撤銷護照、喜歡游泳 - 古德明

                
                
問：美國政府撤銷叛諜斯諾登的護照，英文報紙報道說：US officials have yanked Snowden's passport。查字典，yank沒有「撤銷」的意思，這是不是舊詞新用？
答：較正式的英文會說US officials have revoked Snowden's passport，不會用yank這樣的俗語。
查《牛津高階英文詞典》以及《朗文當代英文詞典》，yank都只有「用力猛拉」的意思。把這意思引伸，yank就是「卒然除去」。這個引伸的意思，中型字典少見收錄，但韋氏詞典Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary的解釋很清楚：to remove in or as if in an abrupt manner。謹按yank的兩個意思，各舉一例如下：（1）The little boy yanked his sister's hair when she was not looking（那小男孩趁妹妹不留意，用力拉了拉她的頭髮）。（2）His name was yanked from the guest list（他的名字，在賓客名單上給除去）。
問：要表示「我從小就喜歡游泳」，英文可不可以說I like swimming since I was a child？
答：要說「由過去某個時候到現在」，英文動詞不可用簡單現在式，而應用現在完成式。讀者說的那句中文，英文可以譯做I have liked / have enjoyed swimming since I was a child。此外還可以說：I have been in love with swimming since I was a child 或 I started to like swimming when I was a child, and have enjoyed the sport ever since。