你问我答

新年伊始，我们特邀对外经济贸易大学资深老教授何曾楣为我们重开“你问我答”栏目。何先生曾任教对外经济贸易大学40余载，是一位治学严谨、经验丰富的学者。相信读者一定会从何先生的解答中获益匪浅。

“你有疑问，我来解答” ——期待读者朋友们的来信。

问: 有人说下面的两句都对: There was a heavy rain last night. There was heavy rain last night. 为何不可说：What a heavy rain! （安徽蚌埠 舒廷贵）

答：There was heavy rain. There was a heavy rain. 两句都对，意思大体相同，“昨夜下了一场大雨。”或“昨夜下大雨了。”What a heavy rain!未尝不可，或者说 What a dow npour! rain（雨）作为物质名词，不可数，前面不加冠词。a rain 是“一场阵雨”的意思， 例如 ：a heavy / light / fine rain (大/小/细雨）。请读下列句子，注意冠词用法： The crops are crying out for rain. / The farmers need rain. / After rain comes f air weather. / Rain started drumming on the roof. / The rain beat against the win dows and streamed down the panes. / The rain fell in torrents. / The rain was com ing down in sheets. / The rain poured down in waterfalls. / Heavy rain hides the sun from the plain. / One summer there was such heavy rain that the river brimmed its banks just like today. / The heavy rain caused the river to rise. / Our stre ets flooded whenever we had heavy rain. / At daybreak, the rain stopped. / Listen to that cowboy singing in the rain.

问：我有两个小问题想请教。

1）“高新技术产业开发区”您认为是翻作high-tech industrial development zone, 还是翻作 high-tech industry development zone?我个人取用后一种译法，因为这个中文短语中，“高新技术产业”意思上是紧密联系在一起的，high-tech（adj.)修饰industry 而后high-tech industry 再修饰development;假如用第一种译法，industrial 修饰development,high-tech(adj.)不能修饰industrial，则不能正确反映中文原义，因为是先“高新技术产业 ”而后再“高新技术产业的发展”，不知您赞同哪种译法？

2）municipality 除了可以用在指中央的直辖市外，还可以用来指地级市和其他普通的中小 城市吗？如Nanchang Municipality 或Leshan Municipality？ (江西 计莉)

答：1)你的说法有一定道理，“高新技术产业”构成一个词组，不过，我们也可以把“产业开发区”看作一个词组，这样把两部分统一起来，便是high-tech industrial development zone。经济、技术开发区都是这么译法。

2) municipality 参看《英汉大词典》，通常指直辖市，很少使用。普通城市用city, 如 the City of Nanchang或Nanchang City, 一般只需说地名Nanchang即可。

问：不知如何解释“be + 动词原形”的语言现象， 例如: 1）What we can do, as part of an investigation of language, is concentrate on th ose properties... 2）All you have to do is ask. 以上两个例句中的“is concentrate”和“is ask”不知怎样理解，特写信求教。 （湖北省咸宁师范高等专科学校英语系 刘劲松）

答：在这两个句子里是由不带to的不定式作表语。目前，似乎仅限于和do连用。例句如下： All I could do was send him an e-mail. / What I'd like to do is expalin how the current system works. / Now what I want to do today is take you through the proc ess and identify some key areas for improvement in quality. / Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest. /All I did wa s hit him on the head. /The first thing you do is choose an Internet service provider.