文/阿 天 绘/也 圆

权力的游戏：seem半情态动词的用法

How to Use Seem

文/阿 天 绘/也 圆

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall,it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as newfallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

一道阴影突然自树林暗处冒出，站到罗伊斯面前。它的体型十分高大，憔悴坚毅浑似枯骨，肤色苍白如同乳汁。它的盔甲似乎会随着移动而改变颜色，一会儿白如新雪，一会儿黑如暗影，处处点缀着森林的深奥灰绿。它每走一步，其上的图案便似水面上的粼粼月光般不断改变。

emerged,emerge浮现，出现，相当于appear 和come out。

太阳从云层后显露出来就可以说，The sun emerges from the clouds.

也可以说是真相大白于天下，Eventually the truth emerged.

it was，这里是插入语，对tall 的一种肯定，成了一种强调。

gaunt， 非常消瘦而且显得苍白，和drawn是同义词。

seemed to change，seem又被称为半情态动词，它的用法比较灵活，其实只要归类一下就很好掌握了。

（1）seem作为实意动词

①后边跟动词不定式， seem 和不定式一起作复合谓语，正如本句所使用的。

②seem 后跟that 引导的主语从句，这里的it 是形式上的主语，它替代了后边一整句话，这样就不会头重脚轻了。

It seems that no one knows what has happened.正常语序[That no one knows what has happened] seems.

（2）seem作为系动词

①作用和be 一样，也可以加上不定式to be。

Tom seems a clever boy. = Tom seems to be a clever boy.

②如同there be 的用法， seem的作用和be 一样，同样可以加上不定式to be。

T here seems no need to wait longer. = There seems to be no need to wait longer.

（3）要强调的是seem 的否定形式既可以使用助动词，将not 提前也可以直接在seem 后边加not。

The boss seems not to like the idea. = The boss doesn't seem to like the idea. 看来老板不喜欢这个主意啊。

here..., there...相当于汉语里的这边……， 那边……。描写手法一样。句子原本可以说It was white here, and it was black there. 而把here，there 提前，则更加强调了地点的转换。英语一般是重要的词句放在前边。

dappled，斑驳，这词有点文绉绉的，是指有颜色的点状。这里是指光影的变化。

就如同这个小水塘所呈现出的样子， a dappled pool需要注意的是dapple 这里是动词，指使得某物斑驳（mark something with spots of color）。 在原文中是动词的过去式表过去时。而a dappled pool 则是动词的过去分词作形容词的用法。

patterns， 图案，花样。

with every step it took，这里虽然只有5个词，但是却有嵌套的语法现象。第一层是一个介宾短语with every step， with （介词+）step （名词）。第二层step 是我们要修饰的中心词， 后边的本身是一个从句，it took every step， 其中every step用that/which 来替代、提前就变成了every step (which /that) it took, 而由于替代部分在从句里作宾语所以还可以省略，就变成了with every step it took.