3.一词多义: Teacher:Tom, how many states are there in the US? Tom: Fifty. Teacher:Enumerate them. Tom: One, two, three, ... enumerate既有”数、点”的意思,又有”枚举、列举” 的意思。
4.习惯用法: Teacher: Jim,why can‘t we lose our heads? Jim: If we lose our heads, we will have nothing to put our hats on. to lose one‘s head当作成语用时,意思是”失 去理智,惊慌失措”,只有了解这一点,才能明白此中幽默所在。
谜语、幽默说明语法问题的也不乏其例。例如: The Mother: My daughter has been learning piano lessons under you for quite a long time. What do you think of her execution now? The pianist: That could be a nice thing to do.
execution既有”演奏”,又有”处死刑”的意思,而物主代词和它所限定的表示动作的名词之间既可以是 主谓关系,也可以是动宾关系, 因此, her execution既可理解为”她的演奏”,也可理解为”处她以死刑”,显然,钢琴家理解的是后一种意思。又如:
Willy:I thought I told you to come after supper. Milly:That‘s what I come after. Wiliy的本意是:我想我是让你晚饭后再来的。然而如果我们不把 after supper看作状语,而将come after看作是表示”寻求”的词组,把supper看成这个动词词组的宾语,同样的一句话就会变为”我想我是 让你来找晚饭吃”的意思。显然,这里的幽默产生于 对于句子结构的不同理解。
的确,英语绕口令、谜语、幽默对于英语自学的帮助是多方面的,充分地利用这块天地,寓学于嬉,定能 收到事半功倍的效果。