2009年9月11日星期五

停止服務?被困山腰

看地下列車的電子螢光幕,見「此列車以寶林為終站」的英文是 The train will stop service at Po Lam。英文這樣說正不正確?
Stop service是「停止服務」,通常指長期停止,例如:( 1) The airline decided to stop service to a few cities because of low profits(由於利潤少,航空公司決定停止飛往幾個城市的服務)。( 2) The bus company stopped service on some routes to cut costs(巴士公司停止經營一些路線,以減輕成本)。要說「以……為終站」, stop service恐怕不是貼切用語,改說 The destination of this train is Po Lam等,應該好一點。
英文有時會說 Tourists are stranded AT the airport(遊客在機場進退不得),有時又會說 Tom was stranded ON the island(湯姆流落島上,無法脫身)。然則下面這一句應用哪個介系詞( preposition)?── The hikers were stranded in/ on/ at the hillside because of a sudden change in the weather(由於天氣突變,遠足者被困山腰)。
動詞之後用什麼介系詞,要看介系詞的受詞( object)。「在機場」、「在島上」習慣說 at the airport和 on the island,所以有 be stranded at the airport和 be stranded on the island的不同說法。「在山腰」是 on the hillside,不用 in或 at,例如: There are apple trees on the hillside(山腰上有些蘋果樹)。
Strand之後當然也可以用 in,例如: I found myself stranded in a foreign country, unable to speak its language and with no money(我流落他邦,既不懂當地語言,又沒有錢)。

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