经济学人的写作技巧之语气篇

朱叶飞

经济学人往往在语气助词的使用上，非常的灵活，多种语气混合使用。以下例子将分析经济学人在语气方面的各项使用。

一、段落内与陈述性语气做强烈对比

THE summer holidays have just begun， but it is a busy morning at Cadoxton Primary School， in Barry， an industrial town in Wales. It runs a summer programme for hard-up 【adj.〈口〉缺少；急需網络手头紧；经济拮据；经济困难】children， providing meals and activities over the holidays. As youngsters run laughing and screaming into the school cafeteria for breakfast， their parents saunter【美：['sntr]英：['s：nt（r）]v.悠闲地走；漫步；闲逛n.闲荡；混日子】 out， some visibly relieved. Just three days into the six-week school holidays one beleaguered【饱受批评的；处于困境的；受到围困（或围攻）的】 mother says her nine-year-old daughter has already asked five times to go bowling. Without the schools help， she says， “it would be a long and expensive six weeks”.

【Summertime blues Long summer holidays are bad for children， especially the poor

Many parents also find them a struggle  Aug 9th 2018| BARRY】

前半段几乎都是陈述性语气，最后一句变成了虚拟语气，形成和事实的强烈对比。

二、并列加强语气

Even when people die in a hurricane， a car accident or a war， we tend to view it as a technical failure that could and should have been prevented. If the government had only adopted a better policy; if the municipality had done its job properly; and if the military commander had taken a wiser decision， death would have been avoided.

【Homo Deus： A Brief History of Tomorrow？Hardcover – Illustrated， February 21， 2017】

三、句子内与陈述性语气混合使用， 并使用倒装

A promise to bring such a revolution to the way we travel might have been met with scepticism had it not come from a company that has been at the forefront of other big changes.

【Nov 5th 2016， By A.W.|WASHINGTON，DC

A new way to overtake

Uber plans for the arrival of flying cars】

译文：UBER一直矗在科技大变化的前沿阵地，如果不是这样一家公司给出的展望，我们也许会怀疑我们出行的方式是否真的会有革新到来。

a company that has..是陈述语气，因为uber确实一直处于科技大变化的前沿阵地。剩下不仅运用了虚拟语气，还结合了倒桩的从句.

四、句子内与语气助词表示推测的用法和陈述性语气一起混合使用。

“How does it feel？” I ask， as she opens her page on the Guardian Soulmates website （which shows that， to date， 1，305 people have viewed her and 356 people liked her）.

“It feels pragmatic， and sad. Im admitting， ‘Im lonely， and I want to have a family， and theres a kind of shame in that.”

She takes me through the profiles of men who have recently joined the site， most with cheeky-chappy nick-names： Curbychup， FoodieGeoff， LieutenantGrey. She shows me how shes built her own profile， presenting herself as a happy-go-lucky woman whos well read and widely travelled. “Theres a loneliness in having to present yourself in a certain way， definitely. The distance between the image I give and the reality is getting wider and wider. But if I were to write the truth – that Im lonely and worried I might not have a family – it would be just the most off-putting（令人烦恼的；令人讨厌的） thing.”

对将来的虚拟

IN SOLITUDE WHAT HAPPINESS？《经济学人 1843》

标红的地方，就是对将来的虚拟。

1.  要写下事实 应该表述为：

I am to write...但是，句子开头是用if引导，那就表明是非事实，时态退格：

am to 退格成 were to

2. 主句，“它将是”，如果真的将是，可能性非常大，应该表述为：

it will be ...

现在压根不会写出来，这种可能根本不会发生，是非事实

所以will退格成would。就这样，完成了对将来的虚拟。用虚拟语气，比用陈述语气，感情上强烈的多。