还有什么？：动词与语态、不定式与被动补语

Verbs, we’ve said, are regarded as the most important part of English sentences because they contain so much information. That information is reflected in the many forms verbs can take. Here, we examine more of those forms and the changes they cause in other parts of the sentence. 我们说过，动词被视为英语句子中最重要的一部分，因为它们承载了极多的信息。这些信息体现在动词能够采取的诸多形式之中。在这里，我们要考察更多这类形式，以及它们给句子其他成分带来的变化。

VERBS HAVE VOICE: ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

动词具有语态：主动与被动

In Chapter 8 on complements, we discussed two classes of action verbs called transitive and intransitive: 在第 8 章关于补语的论述中，我们讨论了动作动词的两个类别，称为及物的和不及物的：

INTRANSITIVE: He sang. TRANSITIVE: He sang a song. 不及物：他唱了。及物：他唱了一首歌。

INTRANSITIVE: She wrote. TRANSITIVE: She wrote a novel. 不及物：她写了。及物：她写了一部小说。

We said that verbs are transitive when they have direct objects, as in the examples above. Linking verbs are never transitive. 我们说，当动词带有直接宾语时，它们就是及物的，如上例所示。连系动词永远不是及物的。

Now we learn another thing: Transitive verbs—and only transitives—are capable of two voices: active and passive. 现在我们再学习一点：及物动词——并且只有及物动词——能够具有两种语态：主动和被动。

With active voice verbs, the subject is the performer of the action and the direct object is the receiver of the action. 使用主动语态动词时，主语是动作的发出者，直接宾语是动作的承受者。

The batter hit the ball. 击球手击打了球。

In passive voice verbs, the subject is the receiver of the action. The performer is deleted from the sentence, or it is shifted to the end of the sentence in a prepositional phrase: 使用被动语态动词时，主语是动作的承受者。动作的发出者被从句子中删去，或者被移到句末，置于一个介词短语之中：

The ball was hit. The ball was hit by the batter. 球被击打了。球被击球手击打了。

In passive verbs, the main verb is always a past participle and the auxiliary just before the main verb is a form of be: 在被动动词中，主要动词永远是一个过去分词，而紧挨在主要动词之前的助动词是 be 的一种形式：

You were made chairman by the club. She has been elected chairwoman. She is known to everyone in the club. 你被俱乐部任命为主席。她已被选为女主席。她为俱乐部里的每一个人所熟知。

REVISING PASSIVES INTO ACTIVES

将被动句改写为主动句

It’s often helpful to rewrite passive sentences as active sen- tences. It’s easy to rewrite this passive sentence: 把被动句改写为主动句往往很有帮助。改写下面这个被动句很容易：

You were made chairman by the club. 你被俱乐部任命为主席。

Simply shift the club to the subject position and you to the direct object position. In this case, chairman becomes an object complement. 只需把 the club 移到主语位置，把 you 移到直接宾语位置。在这种情况下，chairman 变成了宾语补语。

The club made you chairman. 俱乐部任命你为主席。

But what do we do when the sentence contains no performer of the action? 可是，当句子中没有动作的发出者时，我们该怎么办呢？

She has been elected chairwoman. 她已被选为女主席。

In cases like this, we must either locate a performer in the larger context, or leave the passive unchanged. Here are some more passive sentences, and their active voice counterparts: 在这种情况下，我们必须在更大的语境中找出一个动作的发出者，否则就让被动句保持不变。下面是更多的被动句及其对应的主动句：

PASSIVE: The news was heard by me on the radio. ACTIVE: I heard the news on the radio. 被动：我在收音机里听到了这则新闻。主动：我在收音机里听到了这则新闻。

PASSIVE: The essay was graded by the teacher. ACTIVE: The teacher graded the essay. 被动：这篇短文被老师评了分。主动：老师给这篇短文评了分。

PASSIVE: The room was refurnished by our landlord. ACTIVE: Our landlord refurnished the room. 被动：这个房间被我们的房东重新布置了家具。主动：我们的房东重新布置了这个房间的家具。

THE PASSIVE COMPLEMENTS

被动补语

Previously, we’ve discussed complements in active sentenc- es. In particular, we’ve discussed transitive verbs and direct objects, indirect objects, and object complements. 此前，我们已经讨论过主动句中的补语。具体而言，我们讨论过及物动词，以及直接宾语、间接宾语和宾语补语。

Some passive verbs take complements, too, called passive ** complements. Let’s begin with this active voice sentence: 有些被动动词也带补语，称为被动补语**。让我们从下面这个主动语态句子开始：

  1. Dad gave Mom her present.
  2. 爸爸给了妈妈她的礼物。

Here Mom is the indirect object; her present is the direct object. 这里 Mom 是间接宾语；her present 是直接宾语。

