■ that

1) 这个单词容易看错。它可能是：

尤其是 a) 与 d) 的区别特别值得注意。

• I am not here to tell you that life is all gloom and doom.我到这里来，并不是要告诉你人生是一片黑暗。

这里的 that 绝不可以误解为 life 的定语，它是引导出名词从句的连词。有时候这个 that 甚至可以出现在句首，也不可以误解为指示形容词。

• That something was fundamentally wrong with this idea had become clear by mid-afternoon on July 15.该主张有根本不妥之处，这一点，到了七月十五日下午就显得很清楚了。

2) 引入名词从句或定语从句的 that 往往可以省略（that 在定语从句中不充当主语方可省略）。在一般情况下，省略与不省略，意义相同。但是，如果 that 名词从句前面的主句是主要信息，that 就不能省略；如果 that 前面的成分可有可无，只是一带而过，主要信息在后面，就最好把 that 省略。请看下面对话的例子：

• A: Who thinks that Mary's a good speaker of German?
  B: I do. I think that she's a good speaker of German.
  A: Then what do you think of John?
  B: I think（无 that）he's a poor speaker of German.
  A：是谁认为玛丽德语说得好的？
  B：是我。是我认为玛丽德语说得好。
  A：那么你觉得约翰如何呢？
  B：我看他的德语说得很差。

3) 引入名词从句或定语从句的 that 有时候如果省略，骤然一看可能发生误读，需要注意。

• Quite honestly, it's surprising more of them aren't at risk.老实说，他们当中没有更多的人处在危险之中，就已经是令人惊讶的了（这里的 surprising 同后面的 more of them 没有直接关系，千万不要把 more of them 看成 surprising 的宾语。其实两者之间省略了一个 that）。
• The Bush administration rushed out the most sensitive item first, worried Qadhafi might change his mind.布什政府赶紧先把最敏感的东西弄出来，因为它担心卡扎菲会改变主意（这里 worried 与 Qadhafi 之间，有一个略去的 that）。

4) that 引入的定语从句或同位语从句，有时候会离开前面的先行词较远，当中往往隔着谓语动词或其他词组。此时就要善于把这个从句同先行词接通关系。

• The fish will soon be caught that nibbles at every bait. 看见诱饵就啃的鱼，很快就被逮住（这一句的结构，本来是 The fish that nibbles at every bait will soon be caught.但是定语从句挪到前头，句子就显得累赘）。
• What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn't been done?还有什么事没有做，要留给超人来做的呢？
• That loaf was stale that you sold me.你卖给我的面包当时就是不新鲜的。
• All's well that ends well.最后好就一切都好。
• Nonetheless, the evidence seems overwhelming that we have made far more progress against terrorism overseas than here at home. (US News & World Report, Dec. 2, 2002, p.64)然而，看来有确凿的证据，说明了我们在海外反恐取得的进展比在国内这里大得多。
• Then the realization came to him that there might be a choice, after all.于是他就想到，总会有一个选择吧。
• Put all the guts into it that you can. (O. E. Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth)你能有多大勇气，就放多大勇气进去吧。
• Parents love to buy things for their children that they had when they were young and that they loved.父母自己年轻时有过什么自己喜爱的东西，他们就喜欢给孩子买。
• Suspicions are growing, meanwhile, that some South Ossetian officials are not just ignoring counterfeiting but are involving themselves in it directly. (The Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2006)同时，人们越来越怀疑，南奥塞梯有一些官员，对于制造伪钞，不光是不闻不问，而且还亲身卷入。
• During this period, simultaneous arrangements would be agreed to that allowed an expert to evaluate the designs brought from Berlin在此期间，将要商妥一些同时进行的安排，让一名专家来对那些从柏林带来的设计图加以评估（注意：to 与 that 无关）。
• Criminal defense lawyers put a lot of people back on the street that shouldn't have been there.刑事辩护律师使得许多本来不应该获释回到大街上的人回到了大街上（注意：that 与 street 无关）。
• I wrote an email to a friend that made a disparaging remark about a co-worker. I stepped away from my desk, leaving the message on my screen. When I returned, the maligned party was in my cubicle. He'd obviously read the email. (Reader's Digest, Oct., 2007, p.83)我给一个朋友写了一封电邮，里面对一位同事贬了一通。我一时离开了我的办公桌，电邮就留在屏幕上。我回到办公间时，那个被我说了坏话的人已经在那里。他显然看过了这份电邮（that 不管 friend，管 email）。

