中国人大概不太会用这样的英文， 像 What’s in it for me ? （这对我有什么好处?）

The tickets will be waiting for you at the booking office. 票会等你?

Pair of letters sits on the coffee table in front of me. （The Rule of Four）信函坐在那儿?

We collapsed on cafe chairs.（Historian by Elizabeth Kostova）这种坐法真是传神，就好像整个人崩塌在咖啡椅中。

It happened in a fraction of second, but a thrill of horror washed over me, head to foot.（Historian by Elizabeth Kostova）骤然间，惊悚的恐怖从头浸染到脚，多传神的描述！

Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in Professor Rossi’s behavior? （Historian by Elizabeth Kostova）这种写法平实却有力。

He never told on me. 告状的意思

He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs.（The Kite Runner） have the runs 指的是拉肚子（diarrhea），小说的中译本（追风筝的孩子，李静宜译，木马文化） 16页 错译成』跑得不见人影』

英文惯用语（English idiom）是挺有趣的，我常问主修英文的中国人』Why is American English so heavily idiomatic?』鲜有答得出的，因为idiom 系指赋予一群早有其意的字另外的新意（the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words which already have their own meaning）。专家说，当我们不断推陈出新观念之际，因为较懒，不想创新字，所以用一些众人早已知悉的字，却另生新意。（The most probable reason is that as we develop new concepts, we need new expressions for them, but instead of creating a brand new word from the sound of the language, we use some already existent words and put them together in a new sense.）

这类表达法广泛使用于口语中， 比如:

Why don’t you get a European car? 你为何不买欧洲车？

Because you have to pay through the nose to get it repaired. 因为修理费大得惊人。

Gary pays lip-service to his boss, but I don’t think he respects him very much. Gary 嘴上吹捧他老板，但我看他不怎么尊敬他。

有连字符号的惯用语如 run-of-the-mill 是平凡（ordinary）之意, up-and-coming 则为有前途的（promising）， 而像 be in the know， 用法也怪， Only the president and his secretary are in the know. 系指知道内情。

英文中比喻式的表达法其实亦挺有趣，像』People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.』系指别五十步笑百步，与』The pot calling the kettle black.』有异曲同工之妙。所以，英语惯用语（Idiomatic Phrases）实系指那些字面上不易看出其含意的词组，同时也会因使用在不同的文句脉络中而产生截然不同的内涵，比如说：

Where did you get on the bus？ 上车

I want to get on in my career. 进展

I must get on with my work. 继续

Tom gets on well with John. 相处良好

He’s getting on now—–must be 60.） 变老

Trying to distinguish one from the other is enough to get on your nerves. 心烦

Run这个字怎么用

你想过 run 这个简单的字吗？ 我们来说几个句子：

There was a run on the bank. 银行产生挤兑

I’ve got the runs. 拉肚子

The movie has run for three months. 电影已连演三个月

The book ran into tenth edition. 该书已出版到第十版

The train ran off the metals. 火车出轨

He ran a red light. 他闯红灯

I have the run of a well-stocked library. 我可以很方便的利用一所收藏丰富的图书馆

They don’t even have running water in the house. 他们的房子甚至连自来水都没有

He has a running nose. 他流鼻水

She has a run in her stocking. 她裤袜上有处脱针

He just hit a home run. 他刚打出一支全垒打。

You run up a bill. 你钱用多了

In the long run we all are dead. 长期下来吾人均已作古（名经济学家凯因斯之语）

He knows how to run a business. 他知道如何经管企业

字典的充分使用是有效学习英文不可或缺的好习惯，英文大师吴炳钟先生过去在对莘莘学子演讲时，便不断强调使用英英字典的重要性，记得他举出一个他过去未仔细查核字典的字cohort，他原以为是一个好字，指的是一群同属性的人，或古罗马时的军团，后来查字典才发现，原来美国人使用此字有贬低人的意思，系指同谋者，比如 the mayor and his disreputable cohorts.（市长和他那群臭名昭彰的同伙）。不查字典可真危险啊!余光中教授在为朗文当代高级辞典（Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English）写的序中，亦提到他自己在多年前与一位美国太太聊天，提到一位画家，余教授说了一句话:It seems you’re intimate with him.不料对方「笑容顿失，脸色尴尬，言语嗫嚅，不知如何是好」，原来这个字intimate虽是指关系密切，但用在形容男女关系时要格外小心，因为有性的含意， 如果说成』They were intimate three times』则指他们有三次性行为。所以余教授再三强调，查字典是一门学问，一大锻炼。

以个人的观察，当你向学生推荐英英字典之际，他们总立即回应，字典若以英文解释怎么看得懂?当然也可以使用英英.英汉双解辞典，其实像朗文（Longman）及Macmillan English Dictionary对使用者均有贴心的考虑，其解释用字系以最常用的2000-2500字为之，Macmillan English Dictionary甚至将这2500个称之为界定用字汇（Defining Vocabulary）详列于字典后供用户参考，除非你的字汇水平低于2500字，否则使用上述两种英英字典应得心应手。

西方文学史上，约瑟夫.康拉德（Joseph Conrad 1857-1924）被视为「现代主义」鼻祖，以一位波兰人而言，实在了不起，19岁才开始学英文，却成为英文的体裁大师，真不简单。记得以前台大颜元叔教授推荐大家读那本 Nostromo（这是二十几年前的事了，我现在才想去做）。康拉德行文好用长句僻字，含意百转千回，主题奥妙深晦，原文已难读懂，看他的笔调：The political atmosphere of the Republic was generally stormy in these days. The fugitive patriots of the defeated party had the knack of turning up again on the coast with half a steamer’s load of small arms and ammunition.（Nostromo， pp.22）同样这个字knack（诀窍）看Hillary如何用：Bill wanted to approach health care reform from a new angle, and Ira, with his brilliant and creative mind, had a knack for coming up with inventive ways of looking at issues.（Living History,pp.143）是不是都用得很棒？

关于翻译，我的想法也是比较趋于流畅，因为太拘泥于原文的结构或形式，读起来定觉生涩，进而影响文章的可读性，当然正确性乃是好译文的必要条件。像He did not add to my mortification，译成「落井下石」，挺传神的，另外像He can not stop flipping the pages译成「爱不释手」应该蛮贴切的。以书名形成的英文如catch 22，系以1961年Joseph Heller的小说名引申为特殊含意，表示自身矛盾的状态，称为It is a catch 22 situation.所以像I can’t get a job unless I belong to the union，and I can’t join the union until I’ve got a job.便可以说It’s a case of catch 22.这难道不就是黑色幽默（black humor）吗? 查查英英字典解释为humor dealing with the unpleasant side of human life，以人类不愉快的生活面为素材所构成的幽默事例或故事便称为黑色幽默，这二个辞也都可以在字典中查到. 还有用书中人物做譬喻的像Humpty-Dumpty （Lewis Carrol的Through the looking glass书中出现的蛋人）便常被使用，如Mission Impossible第三集Tom Cruise 一爬上墙便说了一句「Humpty-Dumpty sat on the wall」也算是有趣的引用。圣经中所用的世界末日邪恶之战Armageddon也常被引用。又如五十步笑百步，英文可用 The pot calling the kettle black 或 People who live in glass houses should not throw stones来表达，也算贴切了。

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