5.不定式的研究

每个学生都了解一些不定式的使用常识，但硕士生需要更深入领会不定式的用法，提高使用的准确性和效率。在历年统考中，不定式都是重点考查项目。

一.形容词+不定式的结构的分类与说明

首先判断下列句子中哪些有语法错误：

1.She is easy to find a good job.

2.She is easy to find.

3.She is easy to be found.

4.He is quick to pick up things.

5.This is a good city to visit.

6.The boss is difficult to speak to.

7.She is easy to get along with.

8.This is a team impossible to defeat.

9.Cancer is a disease that is easy to diagnose but difficult to cure.

10.Cold and hungry,he was slow to walk.

有错误的句子是1、3两句。前面讲了possible和likely的异同，与这两个词接不定式的情况相似，国内英文作文中经常出现类似第1句中的错误表达。形容词+不定式的结构比较复杂，涉及很多形容词。实际上，当主语是somebody或something时，形容词接不定式的结构有些特殊要求。只要了解分类，发现规律，就能轻而易举地避免错误。

（一）下列形容词与不定式连用，构成固定结构：anxious,apt,bound,certain,due,eager,first,keen,

last,liable,likely,only,quick,ready,reluctant,slow,sure,unwilling,willing等等。例如：

1.This guy is keen to impress the first-year students.（很想给新生留下深刻印象）

2.She is sure to say that she is always willing to lend me a hand.

3.This movie is liable to cause hard feelings among the audience.

4.Wang is quick to pick up things.（学东西快）

5.The head of the office was reluctant to buy a new table for me.

6.The Chinese are apt（倾向于）to think of Japanese merchants as foxy and experienced.

7.This football team is bound to lose the game.

8.But Yao is the first to gain All-Star status and to appear in television commercials for Visa and Apple.

同前面讲的likely用法（4）相似，这些形容词要求不定式动词或是不及物动词，或是及物动词带宾语，或是被动形式。

（二）以somebody或something作主语时，下列形容词与possible相似，要求不定式中的动词与句子主语或不定式前面的名词或代词有动宾关系：adequate,amusing,comfortable,difficult,easy,expensive,fine,good,hard,impossible,interesting,nice,pleasant,proper,simple,tough等。例如：

1.This is not an easy lesson to learn.（learn的逻辑宾语是lesson）

2.This is a good city to visit.（值得参观的城市）

3.She is hard to convince.（convince的逻辑宾语是she）

4.I can’t think of a proper suit to wear for this occasion.（wear的逻辑宾语是suit）

5.The assignment is impossible to fulfill by the deadline.

6.Pets are interesting to watch.

7.This is an adequate word to use in this context.

8.Also,lack of money has reduced the number of animals used–they are expensive to buy and expensive to keep.

possible是这些词的代表，要求不定式动词是及物的，用主动形式，绝不能自带宾语。

电影《天下无贼》有句特别流行的台词“人心散了，队伍不好带”。电影中的英语字幕是…the team will be hard to lead。虽然是直译，但完全可以接受。

注意：不定式中的不及物动词要接相应的介词，如：

1.The new boss is easy to talk to.

2.This is a good textbook to learn English from（from which to learn English）.

3.Most of these employees are easy to get along with.

4.In times of difficulty,a friend is a good person to turn to.（合适的人）

5.This is a comfortable apartment to live in.

6.She is a joy to work with.

7.This pearl is nice to look at.

8.He didn’t talk much,but he was easy to be with.（Obama）

一个例外就是place，其后的不定式经常省略介词in或at，如：

As you can see,this land is not an easy place to live.

在范文或作文中出错率最高的是easy和possible（impossible）。下列句子摘自各类考研辅导书，主要问题是上述形容词接不定式时动词自带宾语。划线部分是错误用法：

1.College graduates are easy to find good jobs upon graduation.

2.Under the influence of TV commercials,customers are easy to buy advertised goods.

3.Some students are possible to spend nights in casinos.

4.Why is this phenomenon quite common in our society?One reason is that some people are easy to believe the claim.

5.In some cases a man is very hard to conquer those difficulties.

