二、句子

英语句子开门见山，其主谓结构是全句的“纲”，其余成份是“目”，一般先下结论，后叙事，从近到远，新近发生的事先出现，重心落在句首。

汉语句子一般以逻辑关系和时间的先后顺序排列，一般先叙事，后下结论，由远及近，重心落在句尾。这种差异体现了直入与螺旋的不同的思维方式。中国学生在英语写作时往往会受汉语思维的影响，写出下面的句子：

1. a） When I stayed in Guangzhou last month, you helped me. I am grateful for that.

2. a） Tom’s mother died when he was only two years old, so he did not remember her.

3. a） After we left China in 1959, the natural calamities happened one after another for three years in the country. While we read about it at home, we had been dismayed.

4. a） It looked rain that evening, yet Dad came all the same. That made us very joyful.

如果按英语直入的思维方式，以上几句要改写成：

1. b） I am very grateful for your help to me during my stay in Guangzhou last month.

2. b） Tom did not remember his mother who died when he was only two years old.

3. b） We had been dismayed at home while reading of the natural calamities that happened one after another for three years after we left China in 1959.

4. b） It looked rain that evening, yet to our great joy, Dad came all the same.

这种思维方式的转换要是更复杂一点，对中国学生来说，是需要操练的。例如：

1. 我认为如果他们初次相识时，她很穷，他未必会爱她。这位女性由于对他有好感而帮助他，使他心存感激，这种感激之情很容易发展成为真挚的爱情。

I do not suppose he would have loved her if she had been poor when he first knew her, but the gratitude which he felt for the help which he owed to her kindly interest in him easily developed into a sincere affection. （条件关系和多层因果关系的转换）

2. 她去深圳参加一个会议，会议结束后，她就到香港去购物，昨天才回来。

She came back yesterday from Hong Kong where she had gone shopping after the meeting in Shenzhen.（时间顺序的转换）