比如《牛津现代高级英汉双解词典》将"How long is it since you were in London?" 译成“你在伦敦多久了?” 作者认为译文不准确,因为“你在伦敦多久了”隐含的意思是“你现在还在伦敦”,如果是这种情况英文应该说:
How long is it since you have been in London?
而原文是…since youwerein London, 说明在说话的时候当事人已经不在伦敦,因此句子应该翻译成“你离开伦敦有多久了?”
又比如之前有一年的考研英语中有这样一道改错题:
The director felt badly about not giving Mary that position that she had sought with his company.
出题者给出的参考答案是将felt badly改为felt bad,但这一答案并不严谨。虽然feel是连系动词,后面应该接形容词作为表语,但feel badly已经成为一个约定俗成的用法,在英语语料中有大量例证。比如《卫报》中就有这样的句子:
The senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway said on Sunday shefelt badlyabout promoting Ivanka Trump’s jewelry line in a likely violation of federal ethics rules, because “Catholic guilt” and “maternal guilt” always make her feel bad.
这本词典既适合平时翻阅,也适合作为工具书查询,书中很多问答读完后都会有拨云见日之感。推荐各位准备英语考试以及需要进一步加强语法的同学阅读。