的聯想。

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  80. Brazil has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.
    請位老師這句裡的 in 是不是表明某種狀態,意思就像是 in trouble/danger?謝謝。

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    1. in a plateau修飾has recorded:「以高原形態的統計曲線記錄下來每日的死亡人數」。

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  81. The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darker vegetation, their meeting line at the horizon was clearly marked.
    請問老師這句獨立分詞構句裡的 being spread 的現在分詞是不是全然多餘的啊?謝謝。

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    1. 刪去也可以。加上being感覺更清楚一些。

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  82. ok a fire nearly destroying the 850-year-old Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in April to instil a sense of urgency. For Parisians, that blaze was so devastating because Notre Dame has played such a central role in French literature, history and religion for nearly a thousand years. In the British capital, there is no equivalent place of worship; the Houses of Parliament are the closest any building comes to encasing in stone the history and identity of the nation
    1 the Houses of Parliament...nation 意思是: the Houses of Parliament跟其他的建築物相比,它最能代表the history and identity of the nation ?

    The medical fluid may have been infected with the human equivalent of
    the disease.
    2 the human equivalent of the disease可翻為 人的疾病嗎 ? 可以寫成the disease from humanity(or humans) 嗎 ?
      
    If left unchecked, it’s through these congested spaces that experts now fear a fire could spread rapidly. It’s not much of a stretch: in June 2018, the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, which had been designed with similar ventilation shafts to those in Parliament, burned down
    3It’s not much of a stretch是 很容易想像;不難理解 ?

    Margaret Atwood wants to know more about The Bachelorette. We’re chatting in her publisher’s office in Toronto when I mention the dating show where 30-some men vie for the affection of a single woman, all on camera. She has questions: “Why are they even participating in this?” “What if they’re rejected?” “I’m wondering if she’s just pretending to go along with it?”
    4 I’m wondering if she’s just pretending to go along with it?的意思是:The Bachelorette是實境節目,但製作單位可能跟女主角套好招,所以作者才說I'm wondering...

    Atwood’s voice has become a rallying cry against climate change and threats to equality — last year she headlined a summit on the intersection of those issues, named after a reference to The Handmaid’s Tale. Protest signs at the 2017 Women’s March bore the slogan “Make Margaret Atwood fiction again,” her name now synonymous with resistance.
    5 she headlined a summit 表她整個高峰會的焦點 ?
    6 a reference to 的to是不是改成from比較適合 ?因為reference可能是一個word , idea之類的 ?


    In a moment where it’s nearly impossible to predict where Hollywood is heading—and who can successfully draw in audiences—Jordan is as close as you can get to a sure thing.
    7Jordan is as close ...的意思是:跟其他人相比,Jordan最能吸引觀眾?

    Is this what you mean by the “pink and blue tsunami” you write about in your book?
    Yes, and it starts early. There was a BBC program called No More Boys and Girls, and they showed a classroom with a blue cupboard for the boys’ coats and a pink cupboard for the girls’, and no one knew why. It suggests that there’s something so important about your sex that you have to hang your coat somewhere else.
    8It suggests that there’s something so important about your sex that you have to hang your coat somewhere else.所要表達的意思是 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1

      2
      應該是。文中的the disease假如說是bird flu,那麼the human equivalent of the disease就是human flu
      3
      「這種說法不會太牽強」
      4
      有可能。還有就是「女主角可能根本無意和這些男士真正約會」
      5
      headline是新聞標題。she headlined a summit是說她的名字成為高峰會的標題
      6
      因為是在標題中「提到、指的是」小說,所以reference to沒錯
      7
      是。英文喜歡用比較級,中文經常用最高級
      8
      上文是在主張「不要分男女,從小就不要分」。本句中的it指的是「男生用藍色櫃子、女生用粉紅色櫃子」,所以整句的意思是「男女大不相同,衣服得分開來掛,所以櫃子要分顏色」

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  83. 老師您好
    ...Overall, weather disasters in 2017 and 2018 cost the global economy $653 billion­—the costliest back-to-back years in history. Wildfires are worsening around the world, including across the American West, while farmers in the Midwest have dealt with periods of both catastrophic flooding and drought that destroyed crops and threatened the economic health of communities. Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate as the melting of land-based ice in Greenland and Antarctica increases to record levels. The list goes on.

    But we must be on guard against despair, which is ultimately just another form of denial when the future of humanity is at stake. Yes, some losses are not recoverable. And yes, more damage is now inevitable no matter what we do. False hope is also a form of denial, but I remain optimistic that we still retain the ability to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of this crisis and save the future of humanity—if we rise to the challenge and act urgently.
    1False hope is also a form of denial及 we must be on guard against despair 意思是說:太過樂觀及太過悲觀都會讓人對防止global warming的作為沒有採取任何行動,所以都是forms of denial (不相信global warming) ?

