| 词组 | adapt, adopt, adept |
| 释义 | adapt, adopt, adept Under the heading Adapt/Adopt Kilpatrick 1984 says, "No good reason suggests itself for the two words ever to be confused " And even less reason for adept, which is not even a verb like the other two, to be confused. Yet many handbooks, from the elementary-school to the college level are at pains to distinguish them. Let us hope someone actually benefits from all this help. We have evidence of an error or two among our citations, but they may easily be typographical in origin and not from any confusion in the writer: • The next Kraft show, adopted from Hemingway's Fifty Grand —Current Biography, September 1967 It is possible to use one or the other of the verbs in a context vague enough that only the author knows which verb is intended: • ... the Café des Artistes, which Lang will turn into what he calls a neighborhood restaurant. It will adapt the concept of the English ordinary that became popular in early New York taverns —Horace Sutton, Saturday Rev., 15 Nov. 1975 It is hard to feel certain whether the concept will be used with or without modifications, though in this instance it doesn't seem to matter much. But such hermaphrodite constructions are rare. Usually the two verbs are easily distinguished both by meaning and typical construction. Here are a few typical examples of adapt: • ... the principle by which the Law was adapted to changing conditions —Edmund Wilson, A Piece of My Mind, 1956 • ... a method the writer can adapt to his material — Ted Morgan, Saturday Rev., August 1979 • ... to adapt what was already known about them to television —Richard Poirier, Saturday Rev., 22 Apr. 1972 • ... where huge mammals were skinned, boned, and adapted for use —Julia Howard, Science 80, March/ April 1980 • ... a script that he himself adapted from the original by Euripides —Current Biography, May 1966 Here are some typical examples of adopt: • ... those who adopt this course must at least be clear about the likely dynamics of the process —Noam Chomsky, Columbia Forum, Winter 1969 • ... as was the custom, he was adopted into his future wife's family —Current Biography, December 1965 • Common policies were to be adopted for foreign trade, agriculture, and transport —Current Biography, May 1966 • ... has been adopted as prospective Liberal parliamentary candidate for the Garston division of the city —The Times (London), 15 Nov. 1973 • ... I was adopted almost at once by a townsman — Richard Joseph, Your Trip to Britain, 1954 The two verbs can even be used with complete clarity in the same sentence: • ... had been slow to adapt to a changing world or to adopt modern education —Rosanne Klass, Saturday Rev., 5 Feb. 1972 Adept is both a noun and an adjective. Some examples of the noun: • She has ... become an adept in ambiguities —John Leonard, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 13 May 1973 • Blake may be regarded as an adept of ancient mystical doctrine —W. L. Renwick, English Literature 1789-1815, 1963 • Luigi was an adept at understatement —John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds, 1935 Evans 1957 thinks in preferable to at after the adjective. But at appears to be used more often, and other prepositions are used as well: • The Swede is adept at the gentle pastime of fishing in troubled waters —W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, 1919 • ... so adept at the lovely polishing of every grave and lucent phrase —Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm, 1932 • ... were far from adept at lobbying —Emily Hahn, New Yorker, 24 Apr. 1971 • There is no intrinsic reason why a lawyer should not be adept in grammar and logic —Scott Buchanan, "So Reason Can Rule," 1967 • ... is so adept in extracting himself plausibly from the most compromising situations —Victor Heiser, An American Doctor's Odyssey, 1936 • ... the only surprise is that he is so adept with both instruments —Don Heckman, Stereo Rev., September 1971 • ... as you become more and more adept as a ham —Arthur Henley, Boy's Life, May 1968 • ... is a working ranch-dog and is equally adept on all kinds of stock —Dog World, June 1976 |
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