6.In case the computer is infected by a kind of virus,which has indeed developed into many kinds and is very difficult to be killed ,a great loss is inevitable.（此句中be difficult to后的动词不能用被动式，因为从语义上讲其宾语是virus）

请判断下列句子中哪些是有错误的：

1.Smoking is hard to quit.

2.It is hard to quit smoking.

3.Smoking is hard to be quit.

4.I’m difficult to quit smoking.

5.It’s hard for me to quit smoking.

6.Smoking is a hard habit to quit.

有错误的句子是3、4。

与此相关的是下列结构，请判断哪些句子是正确的：

1.The rising price of housing makes me difficult to settle down in a big city.

2.The rising price of housing makes it difficult for me to settle down in a big city.

3.The rising price of housing makes me difficult to love.

4.The rising price of housing makes difficult the implementation of the government’s decision to create more jobs for college graduates.

5.…though I personally thought it unlikely that China would enter the war,and said so.

只有第一句有问题。请注意第一句与第三句中不定式动词的特点。在第一句中，settle down是不及物的，而在第三句中love是及物动词，逻辑宾语就是me，含义是“自己没房子，因此没人爱，不好找对象”。

（三）表示情感或态度的形容词常接不定式：

1.She was proud to have won the scholarship.

2.I feel honored to be invited to this meeting.

3.I was foolish to have done so.

4.They were very excited to hear the steps of their mother up the stairs.

5.I’m sorry to hear that.

二.不定式与某些形容词连用充当定语

首先从94年的一道全国高考英语试题谈起：

The first textbooks______for teaching English as a foreign language came out in the 16th century.

A.having written

B.to be written

C.being written

D.written

所给答案是选项D，准确无误，有许多例证，但命题人错误地认为不定式充当定语总是表示将来动作，因而忽略了first等词接不定式作定语的特殊性。虽然the first to do sth.更常用，但the first to be done也是完全正确的，此时不定式不一定表示将来，而是有可能表示已完成的动作。因此说，该题有两个同样可接受的答案，选项B和D。如果没有first，只能选D，而由于first的出现，选B也不错。

由此我们可以转向一个经常被忽略的不定式用法：与某些形容词连用充当定语，往往表示已发生的动作，与将来无关。这些形容词有序数词，如first,second,next,last，最高级，如best,worst和only。

首先看摘自美国中学课本The Social Sciences的几个句子：

1.The donkey and the camel were tamed and put to work.Perhaps the last animal to be domesticated was the horse.（p42）

2.One of the first permanent buildings to be built in Tepetongo was the church.It was built in a flat section of the area that was to become the town.（p100）

3.The first land to be used for farming in Italy was the level land,which was easy to cultivate.（p121）

下面是一些摘自各种作品的句子：

1.The NRA had a great night.They beat both Speaker Tom Foley and Jack Brooks,two of the ablest members of Congress,who had warned me this would happen.Foley was the first speaker to be defeated in more than a century.（My Life）

2.Without even giving Judge Woods an opportunity to defend himself,the court not only reversed his decision and reinstated the indictment but also kicked him out of the case,citing not court records,but newspaper and magazine articles critical of him….After the ruling Woods pointed out that he was the only judge in American history to be removed from a case.（My Life）

3.Isidore along with many others regarded it（Latin）as the language of God and therefore the first language to be spoken on earth.（A Short History of Linguistics）

4.In 1964,the Olympic Games in Tokyo became the first program to be transmitted via satellite.（大学英语自学教程）

5.The army watched breathlessly as the men swung along the bridge chains.Ma Ta-chiu was the first to be shot into the wild torrent below.（Agnes Smedley）

6.Angie Brooks of Liberia served as President of the General Assembly in 1969-70.She was the second woman to be elected to this position.（The Social Sciences）

7.The worst thing to happen to us in September was far more personal than political.（Living History）

8.Andrew Johnson was the only previous President to be impeached,and historians generally agreed that the Congress had misused its solemn constitutional responsibility for partisan political purposes.（Living History）

9.On January 11,1983,I took the oath of office for the second time,before the largest crowd ever to attend an inauguration in our state.（My Life）

10.He’s the only man to be placed in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.（Reader’s Digest　进入篮球名人殿堂之后）

11.Eisenhower's presidency lasted eight years,and he was the first president to be removed from office because he had served the maximum of allowed terms.