    Late that month, aided by rare atmospheric conditions­, a vast plume of black smoke drifted from the Amazon and darkened afternoon skies as far away as São Paulo, over 1,700 miles to the southeast. As dramatic images of the blackout and fires proliferated worldwide, protests broke out across Brazil and in cities around the world. And after the G-7 leaders held emergency talks during their summit in France, Bolsonaro relented. “I have a profound love and respect for the Amazon,” he said in a televised address. “Protecting the rain forest is our duty.” He immediately dispatched warplanes and army units to Rondônia to fight the blazes.

    Few are convinced he means it. “If the government believes we live on an island, we won’t succeed,” says Blairo Maggi, a billionaire tycoon known as the “soy king.” “He created an unfavorable environment for our exports.” France and Ireland have threatened to sink the E.U.’s trade deal with the South American trading bloc Mercosur unless Brazil resolves the“international crisis,” and Norway and Germany have halted donations to the Amazon Fund, the largest private investment in saving the rain forest. Congressman Alceu Moreira, the leader of the powerful agricultural caucus in Brazil’s National Congress calls European pressure simply “a commercial war.” He says, “Brazil won’t take into consideration the whims of those who seek to control us from the outside.”
    2 If the government believes we live on an island, we won’t succeed及 He created an unfavorable environment for our exports所要表達的意思是 ? 
    謝謝老師

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      2
      「住在孤島上」,意思是認為國內環境與國外環境隔絕、互不影響。「不利外銷的環境」,意思是說巴西沒有善盡保護亞馬遜雨林的責任因而遭到世界各國抵制。

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  85. 老師您好
    One way to change that would be to reuse the carbon as fuel, but that only delays its release; another would be a price on carbon itself. For engineers, it is a tantalizing area of research—the ultimate moon shot—because any breakthrough in capturing carbon, reusing carbon or storing it at a large scale would mitigate the potential catastrophe of allowing it to continue to heat the atmosphere. Life could not only go on­—it could go on more or less as it has.
    1Life could not only go on­—it could go on more or less as it has. 意思是雖然科技進步,然而global warming還是會一直存在,但global warming至少不會更惡化 ?

    Three decades from now, we will be on the cusp of 2050, the year by which we must have already acted—with urgency as outlined by the UN's Panel on Climate Change – to have any chance of keeping average global warming to 1.5C above the 19th century levels.
    2通常outline會跟 a plan or idea連用。 但outline urgency是什麼意思?
    3as outlined by 跟 outlined by 在語意上有何不同 ?
    4 average global warming to 1.5C above the 19th century levels. 是 average global warming 已經超過19世紀的水準?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      只要能夠妥善處理碳元素(以捕捉、再使用、大量儲存等方式),那麼人類生活不但可以繼續下去不致滅絕,更可以維持住目前的生活水平。
      2
      應該是列出時程表:到某個時間環境會惡化到某種程度,以這種方式凸顯環保的急迫性。
      3
      outlined by是關係子句which is outlined by的減化,as outlined by是副詞子句as it is outlined by的減化。後者多了「有如、好像」的語意。
      4
      衡量全球溫度上升,要有一個基準點,取的就是19世紀的溫度。目前設定的目標是:到2050年,全球溫度上升不得超過1.5度C(以19世紀平均溫度為準)。

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  87. 老師您好
    With the filibuster removed, the Senate passed—by the narrowest of margins—one bill after another to end subsidies for coal and gas and oil companies, began to tax the carbon they produced, and acted on the basic principles of the Green New Deal: funding the rapid deployment of solar panels and wind turbines, guaranteeing federal jobs for anyone who wanted that work, and putting an end to drilling and mining on federal lands.
    Since those public lands trailed only China, the U.S., India and Russia as a source of carbon, that was a big deal. Its biggest impact was on Wall Street, where investors began to treat fossil-fuel stocks with increasing disdain.
    1Since those public lands trailed only China, the U.S., India and Russia as a source of carbon的意思是 ?

    When India started mandating electric cars and scooters for urban areas, the future of the internal-combustion engine was largely sealed. Teslas continued to attract upscale Americans, but the real numbers came from lower-priced electric cars pouring out of Asian factories. 2the real numbers ...是暗示: upscale Americans買的是低價格的電動車,而不是高價格的電動車?

    Environmentalists learned they needed to make some compromises, and so most of America’s aging nuclear reactors were left online past their decommissioning dates: that lower-carbon power supplemented the surging renewable industry in the early years, even as researchers continued work to see if fusion power, thorium reactors or some other advanced design could work.
    3 that lower-carbon power的that 指的是 nuclear reactors,而不是
    That he did something is just gossip 的that ?