We can rewrite Sentence 1 in the passive voice like this: 我们可以像下面这样把句子 1 改写为被动语态：

2.** Mom** was given her present by Dad. 2.** 妈妈**被爸爸给了她的礼物。

In Sentence 2, Mom is now the subject. We’ve made the subject in Sentence 1, Dad, the object of a preposition. And her present remains the direct object in Sentence 2. This can only be done with active sentences that contain an indirect object as well as a direct object. 在句子 2 中，Mom 现在是主语。我们把句子 1 中的主语 Dad 变成了介词的宾语。而 her present 在句子 2 中仍然是直接宾语。这只能用于那些既含有间接宾语又含有直接宾语的主动句。

Here are more pairs of sentences—the first active and the second passive—with direct objects underlined and indirect objects in bold: 下面是更多成对的句子——第一句为主动，第二句为被动——其中直接宾语加下划线，间接宾语用粗体标出：

ACTIVE: Ed brought Ralph some hot soup. PASSIVE: Ralph was brought some hot soup by Ed. 主动：埃德给拉尔夫端来了一些热汤。被动：拉尔夫被埃德端来了一些热汤。

ACTIVE: Dad showed Jimmy the door. PASSIVE: Jimmy was shown the door by Dad. 主动：爸爸给吉米指了门（示意吉米离开）。被动：吉米被爸爸指了门。

ACTIVE: Mr. Redden read the class a poem. PASSIVE: The class was read a poem by Mr. Redden. 主动：雷登先生给全班读了一首诗。被动：全班被雷登先生读了一首诗。

When the direct object in an active sentence remains the direct object in the passive version of the same sentence, the object in the passive sentence is sometimes called a retained object. But we’ll simply call it the direct object. 当主动句中的直接宾语在相应的被动句里仍然是直接宾语时，被动句中的这个宾语有时被称为保留宾语。但我们还是简单地称它为直接宾语。

Some sentences with object complements can also be made passive: 有些带宾语补语的句子也可以变成被动：

  1. The club elected Ralph sixth vice-president.
  2. 俱乐部选举拉尔夫为第六副总裁。

Here Ralph is the direct object and sixth vice-president is the object complement. When we make the sentence passive, Ralph becomes the subject: 这里 Ralph 是直接宾语，sixth vice-president 是宾语补语。当我们把这个句子变为被动时，Ralph 变成了主语：

  1. Ralph was elected sixth vice-president by the club.
  2. 拉尔夫被俱乐部选举为第六副总裁。

In Sentence 2, the object complement of Sentence 1, sixth vice- president, is now a predicate nominative. 在句子 2 中，句子 1 的宾语补语 sixth vice-president 现在变成了主语补语（表语性名词）。

In the following examples, we will see object complements (underlined in the active sentences) become predicate nominatives or predicate adjectives in the passive sentences. The direct objects are in bold: 在下面的例子中，我们将看到宾语补语（在主动句中加下划线）在被动句中变成了主语补语（表语性名词）或主语补语（表语性形容词）。直接宾语用粗体标出：

ACTIVE: We made Mom angry. PASSIVE: Mom was made angry by us. (Predicate adjective) 主动：我们惹妈妈生气了。被动：妈妈被我们惹生气了。（表语性形容词）

ACTIVE: The chairman appointed Bob secretary. PASSIVE: Bob was appointed secretary by the chairman. (Predicate nominative) 主动：主席任命鲍勃为秘书。被动：鲍勃被主席任命为秘书。（表语性名词）

ACTIVE: The class declared Ruthie the winner. PASSIVE: Ruthie was declared the winner by the class. (Predicate nominative) 主动：全班宣布露西为获胜者。被动：露西被全班宣布为获胜者。（表语性名词）

As you may have noticed, all of the passive sentences you read are awkward and wordy. Active versions are often shorter and more direct than passives. Some of the passives might also be improved by simply deleting the prepositional phrases, as in *Bob * was appointed secretary. 你可能已经注意到，你读到的所有被动句都显得笨拙而冗长。主动版本往往比被动句更简短、更直接。有些被动句也可以通过干脆删去介词短语来改进，例如 Bob was appointed secretary（鲍勃被任命为秘书）。