12.In 1987,he（Jin Xing）became the first Chinese dancer to be awarded a scholarship to study modern dance in New York and soon rose to the challenge.（China DailyJan 20,2010）

是这些句子有语法问题，还是我们的认识有问题？我们还是以事实为根据，更新自己的语法观念吧。

三.不定式在某些名词后充当定语

另一项国内学生不擅长的是不定式在名词后充当定语（也有人称之为同位语）。虽然国外出版物中普遍使用，但可惜的是我们很少使用，倾向使用很短的简单句。不仅句式单一，而且用词累赘，能用一句话表达的内容却用2～3个句子。此用法看似简单，容易理解，但需要很长时间才能熟练使用，关键是总结使用的规律。首先看一些例句，注意研究不定式的用法：

1.Today,we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility,courage,compassion,and character.

2.It does require,however,our best effort,and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds.…

3.…in a desperate attempt to get me to the airport in time for my flight.

4.Instinctively we recognized a deeper need–the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose….

5.Humans are born with the ability to learn to speak and walk.

6.Surprisingly,some efforts to prevent cheating may actually encourage cheating

7.After that,his youthful indifference to studies and his unwillingness to think of a nonsports career caught up with him.He had trouble finding a job.

8.Inability to find effective solutions to global warming will lead to the failure to protect the environment.

9.The compulsion to look back was almost irresistible.

10.There was the determination of the immigrant to gain in the new world what had been denied to him in the old,and on the part of his children an urge to throw off the immigrant onus by….

11.Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity,as well as the inalienable right,to govern himself with reason and justice.

12.At some point,then,in spite of a stubborn desire to protect myself from scrutiny,in spite of the periodic impulse to abandon the entire project,what has found its way onto these pages is a record of….

上述句子中不定式位于某个抽象名词后，说明该名词的具体内容。翻译成汉语时不一定非得翻译成定语，有时可翻译成动词，如第10句中的the determination of the immigrant to gain in the new world….可译为“移民们决心在新世界中得到……”。

经常接不定式充当定语的名词主要有:

ability

ambition

attempt

call

campaign

capacity

claim

commitment

compulsion

courage

decision

demand

desire

determination

eagerness

effort

endeavor

failure

freedom

hope

inability

inclination

need

obligation

plan

power

pretension

promise

refusal

reluctance

request

resolution

resolve

right

struggle

temptation

tendency

threat

urge

willingness

wish

这些名词的特点是：

a）其形容词形式与不定式组合，如：

able

eager

free

ready

reluctant

unwilling

willing

b）其动词形式要求接不定式充当宾语，如：

attempt

decide

endeavor

fail

hope

need

refuse

threaten

比较典型的句子是：

1.Along with the urge to be jack-of-all-trades goes a willingness to change from one occupation to another.The emphasis on success and achievement,coupled as it is with a desire to be loved and admired,leads to a critical dilemma of personality.

2.Finally,there are the dangers inherent in my autobiographical work:the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer,the tendency to overestimate the interest one’s experiences hold for others….（Obama）

请用不定式翻译下列词组：

提高独立思考能力

不赞成她决定结婚

在努力通过答辩的过程中

无法改变我实现目标的决心

特别想试一试

迫切需要摆脱贫穷

他拒绝帮我忙是由于……

未能遵守时间

发现他们罪案的企图

急于回家

他们不愿意选此课使我感到……

在三年内拿到博士学位的计划

可翻译为：improve the ability to think for oneself

do not approve of her decision to get married

in one’s effort to pass the oral defense

can’t change my determination to achieve the goal

a strong desire to have a try

the desperate need to shake off poverty

his refusal to do me a favor is due to…

failure to be punctual

discern their attempt to commit a crime

the eagerness to go back home

their reluctance to take this course makes me feel…

the plan to get one’s PhD in three years

试翻译下面句子：

1.她屡次未能通过面试，可能与缺少表现自己才华的勇气有关。

Her repeated failure to pass the interview might have been associated with her lack of the courage to show her own talent.

