could还是were able to

Sui/Han scored 136.92 points and totaled 211.11 points for the title. "We were pretty nervous," said Sui. "I'm really happy we could show what we have today on the ice, but honestly this was not the best of us. We will do the best we can and continue training hard."

这是今天在国务院APP英文版上看到的一篇文章，个人觉得could用得不合适，应改用were able to或者succeeded in showing或者managed to show会更合适，老是认为呢？

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分类：疑问句

最佳答案 2019-02-11 14:33

网友的理解很正确。

could 表示“(过去)有能力做某事”，was able to 除了这层意思外，还有一个重要的意思，就是：“设法做了某事(managed to do sth.)”，“成功地做了某事(succeeded in doing sth.)”。如果只表达“有能力做某事”这层意思，那么这两个可以互换，而意思保持不变，例如：

He was very strong and he could (= was able to) lift that big stone. 他很强壮，他能够举起那块大石头(意思是他有这个能力)。

但是，如果是第二层意思，那么，只能用was able to，不能用could，例如：

At last he was able to solve the problem.（正）

At last he could solve the problem.（误）

Only when the war was over was he able to get happily back to work.（正）

Only when the war was over could he get happily back to work.（误）

【提示】但是，当句子是否定意思时，could和was able to 则没有差别：

I couldn’t persuade him to sign the agreement. = I wasn’t able to persuade him to sign the agreement.