含有left的改错题

For Napoleon, China was a giant best left sleep lest it shake the world. Now that it is rousing itself, what sort of power are we dealing with? Predatory or restrained? Economic or military? Responsible or inward-centered?

标准答案是将best left sleep 改为best left to sleep. 也就是leave sb to sth的被动形式。请教专家老师们，可否改为best left sleeping, 即leave sb doing sth. 因为中国之前是沉睡的巨人，现在仍是，最好让它保持沉睡的状态，我觉得leave sb doing sth (处于做某事的状态中)更符合实际情况。Leave sb to do sth 则表示之前没睡，现在让它去沉睡。所以best left sleeping 是否更贴切呢？

谢谢专家老师们。

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分类：短语动词

最佳答案 2018-08-14 20:25

leave sb to sth这种结构表示 to go away from a place and allow someone to continue doing something there

leave someone to something:

I’ll leave you to your crosswordpuzzle.（《麦克米伦词典》）

以下为COCA语料库类似例句：

and then leave him to his dreams.

and leave him to his mourning.

than leave him to his own devices.

and leave him to his transgression.

Mostly I leave him to his thoughts.

Gwyneth knew to leave him to his work.

I leave him to his sandwich.

由词典释义及例句可知，leave sb to sth意为离开某处，让某人在该处继续做某事。做某事是由介词to后的名词间接表示出来的。从以上例句可以看出，介词to后的名词结构为物主代词+名词，或为the+名词+of 短语。

因此，答案给出的best left to sleep中的sleep并不是介词+名词，而是不定式做宾补。

leave sb to do sth. 结构中，不定式的动作是leave这个谓语动词时间之后的未来的动作，即在leave这个动作发生的时候，不定式的动作还没有发生。该结构的过去分词left to do sth作定语，可以改为定语从句：

China was a giant best left to sleep lest it....

=China was a giant which, it was best, had been left to sleep lest it...

也就是说，过去分词left为动态动词，既表示被动，也表示完成：left的动作是在谓语was a giant之前就已经发生并结束的被动动作。在谓语时间，the giant已经处于sleep的状态了。sleep用不定式，是因为相对动词leave而言，而不是相对于谓语was a giant而言。因此不用现在分词。注意lest引导的目的状语从句修饰的是过去分词left, 而不是修饰谓语was a giant.

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曹荣禄 -

擅长：动词用法,句法问题 | 采纳率 82% | 回答于 1秒前

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刘永科 - 教育出版集团英语总顾问 & 英语系列图书主编 1秒前

擅长：语法理论,语言学,文化背景

For Napoleon, China was a giant best left to sleep lest it shake the world.

【翻译】对拿破仑来说，中国是一个最好是让其沉睡的巨人，以免它醒来让世界颤动。

be left to 可以看作一个固定词组。意为：

1. 由......来想办法

2. 由……来决定

3. 被交给.....

4. 让其处在某种状态

这里，left 是形容词用法，可以有最高级级形式：best left， to 是介词，所以sleep 是名词，不是动词。例如：

Foreign films are best left to foreigners.

外国电影最好还是让外国人看吧。

Designing and building rockets is best left to the experts.

设计和建造火箭这种任务最好留给专家们去做。

For the time being, might translation be something best left to the humans?

目前, 翻译工作最好还是由人类来做吗 ?

鉴于上述分析，就不存在网友假设的情况了。

含有left的改错题

最佳答案 2018-08-14 20:25

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