■ cost

1) 作“使（某人）付出（某代价）”解时，如果“某人”出现（无论以名词或代词来表示），就必须作为间接宾语（无 to）放在 cost 之后，直接宾语之前。直接宾语通常指的是“本来拥有或本来可能拥有但作为代价而失去的东西”而不是损失本身。

• How much is it going to cost me?这回要我付出多大的代价？
• It didn't cost me a penny.我分文未花。
• Electricity costs money, you know!你可知道，电是要花钱的。
• It cost her a lot of time.费了她许多时间。
• One slip cost him the title.他偶一不慎，就失去了称号。
• His frankness cost him dear.他因为坦率吃了大亏。
• Drinking and driving costs lives.酒后开车会造成人命损失。
• Keeping fit costs both time and effort.锻炼身体是要费时间和精力的。
• It doesn't cost anything to be polite.以礼待人并不需要付出什么代价。
• It must have cost him to say sorry.他表示道歉一定是很勉强的。
• Whatever it costs, I'm not going to give up.不管付出多大代价，我都不罢休。

如果失去的东西有限定词，如 my, your 等，间接宾语仍然可以保留 me, you，不嫌重复。

• A single error here could cost you your life.在这里稍有不慎，你就会丢掉性命。
• It cost him his job.这件事使他丢了饭碗。
• Passive smoking cost him his health and his job, and smoking in public places should be banned.被动吸烟使他失去了健康和工作，公共场所应该禁止吸烟。

但是，直接宾语有时候也可以指损失本身。就是说，不是本来拥有或可能拥有的好的东西（作为代价而失去），而是作为代价而新产生的不好的事情。

• It cost him a lot of trouble.这给他造成许多麻烦（不是“使他失去 trouble”）。

有时也可以指作为代价而新动用的资源或作出的努力。

• I made something that cost me a hundred days' work.我做了一件费了我一百个工作日的事情。
• It cost me a lot of tears, courage, strength and faith.为了这件事，我流了不少眼泪，鼓起了很大勇气，使出了很大力气，发挥了坚定的信念。

有时候直接宾语混合包括了原有但现在失去的东西和现在临时出现的负面事物。

• But it cost me lots of money and enormous stress.但是这件事费了我不少钱，心情还弄得很紧张。
• It cost her a lot of time and effort.这件事费了她不少时间和精力。

此外，直接宾语也可以既非损失掉的正面事物，也非损失本身，而是与得失有关的角逐。

• This may cost them the Senate contest.他们可能因此而输掉参议员席位的角逐。

2) 作“估价”解，动词 cost 的用法比较简单，兹不聱述。

• He costed the different types of engines.他对各种引擎的价格作了评估。

3) cost 作为名词，这里只举出其惯用词组 at the cost of 的用法。前面在 1) 中已经说过，cost 作为及物动词，其直接宾语所指的，在大多数场合，是本来就拥有或可能拥有的正面事物，但偶尔在少数场合也可以是出现的损失。而在 at the cost of 后面，则两种情况出现的频率几乎差不多。先看 at the cost of 后面接上原有正面事物的例子。

• discipline at the cost of dignity为了纪律而牺牲尊严
• Security at the cost of freedom?为了安全而放弃自由？
• The material position of the worker has improved, but at the cost of his social position.工人的物质状况改善了，但代价是社会地位下降了。
• We hail the courageous sacrifices made by journalists around the world to report the facts, even at the cost of their lives and their freedom.我们向全世界不惜付出生命与自由为代价报道事实的记者们作出的勇敢牺牲致敬。
• That means each person in Japan used two hundred disposable chopsticks a year at the cost of two million and four hundred and ten thousand trees.这就是说，在日本每个人每年用掉二百双一次性筷子，其代价就是砍掉了二百四十一万棵树。

4) 现在再看 at the cost of 后面接上新来的负面后果的例子。

• duty at the cost of death 以身殉职（与 duty at the cost of life的意义相同）
• public benefit at the cost of private loss公众得益而私人受损。
• Ghana receives US$3 billion in remittances, but at the cost of brain drain.加纳得到三十亿美元的外汇收入，但却是以人才流失为代价。
• Lincoln could have accepted peace at the cost of disunity and continued slavery. (George W. Bush, State of the Union, Jan. 31, 2006)林肯本来也可以宁可要和平，不惜让国家分裂，让奴隶制保持。
• Is it morally acceptable to extend human longevity at the cost of infertility?以不育为代价来延长人类寿命，在道德上是可以接受的吗？
• Experience teaches slowly and at the cost of mistakes.从经验中学习，是很慢的，而且要经过犯错误。
• The device offers obvious gains in efficiency, but at the cost of distancing us from reality.这个装置在效率上具有明显的优点，但是代价却是使得我们脱离现实。
• World Trade Organisation members in December reached a compromise agreement that averted a crisis at their Hong Kong meeting, but at the cost of postponing until next year all the most difficult negotiations in the Doha trade round.世界贸易组织各成员国在十二月份达成了一项妥协性的协议，避免了香港会议上的危机，但是代价就是把多哈贸易回合所有最困难的谈判推延到明年。
• Avoiding such a syntactic construction is only possible at the cost of clumsiness and ambiguity.如果想要避免这种句法结构，就必然要付出诘屈聱牙、意义混淆的代价。
• Furthermore, for two decades Republicans have connived at using the VRA to enhance their congressional strength, at the cost of deepening the polarization and Balkanization of the electorate.(Newsweek, Oct. 10, 2005, p.70)况且，二十多年来，共和党人一直在悄悄利用《投票权法案》来加强自己在国会里的势力，而其代价则是加深了选民的两极化和巴尔干化。

5) at the expense of 与 at the cost of 是同义的，可以互用，它后面接上的名词成分，也是既可以表示正面的事物（可能失去的东西），也可以表示反面的事物（可能造成的损失）。

• He wanted to reach the fishing grounds by daybreak, but not at the expense of costly repairs. Or at the expense of his life.他想赶在拂晓之前到达渔区，但不要因此而付出昂贵的修船费用。也不要因此而送掉性命。

（costly repairs 是负面的事物，his life 是正面的事物）但是，与 at the cost of 相比，at the expense of 后面更多见的是正面的事物。

• Friends of the Earth attacked the oil giant Shell which today announced half-year profits of ￡5.84 billion, saying the profits came at the expense of people and the environment. (Friends of the Earth, Press Release, July 28, 2005) 《大地之友》抨击今天公布半年利润为五十八亿四千万英镑的石油巨擎壳牌石油公司，说这些利润是靠牺牲人和环境得来的（people和 environment 都是正面事物）。

经过转义，还可以表示一正一负此长彼消关系中的“负”方或“消”方。

• For four decades, at the expense of the Northeast and Midwest, the South and West have taken off as America's fastest-growing areas, buoyed by immigration, lower costs, and recreational opportunities. (US News & World Report, Oct. 2, 2006, p.49)四十年间，由于移民众多、成本低廉以及消遣娱乐方便，南部和西部超过了东北部和中西部而开始成为美国发展最快的地区。