manage 用法, 例句, 詳解

manage 用法

問：Sheila tried (1) to bride the jailor. / (2) bribing the jailor.
 (1) implies that Sheila attempted an act of bribery, but did not manage it。
[原譯] 例(1) 表示Sheila 企圖行賄獄卒, 但沒有成功⋯⋯ (《英語文法大全》, 華東師範大學出版社, p.1651) 從譯文看,“沒有成功”顯然是指獄卒沒有接受賄賂。但我認為這似乎不符合原意。不知您的意見如何。

答：我認為, 原譯者誤解了原意。究其原因, 是誤解了manage 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:

1. He managed to escape to South America.
   他設法逃到了南美。
2. “How did James Bond escape form 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

manage sth.是指(成功地) “得到”、“做到”、“實現”。例如:

1. Without her I should not have managed it.
   要是沒有她的話, 那我是辦不到這一點的。
2. I had hoped to send him a telegram to congratulate him on his marriage, but I didn’t manage it.
   我本想在他結婚的時候給他打個電報表示祝賀, 但是我沒有做到。

請注意, 在你提問的句子裡,manage 的受詞是it。it 替代的是什麼呢? 是the act of bribing 。因此, Sheila did not manage it 的意思就是Sheila 並沒有能夠進行(實現或完成)行賄的行為。可以譯為: Sheila 本試圖賄賂獄卒, 但沒能那麼做。這是符合tried to bribe 的真實含義的。讀了下面的句子, 更能理解此種含義:

I tried to say something, but my mouth was full of cotton-wool.
我試圖說些什麼, 但我嘴裡滿是藥棉。

“我試圖說些什麼”, 到底“說沒說”呢? 當然沒有說, 也就是說, 這個“ 說的行為”顯然沒有進行或實現。