问英语｜英语常见问题解答

核心问题 1

我在英语教学中有一个很伤脑筋的问题,就是向学生讲述 die of 与 die from 的区别。有的辞书上说:

“die of 一般用于害怕、疲劳、负伤、饥渴、年老、失望等致死的场合。如：

die of cold 冻死, cholera 霍乱, consumption 肺病, illness, a disease, a fever, heat, hunger, thirst, poison, the bite of a snake 蛇咬, old age, a wound, a fall 失足掉下, a broken heart 失望, sorrow, grief, disappointment, exhaustion 过度疲劳。

die from 常用于衰弱, eating to excess 饮食过度, hunger, drinking too much wine 饮酒过多, overwork 工作过度, carelessness, some unknown cause 不明原因, a disease, a blow 被打中……”(见费致德:《现代英语惯用法词典》)。此外,《英语惯用法大词典》、《英语一千常用单词》等辞书也都是这样区分的。我的第一个困难，是无法让学生记住这样的区分；第二个困难，是在我讲完这些区分之后，学生常常能拿出一些反例给我看。请帮助我摆脱困境。

词典解答 1

首先应当指出，上面所说的 die of 与 die from 的所谓的区分，实际上并不存在。因此，对学生只需指出：表示死因（the cause of death）时，既可以用 die of，也可以用 die from，但以用 die of 为多。例如，我们既可以读到 He died of cancer. 也可以读到 He died from cancer. 再如，费致德教授在上面提到，可以说 die of a wound，但我们经常读到 He died from a wound. （LDAE）The young driver died from the wounds...（LDPV）（这位年轻司机因受伤而死……）。下面我们再列举一些实例：

(a) He died from exposure. (CGEL, p. 700) 他死于冻馁。

(b) The mountain climbers lost their way and died of exposure.

登山者迷了路而死于冻馁。(《远东英汉大辞典》, p.722)

(a) The disease from which he died was at that time incurable. (CIE)

使他死亡的那种疾病在当时是不治之症。

(b) Men die of cholera... (McMordie) 人会因霍乱而死……

(a) In a severe winter, wild animals can die from lack of food. (LDPV)

严冬野兽可能因缺乏食物而死亡。

(b) She died when she was ninety, not of old age, but of the fact that she injured her head when she fell down a flight of stairs. (TOEFL)

她九十岁去世，但不是老死的，而是从楼梯上掉下来摔伤头部而死。

They may die of thirst. (RL, III b. L. 3) 它们可能渴死。

我们上面的说法在 Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English(p.79)中找到了证明：

“die from/of have as the cause of death. O: starvation, exposure; cancer, pneumonia □Climbing parties marooned in the open can easily die of exposure unless they know the proper precautions to take.（被困在荒郊野外的爬山者们，如果不懂得采取些应急措施，就完全可能冻馁而

die of/from $^{2}$ 死。)

□The disease from which he died was at that time incurable. (他得的病,在当时是不治之症。) die of/from $^{2}$

核心问题 2

He ____ a wound. A. died of B. died in C. died from D. died(《英语高考精典》,人民日报出版社,p.224)

书上给的答案为 C(died from), 不知能否用 A(died of)?

词典解答 2

LDCE 上的原句是: He died from a wound. 但这并不等于说 He died of a wound. 就是错误的。实际上, die of a wound (wounds) 也是符合英语惯用法的。例如：

He died of his wounds. (McArthur) 他受伤而死。
He died of wounds. (J. B. Heaton, Prepositions and Adverbial Particles) 他受伤而死。