人民教育出版社新修訂的高一英語教材已經出版使用。在使用過程中,筆者發現了兩個迷惑的問題:make fire和each other's face。這些表達法與筆者手頭的詞典相矛盾,好像教材錯了。可是教材畢竟具有權威性,不會有這么明顯的錯誤。老師不能回避這些問題,即使老師暫時回避了,學生也會提出來。因此,在教學時感到比較棘手。

make fire

On the island, Chuck has to learn to survive all alone. He has to learn how to collect water, hunt for food, and make fire.(SB 1, p.4)

一般的詞典都為:make a fire(生火),而且是用粗體詞排印的,說明是固定詞組。筆者查閱了英國國家語料庫(British National Corpus, 簡稱BNC)的"簡單檢索"(Simple Search)(網址 : http://thetis.bl.uk/lookup.html )。查閱make a fire,查到14個句子,現舉其中的幾個例句如下:

ADY 1572 Make a fire with lots of hot embers.

ALH 2544 He did not make a fire tonight, nor eat any supper.

FUB 534 However he looked after his animals with great care, brushing and combing them every evening, giving them the same food as he had himself, and chopping wood to make a fire so that they should be warm at night.

GW8 1873 He found wood to make a fire, and prepared breakfast.

HDB 141 Placed in front of us was a large pole, inside the pole was a fuel which we would be able to make a fire with.

JY8 961 But knowing how to make a fire might just save your life one day, so you'd better watch me carefully in case you have to do this yourself.

JY8 1336 Why did you pretend not to know how to make a fire, if the outdoors is no novelty to you。

查閱make fire,查到5個句子。

CAC 2094 In a thunderous rage, she sent rain to the earth to extinguish Maui's fires; however, the man managed to hide Mafulke's two thumbs from the deluge, and ever since, man has been able to make fire by rubbing two squat sticks together.

CDV 1111 Around him cluster characters who are immortal, like Elrond or Legolas, who can make fire or ride on eagles, while he himself can summon the dead.

G1Y 1474 Johnson: Sir, a man cannot make fire but in proportion as he has fuel.

KRO 1510 Year and year since I used to get up make fire for Alice in the mornings, this is, must be ten or twelve year since, and light a cig up.

可見,make a fire與make fire都是正確的英語,make a fire常用,make fire少用。

each other's face

Now, the water, which was cold as ice and flowed faster than a river, was above her knees. Jeff and Flora looked into each other's face with a look of fright.(SB1, p.25)

《美國傳統詞典》在each other詞條的usage中有兩個例句:

1.The boys wore each other's coats.

2.They had forgotten one another's names.

筆者同樣查閱了British National Corpus,查到了這樣一個句子。

JY1 1394 Aware, as she most certainly was, that she could not be pleased to see him...,grief, if past experience was anything to go by, they'd no doubt be going for each other's throats before the meal was half over..., Leith returned to the kitchen and prepared some salad.

可見,each other's和one another's后既可用單數名詞也可用復數名詞。