Ten and Voice 时态和语态
I. Ten
By ten, we mean a grammatical category indicating when and how a stated action takes place. In theories of modern linguistics, English has two tens, prent and past; and two aspects, progressive and perfect. But more prevailing in China’s EFL teaching is a traditional view that the ten contains two concepts, time and aspect. The former includes past, prent, future, and past future; while the latter covers simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous. In conquence, it is generally believed that there are sixteen tens in the English language. Another important point about ten in English is that different tens are indicated by different verb forms, involving the u of auxiliary verbs. In the Chine language, however, there is no grammatical ten and the time reference is expresd by adverbials, phras of time, and so forth. The following table shows clearly what verb form should be ud for each ten. (The verb “write” is taken for example.)
time aspect | simple | continuous | perfect | prefect continuous |
prent | write/writes | am/is/are writing | 乔布斯 演讲 have/has writtenblack and yellow | have/has been writing |
past | wrote | was/were writing | had written | had been writing |
future | shall/will write | shall/will be writing | shall/will have written | shall/will have been writing |
past future how to forget | should/would write | should/would be writing | 卷心菜的营养价值should/would have written | should/would have been writing |
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After we know what verb forms are ud for different tens, a new question is facing us: in what situations should we u each ten? This question is of great significance becau only a good understanding of it can lead language learners to proficiency in the u of verbs.
1.1 The Prent Tens
The Simple Prent Ten is often ud to denote an action which takes place frequently at the prent time, or a prent existence or state of affairs that the subject is in. It should also be borne in mind that a future action arranged according to the schedule and one in adverbial claus of time, condition, or concession both call for a verb in its simple prent ten. Furthermore, this ten can be ud for scientific statements and proverbs, in which an eternal truth is illuminated, or for sports commentaries, news titles, stage or picture descriptions, plot introductions, and so on.
(1) He often surfs on the Internet for a great variety of information.
(他经常上网获取各种各样的信息。)
There exist all kinds of lotteries in our society.
(我们的社会中有各种彩票。)
It is easier to make a hundred watches agree than ten women.
(一百只手表易统一，十个女人难一致。)
Water boils at 100℃, and rosiefreezes at 0℃.
(水100摄氏度沸腾，0摄氏度结冰。)
Our trip bicyclesstarts from Taiyuan today and finishes up in Hong Kong in ten days.
2011内蒙古高考分数线(我们的旅程今天从太原出发，十天之后在香港结束。)
Chine tennis faces uphill task at London Olympics.
(在伦敦奥运会上中国网球面对艰巨任务。)
In his play Shakespeare makes his characters live through their language.
(莎士比亚在话剧中通过语言使人物鲜活起来。)
Sam and Molly are a very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theatre, they encounter a thief in a dark alley, and Sam is murdered.
limited(山姆和莫莉是幸福的一对，彼此深爱对方。一天晚上，他们看戏归来，在回新公寓的路上遇到歹徒，山姆遇害了。)
The Prent Continuous Ten is commonly ud for an event that is taking place simultaneously with the speech, or a repeated action that is in progress during the prent period. Another important u of this ten is that it can be ud to express a plan in the near future. We should also note that the u of adverbs of frequency in the Prent Continuous Ten can indicate a strong emotional feeling, such as compliment, anger, sympathy, dissatisfaction and curiosity.
(2) We are having a party to celebrate Jes’s eighteenth birthday.
(我们正在举办一个派对为杰西庆祝十八岁生日。)
He is preparing for the coming examination the days.
(这些天他正在为即将来临的考试做准备。)
I am considering accepting your suggestion at prent.
(我现在正考虑接受你的建议。)
I’m eing my brother off at the station this afternoon.
(今天下午我要去车站为我哥哥送行。)
She is always borrowing money and forgetting to pay you back.
(她总是借钱，却忘了还。)
He is constantly disturbing me while I am at work.
(他不断地在我工作时打扰我。)
You burson marstellerare perpetually thinking of others first.
(你总是先考虑别人。)
The Prent Perfect Ten basically refers to a past occurrence that has no specified time indication but bears a relation with the prent, or a state that started in the past, and continues up to the prent. It should be remembered all the time that a non-terminative verb is required for its reference to a durative state.
(3) So far, our factory has produced about eighteen million cars.
(至今我们厂已生产了1800万辆汽车。)
In the past twelve months the rearch members have studied the effectiveness of many materials in a home building.
(在最近十二个月以来，研究员们研究了众多家装材料的有效性。)
His first novel has received good reviews since it came out last month.
(他的首部小说自上月出版以来收到了好评。)
I have been and always will be conscious of my moral obligations as a citizen.
(我一直并将永远意识到作为一个公民的道德义务。)
The Prent Perfect Ten is often meant to show a state that started in the past and continues up to the prent, which is similar to the Prent Perfect Ten, but this ten has an implication that the state will still go on or has just come to an end.
(4) Tom has been working in the library every night over the last three months.四六级成绩短信查询
(近三个月来，汤姆每天晚上都在图书馆工作。)
I have to e the doctor becau I have been coughing a lot lately.