2.他决定辞职，你意见如何？

What do you think of his decision to quit the job?

3.我留学的愿望终于实现了。

My wish to study abroad has finally come true.

4.她不愿意表态，这使我一直琢磨她在想什么。

Her reluctance to commit herself left me wondering what was in her mind.

5.尽管她试图把实验做好，但缺乏经验使她再次失败。

Despite her attempt to do a good job of the experiment,inexperience led to her second failure.

6.学生缺乏的是能用地道英语表达自己想法。（北京统考题中汉译英的句子）

Students lack the ability to express themselves in idiomatic English.

一旦掌握了不定式的这些用法，就能使表达简练，增加笔语的正式程度。

而下列词既可接不定式，也可接of doing的结构，意义差别不大：

chance

dream

duty

intention

method

opportunity

responsibility

way

以responsibility为例：

1.Just as we respect the right of each nation to determine its own future,we also recognize the responsibility of each nation to secure its own future.

2.Democracy maintains that…and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual….

但是，表示“可能性”时，chance主要接of doing；而way更常接不定式。

请看下面的练习题：

His method______English is very good.（摘自某英语手册）

A.to study

B.for studying

C.of studying

D.in studying

书中所给答案是选项C，但选项A和B也完全正确，例证很多。

而下列词基本上接of doing：

advantage

benefit

consequence

custom

experience

fear

habit

importance

impression

means

pleasure

possibility

privilege

problem

process

prospect

sense

system

task

tension

thought

如：as a means of applying democratic principles to international relations

the task of putting our public household in order

the possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient…

the privilege of watching the New York Marathon

the duty of performing our international obligations…

maintained a policy of avoiding all interference…

avoid the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men

the frustration of arriving at the last minute

the prospect of winning the championship

the system of opening sub-branches

the dream of flying in the air

the tension of holding back the strong emotions

the sense of being accomplished

the impression of being modest

the dread of destroying the miracle of life

the disadvantage of being disabled

能很好说明上述用法的一段文字：

To survive in this way requires a great deal of work.The ability to work hard and to satisfy your needs with your own hands is highly valued by the people.It is a large part of the role of being a man in Mexico.

试翻译：讲普通话的益处

担心失去选票

一想到接受大手术

谈政治的习惯

制定计划的过程

看电视过多的后果

乘船旅行的乐趣

住在郊区的好处

上网聊天的风险

读经典小说的重要性

找到可信证人的困难

留下认真对待此问题的印象

可翻译为：the benefit of speaking mandarin Chinese

the fear of losing votes

the thought of receiving a major operation

the habit of talking about politics

the process of formulating a plan

the consequence of watching TV excessively

the pleasure of traveling on a ship

the advantage of living in the suburbs

the risk of cybertalking

the importance of reading classical fiction

the difficulty of finding reliable witnesses

give the impression of taking it seriously

案例分析：

▲北京出租车内有燃油附加费的说明，英文部分第一句话是：

According to Beijing’s policy linking taxi fare with gasoline price….

这样的翻译方式有问题：1）是动词link通常与介词to连用，2）是policy与linking之间应该加上介词of，否则linking是现在分词表示动作。

▲某医学杂志英文摘要把“本治疗方法具有……的优势”翻译为…has the advantage to do…，不符合习惯用法，不如改为…the advantage of doing…。

▲颐和园附近有城管的温馨提示“塑造……的良好形象”。最初翻译为a well-mannered imagination（有礼貌的想象力）。后经人提醒，有的广告牌改成a well-mannered impression，可问题是well-mannered应该修饰人，而修饰impression不太合适，我们能说a polite house吗？正确的翻译是give the impression of being well-mannered或impress others as well-mannered。

2005年1月统考题汉译英部分有“人们越来越意识到开发环保型产品的重要性”，涉及importance后面定语的用法，可翻译为：

There is a better awareness of the importance of developing environmentally friendly products.

