Sheila tried (1) (2)
(1) implies that Sheila attempted an act of bribery, but did not manage it.
[原译]例(1)表示 Sheila 企图行贿狱卒,但没有成功……(《英语语法大全》,华东师范大学出版社,p.1651)从译文看,“没有成功”显然是指狱卒没有接受贿赂。但我认为这似乎不符合原意。不知您的意见如何。
我认为,原译者误解了原意。究其原因,是误解了 manage 的用法。A managed to do
sth. 是指“A 成功地做到了某事” = A succeeded in doing sth. 例如：
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He managed to escape to South America. (Hazen) 他设法逃到了南美。
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“How did James Bond escape from the locked confine?” “Oh, you know he always manages ____ a tight situation.”
A. to get out of B. getting out of C. to have got him out of D. in getting out of (TOEFL) manage sth. 是指(成功地)“得到”“做到”“实现”。例如：
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Without her I should not have managed it. (Snow) 要是没有她的话,那我是不会弄到它的。
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I had hoped to send him a telegram to congratulate him on his marriage, but I didn't manage
it. (LEG) 我本想在他结婚的时候给他打个电报表示祝贺,但是我却没有做到。
请注意,在你提问的句子里,manage 的宾语是 it。it 替代的是什么呢? 是 the act of bribing。因此,Sheila did not manage it. 的意思就是 Sheila 并没有能够进行(实现或完成)行贿的行为。可以译为:Sheila 本试图贿赂狱卒,但没能那么做。这是符合 tried to bribe 的真实含义的。读了下面的句子,更能理解此种含义:
I tried to say something, but my mouth was full of cotton-wool. (NCE) 我试图说些什么,但我嘴里满是药棉。
“我试图说些什么”，到底“说没说”呢？当然没有说，也就是说，这个“说的行为”显然没有进行或实现。