1.     happen, take place, come about

take place, happen, occur, come about 和 break out 用法区别 这些词或短语都有“发生”的意思,但用法各不相同,区别如下：

(1) take place 表示“发生、举行、举办”,一般指非偶然性事件的“发生”,即这种事件的发生一定有某种原因或事先的安排.例如：Great changes have taken place in our hometown during the past ten years.

The Olympic Games of 2008 will take place in Beijing.

(2) happen 作“发生、碰巧”解,一般用于偶然或突发性事件.例如：What happened to you?(一般不说：What did you happen?) Maybe something unexpected happened. I happened to see him on my way home.= It happened that I saw him on my way home.

(3) occur 作“发生、想到、突然想起”解,其意义相当于 happen.例如：What has occurred?(= What has happened?) A big earthquake occurred (= happened) in the south of China last month. It occurred to me that she didn't know I had moved into the new house.

(4) come about 表示“发生、产生”,多指事情已经发生了,但还不知道为什么,常用于疑问句和否定句.例如：When Mother woke up, she didn't know what had come about. I'll never understand how it came about that you were late three times a week. Do you know how the air accident came about?

(5) break out 意思为“发生、爆发”,常指战争、灾难、疾病或者争吵等事件的发生,也可以表示突然大声叫喊等.例如：

Two world wars broke out last century.

A fire broke out in the hospital in the mid-night.

After the flood, diseases broke out here and there.

She broke out, “That is too unfair!”

 

2.     high, tall

tall常指人或动物等细长类东西,high常指基础大的物体 He is tall.

⑴说人,动物,树木等有生命的东西,主要用tall,不用high,例如

a tall woman 一个高个子妇女

a tall horse 一个高大的马

⑵说一个不与地面接触的人和物的高时,要用high,而不用tall,比如人站在桌子上时,飞机飞上天时,例如：

He is high up in the tree.

他高高地爬在树上.

The plane is so high in the sky.

飞机在空中这么高.

⑶指建筑物、山时要tall或high都可以,不过high的程度比tall高.

⑷high可作副词,tall不能.

⑸tall的反义词为short,high的反义词为low.

3.     hope, wish

want打算,想要 want to do, want sb. to do；hope希望（通常可以实现）,hope to do/ hope that…（hope sb. to do.错）；wish希望（通常不能实现）wish (sb.) to do, wish sb/sth. + n. I wish you success. wish +虚拟语气

 

4.     how many, how much, how often, how long, how soon

一般情况下,nothing回答what问句；nobody和no one回答who问句；none回答how many或how much问句.

①— What’s in the box?盒子里有什么?
— Nothing.什么也没有.
②—Who is in the classroom?谁在教室里?
—Nobody / No one.没有人.
③—How many people are there in the park?公园里有多少人?
—None.没有人.

5.     huge, large, big, great

1.huge系常用词, 用于具体事物或人时, 指“体积或数量大得超过一般情况”; 用于抽象事物时, 作“巨大的”、“无限的”解, 如:

an huge elephant

大象。

2.gigantic指“巨大的”、“庞大的”, 常用于借喻中, 含有一定的夸张之意, 如:

He has a gigantic appetite and eats gigantic meal.

他饭量特别大, 吃得惊人的多。

3.large

（1）(体积, 空间, 数量, 规模等)大的, 巨大的, 大规模的

（2）(见解等)广博的; 开阔的; (权限等)广泛的

（3）(心胸) 宽广的, 慷慨的

（4）(艺术风格等)奔放的, 气魄宏大的; 夸张的

 

6.     hundred, thousand, million, billion

 

7.     in, after1, after 2

in加时间段,用于将来时,表示将来一段时间后.而after加时间段,用于过去时,表示从过去某个时间点算起一段时间后.另外,after还可接时间点,既可用于将来时也可用于过去时.例：

He will be back in three days.他三天后会回来的.

He came back after three days.他三天后就回来了.

He came back after two o'clock.他两点后回来了.

He will come back after two o'clock.他两点后会回来的.

 

8.     in, on, to

介词at/in/on/to表示地点时的区别：

 

at、on、in这三个介词除了表示时间外，还可以表示地点。下面连同高频词汇to一起讲讲他们用法的一些区别。

 

at 强调点，on 强调面，in 强调在里面,to 则是表示范围外，具体区别如下：

 

at主要用在：

(1) at通常指小地方,如：home,school

(2) at通常所指范围不太明显，表示“在……附近，旁边”

Mrs. Jones is at home Thursdays.琼斯太太每星期四在家接待客人

The ball is at the corner.球搁在角落里

 

in主要用在：

(1)in通常指大地方,如：London,Beijing

(2) 在内部；还可以表示“在…范围之内”（是从属关系）

I live in a great city big city and my sister lives at a small town 我住在大城市，我姐姐住在一个小城镇

The ball is in the box. 球在盒子里

Shenzhen lies in the south of China 深圳在中国的南部(深圳属于中国内部）

 

on主要用在：

(1)on主要指“在……之上”，强调和表面接触，如on the ground

(2)表示毗邻，接壤（是相邻关系）

He put his watch on the desk 他把手表放在桌子上

Canada lies on the north of America 加拿大在美国的北边(与美国接壤）

【注意】over也可以表示“在......上方”，但是指一物体与另一物体不接触，如：

There is a light over the desk．桌子上方有一盏灯（桌子和灯不接触）

There is a light on the desk.桌子上有盏台灯。（桌子与灯接触）

 

to 主要用在：

(1)to主要表示“在……范围外”，强调不接壤，不相邻；

(2)“到达……”