    There were, in fact, two possible ways forward. The most obvious path was a constant competition between nations and individuals to see who could thrive in this new climate regime, with luckier places turning themselves into fortresses above the flood. Indeed some people in some places tried to cling to old notions: plug in some solar panels and they could somehow return to a more naive world, where economic expansion was still the goal of every government.
    But there was a second response that carried the day in most countries, as growing numbers of people came to understand that the ground beneath our feet had truly shifted. If the economy was the lens through which we’d viewed the world for a century, now survival was the only sensible basis on which to make decisions. 
    4 plug in some...government 是在暗示什麼 ? 
    5 the economy was the lens … decisions是說發展經濟在當時是最主要的重點,而現在的首要任務是生存 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      聯邦政府公地開採出來的煤與石油,使用之下造成碳排放,其總量僅次於四個國家,因而是嚴重的污染源。
      2
      有錢的美國人買Tesla,但是全球電動車的銷售主力是低價車。
      3
      是來自aging nuclear reactors的
      4
      只要裝幾塊太陽能電池板,就能夠一切照舊、繼續追求經濟成長
      5


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  88. 老師好,請問 how to write at a college level 為何用的是不定冠詞呢?我覺得意思是大學「那個」程度,不就要用 the 才對嗎?謝謝。

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    1. 意思就是「大學程度不只一種」。how to write at a level that is fit for college。

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  89. 老師您好
    One of her guiding principles is the need to shift the climate-change discourse to “be more courageous and more emotionally intelligent,” she says, and the book is “about moving through what is hard and continuing to rise to the challenge.” Wilkinson recently co-hosted her own outdoor retreat, the Feminist Climate Renaissance, bringing together women from across sectors. “The climate crisis is also a leadership crisis,” she says, “and many women and girls are stepping in to fill that void and lead us forward … in a way that has not been the status quo in the climate movement.” 
    1 emotionally intelligent是指EQ嗎 ?
    2 既然女性目前在 climate的議題上作為領航者的角色,為什麼又說in a way that has not been the status quo in the climate movement.” 不清楚in a way...movement是在暗示什麼 ?

    Her approach to dealing with climate change might be best summed up in her 2017 TED talk on the currently unknown impact clouds could have on the future of global weather. “We don’t know for sure what the future holds. But we are sending our kids there, and they are never coming back,” she said. “I want them to be prepared for what they’ll face.”
    3they are never coming back表示將這些小孩送上死路 嗎 ?

    As you’ve likely heard, the ocean’s health is in trouble. You’re probably aware of overfishing and the harmful practices of fisheries driving a third of the planet’s fish stocks toward extinction, and you surely know about the unconscionable amount of pollution, in particular plastic, that we dump in the ocean. But that’s not the worst of it. The ocean is steadily warming; its oxygen levels are falling; and 
    4 But that’s not the worst of it. 的that 是指 the unconscionable amount of pollution, in particular plastic, that we dump in the ocean? 而 the worst of it的it 是 ocean’s health ?

    Warmer and longer summers are melting the arctic permafrost, releasing moe carbon into the air, creating a vicious climate feedback loop
    5 creating a vicious climate feedback loop= That it releases more carbon into the air creats a vicious climate feedback loop (其中的it 是 That warmer and longer summers are melting the arctic permafrost) ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1

      2
      在climate movement中,這種做法迄今都未能成為常態,現在就要這樣做(使它成為常態)。
      3
      不是。there指的是the future。去往未來,那是一條不歸路。
      4
      that指的應該是上文說的全部情況。it是個虛字。
      5
      (1)Warmer and longer summers are melting the arctic permafrost, so that (2)this(指1)releases more carbon into the air, so that this(指2)creates a vicious climate feedback loop.

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  90. 老師您好
    In the early stages of the 2020 campaign, things looked much the same: many Democratic campaigns offered little more than boilerplate support for a Green New Deal or an endorsement of the Paris Agreement. But over the course of the race, climate change has emerged for the first time as a top-tier presidential campaign issue. A slew of factors have contributed to the spike in national interest, from the activists pushing for a Green New Deal to the warning for urgent action embedded in the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released last year by the U.N. to Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s climate-focused presidential campaign, which raised the bar for other candidates. But climate’s growing political clout is also due to the reality of daily life in Iowa, whose outsize importance in the presidential primaries has forced candidates to finally pay attention.

    Since late April, all the major Democratic candidates have released comprehensive climate plans, addressing everything from the details of new research-and-development funding to how they would support other countries’ climate efforts to how they would change permitting rules for new oil-and-gas pipelines. Several presidential hopefuls have proposed ideas tailored for Iowa, including new climate-insurance programs for farmers and new agricultural-research agencies. At multiple Iowa campaign stops in August,  Ryan spoke at length about how farmers might one day receive government funding for capturing carbon dioxide in soil. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has proposed funding programs to give farmers expanded access to renewable energy. “At every event, the candidates will talk about climate change,” says Rob Hogg, an Iowa state senator from Cedar Rapids who has hosted town halls.

