1.when people get old, their short-term memories get weaker.
[译文]随着人们年龄增长,短期记忆会变弱。
本句是一个when引导的时间状语从句,their short-term memories get weaker是主句,在时间状语从句中,用一般现在时表示一般将来时,用一般过去时表示过去将来时。
e.g. when you get there, ring me up.
你到达那儿后,给我来个电话。
we were about to start when it began to rain.
我们正要出发,天突然开始下雨。
在when引导时间状语从句中,when从句可以放在前面,也可以放在后面。当when引导的时间状语从句放在前面时,后面常用逗号隔开。
e.g. when the fire broke out, all the students were sleeping soundly.
当火灾发生时,所有的学生正在熟睡中。
don’t forget to bring your camera here when you come.
当你来时别忘了带相机。
另外,本句中的get是连系动词,后面接的形容词作表语,意为“变,变得;达到某状态或情况”,等于become。
e.g. get angry/bored/hungry/worried/fat/fit/thinner…
发怒/生厌/饥饿/不安/发胖/健康/变瘦……
it/the weather is getting warmer.
天气渐暖。
you’ll get wet if you go out in the rain without an umbrella.
雨天外出不带雨伞会淋湿的。
2.and i can’t remember what the other things are!
[译文]然后我记不起其他的事情是什么了!
other意为“另外的”。当它前面有定冠词the时,后面可跟一个单词或复数名词,当它前面没有定冠词,后面必须跟复数名词。分述两样东西或人时,常用句型“one…the other…”,意为“(两者中)一个……,另一个……”。
e.g. the little boy first took off one shoe and then took off the other.
这个小男孩先脱下一只鞋,然后再脱下另一鞋。
hold it in this hand, not the other (hand).
用这只手拿着,而不是用那只手。
下面在此辨析一下other,the other,the others,others与another。
① 表示两件东西或两个人中“一个……另一个”这一意思时,用one…,the other…。
e.g. there are two books on the desk. one is lily’s and the other is lucy’s.
课桌上有两本书,一本是莉莉的,另一本是露西的。
② 表示不定数目中的“一个”与“另一个”,用one…another…。
e.g. i don’t like this one. please show me another.
我不想要这个,请拿另一个给我看看。
③ 强调确定数目中的“一个”与“其余的”,用one…the others。
e.g. of the six students, one is going home, and the others are going to the cinema.
the others = the other students.
六个学生中,一个将要回家,其余的(五个人)要去看电影。
④ 表示许多人或物中的“一部分”和“另一部分(并非全部)”,用some…others…。
e.g. there are lots of people in the park on sunday. some are walking and others are climbing the hills.
星期日公园里有许多人,有的在散步,有的在爬山。
⑤ 表示许多人或物中的“一部分”、“其余的全部”,用some… the others。
e.g. the students of class two are working on the hill. some are carrying water, some are digging, and the others are planting trees.
二班的学生正在山上劳动,一些人在提水,一些人在挖坑,其余的在植树。
3.i saw a programme on television about a man with an injured brain.
[译文]我看过电视上一个节目,是关于一个大脑受了伤的男子的事情。
在本句中injured作形容词,修饰名词brain,意为“受了伤的”。
e.g. injured people伤者
he isn’t injured, —just shocked.
他没有受伤,只是受了惊吓。
另外hurt,injure和harm都有“伤”的意思,但各自的含义和用法不同。
(1)hurt为普通用语,既可指肉体上的伤害,也可指精神上、感情上的伤害。
e.g. she hurt her leg when she fell.
她跌倒时,一条腿受了伤。
the hurt to his feelings is more serious than the hurt in his body.
他在感情上受到的伤害比身体上的伤痛更严重。
(2)injure比hurt正式,hurt多指伤痛,而injure则指损害健康、成就、容貌等,强调功能的损失。
e.g. a bullet injured his left eyes.
一颗子弹伤了他的左眼。
drinking can injure one’s health.
喝酒对人的健康有害。
i hope i didn’t injure her feelings.
我希望没有伤害她的感情。
(3)harm用于肉体或精神上的伤害均可,有时可指引起不安或不便。还可用于抽象事物,尤其是指不道德的事情。
e.g. don’t harm your eyes by reading in dim light.
不要在昏暗的灯光下看书,以免损害眼睛。
the storm did great harm to the crops.
这场暴雨对庄稼极有害。
4.when you get old, three things start to go wrong. first, you lose your memory…
[译文]当你变老时,三件事情开始不得其所了。首先,你失去你的记忆……
go wrong是固定词组,意为“发生故障;出了毛病”。
e.g. the television has gone wrong again.
电视机又坏了。
something has gone wrong with my watch.
我的手表出毛病了。
follow these instructions and you can’t go wrong.
按照操作指南去做,你就不会出错。
lose one’s memory意为“失忆”。
e.g. she lost her memory in a car accident.
她在一次车祸中失忆了。
5.if you want to remember something, you can try making a picture of it in your mind.
[译文]如果你想记住某件事物,你可以在脑海中构图。
try doing sth意为“试一试做某事,尝试做某事”。而try to do sth.意为“设法去做某事,试着去做某事”,表示试图达到某种目的。
e.g. let’s try doing the work this way.
这项工作咱们这样做试试看。
i’ll work hard, and try to improve.
我将努力工作,并设法改进。
he tried climbing the tall tree.
他试着爬上那棵高大的树。(已经爬了)
he tried to climb the tall tree.