Haikou lies to the south of Guangzhou 海南在广州的那边（与广州不相邻）

I will go to school. 我将去学校

 

【活学活用】1. on the tree／in the tree都译为“......在树上”。他们有什么区别呢？

                   2.on the wall／in the wall都译为“在墙上”，他们又有什么区别呢？

 

 

答案：1.on the tree表示树上本身所长着的叶子、花、果实等；而in the tree表示某物或某人在树上。

          2.on强调”在……表面“，如图画、黑板、风筝等“在墙上”，是因为它们在墙的表面上，所以用on the wall；to强调”在……里面“，如门窗、钉子、洞、孔等“在墙上”，是因为它们在墙的里面，故用in the wall

9.     interesting, interested

（1）interest用作不可数名词时意为“兴趣,关心,重要性,影响,利息,利益,利害”.用作动词时意为“使发生兴趣,引起...的注意”,其主语多为事或物.

eg：I have no interest in your plan.我对你的计划没有兴趣.

（2）interesting 形容词 主语通常是物.可以作表语,也可以作定语.

eg：1.The book is very interesting.

这本书很有趣．（表语）

2.The story sounds interesting.

这个故事听起来很有趣．（表语）

3.That is an interesting film.

那是一部有趣的电影．（定语）

4.This is an interesting book.

这是本有趣的书.（定语）

（3）interested 形容词 意为“感兴趣的”；“对……感兴趣”,主语通常是人,且多用于be / get / feel / become interested in结构中.

a.be interested in sth.对某事感兴趣

b.be interested in doing sth.对做某事感兴趣

eg：He is interested in the film.

他对这部电影感兴趣.

I am interested in English.

我对英语感兴趣．

He is interested in playing football.

他对踢足球感兴趣．

 

10.          exciting, excited

excited当事者自己兴奋,exciting当事者让别人兴奋的 I'm excited. The news is exciting.

11.          boring, bored

bored 用于形容人，一般用作表语。如I am bored.

boring用于形容物，意思是令人厌烦的，乏味的。如 it is a boring day!

以上是我的理解。下面是在网上搜到的较好的解释。

Question: I always say "I’m boring" when I mean "I’m bored". How can I tell the difference?

 

Both sentences "I’m boring" and "I’m bored" are grammatically correct, though they mean very different things. The –ing ending means you are changing a situation, and the –ed ending means the situation is changing you.

If you are boring, then other people don’t want to be around you – you change them / bore them.

If you are bored, then something / someone near you is changing you and your feelings.

All of these pairs (e.g. tired / tiring, excited / exciting) are formed from verbs:

John bores Mary, so

Mary is bored.

John is boring.

 

12.          tiring, tired

tired adj.

feeling that you need to rest or sleep, weary in body or mind

疲倦的,疲惫的,感到疲倦

eg:I was completely tired out after all that.

做那么多事后我感到精疲力竭.

tiring adj.

making you want to rest or sleep 令人疲倦的、累人的

eg：The baby is tiring.

a tiring trip／journey

13.          look for, find, search

这三个词都有“找”的涵义,但具体用法有别：

1）look for意为“寻找”,是有目的地找,强调“寻找”这一动作.如：

—What are you looking for?

你在找什么?

—I'm looking for my bike．

我在找我的自行车.

2）find意为“找到”“发现”,强调“找”的结果,其宾语往往是某个丢失的东西或人.如：

—Did you find Li Ming yesterday?

你昨天找到李明了吗?

—No, we looked for him everywhere, but didn't find him．

没有.我们到处找了,但没有找到他.

3）find out着重表示通过理解、分析、思考、询问等“弄清楚”“查明”一件事情,其后的宾语常常是某个情况、事实.如：

Please find out when the train leaves．

请查一下火车什么时候离站.

search和in search of经常被视为同义词,如果一定要区分的话,或许可以这样理

（1）search指“搜索”这一动作或行为,而in search of指“搜索”这一状态（处在搜索某人/某事的过程中）；

（2）要充分利用“句子成份”方面的知识来帮助自己“理解”短语的构成,“in+名词+of”这是一个常见的短语结构（如in need of = need等等）,它由2个介宾短语复合而成：in search (of sth),其中in search这个介宾短语常作表语,而后面of sth这个介宾短语作名词search的宾补（补语）,然后结合词义,你基本上就能分析出它们的异同了.

另外,search和search for的区别也很明显,如果你记全这个短语search somebody/somewhere for sb/sth就立马能体会二者的差别了：

（1）search只表达“搜索、搜查”的意思,后面跟的是作间接宾语的对象（object）,而search for后面跟的是作直接宾语的目标（target）,隐含的意思是说,在某人或某地那里找东西.这一用法类似于双宾结构（只不过在后一个宾语前多加了个for）；

（2）类似于in search of短语,“动词+for”的结构也是英语中常见的短语结构,for在此处的意思是“为了,要得到”,是具有明确“目的性”的介词.类似的短语非常多,如look for、ask for等等.