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现代英文选评注 Father and Daughter父与女
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James Yaffe (1927—？)
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作者姚弗乃美国作家。本文采自1957年9月份《大西洋月刊》。原题《只有傻瓜才生女儿》（“Only a Crazy Man Has Daughters”），文字轻松幽默，对白尤为传神，为家庭喜剧中之佳作。兹录其开头几段如下：
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When a father has a complaint to make about his son, all he has to do is take the boy aside and yell at him:
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“What do you mean by getting home at three o’clock in the morning? Your mother was worried to death!”
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“Twenty bucks? You want twenty bucks? My God, the way you spend my money, you could be the United States government.”
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“A car of your own? Listen to him, will you? He’s still wet behind the ears, and he wants a car of his own!”
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● to make a complaint：责备。complaint通常译作“诉苦”，但“诉苦”二字易滋误解；complaint只是使人不满意不愉快的事情，受了委屈固然是complaint，其他如儿子荒唐，天气冷热不调，火车误点，垃圾桶无人清理，日本渔船越界捕鱼等都可成为complaint，其表达方式则喃喃低诉与大声斥责均可。
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● all he has to do：all之后省去that一字，但是照英文口语的习惯，这个that以不加为妥。the boy：此二字极简单，但是用来很好。这里如用take him aside，则易与主语之he相混；如重复his son，则句法太累赘；如用the latter，则太像官样文章，风味大减；只有the boy二字，才是恰到好处。
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● 下面三小节都是父亲责备儿子的话：第一节是儿子深夜返家时说的。注意was worried用的是过去式。“你这么晚回来，你妈着急死了！”母亲的着急，是在儿子回来之前，故用过去式（到了家就不着急了）。这种时间先后关系，中文无需表出，学习时应特别注意。
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● bucks=dollars（美国俚语）。the way：此二字有介词的作用。“照你这样不断地问我要钱，你简直成了美国政府了。”（按：美国政府捐税苛杂之重，时为民众所诟病。）could be是虚拟式，这里不可以用直述式can be，因为一个人是永远不能成为一个政府的。
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● 第三小节：儿子向老子开口要买汽车了，老子说：“你自己要一辆汽车！请听听他的话看！乳臭未干的小孩子，自己想要一辆汽车了！”will you之you并不指什么人，只是老子生气时所说的话，旁边未必有第三者在听他说话。wet behind the ears，相当于中文的“乳臭未干”，“胎毛未干”，原义是“你还要母亲给你洗脸呢！”
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This is the sort of thing that goes on every day. Sarcasm, grumbling, out-and-out rage—how else should a father in this modern world express his affection and concern for his own son?
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● the sort of thing含混得好。如用the sort of conversation反而不确切；thing的范围比较conversation来得广，父亲骂儿子也不好算是conversation。这里要找一个确切的字很难，用了一个含糊的thing，读者也知道是怎么一回事了。
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● sarcasm：讥刺；反唇相讥。grumbling：叽喔咕噜地骂人；喃喃怨语。out-and-out：完全的，十足的。rage：盛怒；大发雷霆。affection：亲爱。concern：关怀。“这个年头，做老子的还有什么别的法子（how else）可以表示他对于他亲生儿子的慈爱和关切呢？”
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But between a father and his daughter it isn’t so easy. Because a father can’t yell at his daughter, or wave his fist at her threateningly, or call her a good-for-nothing. More than one father has, of course. But he usually ends up with a terrible feeling of guilt over it. And then, when she smiles up at him and puts her hands on his shoulders and murmurs that pet name which he’s always been a sucker for, the most determined father in the world is as helpless as a baby.
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● wave his fist at her：拳头在她面前晃。threateningly：威胁状；作势欲打。good-for-nothing：无用之人；没出息的。
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● 第二句是Because开头的独立附属从句，照文法规定，这样写法是有毛病的。因为because是个subordinate conjunction，应该改用for（它是coordinate conjunction）。但是用because开头的独立句，现在很常见到。
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● More than one father has后面省去yelled，waved，called等字。这一句的has也有问题。既然是More than one，是不是该用have（动词复数形式）呢？但是这里的has没有错，林语堂的《开明英文法》中[5
:42(6)]说：
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Each, many a and more than one with nouns in the singular almost always take the singular verb.
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该书又举了两个例子：
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More than one person was suspected.
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But there are more than one person involved in the matter.
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第一例的动词紧跟着one person，故用单数形式was；第二例的动词紧接more，故用复数形式are。这样的用法合理吗？英文用法，本来只是习惯沿袭而已，并没有人来立过什么“法”。要是不合理，也只好由它去了。
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● ends up with：结局。照中文的想法（也是比较合理的想法），应该是“这件事情是如何如何的结局”，可是英文里面偏偏用人（he）来做主语。父亲骂了女儿，结局总是痛自后悔。feeling of guilt：歉疚之感。over=concerning，about。
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