此“发生”不同于彼“发生”

英语中表示“发生”的词语有：take place, happen, occur, come about 和 break out，它们的用法各不相同，但都是不及物动词，都不能用于被动语态。

happen

（1） 意为“发生”。

①一般用于表示那些偶然或未能预见的、无法控制的突发事件的发生，通常以不愉快的事情居多。

例1Accidents often happen at busy road junctions.事故通常发生在繁忙的道路交叉口上。

例2I still remembered the whole thing as if it happened yesterday.我仍然记得整个事情，仿佛它就发生在昨天一样。

②也用于sth. happened to sb.的结构，意为“某人身上发生某事”。

例3What will happen to the children if Peter and Alice break up? 如果彼得和爱丽丝离婚，孩子们将怎么办?

（2） 意为“碰巧；恰好”。

①用于sb. happened to do sth.的结构，意为“某人碰巧做了某事”。

例4I happened to see an old classmate of mine on the way to the bank yesterday.昨天我去银行的路上碰巧遇见一位老同学。

②用于It (so) happened + that...的结构，意为“偶然、碰巧发生某事”。

例5It so happened that I had no money with me. / I happened to have no money with me.我碰巧身边没带钱。

take place

意为“发生；举行；举办”。一般用于表示因某种原因而发生的事件、经事先计划组织安排的事件、预想到的事件或作为某一事件的结果的事件。

例6The pressure becomes so great that an explosion takes place.压力很大，以至于发生了爆炸。

例7The sudden attack on the enemy troop took place three hours later.对敌军的突然进攻在三小时后进行。

例8The Olympic Games of 2008 will take place in Beijing.2008年奥运会将在北京举行。

occur

意为“发生（意想不到的事）”，属正式用语。当具体事物、事件作主语时，可与happen 互换。此外，occur还有“想到；突然想起；浮现在某人的脑海中”的含义。

例9If anything should occur, it would have done.要是有什么事发生的话，早就应该发生了。

例10It is said that the traffic accident occurred / happened at midnight.据说那起车祸是在深夜发生的。

例11A good idea occurred to me when I woke up.我醒来时，突然想到了一个好主意。

come about

意为“发生；产生”，常用于疑问句和否定句，多用于已经发生但还不被了解的事件。

例1２When mother woke up, she didnt know what had come about.母亲醒来的时候不知道发生了什么事。

例1３Do you know how the air accident came about?你知道这次航空事故是怎样发生的吗？

break out

意为“发生；爆发”，常指战争、灾难、疾病或争吵等突发事件的发生。

例1４No one knows whether the Third World War will break out.没人知道第三次世界大战是否会爆发。

例1５A fire broke out in the hospital in the midnight.那家医院在半夜里突然起火了。

【练习题】

1. I got to know that the meeting _______ at 8:00 as planned.

A. happened B. took place

C. occurred D. held

2. New things are _______ all around us every day.

A. taking place

B. coming about

C. happened

D. happening

3. That plane crash _______ only minutes after take-off.

A. occurred B. was occurred

C. broke out D. came about

4. After the flood, diseases

_______ here and there.

A. happened B. took place

C. broke out D. occurred

5. The opening of the film will

_______ at the end of this month.

A. happen B. occur

C. take place D. break out

6. I _______ to be in the market yesterday when a fire ______.

A. happened; broke out

B. took place; broke out

C. happened; took place

D. occurred; took place

7. Ill never understand how it _______ that you made the same mistake for three times.

A. broke out B. happened

C. occurred D. came about

8. Great changes have _______ in China since 1980.

A. been taken place

B. taken place

C. happened

D. broken out

9. Did you hear what _______ to David last night?

A. happened

B. was happened

C. took place

D. broke out

10. It _______ to me that she didnt know I had changed my telephone number, so she was unable to tell me about that immediately.

A. was occurred

B. was happened

C. occurred

D. took place

(Keys: 1~5 BDACC6～10 ADBAC)