名人教你讲英文：从completely rubbish说起

名人教英文：从completely rubbish说起

早前，传媒质疑政府在李克强访港期间保安过严，侵犯民权和言论自由；唐英年司长回应说："i think that is completely rubbish that we have violated civil rights, nor have we violated freedom of speech, because every single activity of the vice-premier has been covered by the media." 唐司长的“完全垃圾论”引起不少回响。专栏作家古德明先生撰文指出，唐司长的话有两个文法错误，根本“不是英文”：第一，completely是副词，rubbish是名词，副词不可用以修饰名词，正确说法为complete rubbish；第二，nor前面的句子必须有否定词，如：we have not violated civil rights, nor have we violated freedom of speech.

我翻看旧报纸，恰巧看到8月14日《南华早报》周末杂志post magazine报道梅铎集团旗下《世界新闻报》的丑闻。文章提及探员david cook因为侦查一宗牵涉《世界新闻报》的案件，遭该报派人跟踪，但该报行政总裁辩称此举并非为了阻挠调查，只是为了追查cook和同僚jacqui hames的暧昧关系——这个借口完全站不住脚，因为cook和hames多年前已结为夫妇：the excuse would be rejected as "complete rubbish" — cook and hames had been married to one another for several years. 这句的 "complete rubbish"，似乎印证了古先生的说法。