关于“存在”的笔记
📖 逐句对照翻译
Hello!
你好！
This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Tayyab in Pakistan about a form of the verb “be” in English.
本周的《问老师》节目中，我们回答巴基斯坦的Tayyab提出的关于英语中动词“be”的一种形式的问题。
Question
问题
Dear Teacher,
亲爱的老师，
I am always confused when it comes to the usage of “being.”
每当涉及“being”的用法时，我总是感到困惑。
Thank you,
谢谢，
Tayyab
塔亚布
Answer
回答
I’m happy to answer this question, Tayyab.
泰亚布，我很乐意回答这个问题。
Let’s start by considering a basic way we use the verb “be” in English.
让我们先来考虑一下英语中动词“be”的一个基本用法。
We commonly use this verb to link, or join, a subject with its description.
我们通常用这个动词将主语与其描述连接或结合起来。
The description will often be a noun or an adjective.
描述通常是一个名词或形容词。
The following two examples show this:
以下两个例子说明了这一点：
That man is a farmer.
那个男人是个农民。
That man is rich.
那个男人很有钱。
Expanding on this use of the verb “be,” we can call a description of how a person feels and experiences his or her life as a “state of being.”
进一步延伸动词“be”的这一用法，我们可以把人对自己感受和生活体验的描述称为“存在状态”。
A state of being can last for a short or a long time.
一种状态可以持续很短或很长时间。
However, a state of being is longer than a momentary feeling.
然而，存在状态比一时的感受更为持久。
The following examples show this usage:
以下示例展示了这种用法：
In retirement, her state of being became more relaxed.
退休后，她的身心状态变得更加放松。
His state of being has not been good in recent months.
近几个月来，他的状态一直不太好。
We can also use the word “being” to begin a description.
我们也可以用“being”这个词来开始一段描述。
This can help us describe something or someone in one sentence instead of two.
这可以帮助我们用一个句子而不是两个句子来描述某事物或某人。
For example, we could use two sentences to describe a man who does not speak very much with other people:
例如，我们可以用两句话来描述一个不怎么和别人说话的人：
Mr. Jones was someone who spoke very little.
琼斯先生是个话很少的人。
He sat quietly while others did the talking.
他静静地坐着，听别人说话。
But if we use the word “being,” we can express this idea in one sentence, as in the following example:
但如果我们使用“being”这个词，就可以用一句话表达这个意思，如下例所示：
Being a man of few words, Mr. Jones sat quietly while others did the talking.
琼斯先生是个沉默寡言的人，别人说话时他总是静静地坐着。
Here is another example of changing a description from two sentences to one sentence:
下面是另一个将描述从两句话改为一句话的例子：
Manut was very tall.
马努特非常高。
That is why he decided to play basketball instead of football.
这就是为什么他决定打篮球而不是踢足球。
Being very tall, Manut decided to play basketball instead of football.
由于个子很高，马努特决定打篮球而不是踢足球。
We can also use the word “being,” combined with the noun or adjective that follows it, as the subject of a sentence.
我们也可以将“being”一词与其后的名词或形容词结合，作为句子的主语。
Consider the following examples:
考虑以下示例：
Being a parent has helped me better understand my own parents.
为人父母让我更好地理解了自己的父母。
Being open to criticism will help you improve your work.
乐于接受批评有助于你改进工作。
In these examples, the phrases “being a parent” and “being open to criticism” are the subjects of the sentences.
在这些例子中，“being a parent”和“being open to criticism”这两个短语是句子的主语。
Lastly, we can use the word “being” as a noun to describe a highly intelligent form of life.
最后，我们可以将“being”一词用作名词，用来描述一种高度智慧的生命形式。
Humans are beings, and somewhere in the universe, other intelligent beings might exist.
人类是一种存在，而在宇宙的某个地方，可能还存在着其他智慧生命。
For our readers and listeners, what are your questions about American English?
对于我们的读者和听众，你们对美国英语有什么疑问吗？
We’d like to hear from you.
我们期待您的来信。
Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
请发送电子邮件至learningenglish@voanews.com。
And please include where you are from in your email, too.
并且请在邮件中也注明你来自哪里。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是“问老师”栏目的全部内容。
I’m Andrew Smith.
我是安德鲁·史密斯。
Andrew Smith wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.
安德鲁·史密斯为VOA英语学习频道撰写了这节课。
