【英文寫作的樂趣】

27. Fun with English Writing (2)

【英文寫作的樂趣】

9)     原文: So, your second marriage will be happily ever after.

Note: be happily + Ving / P.P. ; ever after應接名詞，若用hereafter較好

【中文】：因此，今後你的第二次婚姻會更幸福。

建議更正：So, you will be happier in your second marriage hereafter.

10)  原文: They came to visit me even had a mission in mind, to play match maker. Stupid me, saying "I must be insane to marry again."What I really meant was that I couldn't go through DEATH one more time.

原作者之go through Death不知何意；尤其Death大寫應作『死神』解

*上句中文意義太濃

【中文】：他們來看我，甚至帶有一項要當媒人的任務。愚蠢的我說『我瘋了才會再婚。我的真正意思是我無法再經歷，另一次很大的痛苦』。

建議更正：They came to visit me even with a mission, intending to act as match-makers. Stupid me, said, “I must be insane to be married again.” “What I really meant was that I couldn’t go through another misery as deadly as can be.”

11)  Regrettably, there are an infinitely, variety of how one copes with the retirement years.

Note: a great variety of ways in which one copes with difficulty in retirement. ( a variety of +複數名詞); cope with +困難, 逆境。原作用infinitely無限的，也不能修飾variety，且a variety of +複數名詞= different kinds of+名詞

另註：a variety of +複數名詞(種種不同的) = many different kinds of…. ，若再用infinitely (無限地) 意思重複，又infinitely 是副詞不可修飾名詞 variety

【中文】：遺憾的是，在退休後的生活中，有種種不同的困難去克服，。

建議更正：Regrettably, there are a variety of difficulties to copes with in retirement years.

12)  I can hardly able to reconcile my disgraceful naive vanity of the distant past.

Note: can hardly reconcile my…/ or I am hardly able to (can +V)

另註：此處用reconcile不當，若用abandon(放棄) 也許好一點，但作者本意不明

【中文】：我幾乎無法把很久以前我那丟人、天真的浮華放棄掉。

建議更正：I can hardly abandon my disgraceful vanity, happening in

the past.

13)  I think my response was too brief that caused you to interpret it as a displeasure.

Note: so brief that it caused (另註：too…….to+V 太…以致不能；so…. as to+V.. 如此…..以致能)

displeasure (U) 是不不可數名詞，不可加a。此處用interpret (vt.) 詮釋，太牽強

【中文】：我以為我的回復太簡短，以致你對它感到不悅、

建議更正：I think my response was so brief as to incur your displeasure.

14)  I just have too many emails to deal with at all times.

另註：mail本為不可數名詞，但今日許多人將e-mail當可數名詞用。(此處用deal with 有應付、面對之意)

【中文】：我經常有許多郵件要處理。

建議更正：I just have too many e-mail messages to read, to respond to, or to handle. (handle v. 有較廣泛意思

15)  It was a pity that I had missed out on a lot of campus life.

Note: missed out a lot of…... ；college life on campus

【中文】：遺憾，本人錯失許多大學生活。

建議更正：It was a pity that I had missed out a lot of college life on campus.

16)  Regretfully, I rarely use my cellphone, as our kids are spread across the country.

Note: Regrettably; our kids are dispersed…(regretfully指人感到遺憾；regrettable = to be regretted指事情令人遺憾)；spread 很少指人的擴散；用across太誇張 (how many kids do you have?) 若改為” our kids live in some different parts of the country” 較切實

【中文】：遺憾的是，我很少用手機，因為我的孩子們 (多產的母親?) 散居全國各地。(小孩散居各地才需用手機，是嗎?)

建議更正：Regrettably, I rarely use cell phones as our kids are dispersed in different parts of the country.

17)  I'm sorry I'm not writing in Chinese because I'm using my daughter's PC which is not set up for Chinese writing. 

Note: implemented with format of Chinese font (註: set up 創立；font字型，writing 寫作)

【中文】：抱歉我不用中文寫，因為我用的是我女兒的電腦，它未灌裝中文字型。

建議更正：I’m sorry I cannot write in Chinese because the PC I am using belongs to my daughter.  It is not implemented with format of Chinese font.

18)  As a habit, I browsed the publishing media regularly.

Note: As a rule, 通常 = As usual= Usually；很少人用as a habit; media publisher

【中文】：通常我定期在網路上瀏覽出版業媒體。

建議更正：As usual, I browsed the media publishers regularly.

Justin Lai  彙編

07/02/2015