一连若干单位时间内，在每个单位时间中都发生某事，英语有不同的表达法。以下是几种比较常见的，请看：

1. EventuaJly，I too got first prize three consecutive years running….

                  —Ronald Blythe: Aken-field-Portrait of an English Village, Penguin 1969/1975, p.138

2. He has worked oa three successive Saturdays.

                  —Far East English-Chinese Dictionary

3. Several hundred people had sat in the room for five hours at a stretch.

                 —Douglas Hurd & Andrew Osmond: Send Him Victorious, London 1968, p.42

4. I lost my calves almost two years in a row, and it can take several years to regain the losses of just one bad winter.

—National Geographic, September 1977, p.375

5. ... you are going to walk 20,30,40 miles a day for months on end.

6. Men at Forties Field work grueling 12-hour shifts for 14 days straight.

                  —National Geographic, April 1977, p.522

以上六例可分为两大类：例1、2和6都用形容同定语表达“一连”，其中例6的“straight”为后置定语；其余各例中，则“一连”由介词短语表达。当然，以上六例不能包括全部表达法在内，如例2用的虽是形容词“successive”，但也不妨用介词短语写作“on three Saturdays in succession”；例 1 中的 “running” 也可略去。

此外，有的表达法如“at a stretch”有“一下子”，“一口气”的意思。又如“succssive”与 “consecutive”，据 Far East English-Chinese Dictionary是略有区别的：前者“着重按次序或无间断之接续的概念”，而后者则“着重连续的绵密或紧接的观念”。但实际上两者之间究竟有什么明显的区别呢？ LUCE虽要求比较：“successive”一 following one after the other; “consecutive” 一 following in regular or unbroken order”。但 Far Eastern 词典之说不恰恰与此适得其反吗?！所以，也许还是 WNCD词典比较朴实——把“successive”和 “consecutive”列为同义。

责任编辑：admin