�果日�- 他死了、�照笑容 - 古德明

他死了、護照笑容 - 古德明

問：《華盛頓郵報》報道廣播界名人Casey Kasem之死，標題是Casey Kasem is dead，內文則說Casey Kasem has died at age 82（凱西．格森八十二歲去世），又說Kasem died Sunday morning（格森星期天上午去世）。記者用is dead、has died、died三個時式說同一件事，是要避免行文呆板嗎？


答：英文一般不會為免「行文呆板」而改用不同動詞時式。時式應按句子意思使用。英文說「某人死了」，多用is dead；假如死去不久，也會用has died；又假如說明死亡時間，則用過去式的died，例如：My husband is dead / has died: he died almost five hours ago（我丈夫死了，是將近五個鐘頭之前死的）。把這一句的five hours改為five years（五年），則句子上半截應用is dead，不用has died。《華盛頓郵報》那三個寫法，都是根據上述原則。


留意「他去世五年了」不可說He has died for five years，因為die是指斷氣那一刻，時間短促，不可能維持五年。「他去世五年了」應說He has been dead for five years、He died five years ago或It is / It has been five years since he died / since his death。


問：英文歌"People's Parties"（世人的派對）有以下一句：They've got passport smiles。這是什麼意思？


答：Passport smiles即「護照相片中的笑容」。這樣的笑容沒有什麼真感情。歌詞作者說「派對中人臉上掛着護照相片般的笑容」，是嘲諷世人虛偽。