舟動之穿林吟嘯行

文法單選題所引出的啟示

台灣有某些老師特別喜歡出以下這種單選題給學生選答，我很不能明白出題者的心態。

1.) He wanted to do the job ___ he'd been trained for.

 (A) which (B) that (C) who (D) whose

 2.) Much imagination has gone into the project, which aims ___ half a million visitors a year.

 (A) at attracting (B) to attract (C) attract (D) attracted

我的答案：

1.) 老師說本題是單選題。我選 A、B、E。

2.) 老師說本題是單選題。我選 A、B。

咦？第1.題沒有 E 選項！是的，我自己編 (E) <空白不填>，誰說只能單選或只能在四個選項中挑出一個。

理由：

1.)

Collins Cobuild English Grammar, 3rd 提及沒逗點的關係子句，其先行詞若是指 sth，則 that 或 which 都可以用，且重點是：THAT is much more common than WHICH in American English.

Collins Cobuild 是以語料庫起家的，它的 Grammar 或 Usage 同樣也是從語料中分析而來的，至少比台灣人自己編彙的那些所謂的「參考書」還要具有公信力才對（在我個人看來，英英辭典或用法書才是所謂的 reference，台灣的「參考書」不該稱為「參考書」，應該要叫做「考試用書」才對）。

2.)

OALD8 列出 aim for sth / aim at sth / aim to do 以及 aim at doing sth 表達 try or plan to achieve sth，另列出 be aimed at sth / be aimed at doing sth 表達 have sth as an aim 並未說明其差異。例句如下：They are aiming to reduce unemployment by 50%.∥They're aiming at training everybody by the end of the year.∥These measures are aimed at preventing violent crime.  

LDOCE5 列出 aim for sth / aim to do 以及 be aimed at doing sth 並未說明其差異。例句如下：We aim to finish by Friday.∥an initiative aimed at reducing road accidents∥We’re aiming for a big improvement.

Fowler's Modern English Usage, revised 3rd 提及一份於1986年的研究報告，其指出 to attract （不定詞）的結構於當代大為取代了 at attracting （at + V-ing）的句構，特別是多出現在 AmE，推斷原因可能是仿效 intend, mean, plan 等動詞的句型 intend/mean/plan to do，除非 aim 用於被動句中才可能用 be aimed at 的句構，我的參考書目列出例句The Alliance's strategy will clearly be aimed at persuading Labour supporters that a party led by Mr Foot has no chance of ousting Mrs Thatcher. (Observer, 1983)。

對我來說，有時候答案的理由比答案本身來得重要，而且不必被選項所框限。

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
——James Thurber