1979 年英国大选时，少数党自由党领袖 David Steel 抨击保守党和工党同样保守，有一句话说：

• The truth is beginning to dawn on our people that there are two conservative parties in this election.有一个真相正在我国人民面前显露，那就是：这次选举当中，有两个保守党（truth 和 that 离开很远，但 truth 前有 the，表明其内容尚未说出来，言犹未尽）。

有时候 that 从句十分长而谓语很短，不把 that 从句隔开放在后面简直无法成句子。

• How fair would any draft be that asked only a few thousand high school graduates out of the millions of eligible men and women to serve each year? (Time, Dec. 29, 2003, p.102)如果有个征兵制度，每年几百万名合条件的男男女女当中，只要求几千名高中毕业生去服役，这样的制度，又有什么公平可言呢？

有时候找出 that 和前面的先行词的联系，还要摆脱当中可能出现的干扰。

• Imagine for a moment that your daughter needs a bone-marrow transplant and no one can provide a match; that your wife's early menopause has made her infertile; or that your five-year-old has drowned in a lake and your grief has made it impossible to get your mind around the fact that he is gone forever. Would the news then be so easy to dismiss that around the world, there are scientists in labs pressing ahead with plans o duplicate a human being, deploying the same technology that allowed Scottish scientist to clone Dolly the sheep four years ago? (Time, Feb. 19, 2001, p.47)（so 与 that... 没有呼应关系）你想象一下，如果你的女儿需要做骨髓移植但是找不到合适的供体；如果你妻子由于过早绝经而不能再生育；或者如果你一个五岁大的孩子淹死了在湖里，使你伤心得无法绕过他已经永远逝去的事实。现在来了一个消息，说在世界上有些科学家正在试验室里努力推进一些计划，要把四年前苏格兰科学家用以克隆多莉羊的同样的技术拿来复制人类，这个消息难道是那么容易置之不理的吗？（so... that... 不是呼应关系，news... that... 才前后呼应。）

不但 that 从句有这样的问题，用其他关系代词引入的从句或是其他后置定语也是一样的。

• Obviously, someone gained entry tonight who should not have.显然今天晚上有本来不该进来的人设法进来了。
• When the sun warms the Earth too dangerously, the time may come to draw the shade. (The Associated Press, Nov. 16, 2006)当太阳给地球加热加到了太危险的地步时，就该把遮阳罩拉上了。
• Concepts emerge from these operations which are definite and verifiable.(Stuart Chase, The Tyranny of Words)从这些行动，产生了明确的、可以核实的概念（operations 前有 these，通常不会后面再有定语从句，可见 which 定语从句是远距离修饰 concepts 的）。

还有前后相距很远的。

• Her mother made discreet inquiries; and consulted her husband, who made more; for no young male ever set foot in the drawing room of the house overlooking Hyde Park who had not been as well vetted as any modern security department vets its atomic scientists. (John Fowler, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Chapter 11, p.80)她的母亲做了周密的调查，随后便和丈夫商量，丈夫又进行了更多的调查。任何男性青年，要踏进海德公园旁边那所高房子的客厅之中，都要（也可以照原文的双重否定译为“无不”）经过缜密的审查，就像如今要进入保安部门的任何原子科学家都得经过审查一样。

