名词brain用于本义时,意思是“脑,大脑”,用于比喻义时,表示“头脑”“智力”“智能”等。brain用于本义的用法比较简单,但用于比喻义时,可以是可数或不可数名词,使用时很容易出错,归纳以下几点,希望引起注意。 (1) 单独使用时,通常用复数形式。如: He’s good-looking, and he’s got brains. 他长得好看,而且有头脑。 You need brains to become a university professor. 当大学教授要有才智。 注意,即使使用复数形式,仍表示单数意义(有的词典将brains看作是不可数名词);若用作主语,其后谓语通常要用单数。如: Brains is more than just education. 有头脑不仅仅指受过教育。 注意,英语习惯上不说:He has brain. (2) 受描绘性形容词修饰时,通常连用不定冠词。如: She has an active brain. 她头脑灵活。 She has an
All night I have been tossing and turning racking my brains to think what could have possessed the young man to kill himself.
整整一晚我辗转反侧,绞尽脑汁,想弄明白是什么原因竟能促成这个年轻人自杀。
Brains aren't the only answer.
智力天赋不是唯一的答案。
※Men and women use their brains differently, but that their brains may actually be designed differently.——Delia M. Rios American writer男女不仅用脑方式不同,而且脑结构实际上也可能不相同。美国作家 里奥.D.M
※How differences between men and women might be used for our mu-tual benefit in everything from our relation with one another to a better undrestanding of how our brains work.——Delia M.Rios .American writer男女间的差异在各方面——从人际关系到加深对脑力工作方式的理解——使双方都受益。美国作家 里奥斯.D.M. ※Thinking is , or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that.——H, Melville, American writer and poet思考是或者应该是冷静沉着的;而我们可怜的心怦怦跳,可怜的脑子总是兴奋,使我们不能思考。美国作家、诗人 梅尔维尔 .H.