■ what

1) 英语常常出现以 what 引入的名词从句，出现的场合往往是某一事物处于同当前不同的地位，需要转到另一个地位来说明。而由于 what 本身意义空泛，中文必须具体化，没有相应的词语，整个结构翻译起来比较费踌躇，需要随机应变，灵活处理（中国人要学会使用，就更加需要下苦功）。

• in what used to be the dining room在从前常充当饭厅的房间里 (what = a room that)
• She managed to read 957 pages in what must have been about a day.她用了大约一天的时间，看了 957 页 (what = a period of time that)。
• There are low-cost or generic alternatives to what might be a more expensive (sometimes more desirable) drug.本来更贵（有时候也更可取）的药物，有了成本更低廉的或是未注册的代替物 (what = a drug that)。
• The Fed is scheduled to meet next on Aug. 22 to decide whether it will raise rates for what would be the seventh time since June, 1999.联储会定下次在八月二十二日开会决定是否提高利率，如果提高，将是一九九九年六月以来的第七次 (what = a time that)。
• (My mother) died last week at age 92, just two days after Thanksgiving, on what would have been the 70th anniversary of her wedding. (Ellen Goodman. The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, New York, Dec. 9, 2006, A9)（我母亲）上星期去世，享年 92，那是在感恩节后两天，本来是她结婚的七十周年 (what = the day that)。
• We are entering what might be called "the Age of the Consultant."我们正在进入一个可以称为“咨询顾问时代”的时代 (what = an age that)。
• A former doctor at Emory University School of Medicine in the United States has won what his lawyers said is the first libel verdict based on an anonymous Internet message (South China Morning Post)美国埃默里大学医学院从前的一位医生打赢了一场官司，据他的律师们说，这是第一件以互联网上一份匿名信件为根据的诽谤案得到判决 (what = a verdict that)。
• That, Lay's defense lawyers argue, is not enough to send a man to prison for what could be the rest of his life. (The Washing Post, April 24, 2006)雷伊的辩护律师们申辩说，那并不足以判一个人到监狱里去度过自己也许是整个的余生 (what = a period of time that)。
• The German brass were firing on their own retreating men in what at the time seemed a lost, desperate cause.德军军官们在看来大势已去的情况下向自己正在后撤的士兵开火射击 (what = a cause that)。
• From that vague but vital piece of information, according to a senior European intelligence official, British authorities opened the investigation into what they said turned out to be a well-coordinated and long-planned plot to bomb multiple transatlantic flights heading toward the United States—an assault designed to rival the scope and lethality of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings. (The Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2006)据一位资深的欧洲情报官员说，英国当局根据一份含糊但是至关重要的情报，开始着手调查这个案件，而据他们说，原来这是一个配合周密、蓄谋已久的阴谋，要炸掉多架横渡大西洋飞往美国的飞机，按照设计，这次袭击，其规模和杀伤力，不亚于 2001 年 9 月 11 日的劫机事件 (what = a plot that)。
• By the eighth century, about 100 years after Muhammad's death, the authority of the caliphs extended over parts of three continents, from what is now Pakistan across the Mideast and North Africa to what is now Spain and Portugal. (US News & World Report, Jan. 14, 2008, p.38)到了 8 世纪，大约在穆罕默德逝世后一百年，哈里发们的势力扩展到了三大洲的一些部分，从今天的巴基斯坦，横跨中东和非洲，直到今天的西班牙和葡萄牙 (what = the region that)。

这个 what 甚至可以代替一个复数的可数名词，在句中作为复数处理。

• His father belonged to what (= the families that) were known as the Thousand Families, the old Persian aristocracy.他父亲属于有名的千家族，亦即波斯的旧贵族集团。

2) what 也可以作为定语放在名词前面（意义同 the 差不多），这个名词此时“一身而二任”，既在主句中占据一个名词成分的位置，又在从句中占据一个名词成分的位置（充当主语、宾语、表语或补语，但通常作宾语）。

• What little loyalty he still enjoyed evaporated.他本来仍然享有的拥护，荡然无存了（what little loyalty 在从句充当宾语，在主句充当主语）。
• Susan answered what questions she could.苏珊能回答的问题都回答了（what questions 在主句和从句都充当宾语）。
• The president gained what support he needed.总统得到了他所需要的支持（what support 在主句和从句都充当宾语）。
• I can lend you what books you want to read.你想看些什么书，我都可以借给你（what books 在主句和从句都充当宾语）。
• I have read what books I have.我自己的藏书全都看过了（what books 在主句和从句都充当宾语）。
• ... the unabated sacrifice of American life will eventually exhaust what public support remains for the war. (Time, Oct. 30, 2006, p.32)…美国人的生命毫无起色地牺牲下去，公众剩下的一点对战争的支持，最后也会消耗殆尽（what public support 在主句充当直接宾语，在从句充当主语）。

3) 以 what 或其他兼作疑问代词和关系代词的单词（如 who, which, when, whose）以及 whether 引入的间接疑问句或名词从句（由于是间接疑问句，主语谓语不颠倒），作为大句的直接宾语，往往可以提前到句首，后面再接上主语和及物动词谓语，形成颠倒词序。信息重点落在后面的谓语上（常常是对前面宾语所指事情的处理或了解）。

• Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about. (Newsweek, Oct. 17, 2005, p.32)有些我知道的我也不能随便说。
• Exactly what troubled him, he could not define.究竟他感到烦恼的是什么，他也说不准。
• What the core of the difference between them on these matters was Evans left unstated.在这些问题上，他们彼此的分歧，症结究竟何在，伊文思没有说。
• Whether the word applies to a given occasion the writer have to decide for himself.一个单词是否适用于某一特定场合，要由作者自己来决定。
• They put a coat on him—whose it was or where it might have come from, he didn't think to ask.他们给他披上了一件外衣，至于外衣是谁的，可能是从哪里来的，他也不想到要问。
• What we have today, we have to find room for again. (US News & World Report, Oct. 2, 2006, pp 48-49)我们人口增加到今天这么多，我们又要想办法如何容纳了。