INFINITIVE VERBS

不定式动词

All verbs (except some of the auxiliary verbs) have an important form that we have not yet discussed: the infinitive form. In English, an infinitive verb is simply the first-person present tense of the verb (like buy, sell, cook, bake, talk, walk) preceded by the word to. In this context, to is called a particle and is simply part of the infinitive. All of these are infinitive verbs: 所有动词（除了一部分助动词）都有一个我们尚未讨论的重要形式：即不定式形式。在英语中，一个不定式动词不过是动词的第一人称现在时（如 buy、sell、cook、bake、talk、walk）前面加上 to 这个词。在这种语境下，to 被称为小品词，并且只是不定式的一部分。下面这些都是不定式动词：

to buy to sell to hyperventilate to bake to talk to negotiate to inflate to cook to buy（买） to sell（卖） to hyperventilate（过度呼吸） to bake（烤） to talk（说） to negotiate（协商） to inflate（膨胀） to cook（烹调）

All of these sentences contain infinitive verbs: 下面所有这些句子都含有不定式动词：

My son is learning to speak French. She wants to take a course to learn to speak well in public. We need to meet to discuss the contracts. 我的儿子正在学习说法语。她想修一门课，以便在公开场合说得好。我们需要见面来讨论这些合同。

As you can see, infinitive verbs are important structures that we use every day. We’ll discuss their uses in another chapter soon. 如你所见，不定式动词是我们每天都会用到的重要结构。我们很快会在另一章里讨论它们的用法。

For now, notice the difference between infinitive verbs and prepositional phrases beginning with to. In prepositional phrases, to is typically followed by a noun or pronoun, not a verb. These are prepositional phrases: 现在，请注意不定式动词与以 to 开头的介词短语之间的区别。在介词短语中，to 后面通常跟的是名词或代词，而不是动词。下面是介词短语：

We’re going to Oregon this summer. I’ll mail postcards to my friends. 今年夏天我们要去俄勒冈州。我会把明信片寄给我的朋友们。

And these are infinitives, with verbs—not nouns or pronouns— after to: 而这些是不定式，在 to 之后跟的是动词——不是名词或代词：

We’re going to travel this summer. I’m ready to mail our cards. 今年夏天我们要去旅行。我准备好把我们的卡片寄出去了。

PHRASAL VERBS

短语动词

Phrasal verbs are two-word verbs used as one word. The second word, called a particle, always looks like a preposition but without an object: 短语动词是当作一个词来使用的两个词的动词。第二个词称为小品词，它看起来总像个介词，却没有宾语：

I’ll look up the word. I’ll write out a check. We’ll wait out the storm. She looked in on the kids We signed up for a class. They took off an hour ago. He sat in on the meeting. We have put up with this long enough. 我要查一下这个词。我要开一张支票。我们要熬过这场暴风雨。她顺道去看望了孩子们。我们报名参加了一门课。他们一小时前起飞了。他列席了那次会议。我们忍受这个已经够久了。

Although the particle looks like a preposition, it cannot be the beginning of a prepositional phrase. Notice the differences: 虽然小品词看起来像介词，但它不能成为一个介词短语的开头。请注意下列区别：

I’ll look up the word. (A phrasal verb) I’ll look up the chimney. (A prepositional phrase.) 我要查一下这个词。（短语动词）我朝烟囱里看。（介词短语）

Despite disappointment, they went on. (A phrasal verb) They went on the train. (A prepositional phrase.) 尽管失望，他们继续了下去。（短语动词）他们乘火车去了。（介词短语）

In some phrasal verbs, other words (especially direct objects) can appear between the main verb and the particle: 在某些短语动词中，其他词（尤其是直接宾语）可以出现在主要动词和小品词之间：

I’ll look the word up. I’ll write the check out. He built his confidence up. I’ll check the information out. 我要把这个词查一下。我要把这张支票开出来。他逐步建立了自己的信心。我要把这条信息核查一下。

There is another verbal pattern that may resemble a phrasal verb. Consider these sentences: 还有一种动词结构，可能与短语动词相似。请看这些句子：

I’ve put up with you long enough. I’ll put the book up on the shelf. 我忍受你已经够久了。我要把这本书放到书架上去。

In the first, put up is a phrasal verb. In the second, put is the verb and up is neither a particle nor a preposition, but simply an adverb. (Compare I’ll put the book down or I’ll put the book aside.) 在第一句中，put up 是一个短语动词。在第二句中，put 是动词，而 up 既不是小品词也不是介词，而仅仅是一个副词。（比较 I’ll put the book down（我要把书放下）或 I’ll put the book aside（我要把书放到一边）。）

Don’t confuse the term phrasal verbs with the similar term verb phrase. 不要把术语短语动词与相似的术语动词短语混淆。

POINTS FOR WRITERS

写给作者们的要点

1. When to use active and passive verbs.

1. 何时使用主动动词与被动动词

Active voice sentences are often more effective than passive voice sentences. The active voice is usually more concise and direct. Compare these two sentences: 主动语态句子往往比被动语态句子更有力。主动语态通常更简洁、更直接。比较下面两句话：

