陷阱的英语 老外说：英文中的陷阱——虚主语

老外说：英文中的陷阱——虚主语  

Writers, especially beginning writers, are often cautioned against using passive voice in their writing because its use slows down the pace.,由于被动语态会影响节奏，作者们(特别是初学者)经常被警告不要使用它。,Another construction that can make your writing plod is the dummy subject.,还有一种结构也会让你的文章变得拖沓，它就是虚主语。,When we use the words it and there to begin a sentence without a referent (a noun the pronoun is referring to), we’re using a dummy subject.,虚主语是指句子开头的it或there没有指代物（it、there指代的名词）。,In this pair of sentences:,下面两个句子中：,“It” refers to the movie Fantastic Four 2. The pronoun has a referent.,It指代电影《神奇四侠2》。这个代词有指代物。,In this sentence, however:,但这个句子里：,“It” has no referent, and is therefore a dummy subject.,It没有指代物，因此它是虚主语。,The same thing happens frequently with there:,这种情况也经常发生在there开头的句子上：,Dummy subjects are just one of many problems that weaken your writing by making it vague, fuzzy, and indefinite. The sentences above can be reconstructed with stronger, more definite subjects:,虚主语是让你的文章变得含糊不清的诸多原因之一。上面的句子可以用更有力、更明确的主语加以改写：,In general, unless you don’t know who is performing an action, or you want to emphasize the action of the sentence for some reason, you should avoid dummy subjects.,通常情况下，除非你不知道动作由谁做的，或是出于某种原因想要强调动作本身，否则你应该避免使用虚主语。,原文链接：,Daily Writing Tips是由数位英美写作专家维护的博客。每日更新文章,介绍从语法到词汇应用等英语知识。获得翻译和发布授权，请勿转载。