8 would rather + be adj. doing than doing sth …要求词性或结构上相一致的疑问
“ would rather…than结构里，必须注意前项和后项的对称，即than所连接的词项必须与前面的词项在词性或结构上相一致。
…
6. McCarthy, though I liked him, gave me the impression he'd rather be home reading St. Thomas Aquinas than going into a tar-paper shack to see how poor people lived or flying halfway around the world to speak against racism. (B. Clinton, My Life) 尽管我喜欢麦卡锡，但他给我的印象是，他宁可坐在家里读读圣托马斯·阿奎那也不愿意走进搭着油毡的棚子，亲眼看看穷人是如何生活的，或是飞行半个地球的里程，去发表反对种族主义的演讲。（《我的生活》）”
[问]:老师们, 可以看作than后面省去be on business之意吗? 老是想成,对比be home不是要go into a tar-paper shack to see…,但是这样就很难说结构对称了.
最佳答案 2021-08-07 20:09
你提到“ would rather…than“结构里，必须前项和后项的对称，我觉得也应该是这样，它和rather than（不分隔）的用法不同，后者可以接不定式或动名词。我曾看到国外英语论坛谈到这个问题的解释：When you use the structure: I would rather X than Y, then X and Y must match in grammatical terms. So we can say: I would rather swim than go to the party.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/286011/would-rather-do-than-doing
但是，如果有省略成分，则形式上不一定对等。如：I'd rather have hot weather than cold. (牛津实用英语语法298词条）。但你的问题句，我觉得理解为be on business的省略不合适，应该把going改为go更合适，还有后面的flying 同时改为fly. 作者这样使用，也许是强调和reading St. Thomas Aquinas对比的缘故，却忽略了语法规则。
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