8.13 基本用法（八）：过去习惯

8.13 基本用法（八）：过去习惯

（一）

第七章着重讨论了情态动词would的虚拟假设用法，那么是不是句中一出现would，就都可以把它理解为虚拟的意思呢？在回答这个问题之前，我们先来看看特蕾莎修女（Sister Teresa）在回忆自己父母时说的这番话：

1 My own mother used to be very busy the whole day, but as soon as evening came, she would move very fast to get ready to meet my father. At that time we didn’t understand; we would laugh; we would tease her; but now I remember what a tremendous, delicate love she had for him. It didn’t matter what happened that day; she was ready with a smile to meet him.

以前，我母亲每天总是忙忙碌碌的，但是只要到了傍晚时分，她就会很快地把家里的一切都料理好，以准备迎接我父亲回家。那时我们对此都不理解，因而常常取笑她。但现在我终于明白了，这是母亲对父亲多么深厚、细腻的爱啊！不论每天发生什么事，她总是微笑着去迎接父亲回家。

从以上短文来看，这里的would并不能解释为虚拟假设的情形，因为句中特蕾莎修女说的都是她自己小时候的真实经历。所以，并不是任何时候只要句中出现了would就是虚拟用法，would在句中的含义要依据上下文的语境而定。其实，这里的would是表示过去反复发生或习惯性的动作（habitual or repeated action in the past）。

当回顾自己的孩提时代时，我们也许会这样说：

2 When I was a child, my mother would read me a story at night before bed. 小时候，晚上睡觉前妈妈常常会给我讲故事。

或许小时候我们都有过这样的经历：

3 When I was a child, I would take a flashlight to bed with me so that I could read comic books without my parents’ knowing about it. 小时候，我常常会拿着手电筒在床上看连环画，这样爸妈就不会发觉了。

我们再来看看下面这篇描写父女亲情的短文：

4 　Joan Benny remembers Sunday mornings as being her“special time”with her father, Jack Benny.

　Daddy would wake me up for breakfast about 7:30. Then we would head outside to go for a drive. Daddy would get into the car and turn the ignition key. Inevitably, nothing would happen. He would push and pull every button on the dashboard, twist all the knobs, and pump the accelerator, but the motor still wouldn’t start. At length he would sigh and say to me,“Honey, the car just won’t start until you give me a kiss.”So I did, and it did, and off we went. For a long time I believed there was some kind of scientific connection between kissing and car starting.

妙语点睛　在这里，作者不厌其烦地使用了7个would，表示关于父亲的情形发生过不止一次，而是每个周日早晨都会重复同样的情况，以至于后来她一直以为“在亲吻和汽车发动之间有某种必然的科学联系”。通过这些细致的描写，浓浓的父女之情跃然纸上，让我们读起来不禁为之感动。如果没有would来传达这种重复的情形，而只是用一般过去时，那原文顿觉索然无味。

精品译文　　琼·本尼依然记得每个周日的早晨，自己和父亲杰克本尼度过的幸福时光。

　“小时候，爸爸总是在7:30左右把我叫醒吃早饭，然后我们就开车出去兜风。爸爸先是钻进车里，准备发动汽车。可每次总是发动不起来，于是他就把汽车的仪表板上的每个按钮东拉一下、西拽一下，弄弄把手，踩踩油门，可是汽车依旧无法发动。最后，爸爸就会叹一口气，然后对我说‘宝贝，车子就是发动不了，除非你吻我一下。’于是，我就吻他一下，汽车果然就发动起来了，然后我们就开车出去了。如此一来，以至于很长一段时间内，我一直以为在亲吻和汽车发动之间有着某种必然的科学联系呢！”

我们再看看，在下面这篇文章中，作者是如何通过would来传达自己三岁时是怎样与母亲进行情感交流的：

5 As a child, I loved talking, listening, and interacting with others. I was sensitive to other people’s feelings and intuitively knew how to say the right things to make them feel better. Because I was mature for my age, grown-ups treated me more like a peer than a child and often told me about their problems. I recently learned that my mother used me as a sounding board when I was only three years old. When something was bothering her she would take me for long walks and talk to me about her problems. We would stop for a soda and I would look at her as though I totally understood, pat her on the back and say,“Everything will be all right, mother baby.”She said she actually believed me and would feel better. Obviously, these personality traits were evident early in my life but I had no idea they would be the very natural strengths and talents that would lead me to the work I love.

妙语点睛　这里有4处would都是表示过去习惯的活动：would take，would stop，would look和would feel。另外，在宾语从句they would be…和定语从句that would lead…中的两个would不是表示过去习惯的动作，而是表示过去将来时态，具有将来“预测”的意味。

精品译文　小时候，我喜欢跟人交流，听人说话。我对别人的感觉很敏感，凭直觉就能知道说什么话能让他们高兴。由于我的心理年龄比较成熟，大人们都把我看成是他们的同辈，而不是一个小孩，他们常向我倾诉他们的苦恼。现在我渐渐回想起，妈妈在我3岁的时候就已把我当成她的倾诉对象了。当她感到苦恼时，她便常带我去散步，向我倾诉。我们会在途中停下来喝杯汽水，我会以一种完全理解的目光看着她，拍拍她的背说：“一切都会好起来的，妈妈宝贝。”她说她完全相信我的话，会感觉好多了。很显然，在我小的时候，我就已具备了这种品格特质，但没想到的是，这种与生俱来的优点和天赋会引领我找到自己喜欢的工作。

请再来看下面这篇文章：

6 Winters I spent indoors in solace. My flat mates—the only friends I had—worked day and night. They were accustomed to leaving the soul behind, the need for money was so official. I would spend nights in the strange house, with creaks of a wall I did not know, and sit by the phone that our landlord had locked and think of conversations of the past, of my mother’s voice ringing, of my best friend whom I would lose contact with, and I would write letters—letters I would never send, letters that clutched the truth—that only I knew. I would cry—tears staining the ink, a smudged idea of love. I was temping then, doing mindless data entry, tapping words into a computer and moving on wondering what worth there was and how to find it. My flat mates would come home just before midnight—Mark and Craig, my two best friends. I would smile inwardly and outwardly make them tea, a sandwich, sit with them and live their lives, hear their stories—flourish in company. Sleep would be eschewed, I yearned for comfort, and company eased the etching of loneliness.

