手把手教你学口语30

“stop doing something” means¹ not to do that any more, but “stop to do something” means stop one thing in order to do something else.

Let’s look at a clear example. “We stopped dancing.” “We stopped to get some drinks.” These sentences can even be put together to form “We stopped dancing to get some drinks.” Is the meaning clear? We were dancing but we got hot and thirsty, so we stopped. Why? Because we wanted to get some drinks. After we stopped, we got some drinks. Before we stopped, we were dancing. So, can you hear the difference in meaning between these two sentences? “We stopped to study” and “We stopped studying”. The first sentence “We stopped to study” means we are studying now. We were doing something else, maybe talking or watching TV, but we stopped doing that in order to study. On the other hand, the second sentence “We stopped studying” means we are not studying now. We were studying before but we stopped, maybe because we were tired or hungry.

Let’s take another example. “We stopped talking” and “We stopped to talk”. “We stopped talking” means it is quiet now because we are not talking anymore. “We stopped to talk” means we are talking now. Maybe we were walking on the sidewalk², saw each other, and stopped walking so that we can talk for a while.

So remember to be careful when choosing the verb³ form after “stop” as it changes the meaning of the sentence. This has been today’s daily tip⁴. Tune⁵ in tomorrow for another tip.

1 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

2 sidewalk   

n.人行道；（=pavement）（英）

参考例句：

• I happened to meet him on the sidewalk.我碰巧在人行道上碰到他。
• I found a wallet on the sidewalk.我在人行道上发现一个钱包。

3 verb   

n.[语]动词

参考例句：

• The sentence is formed from a verb and two nouns.这句子由一个动词和两个名词构成。
• These are the finite forms of a verb.这些是一个动词的限定形式。

4 tip   

n.顶，尖端，梢，末端；倾斜；垃圾场；小费；轻击；指点；秘密消息；vt.装顶端；使倾斜，使翻倒，泄露；告诫；暗示；给...小费，轻击；vi.倾斜，翻倒，倾覆，踮脚走，给小费

参考例句：

• She nearly forgot to give him a tip for his service.她几乎忘记给他的服务付小费。
• I have his name on the tip of my tongue.我几乎想起他的名字。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。