5) 另一种 that 与其先行词隔开的现象，是该先行词后面还有一些后置定语，然后才出现 that 所引入的定语从句，而 that 前面的名词，只是更前面的另一名词（that 的先行词）的后置定语的一部分，不是 that 的先行词。此时要善于看出哪一个是先行词。办法是：这个先行词，加上其后置定语，或是在内涵上或是外延上意义仍然不完全，要等待 that 从句来补全其内涵或是外延。内涵不完全时，这个先行词通常是不定指的（或者是不定代词，或者是名词单数有 a，复数无冠词）；外延不完全时，这个先行词通常是定指的（名词单复数均有定冠词 the）。

• She had a way of dealing with things that always turned out right.她处理事情，总是有一套果然正确的办法。
• There's something about the way he talks of her that doesn't fit.他谈论她时说的话，有些是不合适的。
• Unfortunately, there hasn't been a war that America has been involved in since Vietnam that has created such a division in her people. (The Times Union, Albany, New York, March 31, 2003)不幸的是，自从越南战争以来，还没有哪一场美国卷入的战争造成本国人民这样大的分裂。
• There was something about the way she stood that suggested a strength hardly less than that of the great trees around the house.她那昂然站立的姿势，显示出一种同房子周围的参天大树不相上下的坚忍不拔的气度。

不但 that 从句可能远在它的先行词后面，当中隔了其他成分，同样，另外一些定语成分也可能远在先行词后面（当中常常隔着谓语）。

• The question then arises as to how these remarks differ from the previous ones.这些议论，同先前的有何不同，这一下子就出现了问题。
• The truth is beginning to come out about what happened.有关当时的事态，真相正在开始露头。
• The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule... (Somerset Maugham,The Moon and Sixpence, Chapter I)他作为人们讥笑对象的日子，已经过去了…

6) 还有一种 that 与其先行词隔开的现象，是当中插入了一个状语成分。

• Never place items in the washer that are dampened with gasoline or other flammable fluids.洗衣机内不要放入沾了汽油和其他易燃液体的东西。
• I wrote an email to a friend that made a disparaging remark about a co-worker. (Reader's Digest, Oct. 2007, p.83)我给一位朋友写了一份电子邮件，里面说了一名同事一番坏话（that 管 email，不管 friend）。

7) 有时候 that 究竟是定语从句的关系代词，还是同位语从句的主从连词，有可能发生歧义，需要从上下文和事理来判断，例如：

• A report that he stole was sent to the police.

这一句光是从本句范围来看，可以有两种理解：

8) 在比较古旧的英文，that which 相当于现在的 what。

• In this manner, that which (=what) is received is changed. (English translation of Hegel's History of Philosophy by Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, "Introduction," p.3)这一来，承传下来的东西，又经历变化。
• Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet." (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II, ii, 1-2)朱丽叶：“名称算得了什么？我们管它叫玫瑰／随便换个名称，还是一样的香。”
• It was thus that there arose National Churches, which were to be to the several Protestant countries of Europe that which (= what) the Church Catholic had been to the world at large;... (James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, p.382)于是，出现了一些国家教会，这些教会之于欧洲的几个新教国家，就犹如天主教会之于整个世界。

有时候，前后用 what 或 whatever 用多了，也可以用 that which 来调剂一下。

• ... and whatever it was possible to do to give priority to that which is in any case explained by what follows, and generally whatever might contribute to the greatest possible comprehensibility and clearness, has been honestly and conscientiously done. (Arthur Schopenhauer,The World as Will and Representation, English Version by E. F. Payne, p. xiii)…如果行文中有哪些部分是接着马上就得到说明的，以及有哪些部分可能是有助于使全文尽可能清晰易懂的，编写时都老老实实且细心周到地尽可能予以优先。

that 和 which 有时候当中可以插入别的词语，但两者的呼应关系不应中断。

• Far more pervading and more remarkable was the other error, if that can be called an error which was the almost unavoidable result of the circumstances of the time. (James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, p.381)影响广得多而且更为显著得多的，是另一方面的失误，如果当时事态所几乎不可避免要造成的结果也可以称为失误的话。