二、冠词
考点分析
冠词是英语中特有的词,由于汉语中没有与之相对应的词,所以考生对它的用法感到难以掌握,考博英语改错题对冠词考查多数为基本用法。
(一)两个不定冠词之间的误用
(1)不定冠词a和an主要用在可数名词单数前,表示“一个,某一个,某类人或物”。a与an的用法区别主要在于其后的名词是以元音音素开头,还是以辅音音素开头。如果其后的名词是以元音音素开头,就用an,如果是以辅音音素开头,就用a。
(2)抽象名词在一定情况下可以加不定冠词,表示:
①一种,一场等;a strong dislike
②某动作的一次,一例等;a smoke
③引起某种情况的人或事;a great encouragement
④有某种品质的具体行为或人。
(3)物质名词前可以加不定冠词,表示“一场,一阵,一种,一份”等。
如:a large coffee
(4)不定冠词可用于名词化的动词-ing形式,形容词,过去分词,序数词等之前。
如:I will not take this one.I want a better.
(5)在一些特殊情况下,人名前可以加不定冠词。
如:There wasn’t a single Jones in the village.
(6)不定冠词可以用在某些专有名词前,表示“一种车或一张某人的画像”等。
如:a Buick
(7)不定冠词放在序数词前,表示“又,再”。
如:a second coffee
(8)一些专有名词前可以加不定冠词,这时专有名词表示普通概念。
如:a new China
(9)固定用法。
如:have a rest,as a rule,in a word,have a word with
(二)定冠词和不定冠词之间的误用
(1)用于指代上文出现过的事物。在叙述过程中,前面已提到的事物再次提到时,意义上有限定,所以要加定冠词the。
(2)用在姓氏复数形式前,表示一家人。
如:The Greens are at table.
(3)用在年代、朝代、时代等名词前。
如:the Tang dynasty,the Spring and Autumn Period,in the 1870s
(4)用在作为课程或演奏的乐器等名词前。
如:play the violin
(5)用在表示单位的名词前。
如:I have hired the car by the hour.
(6)用在方向名词和某些表示时间的名词前。
如:on the left/right,the other day,in the daytime,in the east
(7)用于表示物质环境——考生周围的物质和气候,或考生生活中其他常见的事物的词组。
如:the country,the night,the Internet
(8)在某些地理名词(江、河、海洋、山脉、群岛、海峡、海湾)前要加定冠词。
如:the Yangtze River;the English Channel
(9)序数词、形容词最高级前要加定冠词。
(10)only,very,same等词前如没有物主代词或指示代词时,通常要加定冠词。
(11)the加某些说明人的性格或状态的形容词表示“一类人”。
如:the blind,the rich,the poor,the wounded,the learned
(12)固定用法。
如:out of the question 不可能
in the charge of 在……的主管下
(三)零冠词
考生还应注意出现以下几种情况时名词前不能用冠词。
(1)季节、月份、星期、节假日、学科、三餐、球类和棋类等名词前。
如:Spring follows winter.
(2)用于专有名词表示机构、院校等。
如:Congress国会(美国),University of Washington(华盛顿大学)
(3)表示身份、官衔及称呼语的名词做表语、同位语、补足语时一般不加冠词。
如:Comrade Li was chairman of the meeting.
(4)表示抽象意义和一般意义的时间名词前。
如:at daybreak,at sunset,at noon,at midnight
(5)表示乘交通工具的短语中。
如:by bike,by car,by plane
(6)单数可数名词前不用a/an的情况
①连系动词turn后的单数可数名词做表语时。
如:After graduation from college,he turned teacher.
②as引导的让步状语从句中被前置的可数名词单数之前。
如:Child as he is,he knows a lot.
③man做“人类”,word做“消息”之意讲时。
如:The driver was at a loss when word came that he was forbidden to drive for speeding.
(7)在一些表示行为、状态、特征、原因以及说明方式、目的等的固定习语中。(https://www.daowen.com)
如:at breakfast,in good health,on end,with ease
(8)固定用法。
如:out of question 毫无疑问
go to sea 去当水手
on fire 在燃烧
技巧点拨
(1)分清名词的可数与不可数。
(2)分清名词的范指与特指。一般表示特指时,名词前加定冠词,表示范指时名词用复数或加不定冠词。
(3)熟悉特殊类别的名词前定冠词的用法。一般专有名词前一定要加定冠词,三餐前和球类名词前不加冠词。
(4)熟悉带有定冠词或不定冠词的固定短语。比如a number of和an amount of意为“大量的”,后面分别接可数名词复数和不可数名词,a number of...做主语时谓语动词用复数形式,an amount of...做主语时谓语动词用单数形式;the number of...和the amount of...意为“……的数量”,后面分别接可数名词单数或复数和不可数名词,做主语时谓语动词均为单数形式。
典型真题
例1:
61.Apple’s iPad may be latest and greatest tech gadget,but oddly enough,it also represents a return to model that most tech companies long ago abandoned—vertical integration.(北京大学2012年)
【名师点评】(be)the(latest)。漏用冠词。句中的latest和greatest都是形容词的最高级。形容词的最高级前通常加定冠词the。
例2:
(62)But there is byproduct to that growth,one that’s visible—or sometimes less than visible—in the smoggy,smelly skies above cities like Beijing,New Delhi and Jakarta.(北京大学2013年)
【名师点评】(is)a(byproduct)。漏用冠词。byproduct为可数名词,前面需要加冠词。
例3:
...said Jim Bock,dean of admissions and financial aid at Swarthmore College.(74)Admissions directors say strategy can backfire.(北京大学2006年)
【名师点评】strategy→the strategy。漏用冠词。名词strategy前要加冠词,根据上下文,此处是特指某一策略,用定冠词the。
例4:
We’ve seen it all CVs printed on pink paper,CVs that are 10 pages long and CVs with silly mistakes in first paragraph.(重庆大学2012年)
【名师点评】in first→in the first。序数词前要加定冠词the。
实战演练
1.When an idea or an explanation is described as clear,a mental process is beingcompared with a passage of light through something.1.____
2.The truth
hat you will never
know the corporate culture until you have workedat the company
a number of months,but you can get close to it through researchand observation.Understanding culture is a two-step process,starting
before the interview and ending with observation at the interview.