2009年1月统考题汉译英部分有“忽视了培养主动使用英语的能力”，该句考查不定式充当定语的用法，可翻译为：…neglect the cultivation of the ability to use English actively（to be active in using English）.

此类情况下，建议不要使用the ability of using….，不符合语言习惯。

还有更复杂的、涉及of doing之类的结构：

1.The chance of arms being exported direct from the United Kingdom to Guatemala was remote….

2.…did not exclude the possibility of the United States Navy taking action against a British ship without our permission.

3.The thought of the heart being transplanted to another person gave these people endless pain.

4.Many people shudder at the prospect of the overthrown president being executed.

5.The sight of a mother sneaking a tumbler of gin in midafternoon….

6.His very life depended upon his becoming a successful hunter.

7.Most of us,when young,had the experience of a sweetheart being taken away from us by somebody more attractive and more appealing.

8.…a move they made to protect their son from the possibility of being caught in a gang shooting and the certainty of attending an underfunded school.

前7句中，动名词不仅有自己的主语，而且其中一些是被动形式，而第8句只是动名词的被动形式。这些句子中不能用不定式替代动名词，也不能随意省略动名词的主语。例如：不能把第3、4句分别该为the thought of transplanting the heart和the prospect of executing the overthrown president。

试翻译：

划火柴的声音

考试取消的可能性

看到英语被滥用

废水排放到河流里的后果

可翻译为：the sound of a match being struck（scratched）

the possibility of the test being cancelled

the sight of English being misused

the consequence of waste water being discharged into rivers

四.其他用法有:

（一）to do…is to do….“做……就等于（无疑于）……”，例如：

1.To walk through the battered national art museum in Bucharest…was to witness an extraordinary moment in history.

2.To go to Pompeii today is to take a trip back in time.（如时光倒流）

3.…to see their towers take shape is to observe a marvel of human cooperation.

4.To be black was to be the beneficiary of a great inheritance,a special destiny,glorious burdens that only we were strong enough to bear.

5.It might seem that to withdraw underground is to withdraw from the natural world.

6.…to interpret a dream is to specify its“meanings”.

7.To say that,however,is to imply that choices must be made and priorities set.

8.To paint them,in short,was to enjoy one of the keenest pleasures I have ever known.

2008年1月统考题英译汉部分有此句：

To discard one’s native language is to have the distinct features of his nation erased.

该句考查to do…is to do….的确切意义。

（二）…only（never）to…“出乎意料的结果”或“却”，例如：

1.Misled by this philosophy,many people have sacrificed their liberties only to learn to their sorrow that deceit and mockery,poverty and tyranny,are their reward.

2.But upon failing even to do that,he staggers back to his old house,only to make an astonishing discovery.

3.He sought public offices numerous times,only to be defeated time and again.

4.When my son was sixteen years old,I recall going down for breakfast one morning,only to discover a certain tension in the air.

5.…we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny.

6.Time flies never to be recalled.（光阴一去不复返）

7.In the 1930s,he left his native village never to return.（再也没回来过）

8.Sometimes I would take action which I believed would bring our policy into line with that of the United States,…only to find that the policy had not the significance it had been declared to have.

9.The old woman’s face dissolved from my mind,only to be replaced by a series of others.

2009年1月北京统考题汉译英部分有“老师让学生做大量涉及多项选择的练习，结果忽视了培养主动使用英语的能力”。后半句的意图是考查only的用法，翻译答案为：

…,only to neglect the cultivation of the ability to use English actively.

可惜的是，想起来使用only的同学很少，绝大多数人使用as a result或consequently。

国内某英语杂志（2003.05）中有：

Sharks cruised toward her lone figure,only to be driven away by rifle shots.

原译文是“只能用来复枪来驱走它们”。确切的翻译是“结果被步枪声赶走”。

有时to see,to find和to hear等词也可表示意外的结果：

1.Buddy’s mother walked into his room to find him standing shakily beside his bed.

2.It was an unpleasant shock when she got home to discover Mitch’s car was parked outside.

