the fact that
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以 that- 子句作主詞的用法並不普遍。比方說,我們可以說 He was worried that he had no girl-friends ‘他擔心沒有女朋友或The problem was that she was a foreigner ‘問題是她是一個外國人'。但是 That he had no girl-friends worried him a lot ‘他沒有女朋友使他很擔心,或 That she was a foreigner made it more difficult for her to get a job“她是外國人這件事使她更不容易找工作這種說法是很少用(而且是很正式)的。
然而,比較常用的結構是以 The fact+that子句作句子的主詞。
The fact that he had no girl-friends worried him a lot. 他沒有女朋友這件事使他很擔心。
The fact that she was foreign made it difficult for her to get a job. 她是外國人這件事使她更難找到工作。
避免 that- 子句的另一種方式是使用-ing 形式,或使用與‘前導主詞 it'共用的 that- 子句(參看349)。
Having no girl-friends worried him a lot. 沒有女朋友使他很擔心。
It worried him a lot that he had ... 他有...使他很擔心。
有時候我們也必需用 the fact that 來引導受詞子句。當動詞或形容詞後面接一個不可省略的介詞(如 pay attention to, 或 responsible for) 時,受詞子句以 the fact that 來引導。介詞通常不可接連接詞 that,因此必須用 the fact that.
The judge paid no attention to the fact that she had just lost her husband. He held her completely responsible for the fact that her children had been shoplifting. 法官對於她剛失去了丈夫這回事並不關注。他要她對她的孩子們在逛商店時偷竊的事件負完全的責任。
然而。通常動詞或形容詞後面可以不加介詞而直接接that-子句,因此不必使用 the fact.
He insisted that he was innocent. 他堅持說他是無辜的。
I'm aware that you dislike me. 我知道你不喜歡我。
關於介詞後面的連接詞用法更多的資料,參看 490。
