语言不像科学定理那样,一旦被证明,就放之四海皆准。
曾在在L. G. Alexander编著的New Concept English 中学到一个短语 Can not … too 表示再 … 也不为过的意思
书上说这是个固定结构,要小心这种用法。我认真把这个结构记住,不时拿出来用用。
前不久发信给一个美国朋友(已经50多岁),问他“A man can never have too many ties.  ”这句话怎么理解。
他说他从没听过这样的话:
Actually I have never heard of this expression.  I would guess it means that variety in life is necessary and the reference to not having too many ties means its good to be changing all the time.  On a practical side, it could mean that ties go quickly out of date so keeping up with the times means having lots of ties.  I really don't know. 
我感到奇怪,他怎么从来没听过这种用法呢?
过两天,和一个加拿大朋友在星巴克喝咖啡,顺便问他这句话,他竟然也说从来没听过这种说法,但他把意思猜对了。

也许英国人有人这么用,但还是少用的好,很多英语国家的人并不知道这种用法。




posted on 2007-02-05 18:02  ColorSky  阅读(320)  评论(2编辑  收藏  举报