問:Timidness/timidity和timorousness意思有什麼分別?
答:Timid和timorous同樣源出於拉丁文的timere,意思是「恐懼」、「膽怯」,但timorous沒有timid那麼常用。ThePenguinModernGuidetoSynonymsandRelatedWords把兩字的分別說得最清楚:"Timorous"isamuchstrongerwordthan"timid",althoughtheyareoftenusedinterchangeably."Timorous"emphasizesagreaterapphrehensionandanxiety(兩字往往通用,但timorous比timid語氣強得多,表示較大的恐懼與焦慮)。例如:(1)Thetimidlittleboywouldnotgreetme(那羞怯的小男孩不肯和我打招呼)。(2)Atimorousmancannevergetrich(畏首畏尾的人,永遠不會富有)。
問:Asrequested,Iencloseacopyofthedocumentforyourinformation(謹遵囑附上文件副本,以供參閱)這一句,asrequested是不是應改置於句末?
答:這位讀者認為,as帶出的話,只能補充前文所述;asrequested是補充說明encloseacopy的原因,所以應改置於句末。但這說法沒有根據。As帶出的話,無論是置於句末還是句首,都可補充主要子句(mainclause)所述的事。第二版LongmanDictionaryofContemporaryEnglishas條有以下例句:AsIsaidinmylastletter,IamtakingtheexaminJuly(我七月要考試,這是我上次信裏提到的)。這一句可以改為As(was)saidinmylastletter,IamtakingtheexaminJuly或IamtakingtheexaminJuly,asIsaid/(was)saidinmylastletter。