永远相伴：主语与谓语

We’ll begin with declarative sentences, sentences that make a statement instead of asking questions or giving orders. All of the examples you’ll see in the next several chapters are declarative sentences.

我们将从declarative sentences（陈述句）开始，这类句子用来陈述而不是提问或下命令。你在接下来几章中看到的所有例子都是陈述句。

As we begin, it’s helpful to know that declarative sentences in English usually follow this basic pattern:

在开始之际，了解一点很有帮助：英语中的陈述句通常遵循如下基本模式：

Subject + Predicate 主语 + 谓语

The subject comes first, and the predicate follows—usually.

主语在前，谓语在后——通常如此。

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SUBJECT

一切都关于主语

The subject is the star, the prima donna, of the sentence. It’s the part of the sentence that names who or what the sentence is about.

subject（主语）是句子中的明星，是句中的prima donna（头牌）。它是句子中指明“句子所讲的人或事物”的那一部分。

The predicate always tells us something about the subject. Usually, the predicate tells us what the subject is doing (or has done), or it describes the subject.

predicate（谓语）总是告诉我们关于主语的某些情况。通常，谓语告诉我们主语在做什么（或已经做了什么），或者它对主语加以描述。

These very simple sentences follow the simple **Subject + ** **Predicate **pattern:

下面这些极为简单的句子遵循简单的Subject + Predicate（主语 + 谓语）模式：

Subject + Predicate Alice The cat Carroll Julie Fish Birds Hammerstein fell. smiled. wrote. sang. swim. fly. composed.

主语 + 谓语：爱丽丝跌倒了。那只猫微笑了。卡罗尔写了。朱莉唱了。鱼游。鸟飞。哈默斯坦创作了。

As these sentences illustrate, the subject and the predicate can each be only one word, so it’s possible to write a complete declarative sentence in just two words. (We cheated with *The cat * smiled.) In longer sentences, which we’ll see shortly, identifying the subjects and predicates of sentences becomes easy with practice.

正如这些句子所示，主语和谓语可以各自只有一个词，因此只用两个词就有可能写出一个完整的陈述句。（The cat smiled（那只猫微笑了）是我们耍了点小聪明。）在稍后我们将看到的较长的句子里，经过练习，辨认句子的主语和谓语会变得很容易。

THE SIMPLE AND THE COMPLETE

简单与完整

Every simple declarative sentence that we’ve seen contains a subject and a predicate, and the subject usually appears to the left of the predicate, at the beginning of the sentence or near it.

我们所见过的每一个简单陈述句都包含一个主语和一个谓语，而且主语通常出现在谓语的左侧，位于句首或其附近。

In these cases, the** complete subject and the complete ** predicate are each just one word long. There’s one exception: The cat.

在这些情形中，complete subject（完整主语）和complete predicate（完整谓语）各自只有一个词长。只有一个例外：The cat（那只猫）。

We can add more words to those subjects and predicates. We can add modifiers, words that describe the subject and the predicate:

我们可以给那些主语和谓语加上更多的词。我们可以添加modifiers（修饰语），即描述主语和谓语的词：

Birds Most fly. birds in the United States fly well.

Birds（鸟）Most（大多数）fly（飞）。birds in the United States（美国的大多数鸟）fly well（飞得很好）。

In this longer sentence, we call birds the simple subject and fly the simple predicate.

在这个较长的句子里，我们把birds（鸟）称为simple subject（简单主语），把fly（飞）称为simple predicate（简单谓语）。

We call Most birds in the United States the complete subject, and we call fly well the complete predicate. That is, the simple subject and all its modifiers make up the complete subject. And the

我们把Most birds in the United States（美国的大多数鸟）称为complete subject（完整主语），把fly well（飞得很好）称为complete predicate（完整谓语）。也就是说，简单主语及其全部修饰语共同构成完整主语。而

simple predicate with all its modifiers is the complete predicate. So, in Birds fly, the simple subject and the complete subject are identical, and so are the simple and complete predicates.

带有其全部修饰语的简单谓语就是完整谓语。因此，在Birds fly（鸟飞）中，简单主语与完整主语是相同的，简单谓语与完整谓语也是相同的。

Here are more examples, with the simple subjects and predicates in boldface:

下面还有更多例子，其中简单主语和简单谓语以粗体标出：

A beautiful day like today Mary’s cat **comes **too seldom. ran away yesterday.

A beautiful day like today（像今天这样美好的一天）comes（到来）too seldom（太少）。Mary’s cat（玛丽的猫）ran（跑）away（离开）yesterday（昨天）。

As the examples above show, some modifiers appear immedi- ately before the word they modify: *A, beautiful, Mary’s, too. *But some modifiers can appear afterward, too: *like today, seldom, * away, yesterday.

如上面的例子所示，有些修饰语紧挨在它们所修饰的词之前：A、beautiful、Mary’s、too。但有些修饰语也可以出现在其后：like today、seldom、away、yesterday。

In the next examples, we begin with the sentence Irises grow. In each example, the simple subject and predicate are in bold; the complete predicate is underlined; and the rest of the sentence (the part not underlined) is the complete subject:

在接下来的例子中，我们从Irises grow（鸢尾花生长）这个句子开始。在每个例子中，简单主语和谓语以粗体标出；完整谓语加下划线；句子中其余部分（未加下划线的部分）则是完整主语：

Irises Sometimes irises In the spring irises grow. grow well near the garage. grow well in our garden.