3.She passed by the office to hear other clerks talking about the show.

4.I opened the door to see Toot entering their bedroom to get dressed to work.（Obama）

5.In the morning,I woke up to find a white pen pecking at the garbage near my feet.（Obama）

6.Mark Twain survived a life of poverty to become one of his nation’s most prolific novelists and best-loved novelists.

7.In fact,orchids recently surpassed mums to become the second most popular indoor flowering plant,behind poinsettias.

（三）系动词前有do的某个形式时，充当表语的不定式基本省略to：

1.The number one thing you must do to become a winner is believe that you have the right to be successful.

2.The next thing he did was stop eating cottage cheese.

3.All he did was stand there taking money.

4....that all he could do was exist for the rest of his days on its support.

（四）…yet to…“还没有……”，例如：

1.…and the burial places of several New Kingdom pharaohs have yet to be found.

2.Unfortunately,many people have yet to realize the consequence of a sedentary life.

3.And,in addition,there will be a psychological problem,for we have yet to trace the mental and moral consequences of a prolonged diet of sentimental or sensational spectacles on the screen.

4.The Parliaments had yet to have their say.

5.But the most embarrassing moment was yet to come.（Iris Chang）

（五）if sb.is to do…表示“按计划”或“可能”，例如：

1.If we are to be successful in carrying out these policies,it is clear that we must have continued prosperity in this country….

2.If we’re to survive the stress and change of this knowledge explosion,we must become infinitely more adaptable and capable of solving problems….

3.It is necessary to keep….if we are to have any science of government.

（六）…be to do…除了表示“计划、愿望、应该和可能”之外，过去时表示“后来”，例如：

1.This was the introduction of the concept of romantic love,which was to influence literature for many hundreds of years.

2.The real Morocco,I was to find,is less about romance,much more,about adversity,struggle.

3.The question of trade relations with Egypt and Syria was one which was to crop up regularly throughout our trip.

4.Years afterward I was to learn that when she found a lump she was sent to a specialist.

5.This was the word that he was to use many times in his speech.

6.The Mexican settlers built cities and missions in what was to become California.

7.Unfortunately,that future and that promise were never to be fulfilled.（永远没能实现）

8.He fled to the Continent,never to return–the pattern for all the other“romantic exiles”who were to follow.（为以后的仿效者树立了榜样）

北京统考题词汇部分曾考查此结构：

On board a train she met a young man,who______become her husband two years later.

A.used to

B.was to

C.had better

D.need to

提供的答案是B。

一个比较典型的例句：

…（in 1793）to try to persuade the Chinese both to open their market to Britain（which was to become the first country to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution）and to deal with….（Chris Pattern）

此句中，was to become表示“后来成为”，而to be transformed与first连用，表示“第一个被工业革命改变的国家”。

（七）某些动词后补充说明，例如：

1.…found a brother who was thought to have been killed twenty years before.

2.The Venetian Marco Polo is said to have returned home from China at the very end of the thirteenth century with stories of a civilization far richer and more technologically advanced than anything….

3.These chemicals are believed to be very dangerous.

4.This bridge is believed to have been built more than 800 years ago.

5.Malaria is known to have caused millions of deaths so far.

6.Among the stories believed to have been told by Aesop are“The Sun and Wind”and“Bell the Cat”.

7.The American Diabetes Association recommended in 1997 that a person can be considered to have diabetes if his or her fasting blood glucose was about 126.

8.The first gladiatorial games are said to have been held in Rome 264 B.C..

经常用于此句式的动词主要有：

believe

claim

consider

know

report

say

think

其中出现频率最高的可能是believe,say和think。这些动词本身常用现在一般时，而在不定式中，已经发生或完成的动作要用完成时。对于此用法，大多数学生善于做选择题，而在写作中很少使用。他们习惯于使用it is said that…或people believe…。如果能熟练使用这种结构，表达就能变得简练，如下面这个句子的翻译：

警察正在调查一起交通事故，有人认为事故是由超速引起的。

可翻译成：

The police are looking into a traffic accident that is believed to have been caused by speeding.