suppose ¹

在正式英语里, suppose 引出的宾语从句的谓语动词要使用虚拟过去时(请与 wish 相比较):

1. Just suppose everyone were to give up smoking and drinking. (CGEL) 让我们每一个人都戒掉烟酒。

2. Suppose her father turned her out of doors! (Wells) 想想她父亲真会把她赶出门!

3. Let's suppose we each had £ 100 to spend—what would we buy with it? 我们大家来想想,要是我们每人都有一百英磅来花的话,我们会买些什么?

4. Suppose (that) one of us died. (CGEL) 假定我们当中有一个人死了。

但是, suppose 的宾语从句的谓语动词也可以使用一般现在时:

1. Suppose he is lost, what would you do? 要是他迷路了,你怎么办?

2. But let us suppose that the Atlantic Ocean is now regularly crossed by enormous hovercraft. The hovercraft, with a thousand motor-cars on board, moves at 100 miles per hour, and is across the Atlantic in little more than one day. [复旦大学《英语》(三), p. 168] 让我们设想, 现在有巨大的气垫船定期跨越大西洋航行。装运上千辆汽车的气垫船的航速每小时一百英里, 气垫船只消花上一天的时间就能渡过大西洋。