Irises（鸢尾花）grow（生长）。Sometimes（有时）irises（鸢尾花）grow well near the garage（在车库附近长得很好）。In the spring（春天）irises（鸢尾花）grow well in our garden（在我们花园里长得很好）。

Here again, some modifiers of grow appear immediately before or after the word they modify: well, near the garage, in our garden. And some modifiers of the predicate can even appear at some distance from grow: Sometimes, In the spring.

这里再次看到，grow（生长）的某些修饰语紧挨在所修饰词之前或之后：well、near the garage、in our garden。而谓语的某些修饰语甚至可以出现在离grow较远的地方：Sometimes、In the spring。

Here are some more pairs of sentences, with the simple subject and the simple predicate in bold type and the complete predicate underlined:

下面是更多成对的句子，其中简单主语和简单谓语以粗体标出，完整谓语加下划线：

Many **birds **in the U. S. **fly **south in the winter. In the winter, many birds in the U. S. **fly **south. **Oscar Hammerstein composed **rapidly in the winter of 1927. In the winter of 1927, **Oscar Hammerstein composed **rapidly.

美国许多birds（鸟）冬天fly（飞）south（向南方）。In the winter（冬天），许多birds（鸟）fly south（向南方）。 Oscar Hammerstein（奥斯卡·哈默斯坦）composed（创作）rapidly（迅速）in the winter of 1927（在1927年冬天）。In the winter of 1927（1927年冬天），Oscar Hammerstein composed rapidly（迅速创作）。

As you see in the second sentence of each pair, parts of the complete predicate can appear before the subject. This is a common sentence pattern, and we’ll have more to say about it in later chapters.

正如你在每对中的第二个句子所见，完整谓语的某些部分可以出现在主语之前。这是一种常见的句式，我们在后面的章节中还会详谈。

TRANSPOSED ORDER

倒装语序

In some sentences, it’s possible to put the entire predicate before the subject; this is called **transposed order (also known as inverted order). **In the following sentences, the simple subjects and predicates are in bold type, and the complete predicate is underlined:

在某些句子中，可以把整个谓语放在主语之前；这称为transposed order（倒装语序，也称为inverted order，即倒序）。在下面的句子中，简单主语和谓语以粗体标出，完整谓语加下划线：

the rain. the dawn. the steam locomotive. Softly fell Gently came Into the quiet village roared

the rain（雨）。the dawn（黎明）。the steam locomotive（蒸汽机车）。 Softly（轻轻地）fell（落下）the rain（雨）。Gently（温柔地）came（到来）the dawn（黎明）。Into the quiet village（驶入宁静的村庄）roared（轰鸣）the steam locomotive（蒸汽机车）。

Use transposed order with restraint, or it can become just a way of showing off with words.

使用倒装语序要有所节制，否则它可能沦为一种卖弄辞藻的方式。

In the next few chapters, we’ll learn more about subjects, predicates, and modifiers.

在接下来的几章中，我们将更多地了解主语、谓语和修饰语。

EXERCISES

练习

Answers to these exercises are in the back of the book. After you answer one set, check your answers before you go on—sometimes the answers will help you with the next set.

这些练习的答案在本书末尾。答完一组后，继续之前先核对答案——有时答案会帮助你做下一组。

**1a. **Write the definitions of the simple subject and the simple predicate.

1a. 写出简单主语和简单谓语的定义。

1b. In the following sentences, identify the simple subject and the simple predicate. To help you, the complete predicate is underlined.

1b. 在下面的句子中，辨认出简单主语和简单谓语。为帮助你，完整谓语已加下划线。

  1. Rain falls.

  2. Edward knocked at the door.

  3. In the morning, the family ate on the porch.

  4. In the morning, pancakes seemed like a good idea.

  5. Into the night, into the darkness, recklessly rode Rudolpho.

  6. 雨落下了。

  7. 爱德华敲了敲门。

  8. 早晨，一家人在门廊上吃饭。

  9. 早晨，煎饼似乎是个好主意。

  10. 冲入黑夜，冲入黑暗，鲁道夫鲁莽地骑马疾驰。

1c. You’ll get no help with these! Once again, identify the simple subject and the simple predicate. Then identify the complete subject and the complete predicate.

1c. 这些可没人帮你！再次辨认简单主语和简单谓语。然后辨认出完整主语和完整谓语。

  1. Wendell behaved politely.

  2. Tonight that nice family ate on the porch again.

  3. Backward ran sentences. [Modified from Wolcott Gibbs.]

  4. In the spring, the calla lilies were in bloom again.

  5. This morning Rudolpho was waiting on the porch for breakfast.

  6. 温德尔举止礼貌。

  7. 今晚那户好心人又在门廊上吃饭。

  8. 句子倒着跑。[改编自 Wolcott Gibbs（沃尔科特·吉布斯）。]

  9. 春天，马蹄莲再次盛开。

  10. 今天早晨，鲁道夫正在门廊上等候吃早餐。