Lost in English

The western Indian city of Anand may soon be to paid pregnancy what Bangalore is to call centers. In 2008, more than fifty women in the city were carrying pregnancies for couples in the United States, Taiwan, Britain, and elsewhere. (Justice: What’s The Right Thing to Do?/Michael Sandel)

對付費代理懷孕這個行業而言，印度西部城市安南也許不久就可以與班加羅爾在客服中心業的地位相提並論了。在2008年，這個城市就有五十多名婦女為來自美國、台灣、英國以及其他地方的夫婦代勞而身懷六甲。（正義：一場思辨之旅/邁可．桑德爾）

箇中奧妙 

作者在第一句先提出推論，隨即在第二句提供具體數據以為佐證。

就句型而言，第一句的結構顯然是: A is to B what C is to D. (A之於B猶如C之於D。)對中英二種語文來說，這種訴諸比喻的講法倒是有一點異曲同工之妙，也就是利用讀者較熟悉的例子去說明對其較為陌生的題目，換言之，A is to B是作者要突顯的主題，而C is to D則是用來輔助說明的例子。

文法結構上what是全句核心，在此它是複合關係代名詞，也就是已內含先行詞(what=all that/the thing that)，並且在所連接的兩個子句中均為句構的一部分。一方面，整個由what引導的次要子句，在全句中(對主要子句而言)的作用是主詞補語，而就次要子句本身來說，what同樣也扮演主詞補語的角色。

另外有一種類似的講法就是As C is to D, so is A to B。請注意在這個句型當中，用來輔助說明的例子(C is to D)置於前，後半段才是全句要突顯的主題。在一篇名為「句短味長」的絕妙好文中(刊於2008年5月15日的中時人間副刊)，余光中先生提供了一個最佳範例，此一英諺的中文翻譯自然也是出自余先生之手:

As humor is deadly to romance, so is explanation to humor.

幽默乃浪漫之死敵，正如解釋乃幽默之敗筆。

關鍵字詞 

1. paid: 又一個以過去分詞充當形容詞的例子。pay本身可作動詞，以及物形態出現時意為支付、償還、給與報酬(懲罰)、前往訪問、給予(注意、敬意)，若是不及物時，除了支付、償還，也可用來表達合算、值得之意。名詞形態的pay，除了薪資、報償，也可進一步假借為形容詞表達必須付費之意，例如a pay toilet (付費公廁)。

 She paid NT$3,000 for her new dress.

We do not own the apartment until after the mortgage is fully paid.

     I swear I will pay them back for what they have done to me.

     Maybe we’ll pay you a visit sometime next year.

     In the classroom one is supposed to pay full attention to the teacher.

     Are you paying or should we go Dutch?

     You may have to pay for this mistake soon enough.

     It pays to keep a good heart.

     I just got a 10% pay raise.

2. pregnancy: 這個名詞以不可數形態出現時，就是一個泛指懷孕的集合名詞，若是可數，則意為個別的懷孕。形容詞pregnant的同義字包括expectant, expecting。

     The young girl decided that she should take a test for pregnancy.

     Can you imagine that this is already her third pregnancy? She is just going to be 20 this coming Sunday.

     Sara is an expectant mother. She is expecting again.

3. call center: 這類由二個名詞組成、表達單一概念的片語還蠻常見的，一般可將第一個名詞視為修飾第二個名詞的形容詞，例如Boy (Girl) Scout, country club, golf course, paper money, tennis court。

     Don’t confuse “woman doctor” with “woman’s doctor.” A woman doctor refers to a doctor who happens to be female; a woman’s doctor is a specialist in gynecology, that is, a gynecologist.

4. couple: 用來表達夫婦之意時，couple視為單數或複數名詞均可，就看強調的對象是個體還是整體。然而，在couple之後必須用到代名詞時，最好用they與their，而非it與its，此時用的動詞也就應該比照辦理。另外，a couple of是一個較不正式的片語，與a few相當。

 Only one couple from this part of the country was invited to the party.

The old couple are very nice to me.

The couple plan to celebrate their 10^th anniversary in Kyoto.

Their house is only a couple of miles away from ours.