他试着要爬那棵高大的树。(还没爬)
6.there are some amazing stories about memory.
[译文]有许多令人惊奇的关于记忆的故事。
amazing是形容词,意为“令人惊奇的,令人吃惊的,惊人的”,其主语通常为某事物。
e.g. what an amazing sight!
多少令人惊奇的景象啊!
they finished the work at an amazing speed.
他们以惊人的速度完成了任务。
there are a lot of amazing adventures to have and places to see in the world.
世界上有许多令人惊异的冒险活动,还有很多值得一看的地方。
i find it amazing that you can’t swim.
你不会游泳,这真使我大吃一惊。
联想:
① amazed也是形容词,意为“感到惊奇的”(后接at/by,to do及that从句),常指某人或某物对另外的人或物表现出来的情感。常用于词组be amazed at,“吃惊于……中”。
e.g. he is amazed at his mistakes.
他对他的错误感到很吃惊。
we were amazed by his generosity.
他的慷慨令我们惊讶。
we were amazed at/by the change in his appearance.
他的样子变得使我们大为惊讶。
visitors are often amazed to discover how little the town has changed.
游客经常会惊讶地发现这个小城几乎没有什么变化。
i’m amazed (that) you’ve never been to the great wall.
你居然从未去过长城,真让我吃惊。
② amaze作及物动词,意为“使(某人)感到惊异或惊奇”。
e.g. he amazed everybody by passing his driving test.
他驾驶考试合格使大家很惊奇。
sometimes your behavior amazes me.
有时你的举动令我大为惊讶。
her remarks amazed the people present at the meeting.
她的讲话使会上的人们感到很惊奇。
提醒:除amazing和amazed外,初中英语中还有许多以-ing或-ed结尾的分词形容词。它们的词根是相同的,所以这样的形容词叫做同源形容词。以-ing结尾的形容词通常修饰物,表示事物的特征;以-ed结尾的形容词通常修饰人,表示人的一些特征。常见的有:
7.for example, most elderly people in the usa can remember where they were when they heard about the death of president john f. kennedy in 1963.
[译文]例如,在美国大部分上了年纪的人能想起1963年当他们听说约翰·福·肯尼迪总统去世时他们正身处何地。
elderly是形容词,adj.,意为“(委婉语)年纪较大的,上了年纪的”。
e.g. an elderly lady with white hair白发老妇人
hear about是固定词组,意为“听说;得知”。
e.g. did you hear about the fire?
你听说起火的事了吗?
i’ve only just heard about his arrival.
我刚听到他到来的事。
death为名词,意为“死亡”,它的动词为die,特别注意这个动词非延续性,dead为形容词,be dead表状态,能持续。
e.g. the death of her made us sad.
她的去世使大家都很伤心。
she died three years ago.
三年前她去世了。
he has been dead for three years.
他去世3年了。
8.how much do you think your brain weighs?
[译文]你认为你的大脑重多少?
句中do you think作插入语,往往置于特殊疑问词之后,类似用法的还有do you suppose,do you believe,do you guess等。
e.g. who do you think is right?
你认为谁对?
提醒:此时它们相当于充当了宾语从句的主句的作用,所以运用时不要忽略了宾语从句特点。
(1)陈述语序。
(2)时态一致。
e.g. who did you think jim wanted to help?
你那时认为吉姆想帮谁。
9.what are you better at remembering: words, pictures or something else?
[译文]你更擅长记忆什么:词,图片,或是其它的东西?
当形容词修饰复合不定代词something,everything,every one等时,形容词必须放在复合不定代词的后面。
e.g. something else其它的东西。
i have something important to tell you.
我有重要的事情告诉你。
10.inside your brain are billions of cells.
[译文]在大脑里有数以十亿计的细胞。
hundred,thousand,million等词前加基数词表示“几百”,“几千”,“几百万”时,hundred,thousand,million用单数;后面加of表示约数时,hundred,thousand,million用复数。
e.g. thousands of years数千年
there are six hundred workers in his factory.
他的工厂有600名工人。
there are hundreds of workers in his factory.
他的工厂里有数百名工人。
thousands of people are planting trees on the hills.
数千人正在山上栽树。
11.some people are in their 90s, but they can still recall experiences from when they were 2 or 3 years old.
[译文]一些人在90多岁时,他们能从2或3岁起的经历回忆到现在。
in one’s 90s意为“(某人)九十多岁”。
e.g. he has opened a company in his 20s.
在他二十几岁时,他已经创办了一家公司。
experience这个词要注意,它既是可数名词又是不可数名词,当意为“经历;阅历;感受;体会”时,它是可数名词;当意为“经验;体验”时,它是不可数名词。
e.g. he had many interesting experiences while traveling in africa.
他在非洲旅行时,有许多有趣的经历。
an unusual experience一次不寻常的经历
does she have much experience of teaching?
她教学经验丰富吗?
i know from experience that he’ll arrive late.
据我的经验之谈,他要迟到的。
12.you learn a large amount of facts and information at school.
[译文]你在学校学到大量的事实和信息。
a large amount of是固定词组,意为“大量的,许多的”,后接不可数名词。
e.g. a large amount of money was spent on the bridge.
那座桥耗资巨大。there is a large amount of work for us to do.
有大量的工作在等我们去做。
注意:在英语里表示“大量的,许多的”的词组有许多,注意修饰可数名词还是不可数名词。下面列举出来:
a (large) number of +可数名词
a great deal of +不可数名词
many +可数名词
much +不可数名词