时间:2018-11-30 作者:英语课 分类:美语听力与发音技巧


英语课

美语听力与发音技巧 第22期(a 和 the 的用法)


Welcome to Daily Tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on using the articles “a” and “the” correctly.
More specifically, today’s tip is on the difference between using “a” or “an” before a singular countable 1 noun and using “the” or “the(i:)” before a singular countable noun. Most frequently, both “a” and “the” are used to refer to a specimen 2 of a group of things, for example, “a table” and “the table” both refer to one table out of the group of all tables. When people say “the table”, they mean the table that we’ve been talking about and which you know about. So if you begin to talk about a new object about which your listener knows nothing, you must use the article “a”. But after you have introduced the object, or future references are preceded by the article “the”. Let’s take a simple example. “I bought a table yesterday. The table is in the living room. I really like the table.” Did you notice how the article “a” was used first, and then after that, the article “the” was used. If you said, “I bought the table yesterday” instead of “I bought a table yesterday”, you would mean that you and the listener are talking about some table previously 3. If you hadn’t talked about any table previously, the listener would be confused and would probably ask you, “What table?”
Let take another example. “I put together a jigsaw 4 puzzle yesterday. Really? How often do you put together a jigsaw puzzle?” Notice that the article “a” was used in both sentences before “jigsaw puzzle”. That’s because the question, “How often do you put together a jigsaw puzzle” was not referring to the same jigsaw puzzle mentioned in the first sentence. If you ask, “How often do you put together the jigsaw puzzle?” you would be asking how often the listener put together the same jigsaw puzzle, you would be saying the person puts together, then takes apart, then puts together the same jigsaw puzzle over and over again. And that’s a silly thing to ask.
So remember, “the” is used to refer to a previously mentioned specimen, something about which the listener knows. The article “a” is used to refer to a specimen which hasn’t been mentioned before, something which the listener doesn’t know about.
This has been today’s tip on learning English. Tune 5 in tomorrow for another tip.



1 countable
adj.可数的,可以计算的
  • The word "person" is a countable noun.person这个词是个可数名词。
  • Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.可数名词有单数和复数之分。
2 specimen
n.样本,标本
  • You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
  • This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。
3 previously
adv.以前,先前(地)
  • The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
  • Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
4 jigsaw
n.缕花锯,竖锯,拼图游戏;vt.用竖锯锯,使互相交错搭接
  • A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
  • Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。
5 tune
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整
  • He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子,并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
  • The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
学英语单词
a.s.m.
Afterlehen
akama
Al Capone
anarcho-capitalistic
angiocarpian
annular fir-tree blade root
Asymmetric volatility
attrape
Autotron
Ban Khlong Hin
Barcelinhos
betail
biocompasses
black-poll
Buy-ups
calcium bichromate
capital intensive goods
carbohydrate mapping
cathode ray picture tube
centrifugal dust remover
colir comparator pyrometer
comament
dermocyma
dobells
Edridge-Green lantern tests
electric-signal storage tube
enamelum
extensor fossa
fault-fold mountains
Figitidae
footprints on the sands of time
forging die block
fragmentation reaction
gantry legs
gaseous detonation
go tab
gour
great north mt.
hertfordshires
high frequency transmitter
illumination of deck
interparticle adherence
interruption of aortic arch
jet front
kami
Karantsay
Kibossi
kymographion
L-type controller
laser welding head
lending and borrowing business
lerew
malus robusta (carr.) rehd.
mammaliamorphs
maunas
maximum total mass
mean girl
Mishrif
neocyprideis periformis
neritic environment
noice
nuptialis tabulae
nymphaea
Ordinance of Administrative Reconsideration
oscilloscopes
overdiffuse
park type
Pid'ma
pit signal
Plectranthus amboinicus
primitive pushdown machine
process chemistry for wastewater treatment
refinement of procedure
reservoir hydraulics
resupinated
ricota
rienzi
ring net
rippock
Sanary-sur-Mer
sand loader
Sapello
savvying
service-wide
shoulder ham
silencing splitter
slip dress
solemn statement
stepping ring
symmetric impedance
taru
termianl guidance
tetracyanocuprate
That cock won't fight.
tribrachial monster
Unseasoned Security
vacuum method
valvular disease of heart
vulvitis vulvovaginitis
wagon spout
Ya Tan Tzu