    This is a glimpse of what’s to come in U.S. politics, as the country contends with the creeping menace of climate change, from rising seas in Florida to wildfires in California. “Extreme weather events are waking people up,” says Steve Shivvers, a retired agricultural equipment company CEO from Des Moines, who is active in local climate groups. The climate challenges Iowa faces today help explain why scientists and advocates are so eager for the issue’s political salience to catch up to its ecological and economic importance. In the long run, that may be inevitable. The question is whether the politics change radically enough before the climate does.

    在第三段有談到 the issue’s political salience, issue’s political salience的範圍是否指的是全美國,即使在同一個句子又有說到 The climate challenges “ Iowa” faces today ? (但在第一段又說 But climate’s growing political clout is also due to the reality of daily life in Iowa, whose outsize importance in the presidential primaries has forced candidates to finally pay attention. 所以 the issue’s political salience的範圍專指Iowa?但第三段又說what’s to come in U.S. politics,好像 issue’s political salience的範圍專指全美會比較適當)
    謝謝老師

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  91. 問題一
    《旋元佑英文字彙》P353有這麼一個例句:
    Kyoto is a city redolent of antiquity.(京都這個城市古香古色。)
    請問,既然「名詞片語的構造是限定詞+形容詞+名詞」,為什麼這裡的形容詞redolent置於名詞city之後?

    問題二
    《旋元佑英文字彙》P364
    morgue (n.) 太平間
    1.是否拆解為mor/gue?
    2.字根mor是字根mort,表示death嗎?字尾-gue是什麼?

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    1. 名詞片語中的形容詞只能放單字。redolent of antiquity是個片語,放不進去,只好移到後面。

      1

      2
      是。La Morgue是從前巴黎一棟建築的名字,用來展示屍體供人辨識。

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  92. 問題三
    《旋元佑英文字彙》P369
    例句:The PR officer is good at socializing with all sorts of people.
    PR officer是public relations officer(來自劍橋字典),為何是複數的relations,名詞變成形容詞不應該去掉-s,變成relation嗎?
    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/zhs/%E8%AF%8D%E5%85%B8/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD/public-relations-officer

    問題四
    《旋元佑英文字彙》P393
    老師在書里把humble的字尾-ble詮釋為bend。
    可是humble是形容詞,這裡的字尾-ble是否詮釋為形容詞able更合適?

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    1. 一般要用單數,但也有不少例外,像the admissions office, a sports car等等

      Online Etymology Dictionary的解釋:humble當動詞時,解釋為bend。

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  93. Of all the Christian virtues none is more admired by the world at large than that of obedience; none is less admired for its own sake.
    請問老師最後一句是拿 none 跟甚麼東西比較啊?謝謝。

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  94. 和前面相同:與the virtue of obedience比較。只為了服從而服從,那就算不上什麼德行了。

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  97. 老師您好
    Seen from the air, the Karipuna land is an emerald tapestry. But on every side of it, the forest is gone. Now, vast tracts of their territory are also being deforested, despite strict federal protections. The implications are grave. Much of Brazil’s remaining forest exists in reserves.

    Since coming to power in January, Bolsonaro has been ruthless in gutting protections, intervening to block an IBAMA operation against loggers in Rondônia, firing 21 of the agency’s 27 state heads and creating a new body to pardon environmental fines. Across the Brazilian Amazon in recent months, tribal lands and national parks have been invaded like never before. “It’s very sad, outrageous, to watch all the effort made over so many years by different governments being destroyed,” says Marina Silva, a former environment minister who pioneered the fall in deforestation.


    1 第一段有說 the Karipuna land is an emerald tapestry,但又說 vast tracts of their territory are also being deforested。既然大部分的土地都 deforested,怎麼會看起來是 emerald tapestry。感覺這是有衝突的 ?

    2Across the Brazilian Amazon in recent months, tribal lands and national parks have been invaded like never before. 是不是在解釋為什麼The implications are grave. Much of Brazil’s remaining forest exists in reserves. ?




    Onging research and development is leading to continuous gains in how much power they produce.
    3 gains in how much power 的意思是 ?


    Warmer and moreacidic waters,brought on by climate change, have caused mass coral-bleaching events in recent years, harming huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef.
    4 harming huge swathes...= events which harm huge swathes... ?


    Twenty-four million people globally are displaced within their countries each year on average because of climate- and disaster-related causes, and it’s only getting worse: the likelihood of any of us being displaced in this way is twice what it was in the 1970s.
    5 what it was就是 the likelihood of any of us being displaced in this way 。但我還是看不出來the likelihood of ...是如何簡化成what it was,而且it 是指什麼?



