不定冠词和定冠词使用辨析
After breakfast, I sent the children to school and then I went to the shop. It was still early when I returned home. The children were at school, my husband was at work and the house was quiet. So I decided to make some meat pies. In a short time I was busy mixing butter and flour and my hands were soon covered with sticky pastry. At exactly that moment, the telephone rang. Nothing could have been more annoying. I picked up the receiver between two sticky fingers and was dismayed when I recognized the voice of Helen Bates. It took me ten minutes to persuade her to ring back later. At last I hung up the receiver. What a mess! There was pastry on my fingers, on the telephone, and on the doorknobs. I had no sooner got back to the kitchen than the doorbell rang loud enough to wake the dead. This time it was the postman and he wanted me to sign for a registered letter!
1.语法书上说，首次提到某物需要使用不定冠词a/an, 然而，本文中，shop, postman 都是首次提到，为什么没有使用不定冠词a，却直接一上来就使用定冠词the呢？
2. Nothing could have been more annoying. 这里使用了could have done/been 没能理解，感觉作者按照她当时的心情和想法，应该使用Nothing could be more annoying 才合理呀？当时，她应该使用could be......
最佳答案 2022-02-14 16:15
1 语法书说的没有错，当你第一次提到某人或某物时，听话人不可能知道你说的是哪个人哪个事物，所以通常你要用泛指限定词a(n)。那么现在作者没有用不定冠词，而是用了特指限定词the，就说明作者认为你应该知道他说的shop和postman是哪个商店或哪个邮递员。如果她家周围有很多商店，她平时购物有时去这家商店，有时去那家商店，你就无法知道这一天她去的是哪家商店。而作者认为你肯定知道，唯一能让读者知道的就是她平时购物就去附近的那一家商店，这天她还是去那家商店。你只能也必须这么理解。同理，邮递员送信通常都是一个人管一片，平时每天送信都是这个邮递员，而不是今天是张三，明天是李四，后天又是王麻子。所以这天送挂号信的就是平时的那个邮递员，所以用the才是正确的。用a 反而是冠词使用错误了。语法是让你理解的，不是让你背诵的。
Nothing could have been more annoying. 作者的意思是以前发生过的事情没有哪件比现在这种情况更让人恼火。这是到那个时候为止所有发生过的事情中最令她恼火的事情。这就是这个句子的时间意义。你不能篡改作者的意图，随便改动句子。你只能根据作者的动词形式去理解作者说话的意图。
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