妙语点睛　上文中的would都是过去常常发生的活动，用来表示作者曾经的痛苦经历。

精品译文　冬天，我独自躲在屋里。我的室友，我仅有的朋友们，每天从早忙到晚，他们习惯了没有思想，赚钱才是天经地义的事。我一夜又一夜地一个人呆在这个陌生的屋子里，只有墙壁发出些莫名其妙的声音。我坐在被房东锁上了的电话机旁，回忆着过去的一些对话，回忆着妈妈响亮的声音，还有已失去联络的好友。我写信，写从来不曾寄出去的信，里面全是只有我才知道的真心话。我哭，泪水把字迹化掉，模糊的字迹记载了我的爱念。那时我正在做一份临时工，每天机械地把资料输入电脑，边打字边质疑着做这些工作的价值，以及如何才能找到它的价值。我的室友马克和克雷格——我最好的两个朋友，要到午夜时分才回来。我会带着满心的欢喜和满脸的笑容，帮他们泡茶、做三明治，和他们坐在一起，感受他们的生活，听他们的故事，和他们一起手舞足蹈。睡眠也被省略了，我渴望安慰，和别人呆在一起才能缓解孤独的侵蚀。

（二）

用would表示过去习惯或重复的动作时，还可以指某人一贯的行为（typical of a person）。这时，往往用来批评人们的行为或表示对他人的行为怀有某种恼怒的情绪（an annoying habit），此时would要重读。比如：

7 A: Jack would get lost, wouldn’t he? 杰克老是迷路，是吧？

B: It’s typical. 可不是嘛！

8 We all tried to stop him smoking in bed but he wouldn’t do it. 我们都试图不让他在床上抽烟，可他每次偏偏这么做。

9 He was a nice boy, but he would talk about himself all the time. 他人还不错，但就是老喜欢谈论他自己。

10 A: Bill objected. 当时比尔反对。

B: He would! 他老是反对！

值得注意的是，也可用used to来表示过去习惯的动作。但二者之间的区别是：used to可以表示过去重复的动作，也可以指过去存在的状态，有“现在不再”的含义。would常用来表示过去重复的动作，不表示过去的状态。我们再看看上面关于特蕾莎修女的例子中的第一个句子：

11 My own mother used to be very busy the whole day.

妙语点睛　这里用的是used to，而不是would，因为be very busy是过去存在的一种状态，不是动作。

精品译文　以前，我母亲每天总是忙忙碌碌的。

再如：

12 Illiteracy is still a problem in my country, but it used to be much worse.

妙语点睛　一般不说it would be much worse，因为be much worse同样表示的是一种状态。

精品译文　文盲在我们国家仍然是一个问题，但在过去更为严重。

思维总结

本节讨论了would表示过去反复发生或习惯性的动作（habitual or repeated action in the past）。此时，与used to在用法上的区别是：used to不仅可以表示过去的动作，还可以表示过去的状态；而would只表示过去的动作。

思维训练 8.13 Key

一、请在合适的地方填上would或used to。

1. I ______ be very shy. Whenever a stranger came to our house, I ______ hide in a closet.

2. When I was a child, I ______ take a flashlight to bed with me so that I could read comic books without my parents’ knowing about it.

3. I remember my aunt very well. Every time she came to our house, she ______ give me a big kiss and pinch my cheek.

4. I ______ be afraid of flying. My heart ______ start pounding every time I stepped on a plane. But now I’m used to flying and enjoy it.

二、请分析下列三段短文中would的含义与用法。

5. 下面这篇短文——Help the Suffering Children in War-torn Iraq（救助战乱中受苦的伊拉克儿童）——是某人描述自己在救助伊拉克孩子时的情景：

It was strange to drive in a city without law and order. Litter and rubbish were everywhere. Cars would drive on the sidewalks or on the wrong side of the roads. Banks, business and homes would be burnt and robbed. Cars would be hijacked. Every now and again, we would hear the sound of gunfire or large explosions. People told us that it was too dangerous to deliver relief aid items. We would be attacked and our items would be robbed.

6. 下面这篇短文是对美国著名黑人歌星昆西·琼斯（Quincy Jones）的采访：

Q: How did you get started in music?

Quincy Jones: It was during World War II…I started as a singer in a little gospel street-corner group. I started at 12 years old, or so. Seattle was very hot because everybody went to Japan from there during the war.

I met Ray Charles when I was 14, he was 16, so we came up together. And we’d work three different clubs a night. We’d do the tennis clubs with the society music and all that stuff, and classical music, then we’d do some rhythm and blues clubs, with strip dancers, and comics and everything. Then at three o’clock in the morning we’d go down to Jackson Street, where we’d play bebop for nothing. It just never stopped. It was around the clock. We’d rehearse all day and then start the cycle all over again. It was a fantastic spawning ground.

7. 美国的一个节日——阵亡战士纪念日：

As the summer begins, Americans celebrate Memorial Day as national holiday, the last Monday of May, to honor all of the country’s war dead. As a child, my parents would drive to southern Indiana where my mother would put many bouquets of red, white and pink peonies on the graves of her and my father’s dead families. There would be a little parade in the cemetery with the town’s high school band, and we would have a picnic there.