Lost in English

An awful silence hung over the room, broken only by the crossing out of sentences and the crumpling of paper. (On Writing Well by William Zinsser)

一種可怕的靜默籠罩整個房間，惟一的干擾就只有劃掉句子和揉紙的聲音。(如何寫好英文/威廉．金瑟)

箇中奧妙 

對於任何有志在英文寫作方面更上層樓的人來說，On Writing Well一書絕對能提供直中要害的指引與啟發。作者William Zinsser本人下筆淺顯風趣，自然是所謂好英文的最佳範例。這段文字正是作者描述給美國一群校長上寫作課時，學生們當場下筆習作的情形，寥寥數語，一幅有著細微聲響劃破一室寂靜的生動畫面，立即彷彿在目。最為突出的是，作者連用二個動名詞，crossing與crumpling，鮮明清晰地點出發出這些聲響的動作。

依循往例，我們可以改寫原句，作為一種文法練習:

An awful silence hung over the room, which was broken only by the crossing out of sentences and the crumpling of paper.

An awful silence hung over the room. It was broken only by the crossing out of sentences and the crumpling of paper.

The crossing out of sentences and the crumpling of paper were the only sounds that broke the awful silence hanging over the room.

關鍵字詞 

1. awful: 這個形容詞一般意指糟糕、令人不快或可怕的(terrible)，look (feel) awful是指看起來(覺得)生病了。另外，awful在口語上也可作副詞用，語意上等同於extremely, very，而awfully則是正式的副詞。

 His grim face told us that he must have had an awful day at the office.

     The fish tastes awful. It must have gone bad.

     You look awful. Is everything all right?

     It’s awful silly of me to have done something like that.

     We are awfully sorry about what happened today. 

2. silence: 這個名詞當然多半以不可數型態出現，此處作者的意圖是要強調某種特定的靜默，或者說幾無聲響的片刻，所以用了an awful silence。除了安靜，silence也有沉默或斷絕聯絡之意。

     “While we stood in one of those silences that follow excitement, a trolley bus came by ….” (When My Girl Comes Home by V. S. Pritchett)

     Apparently too tired to defend himself, John returned to his room in silence.

     Not all city folk are used to the dead silence of the forest at night.

     A full year’s silence was broken by his letter of yesterday.

3. hung: 在作者的筆下，一種可怕的靜默似乎是以懸掛的狀態出現，並且將整個房間罩住。進一步來說，表達懸掛之意的hang (hung, hung)，及物與不及物動詞的用法都很常見，尤其要注意的是，不及物的hang要搭配相應的副詞或介詞，請看下面的例句。另外，hang也有處以吊刑、吊死之意，其過去式與過去分詞形態則須改為hanged。

     Hang your coat on the wall and come to the table.

     He just stood there with a cigarette hanging from his lips.

     A portrait of the artist now hangs in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

     We then came to a room hung with many pictures depicting his years in exile.

     He was the second convict who hanged for murder in just six months.

     The prisoner hanged himself in his cell.

4. cross out: 這個片語動詞意為在紙上槓去、劃掉，表示捨棄原先所寫或所畫的意思。cross off則用來表達在清單上劃掉已處理過或不再需要的項目。cross over指的是跨界。cross本身多半用作及物動詞(當然也可作不及物動詞)，意為穿過、跨越或交會，cross (someone’s) mind是慣用語，意為想到。

 I decided to cross out the word because it did not sound right.

     Cross off those items that have been taken care of.

     She is one of those models who are crossing over to acting.

     Crossing the desert is in effect a matter of life and death.

     The two runners seemed to have crossed the finish line at the same time.

     Our office is not far from where Fuxing North Road crosses Zhongxiao East Road.

     Our two-week journey took us to cross into Italy from France.

     It never crossed my mind that you would actually do it.

5. crumple: 這個動詞(及物與不及物)意為弄(變)皺、揉、(使)崩潰，同時也常以片語動詞crumple up的型態出現。特別值得注意的是，crumble恰好是個相似度極高的同義字，意思是(使)崩潰、瓦解。

     Not until after have I crumpled up dozens of pieces of paper could I finish the letter.

     Upon hearing the news, Bill crumpled in a heap.

     In a fit of fury, Jim crumbled the glass in his fingers.

     At that time Lehman Brothers was just like a crumbling empire.