VOA慢速英语:Political Tensions Grow as Iraqis Fail to Agree on a Government

later，latter

这两个字仅差一字之微，词义和使用场合却大相径庭，读音也不一样。

Later／'leit+／是形容词late的比较形式，它指时间的先后而言，义：“较后的”、“较新的”，它能作形容词，也能作副词。例：

Is it later than eleven？

现在已过了十一点吗？

This dictionary is a later edition．

这本字典的版本是比较新的。

Mr．Liang came later than we had expected．

梁先生来得比我们预期的要晚些。

We'll come to see you again later．

我们以后再来看你。

Latter／'l$t+／指事物的先后而言，表示“后者”之意，只能作形容词，不能作副词。例：

The latter half of his essay contains penetrating observations．

他的论文后半部有精辟的看法。

The former is a Hong Kong Island street map and the latter is a Kowloon street map．

前者是一册香港街道图；后者是九龙街道图。

请注意，latter只能用于指两样事物的场合，如指三样或三样以上的东西，应该用 last去指代最后的事物，不能用latter．

Latter的副词是latterly，但此字罕用，一般用lately 或recently代替。latter－day（近代的；现代的）以及his latter end（他的死亡）都是陈旧的用语，现已很少使用。

2.Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.

shortly after...之后立即

例句：Two fire engines arrived shortly after the fire blazed up.
      起火后不久两辆救火车就赶到了。

3.By the end of this month, he said, the United States will have brought home more than ninety thousand troops.

will have brought将来完成时

将来完成时的基本结构是 shall/ will + have +过去分词，用来表示在将来某一时间以前已经完成或一直持续的动作，往往对将来有影响，经常与before 或 by 引导的表示将来时间的状语连用，也可与before或by the time引导的现在时从句连用。例如：

They will have been married for 20 years by then.

到那时他们已经结婚20年了。

Before long he will have forgotten all about the matter.

不久以后他就会把这件事全忘记的。

We shall have learned 24 units by the end of this term.

到这学期末，我们将学完24个单元。

4.The government now thinks close to five million barrels of oil leaked into the gulf between April and the middle of July, when the spill was contained.

when引导定语从句，修饰的是the middle of July。