    He hopes Bolsonaro will help him achieve his goal of starting to earn from the land in 2028. By then, the logging boom will have subsided and cattle ranches will take over. Eventually, this too will become soy fields. Ultimately, Bertola says, he will put his family first.
    6 this 是指 the land?

    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      一個是從上空遠眺、一個是近看,結果不同。
      2
      它直接說明的是該段的段落主題句:Bolsonaro的作為。間接說明的當然是全文主題,也就是你指出來的地方。
      3
      持續的R&D造成they的發電量不斷成長
      4
      比較像是分詞構句:so that this harms...
      5
      例如:
      The likelihood today is 20%.
      It was 10% in the 1970s.
      合成:
      The likelihood today is twice the likelihood that it was in the 1970s.
      其中it的先行詞是the likelihood。
      6
      不是很清楚。暗示the land that went from being forests to being cattle ranches

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  98. 老師您好
    Ongoing research and development is leading to continuous gains in how much power they produce.
    1 在句中how much 為何不省略?因為感覺省略後句意也不變。通常how much 用在多少錢how much does it cost. 不了解在句中的how much 是什麼意思 ?

    The likelihood of any of us being displaced in this way is twice what it was in the 1970s
    2是否可改成the likelihood of any of us being displaced in this way is twice that in the 1970s ? (用that取代likelihood )
    3The likelihood today is twice the likelihood that it was in the 1970s.
    其中it的先行詞是the likelihood。如果是這樣子的話,為什麼句子還要加個that it was, 感覺that it was 是多餘的?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      疑問句How much power do they produce?改為名詞子句就是how much power they produce。若只說the power they produce也行,但是加上how much比較明確指出是「發電量」。
      2
      也可以
      3
      說出來比較清楚,不說比較簡潔,都有好處。

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  99. 老師您好,可以請問老師為何三年後是寫:three year later。為什麼later要放在後面呢?
    謝謝老師

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  100. 回覆
    1. three years later是用three years當做時間副詞來修飾後面的later。就像five years old是用five years當做時間副詞來修飾old。

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  101. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  102. 老師您好
    One idea, the officials say, was to set up a moment of stagecraft when France’s President Emmanuel Macron would be talking to Rouhani and, seemingly impromptu, encourage Trump, press cameras in tow, to join them.
    1 seemingly impromptu=that one idea was to encourage Trump, press cameras in tow, to join them was seemingly impromptu ?




    He very much seems to be enjoying all of his todays. I’m put in mind of a moment several years ago, when I was seated at a table with Grazer at the annual TIME 100 Gala, the dinner at which this magazine celebrates the 100 most influential people in the world. The gala is, by any measure, a glittery affair–especially for journalists who, to be frank, don’t get out all that often. But Grazer surely gets out all the time–to Oscar ceremonies, White House screenings, overseas premieres, royal audiences.
    All the same, during the dinner, I spotted Grazer looking about, smiling, taking in the faces, wholly in the moment. He caught me looking, and he beamed. “This is just great!” he said. As a cradle-to-grave outlook on life, that’s a pretty hard one to beat.
    2 As a cradle-to-grave outlook on life, that’s a pretty hard one to beat.的意思是 ? 

    For young people, the relationship between vaping and taking up smoking is murky. The percentage of high schoolers smoking cigarettes rose from 7.6% to 8.1% in 2018. But so far this year, even as vaping has continued to soar, youth smoking rates dropped back down to 5.8%, according to HHS data. Still, many fear that vaping is creating lifelong nicotine addicts. “They’re bringing kids who are at low risk of smoking into the margin,” says Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “A lot of those kids then transition to regular cigarettes.” Just 20 years ago, 23% of 12th-graders smoked daily, compared with 3.6% in 2018. With youth nicotine use ticking up because of vaping, history seems in danger of repeating itself.
    3They’re bringing kids who are at low risk of smoking into the margin中的 kids at low risk of smoking可以翻成 日後不太可能吸煙的這些小孩們 ?
    4history seems in danger of repeating itself.是說 vaping會讓年輕人轉換至regular cigarette, 所以年輕人吸煙的百分比會增加 ( 與Just 20 years ago, 23% of 12th-graders smoked daily, compared with 3.6% in 2018呼應) ?