3.You will want to be in a place where you fit for the culture,a place where you can have voice,be respected,and have opportunities for growth.3.____
4.Dinosaurs,sabered-tooth tigers and the dodo bird are famous examples of animals that have become extinct.In case of the dinosaurs,it seems likely that a catastrophic event altered the global climate enough to lead to their disappearance.4.____
5.The amplified warming
,in turn,
contributes to overall global warming,as well as
changes that create impacts over 
6.Prior
NBC in 2007,Whitaker served
at Newsweek from 1998-2006,becoming
African-American top editor of 
7.United workers slice
ingots of colored vinyl
and
reassemble them 
8.
feminist and author,Jackson,struggled relentlessly
century
political and legal rights 
9.He believed
and would leave
open all winter,working
with
on.
10.We need
go
together and
to start are
,schools and media.
11.Sixty-five percent
physicians who completed
maintained that
physical was necessary,and 55 percent believed
forealthy adults were recommended by national organizations.
12.If children are
to
between fantasy and reality,theyshould learn to cope with
that the image
hem is not real.
13.Children
valued
their productivity,and they assumed
14.While suggesting
we return to
,we certainly could
eating habits as a model 
15.
section has shown how quickly a rhyme passes from one schoolchild to
and illustrates
further difference between 
16.With
,however,
may be excitedly passed on within thevery hour it is learnt;and,
,it passes between children of the sameage,or nearly so,since it is uncommon for the difference
between playmatesto be more than five years.
17.It is commonly proposed that
necessary for comprehendingaural and
are sufficiently similar that comprehension of both can generally
as 
18.It can
that can be applied to
dynamic population,that is,one
changed o
19.Britain’s
,which continued
,was motivated
to acquire
,and to maintain the British navy’s control of theseas.
20.There has been
between those who believe that t
ofeducational system is
of a received body of facts and procedures forconceptualizing and adding to that body of knowledge,and those who believe thatthe function of
is to create the conditions whereby learners mightgenerate their own skills and knowledge.
答案解析
1.a(passage前头的a)→the。冠词误用。当passage为pass名词形式时不可数,此处又是特指,所以改为the。
2.D。这里research是类指,而非特指。去掉定冠词the。
3.voice→a voice。have a voice in something意为“有权利对某事发表看法”,是固定词组,词组中的不定冠词不能省略。
4.case→the case。in case of和in the case of的意思不同,前者的意思是“万一”,后者的意思是“在……的情况中”。本题是后面的意思,the不能省略。
5.A。地理名词Arctic(北极)前要加定冠词the。
6.B。冠词误用。在介词as后面有表示人或者东西的身份的名词时,不用冠词。另外在有核心名词title和rank的所有格后面也不加冠词。
7.D。冠词误用。by hand意为“用手”,是固定搭配,不用加冠词。因此,需要将the去掉。有相当多的词组不加冠词:by post;by boat;by radio;by tube;by express。
8.B。一般说来,定冠词表示特指,不定冠词表示泛指。twentieth为序数词,前需要加the。
9.A。冠词误用。物质名词、抽象名词在用来表示一般概念时通常不加冠词,因此fresh air前的the要去掉。
10.B。冠词误用。be/go on a diet意为“节食”,此时diet为可数名词,需加冠词a。
11.A。冠词误用。一般来说在数词修饰名词的前面不需要再加冠词,但是因为在783physicians的后面有定语从句修饰,因此要加定冠词起限定作用。因此,783前面应加入the。
12.B。difference后面有一个短语between fantasy and reality作后置定语,所以difference前面要加定冠词,表示特指。
13.B。冠词误用。句中in terms of是固定短语,表示“关于……,以……观点来看”。因此,应该去掉the。
14.D。冠词误用。diet是可数名词,故应为a healthier diet。
15.C。冠词误用。定冠词the具有确定的意思,用以特指人或事物,以别于同类中其他的人或事物,此处应用a further difference表示泛指,意思是进一步展示school lore和nursery lore的不同。
16.C。冠词误用。in general是固定短语,意为“一般来说,大体上,通常”。因此in the general应去掉the。
17.D。冠词遗漏。phenomenon是可数名词,而且是第一次出现,应该与不定冠词搭配使用。因此,common前应加入a。
18.D。冠词用法。抽象名词time或space之前如果用定冠词,是表示特指。从上下文可以判断这里的时间和空间是指普遍意义上的时空,是类指,所以应当用零冠词。因此,删去time之前的定冠词the。
19.D。冠词误用。wealth在这里是一种泛指状态,故应省略the。
20.A。冠词误用。debate为可数名词,且首次提到,故应为a passionate debate。