Chris is reading The Lord of the Rings for the second time. 克里斯正在读《指环王》，这是第二次了。

The Lord of the Rings is being read by Chris for the second time. 《指环王》正在被克里斯读，这是第二次了。

In the first sentence, the subject is actively performing the action. The sentence is clearly about Chris, not the book, so it’s a reasonable choice to make Chris the subject. 在第一句中，主语正在主动地执行动作。这句话明显是在讲 Chris，而不是那本书，所以让 Chris 作主语是一个合理的选择。

But there are times when we do want to focus on the recipient of the action, as in this passive sentence, which we might see in our newspapers or hear in a broadcast: 但有时候，我们的确想要把焦点放在动作的承受者身上，就像下面这个我们可能在报纸上看到、或在广播中听到的被动句：

A convenience store on Fifth Street was robbed last night. 第五大街上的一家便利店昨晚被抢劫了。

If the writer does not yet know who performed this action, the passive may well be the better choice here. (Of course, we might also write Someone robbed a convenience store. . . .) 如果作者还不知道是谁实施了这一行为，那么被动句在这里很可能是更好的选择。（当然，我们也可以写成 Someone robbed a convenience store.（有人抢劫了一家便利店）。……）

Consider this example: 请看这个例子：

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. 约翰·F·肯尼迪于 1960 年被选为总统。

We all know that American voters, or a substantial number of them, elected Kennedy, and the writer may be intending to focus on Kennedy, not the electorate. The passive voice makes sense here. 我们所有人都知道，是美国的选民——或者其中相当数量的人——选举了肯尼迪，而作者可能意在聚焦于肯尼迪，而不是选举人。这里使用被动语态是合理的。

Although the passive certainly has its uses, prefer the active voice unless you have a good reason for the passive. 尽管被动语态当然有其用途，但除非你有充分的理由使用被动，否则应优先考虑主动语态。

EXERCISES

练习

**14a. **Rewrite the following passive voice sentences as active voice sentences, as in this example: 14a. 将下列被动语态句子改写为主动语态句子，如以下示例：

PASSIVE: I was given a prescription by my doctor. ACTIVE: My doctor gave me a prescription. 被动：我被我的医生开了一张处方。主动：我的医生给我开了一张处方。

  1. Your letter was received by me.

  2. 你的信被我收到了。

  3. I was made happy by your letter.

  4. 我被你的信弄得开心了。

  5. I was given instructions today by my supervisor.

  6. 我今天被我的主管给予了指示。

  7. My last essay was given a C by my English teacher.

  8. 我上一篇短文被我的英语老师给了一个 C。

  9. I was seen at the mall by Cheryl.

  10. 我被谢丽尔在商场里看到了。

  11. The mail was delivered by the postman at noon.

  12. 邮件被邮递员在中午送到了。

  13. After the symphony was played beautifully by the orchestra,

  14. 在交响乐被管弦乐队优美地演奏之后，

the composer was praised by the critics. 作曲家被评论家们赞誉了。

14b. In the passive sentences above, locate, underline, and identify the passive complements: the direct object (DO), the predicate adjective (PA), and the predicate nominate (PN), as in this example: 14b. 在上面这些被动句中，找出、加下划线并识别其中的被动补语：直接宾语（DO）、表语性形容词（PA）和表语性名词（PN），如以下示例：

DO PASSIVE: I was given a prescription by my doctor last night. DO 被动：昨晚我被我的医生开了一张处方。

14c. Distinguish phrasal verbs from verbs followed by prepositional phrases, as in these examples: 14c. 区分短语动词与后接介词短语的动词，如以下示例：

I’ll turn on the television. [Phrasal verb] 我要打开电视机。[短语动词]

That new car can turn on a dime. [Verb with prepositional phrase] 那辆新车能在极小的空间内转弯。[带介词短语的动词]

  1. We’ll turn off the highway at the next exit.
  2. 我们将在下一个出口驶离高速公路。

Please turn off the radio. 请把收音机关掉。

  1. The news comes on at 10 pm.
  2. 新闻在晚上 10 点开始播出。

The gifts came on Christmas Eve. 这些礼物是在圣诞前夕送到的。

  1. The pumpkin turned into a beautiful coach.
  2. 南瓜变成了一辆漂亮的四轮马车。

We’ll turn into this driveway. 我们将拐进这条车道。

  1. We will now take up the collection.
  2. 我们现在要开始收（奉献）款了。

They took the dresser up the stairs. 他们把那张梳妆台搬上了楼梯。

  1. He called out to her before she drove away.
  2. 在她开车离开之前，他朝她喊了一声。

He called out the window. 他朝窗外喊了一声。