Ask & Learn聞問(wèn)切英語(yǔ)口語(yǔ):Aspire to Having
讀者 Gilbert Ho 讀報(bào)時(shí)看到以下句子:
We may aspire to having a Japanese toilet.
Gilbert 問(wèn)查字典看到例句 "She aspires to become the President",即說(shuō)明 aspire 后面應(yīng)該是 to infinitive,那上述句子是否應(yīng)改成 "aspire to have a Japanese toilet" 或 "aspire for a Japanese toilet?
Gilbert 說(shuō)得對(duì),aspire 后面是可以用 to infinitive 的。因此 "aspire to have a Japanese toilet" 完全正確。但 "aspire to having a Japanese toilet" 也沒(méi)錯(cuò)。Oxford English Dictionary (OED) 指出 aspire to 后面可以是名詞,having 在這里作動(dòng)名詞(gerund)用,OED 所引用的例句最早出于十五世紀(jì)。
此外,aspire 后面更可用其他前置詞如 with、after、at 來(lái)連接名詞,甚至可以單獨(dú)和名詞連用,中間不用加上前置詞,但跟據(jù)OED的說(shuō)法,這個(gè)用法已經(jīng) obsolete(過(guò)時(shí))了。
而 aspire for 同樣也是過(guò)時(shí)的用法。所以,"aspire for a Japanese toilet" 雖然沒(méi)錯(cuò),但按照OED,已經(jīng)很少人這樣說(shuō)了。
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