作者：劉世一

1. 【原文】 How can you tell they are grateful? (L. 57)句中tell譯為"告訴"句意好像不通，應該是什么意思？

【精析】 tell在此處不是"告訴"的意思，而是"判斷；識別；區別"的含義。當tell與can, could, be able to等表示能力的情態動詞連用時，強調辨別的能力，常用于tell sth. from sth. 結構，也可以直接跟賓語從句。例如：

Can you tell Gorge from his twin brother? 你能把喬治和他的雙胞胎兄弟區分開嗎？

Can you tell which answer is correct? 你能判斷出哪個答案是正確的嗎？

2. 【原文】 To help animals is helping people. (L. 57)請分析一下本句的句子成份。

【精析】本句是主系表結構。To help animals是不定式短語作主語，helping people是動名詞短語作表語。不定式短語作主語可以用it來代替，將真正的主語放在句末。如本課中的But isn't it more important to help people than animals? 句中to help people than animals是真正的主語。

3. 【原文】 Mostly, vets helped heal horses.... (L. 58)heal與本課中的treat都有"治�。恢委�"的意思，有什么不同？

【精析】 heal主要指通過治療，而恢復健康。如：

A doctor's duty is to heal the sick.醫生的職責是治病救人。

treat是個普通的用語，指接受病人，替他診斷，治病。如：

Doctors treated the patient very carefully. 醫生認真地為病人治療。

4. 【原文】 ... but the house broke in two, dropping her to the first floor and leaving the baby's bed hanging on the edge of the two-story house. (L. 60)請分析本句的句子結構。

【精析】 broke是謂語動詞，三個分詞短語作伴隨狀語，其中dropping her to the first floor and leaving the baby's bed是說明謂語動詞broke的具體動作，hanging on the edge of the two-story house則是用來說明leaving的具體內容。