PETS－2语法讲解(267)

Put “sailing ships” into one of the search engines.
　　对话 　　Glyn：I've just been to the library but had no luck at all.
　　Cecil：What were you after?
　　Gyln：I was trying to get some information on sailing ships for an article I'm writing.
　　Cecil：Why don't you go on the net and put "sailing ships" into one of the search engines, like Google or Yahoo? I'm sure you'll get tons of information.
　　Glyn：Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
　　Cecil：What planet are you on?
　　格林：我刚刚去过图书馆，但是徒劳无功。
　　塞梭：你想找什么？
　　格林：我要找些帆船的资料，用来写一篇文章。
　　塞梭：你为什么不上网，把‘帆船’二字输入一个搜寻引擎，例如Google或雅虎？你一定会获得大量数据。
　　格林：啊，我可没有想到这个办法。
　　塞梭：你是活在哪个行星上的？
　　今天这段对话的最后一句What planet are you on?和to be from/on another planet（来自另一行星/在另一行星上）一样，是说人家脱离现实或不切实际，例如：You must be from another planet. How can you expect her, a young woman with a medical degree, to stay at home and do housework after marriage?（你真荒唐！她年轻，有医科学位，婚后怎能要她留在家里做家务？）。
　　留意I was trying to get some information on sailing ships一语。Information（数据）是不可数名词(uncountable noun)，多少都不可说informations或an information，其后则可用介系词on或about表示 ‘关于（某方面的资料）’，例如：I have an important piece of information about/on this matter（我有一项关于这件事的重要数据）。
　　上网找数据，可利用一些特设的站台，即search engine，例如：(1) Two of the most popular search engines on the Internet are Google and Yahoo（互联网上两个深受欢迎的搜寻引擎是Google和雅虎）。(2) Indexing a myriad of websites, Yam is a search engine particularly useful for finding information in Chinese（番薯藤可检索无数网站。这个搜寻引擎对找寻中文数据尤其有用）。
　　Yam这个字，本来就是指‘番薯’，例如：I like roasted yams（我爱吃烤番薯）。‘番薯藤’当是取‘攀引至其它网站’含义。Yahoo则是表示兴奋的叫声，例如：Yahoo, I've got a job!（呵呵，我找到工作了！）然则‘雅虎’应是指找到数据时兴奋大叫