原书主词条 · 5 个连续词条

after

原书 PDF 第 99—101 页

after¹

after/in

问

下面是一道多项选择题：

He will be back ____ three o'clock.

A. in B. after C. for D. on

我们班同学对于选 A(in) 还是选 B(after) 发生了争论。请指教。

答

在表示以现在为起点的“在……之后”这个含义时，介词in之后应接时间段(a period of time)，介词after之后则应接时间点(a point of time)。例如：

It's two o'clock. I'll come in an hour( = at three o'clock). (LDCE) 现在是两点,我一小时后回来(即三点钟回来)。
I shall come round in a day or two. (Voynich) 我一两天之后回来。
He'll come back after seven o'clock. 他将在七点钟之后回来。

但是，当以某个过去的时间为起点时，则 after 之后既可接时间点，也可接时间段：

Just after seven the rain began to fall. (Du Maurier) 刚过七点,就开始下雨了。
After a year and half of war Russia was badly defeated. (Hazen) 战争过了一年半,俄国被打得惨败。
After seven days of this I went to a party. (NCE) 这样过了七天之后,我去参加一个聚会。

不难看出,上道多项选择题应当选 B(after)。

有了上面的知识,再来做下面的题,就轻而易举了:

He will graduate ____ three years. A. after B. in C. for D. from
His mother will come back ____ four o'clock. A. in B. on C. after D. to
The fall semester begins ____ September 1. A. at B. in C. after D. during(TOEFL)
The doctor will be free ____. A. 10 minutes later B. after 10 minutes C. in 10 minutes D. 10 minutes after(全国高考,92-20)

after²

after two days + 动词将来时

问

《英语相关词语辨异词典》(外研社, p. 19) 着重指出：“表达时间，介词 after 如果是用于一般过去时态,是作‘在……以后’讲;如果是表达时间的一点不是一段,则要用于一般将来时态。”

请问 after + 时间段真的不能与动词将来时连用吗？

答

一般说来,after + 时间段与动词的将来时连用,同 in + 时间段与动词的将来时连用,意义是不同的。前者表示“从将来的某个时间点算起的若干时间之后”,而后者表示“从现在算起的若干时间之后或之内”。

I'll see you in a week. (a week 是指从现在说话时刻算起的一周之内或之后) 我会在一个星期内(后)来看你的。
I'll call on him next Monday and I'll call again after two weeks. (after two weeks 是指从下周一算起的两周后) 下周一我去拜访他，两周后我再去拜访他。
I think you'd better go to the technical school, and after a few years you'll be able to work as a technician in our factory. 我认为你最好是上技术学校，那样，几年后你就能在我厂当技术员了。

[附注]偶尔,after + 时间段与动词的将来时连用,亦可表示从“现在时刻算起的若干时间之后”,见下条。

after³

after two years + 动词将来时

问

Wang Bing is leaving the USA after two years. (《高中英语教科书》)

根据我国英语教学上的要求,after + 时间段只能表示从过去某个时间点算起的“在……之后”,而不能表示从现在算起的“在……之后”。据此,我认为上句中的 after 必须改为 in。

答

我们在上条中已经谈到,after + 时间段通常是表示“从将来某个时刻算起的若干时间之后”,但是,正像薄冰教授所指出的那样,after + 时间段也可表示“从现在时刻算起的若干时间之后”。例如:

I'll see you again after three days. 三天后我再去看你。
“If you fail to pay back the loan after three years, my company will take over the St. Gregory Hotel.” “I shall keep my hotel. I shall be able to improve affairs in three years.” (Arthur Hailey [Can], 1974) “如果你在三年之后不能还清借款，我的公司就会接管圣格雷戈里旅馆。”“我会保住我的旅馆的。在三年之内我一定能够改善业务。”

由此例可以明显地看出,after three years 是指“从说话时算起的三年后”,而 in three years 在这里是指“三年内”。因此,你所问的句子不应看作是病句,也不一定非把 after 改为 in 不可。

由此看来,下列形式的试题有必要加以改进:

His father will be back from London ____ a few days.

A. since B. in C. on D. after(《2001 北大清华高考状元易错题宝典》，北京理工大学出版社，p. 103)

after⁴

after/later(after + 时间段/时间段 + later)

问

(1) Half an hour later she woke up and began to cry. (2) After a few minutes she started to cry again. 请问 after two days 与 two days later 在意义上有什么区别？

答

可以把 after two days 和 two days later 看作是同义表达手段,而不必去抠它们之间的区别:

However, after about two hours, they were able to get close enough and about 70 people escaped from the fire in the helicopters. 大约过了2小时之后，直升机才靠近他们，大约有70人乘直升机从大火中逃了出来。
The spaceship travelled very fast and after four days the astronauts got to the moon. 宇宙飞船飞得很快，四天后宇航员便到达了月球。 [附注]在与过去时连用时,时间段+after的用法也是正确的,见下条和later $^{2}$ 。

after⁵

two days later/two days after

问

Several days ____, he had to leave for another city. A. ago B. later C. before D. after(安徽省02中考-52) 书上给的答案是 B,能否选 D 呢?

答

选项 B 固然正确,选项 D 也没有错误。several days later 与 several days after 的意思是相同的。这就是说 after 也可以用作副词(见 later):

He left on Monday and returned two days after. (《新英汉词典》增补本, p.211) 他星期一离开, 两天后便回来了。
It happened twenty years after. (DEC) 这事发生在 20 年以后。