    Now, if you spend time online, it’s hard to insulate yourself from the realities others experience. The sharing of our personal stories happens so often, it’s difficult to keep track. Some storytellers are still privileged above others, but social media has removed some of the artifice about who these issues affect and their scope.
    5 but social media has removed....scope. 的意思是 ?
    6 who these issues affect的who改成whom會比較好 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      encourage的動作是seemingly impromptu,其實是編排好、有預謀的
      2
      Grazer這個人經常參加各種大場合,按理說應該已經習以為常,甚至會有倦怠、厭煩感。但他在現場的表現仍然是「興奮、驚艷」(This is great!)。這種人生態度如果能夠從小持續到老,那是很難得的(不容易超越它)。
      3
      可以
      4
      是:有回復到23%的危險
      5
      在社交媒體平台上分享個人經驗者,有一些是超級富豪,所以能夠拿出「私人飛機、私人島嶼」之類的經驗來分享。從前這種經驗有其限制,但是因為社交媒體平台的興起,這種限制逐漸被打破。
      6
      應該用受格whom,但是容許忽略主格受格的差別、一律用who。




      一個人如果從小到老、一貫的人生觀就是"This is just great!"

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  103. 老師您好
    Now, if you spend time online, it’s hard to insulate yourself from the realities others experience. The sharing of our personal stories happens so often, it’s difficult to keep track. Some storytellers are still privileged above others, but social media has removed some of the artifice about who these issues affect and their scope.
    1 artifice可解釋為false behavior 嗎
    2 these issues=issues of he sharing of our personal stories ?
    3 artifice about A and B ,their scope是B ?

    One idea, the officials say, was to set up a moment of stagecraft when France’s President Emmanuel Macron would be talking to Rouhani and, seemingly impromptu, encourage Trump, press cameras in tow, to join them.
    4 老師麻煩老師把seemingly impromptu還原? (是不是有省略其他字)

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    1. 1
      可以
      2

      3
      who these issues affect and the scope of these issues「這些議題影響到哪些人、以及這些議題的範疇」
      4
      就是單純的副詞seemingly修飾形容詞impromptu

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  104. She answered without moving, otherwise than as the arm I twined about her may have brought her blue eyes nearer to me. 請問老師 otherwise than 該怎麼解釋才好?還有 than 後面為何跟的是另一個副詞連接詞 as ,而不是代表動作事情的動名詞片語?謝謝。

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    1. than是比較級的連接詞,要求前後對稱。前面是副詞otherwise,後面是副詞子句as...,雖然單字對子句不是十分工整,但是副詞對副詞,至少在詞類上是對稱的。

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  105. She answered without moving, otherwise than as the arm I twined about her may have brought her blue eyes nearer to me.
    老師好,我想追問 otherwise than ... 在此怎麼解釋。是說「不同於當我摟住她的腰,讓她的眼睛 ...」嗎?感謝。

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  106. 「除了…以外」。整句意思是:「她回答但是沒有動彈,只有她的藍眼睛或許因為我攬著她的手臂動作而更靠近我一些。」

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  107. 老師您好
    The same month, Macron made a rentrée to the world stage as host of the annual G-7 summit. There, he outmaneuvered Trump by inviting Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to meet him during the summit, hoping to pave the way for the U.S. President to meet his Iranian counterpart Rouhani–with whom Macron also speaks regularly–perhaps at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September. Macron sees Iran as the one issue on which he might well influence Trump, though Iran has ruled out such a meeting.
    Iran was just one issue at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, however. Macron also mobilized the other six leaders to help fight the fires raging in the Amazon forests, raising a modest $20 million from the group. In response, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attacked Macron personally, liking a meme that compared the two men’s wives that a user posted on Bolsonaro’s Facebook page and suggesting Macron would prefer Brazil’s First Lady.
    1 Iran was just one issue at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, however.所要傳達的意思是 ? (在G 7除了Iran這個issue外,尚有macron also mobilized the other six leaders to...這件事,但為什麼說 Iran was just ( =only) one issue )


    He survives the scrutiny, and he helps guide Ad Astra to a landing you don't quite expect, a place of self--forgiveness that feels earned
    2feels earned的意思是 ?



    In the film, her fans feel they know her, but she doesn’t appear to feel known by them. Is there a certain loneliness that comes with fame?
    I’m sure it’s different for everybody. I suppose it depends on how much of your public persona and professional responsibilities consume your time vs. how much time you spend focusing on the person behind the public persona.
    3 how much of your public persona and professional responsibilities consume your time v指的是記者的職業道德 而how much time you spend focusing on the person behind the public persona.是指狗仔的行為 ? 

    Love, whether requited or not, can be a killer. And the pangs of love, in its many forms, reverberate through Woodson’s pages, which hit close to the marrow of old Brooklyn, with brown girls and boys, dreaming; their parents and grandparents, too, wishing for peace, to be settled.
    4 with brown girls...的with=because ?
    5 with brown girls and boys, dreaming= with brown girls and boys, dreaming to be settled ?
    6 wishing for peace, to be settled= wishing to be settled peacefully ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      Iran was just one issue 意思是 There were other issues.
      2
      feels earned 意思是 feels deserved.
      3
      前者是「公眾形象、職業角色」,後者是「私下的個人本色」
      4, 5
      because there are brown girls and boys, who are dreaming。因為有分號隔開,所以應該和後面的to be settled無關。
      6
      who are wishing for peace, wishing to be settled

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  108. 作者已經移除這則留言。

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  109. 老師您好
    Love, whether requited or not, can be a killer. And the pangs of love, in its many forms, reverberate through Woodson’s pages, which hit close to the marrow of old Brooklyn, with brown girls and boys, dreaming; their parents and grandparents, too, wishing for peace, to be settled.
    1 wishing for peace, to be settled= who are wishing for peace, wishing to be settled. wishing to be settled.可否看成是wishing for peace的補充說明 ?

