PETS－2語法講解(172)

　　I wish I could play the piano like you.
　　對話
　　Andy: I wish I could play the piano like you.
　　Dee: I'm sure you could if you tried. You should take some lessons.
　　Andy: I took some when I was younger but I was hopeless.
　　Dee: Why was that?
　　Andy: I found that I was tone-deaf, which really made it impossible.
　　Dee: Never mind, why don't you try learning the drums? Then being tone-deaf shouldn't matter.
　　安迪：我彈鋼琴, 能彈得像你這樣就好了。
　　迪伊：衹要你努力, 一定可以的。 你不妨去上鋼琴課。
　　安迪：我從前也上過課, 但我就是不行。
　　迪伊：爲什麽?
　　安迪：我發覺自己是音盲，因此彈鋼琴不可能彈得好。
　　迪伊：這不要緊。你爲什麽不改學打鼓呢?學打鼓,音盲大概也不要緊。
　　安迪羨慕迪伊鋼琴彈得好，說I wish I could play the piano like you。這一句假如改爲I hope I can play the piano like you，意思有什麽分別？
　　按wish、 hope一般都譯做‘希望’，但hope表示事情有可能實現，wish則表示難以實現。所以wish帶出的子句(clause)，一般會用過去式說現在或未來的事，而用過去完成式說過去的事，例如：（１）I wish I were younger（我希望自己年輕一點）;（２）I wish I had never been born（我希望自己沒有出生在人世）。Hope帶出的子句，動詞用法則和一般句子沒有分別，可用過去式、現在式或未來式說過去、現在、未來。 I hope I can play the piano like you是說‘我希望我的鋼琴能彈得和你一樣好’，I wish I could play the piano like you則是說‘我彈鋼琴不能和你相比’。
　　現在再請廻答一個問題：I find that I was tone-deaf, which really made it impossible一語的which代表什麽？Which 、who 、that等關系代名詞(relative pronoun) ，一般是代表前麪的名詞，例如：(1)She looked at her watch, which said two o'clock（她看看手表，現在是兩點鍾）;(2)Tom, who was tired, gradually fell behind（湯姆很疲倦，逐漸落後）。但which really made it impossible的which卻不代表某個名詞，而是泛指前麪子句所說的事。這是which一個特別用法，謹再擧一例：He is purse-proud, which I don't like　（他以財富驕人，那是我很不喜歡的）。