1.形容某人很有名
如何形容某人很有名？最常見的說法是somebody is famous/well-known/renown，有沒有其他說法呢？可以看看The Economist是如何對范冰冰進行報道的：
IT IS hard to go a day in China without seeing Fan Bingbing. The doe-eyed starlet gazes from film posters (she has averaged four films a year for the past decade), airbrushed ads for global brands and glossy magazine covers.
開頭的句子很巧妙：It is hard to go a day in China without seeing Fan Bingbing. 這裡用了雙重否定，即“在中國幾乎每一天都能看到范冰冰”，下一句解釋了原因：因為她經常出現在電影海報、國際大牌廣告以及雜誌封面上。我們可以借鑑第一句來說明某人很有名：It is hard to go a day in XX without…
舉個例子：
It is hard to go a day in the US without hearing news about Donald Trump, whose capriciousness and narcissism constantly put him in the limelight.
除此之外，還可以使用下面這個說法：
AS THE second-richest person in the world, and with a half-century record of investing success, Warren Buffett is a household name worldwide.
這裡作者用a household name（一個家喻戶曉的名字）來形容巴菲特，非常恰如其分。我們可以使用該短語來說明某人很有名，例如：
As the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma is a household name in China.
2.一個讓步句
下面這個句子出自The Economist商業板塊對於京東採用無人機送貨的報道：
JD may have added drones to daily Chinese village life, but whether they will make financial sense for the company over time remains to be seen.
這個句子雖然用詞不難，但其中有很多值得注意的地方，比如上半句JD may have added drones to daily Chinese village life 這裡may have done something是一種表示猜測的用法，即“京東可能已經讓無人機進入中國的鄉村生活”。
下半句make financial sense是一個很地道的用法，make sense的含義是“（某行為方式是）明智的，合乎情理的”，make financial sense可以理解為“在經濟上是明智的，能夠產生良好經濟效益的”。Over time是一個常見搭配，含義是“慢慢地，漸漸地”。句子最後的remain to be seen同樣也是一個固定搭配，它的含義是“（某事情）尚不確定”。
因此，整個句子連起來意思是：京東可能已經讓無人機進入中國的鄉村生活，但它們在後面能否為公司帶來經濟效益還有待觀察。
從上面的句子中可以提取出一個句式：…may have…but whether…remains to be seen. 這是一個讓步句型，用於說明某事情表面上是如此，但實際上能否做到……還有待觀察。例如：
Online education may have lowered the cost of learning, but whether it will enable students to learn more effectively remains to be seen.
3.一個舉例句型
我們在之前的系列中講過幾個用於舉例的句式，比如be it (they) / whether it (they) be, in the form of… 這裡再補充一個說法：
Otherwise, supply chains will be put at risk and governments will probably be drawn into the business of picking winners. To see how easily that happens, witness the thousands of requests by American importers for exemptions from Mr Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs.
上面句子中有這樣一個表達：witness the thousands of requests… 其中witness something是一個固定用法，它的意思類似於let’s witness something…（讓我們看看……）
從這裡我們可以提取出一個句型：To see how A, witness B （要……看看……就知道了），它可以通過例子B來驗證A，舉兩個例子：
(1) To see how technological advances change our lives,
witness the internet, an invention that connects the world and boosts the spread of knowledge.(2) To see how ordinary people can rise to stardom, witness Wang Ju, a contestant on the singing competition, Produce 101, a Chinese reality television show.
4.證明某事
觀察母語人士寫的文章，你會發現一些很簡單但我們不一定會用的單詞或短語，比如剛剛提到的make financial sense，接下來要說的一個單詞也屬於這種類型：
It would be a challenge to find a recent annual report of any big international company that justifies the firm's existence merely in terms of profit, rather than “service to the community”.
這裡出現了一個很好用的詞justify，它的意思是“證明（決定、行為或想法）正當；表明……必要”，justifies the firm's existence merely in terms of profit 即“僅僅通過利潤本身來證明公司存在的價值”。
Justify後面可以接名詞或者動名詞，我們可以使用它來證明某事情有價值，有正當意義。例如：
Some people argue that since there are still hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, it is difficult to
justify spending so much money on space exploration.總結：
這期一共介紹了以下幾個表達：
(1) It is hard to go a day in XX without…
(2) …may have…but whether…remains to be seen
(3) To see how A, witness B
(4) justify
感興趣的同學可以對這些短語句型做造句練習，以進一步加深印象。
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