    That was quite a caper of Jone's, to run off with his psychiatrist's wife.
    2 a caper of Jone's = Jone's caper ? 

    3 I deserve something可以改成something feels deserved ? 如果可以的話,feel 這個動詞的主詞通常是人,為什麼物品也可feels ?

    If young adults are called snowflakes because they readily take offense to individual and systemic racism…, then I say, let it snow
    4 let it snow的意思是 ?

    In an excerpt from her memoir, she reflects on the ways different types of big people are treated. “Looking is one thing,” she writes, “but judging some people worthy of dignity and others not—that’s a worry.
    5意思是:只要是胖的人(不管他們是否是值得尊敬),就會被批評,這是令人擔心的 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      wishing to be settled就是wishing for peace的補充說明。句子是with their parents and grandparents wishing for peace, to be settled,還原為副詞子句while their parents and grandparents are wishing for peace, wishing to be settled
      2
      是。採用雙重比較級,是因為在名詞caper前面不能同時使用中位限定詞a與John's
      3
      就是something feels (to me) deserved
      4
      就是let there be plenty of snowflakes或者let there be plenty of such young adults
      5
      「外貌是一回事,但是『以貌取人』的做法則令人憂慮」。judging some people worthy of dignity and others not意思是「認為某種長相的人值得尊敬、另種長相的人不值得尊敬」

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  110. 老師您好
    (原文第5段)Polls taken in the days afterward showed scant change in Canadians’ assessment of their Prime Minister, or at least of the party he leads: the Liberals continue to trail the Conservatives within the margin of error. By the time we spoke again, on Sept. 23, the world’s attention had largely moved on, to the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, and to Donald Trump’s phone call to Ukraine. The world’s leaders were gathering in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly, and it seemed at least possible that the essential variable facing Canada’s battered Premier was, once again, a global order that shows every sign of moving away from him. Trudeau, the unapologetic globalist in a populist world, has work to do………………..

    (以下是原文後2段) As are voters. Challenger Scheer “has been underestimated at every point in his career,” says John Baird, Canada’s Foreign Minister under the Conservative government that preceded Trudeau’s. “But Trudeau was running in third place before coming back to win four years ago.” The question is whether Canadians are seeing the candidate they saw then.

    If he does eke out a victory next month, he’ll cut a lonely figure on the international stage for some time to come. (Oct 7,2019 Time)
    1 he’ll cut a lonely figure on the international stage是跟第一段的the essential variable facing Canada’s battered Premier was, once again, a global order that shows every sign of moving away from him. Trudeau, the unapologetic globalist in a populist world, has work to do呼應 ?

    Jefferson said a nation could never be ignorant and free. Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. That consent is obtained by the free flow of information. Factual information. That’s still an idea worth fighting for.
    2 Jefferson said a nation could never be ignorant and free.應該是Jefferson said a nation could never be ignorant and could be free. (因為在網路上查到If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.")。但原句的表達會不會讓人誤解為a nation could never be ignorant and could never be free ?


    …Is he a villain or a spokesperson for the downtrodden? The movie wants it both ways. Its doublespeak feels dishonest.

    In that context, it’s painful to bring up the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight showing of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. (The shooter pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a purely Jokeresque defense; he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.) I felt terrible for Nolan, that a picture he’d made should be used as a backdrop for this kind of horror. “I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting, but that they were there last night to watch a movie,” he said in a statement at the time. “I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime.” Movies don’t cause violence—The Dark Knight Rises didn’t. But Joker made me realize that my tolerance for shoddily thought-out visions of glamorized nihilism is lower than ever. Sometimes a movie makes you recoil—and no matter how many awards it wins, your instincts are the only golden thing that matters.
    3” I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting…joyful pastime.” 這表示Christopher Nolan的doublespeak ?
    4 glamorized nihilism的意思是 ?
    5 your instincts are the only golden thing that matters.所要傳達的意思是 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1

      2
      意思是A nation can never be ignorant and free "at the same time",這個暗示還算清楚
      3, 4
      作者所謂Nolan's doublespeak應該是表現在電影中對Joker一角的刻畫上:這個角色到處搞顛覆破壞(nihilism),但是又被描繪為帥氣、蕭灑(glamorous),這就是glamorized nihilism,也是導演Nolan在片中的doublespeak
      5
      一部電影是好是壞,得多少獎並不重要,重要的是你看完以後感覺它是好是壞(your instinct)。這裏用golden來修飾,暗示「金」獎:金獎算不了什麼,觀眾的直覺才是「真金」

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  111. 老師您好
    If young adults are called snowflakes because they readily take offense to individual and systemic racism,let there be plenty of such young adults
    1不了解這句話背後的意思?


