近似于不及物动词的系动词有 sit, act,arrive, blush, marry, die 和 be born 等。有人将其称为“半系动词”，因为它们介于不及物动词和系动词之间。读者对这些系动词只需了解，并且在遇到相关句子时能够正确理解即可。

我们先来看下面这篇介绍阿诺德·施瓦辛格的短文：

25 Arnold Schwarzenegger grew up in Austria. His father was apoliceman and his mother a housewife. The home didn’t have a flush toilet or refrigerator until Arnie was 14. He arrived in the U.S. a penniless 21-year-old. His wife, Maria Shiver, is an anchor woman on U.S. TV news and niece of assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Andy Warhol and Grace Jones were among the 500 guests at their wedding. Others invited who were unable to attend included the Pope and the Reagans. His hobbies include reading, collecting art and attending classical music festivals.

妙语点睛：我们来分析其中的一句话：He arrived in the U.S. a penniless 21-year-old.。首先，介词短语in the U.S. 显然是表示地点的，修饰谓语arrived，即是一个地点状语，表示“他到达了美国”。其次，名词短语a penniless 21-year-old起什么作用呢？作arrived的宾语吗？显然不行，因为arrive是不及物动词，不可能接宾语。从语义上来看，a penniless 21-year-old显然是补充说明主语he的，表示“他到达美国的时候是一个身无分文的21岁的穷小子”，即a penniless 21-year-old是一个主语补足语，也就是相当于表语。可以把这个句子改写成：He was a penniless 21-year-old when he arrived in the U.S.。从而证明这里的谓语arrived相当于一个系动词的作用，连接主语he 和表语a penniless 21-year-old。

精品译文：阿诺德·施瓦辛格在奥地利长大。他父亲是一名警察，母亲是家庭主妇。直到小阿诺德14岁时家里才有了抽水马桶和电冰箱。21岁的时候，他身无分文地来到美国。他的妻子玛丽亚·希弗是美国电视新闻的主持人，也是美国遇刺前总统约翰·F.肯尼迪的侄女。安迪·沃霍尔和格雷斯·琼斯都是参加他们婚礼的500名嘉宾之一，其他受到邀请却没能参加的客人包括教皇和里根家族的成员。他的爱好包括读书、收集艺术品和听古典音乐。

请读者再来看下面这个小故事：

26 An eagle’s egg was placed in the nest of a prairie (大草原) chicken. The egg hatched and the little eagle grew up, thinking it was a prairie chicken. The eagle did what the prairie chickens did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds. It clucked and cackled. It never flew more than a few feet because that was what the prairie chickens did. One day it saw an eagle flying gracefully and majestically in the open sky. It asked the prairie chickens,“What is that beautiful bird?” The chickens replied,“That is an eagle. It is an outstanding bird, but you cannot fly like it because you are just a prairie chicken.”So the eagle never gave it a second thought, believing that to be the truth. It lived the life of and died a prairie chicken, depriving itself of its heritage because of its lack of vision. What a waste! It was born to win, but was conditioned to lose.

妙语点睛：我们来分析其中的一句话：It lived the life of and died a prairie chicken. 我认为这是该故事中最难的一个句子了。这个句子原本的结构是 It lived the life of a prairie chicken and died a prairie chicken。也就是说名词短语a prairie chicken同时充当两个谓语部分lived the life of和died的成分。那在这里到底是什么成分呢？作宾语吗？可以肯定的是，a prairie chicken是作介词of的宾语。那么也是died的宾语吗？我们知道，die是不及物动词，不能接宾语。从语义的角度来看，即使把a prairie chicken看作是died的宾语，也是讲不通的，因为这样一来句子的意思就成了“它把一只草原鸡弄死了”，这显然不对，因为这里it就是a prairie chicken，而不是两种不同的动物。其实，这里的 die 相当于一个系动词，其后面的名词短语a prairie chicken是用来补充说明主语的，也就是说是主语补足语，可以将其改写成：It was a prairie chicken when it died. （死的时候它也就是一只普通的草原鸡。）

老师，请问这种半系动词算什么词？感觉有点难理解这种词。