PETS－2语法讲解(243)

　　He signaled to Tom to pull over.
　　对话
　　Carol: Dinah was really annoyed with her husband Tom last week.
　　Jim: What was it this time?
　　Carol: They were driving to the supermarket and he went through a set of traffic lights just
　　as they were changing from amber to red.
　　Jim: Naughty boy, but nothing unusual.
　　Carol: Ah, but he didn't see the police patrol car not far behind.
　　Jim: What did the policeman do?
　　Carol: He signaled to Tom to pull over and when they were both parked, made Tom sit in his
　　police car and gave him a lecture on traffic safety. And then he made him pay the maximum fine.
　　Jim: No wonder Dinah was mad at him.
　　卡洛：黛娜上星期对丈夫汤姆十分不满。
　　吉姆：这次是为了什么？
　　卡洛：他们开车去超级市场。汤姆在交通灯由黄转红的时候，直闯过去。
　　吉姆：真是坏孩子，但没什么不寻常。
　　卡洛：汤姆没看到车后不远处有一辆警方巡逻车。
　　吉姆：警察怎么处理？
　　卡洛：他示意要汤姆把汽车开到一旁，待双方停下来后，就叫汤姆上警车，在交通安
　　全问题上，好好教训了他一顿，还要汤姆缴交额罚款。
　　吉姆：那怪不得那黛娜会生汤姆的气了。
　　He signaled to Tom to pull over是‘他示意要汤姆把车开到一旁’。Signal是‘信号’。驾驶汽车，必须懂得一些通用的手势：Drivers must know certain hand signals。例如：(1) The driver made a signal with his arm for a right turn（司机做了个准备右转的手势）。(2) The policeman gave Tom a signal to pull over。Signal作动词，可以及物(transitive)，也可以不及物(intransitive)，即其后可直接受词(object)，也可不带受词。He signaled to Tom to pull over，是signal的不及物用法；He signaled Tom to pull over，则是及物用法。The driver signaled to show that he was turning right也是说‘司机做了个准备右转的手势’。交通灯(traffic light)当然也是一种信号，所以a traffic light有时叫做a traffic signal。这两个词用复数形式也可以，例如：The traffic light(s) had failed（交通灯坏了）。随便一点的英文往往只说the lights，例如：The lights tell cars or walkers to go, get ready to stop, or stop（交通灯指示车辆或行人前行、准备停下或停下来）。交通灯的三种颜色，英文叫green（绿色）、amber（琥珀黄色）、red（红色），例如：(1) The lights have changed from green to amber（交通灯由绿色转为黄色）。(2) The lights were (on) red（交通灯亮起红灯）。不守法闯红灯，叫做to jump a light/the lights。