    2好像在哪裡看過 a photo of Mary, 為什麼不寫成a photo of Mary's? (如果跟 a caper of Jone's 來作比較的話 ) a photo of hers是不是應該也可以 ?

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    1. 1
      snowflake是個俚語,代表「過度情緒化、容易被激怒、不能容忍反對意見的人」。它本來是個有眨抑作用的字。你問的那句話,意思是說:如果snowflakes的意思是「不容忍種族歧視」,那麼這種人多多益善。
      2
      a photo of Mary意思是「照片裏的人就是Mary」,這並非所有格。a photo of Mary's意思是「Mary擁有的一張照片」,這才是所有格。

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  112. the positive literary virtues are not to be taught by brief quotation, nor otherwise attained than by improving the gifts of nature with wide or careful reading ...
    請問老師
    1 otherwise than 是不包括後面接的東西的意思,但因為前面有 nor 所以這句話的意思是不是就變成必須靠 improving ㄍthe gifts 這個方法才能成功?
    2 寫成 nor attained otherwise than by ... 是不是也可以呢?
    多謝老師解惑。

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  113. 請問老師
    In such a case, the company's response may not be sufficiently quick or thoughtful, and the learning curve has been steep.

    may not be sufficiently 能不能等同於 can not be too
    我在不同的例句中嘗試替換,有時可以有時又不可以,希望老師解答疑惑

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  114. 意思不同。例如:
    Two thousand dollars may not be enough for the project.
    「要辦這個計畫,兩千元可能不夠。」
    There cannot be too much money for the project.
    「這個計畫,需要的錢是多多益善(怎樣也不嫌多)。」

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  115. 旋老師您好,請問在wechat裡面的公眾號「旋元佑英語課程」是您授權發布的嗎?是合法途徑嗎?

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  116. 老師您好
    There is not much love lost between Japan and South Korea. Nearly 75 years after World War II ended, the two sides continue to argue over the issue of how much, how often and in what form Japan should appropriately atone for its past transgressions. But what makes this recent round of historical finger-pointing worrisome is…
    1既然日本跟韓國間是敵對的狀態,為什麼會說There is not much love lost? 這兩國間根本沒有love, 所以何來的lost ?

    2 Few saw in his Ukraine outbursts anything more than the effusions of a cable-news showman. =People saw Trump’s Ukraine outbursts nothing more than the effusions of a cable-news showman ?

    3What’s left are multiple probes and a loose narrative, based on real and fictional events
    What’s left= something that is left , 既然主詞是單數,動詞為何用are ?
    None of the scenarios is particularly novel: a mother facing a medical crisis fears for her family’s future. Adult brothers realize the sacrifices they’ve made in marrying very different women, who draw them apart. An estranged couple comes closer together after their daughter makes a surprising announcement. But the stories are rendered in such delicate turns that Strout is again able to portray the subtle heartbreaks that punctuate the mundanities of life. And none are more devastating than the ones Olive reckons with herself.
    4 delicate turns及subtle heartbreaks的意思是 ?

    Growing older can be tough, but growing old is much harder. Aging and the anxieties that surround it plague Olive, who was widowed at the end of the first novel, especially as she attempts to reconnect with her adult son Christopher. Their interactions are achingly rushed, emphasizing a sense that their time together is limited. Tension only rises when Chris discovers that Olive has found love again.
    5 Growing older及growing old的意思是 ?
    謝謝老師

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    1. 1
      not much love lost這種說法,表示雙方的關係「並非由愛轉恨」,而是「本來就是仇人」
      2

      3
      可視為倒裝句:主詞是multiple probes
      4
      delicate turns「細膩的轉折」;subtle heartbreaks「外人看不出來的心碎」。說的是故事情節
      5
      10歲成長到11歲是growing older。進入65歲是growing old

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  117. 老師您好
    And the 80 million Iranians? Khamenei has shown himself willing to subject them to indefinite economic hardship rather than hold his nose, swallow his pride and do a deal with the U.S. His insensitivity–his own brother, a reformist cleric, was once beaten by a hard-liner mob–has allowed Khamenei to play a weak hand strongly. Trump, hypersensitive to his domestic political fortunes, has played a strong hand weakly.
    to play a weak hand strongly及has played a strong hand weakly的意思是?
    謝謝老師

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