作者: 超凡遠距英語口筆譯

根據描述回答問題

1. a. Dan was leaving the room when I walked in.
   b. Sam had left the room when I walked in.
   Q: Who did I run into?                                      
   Ans:   A. Dan             B. Sam
2. a. When the rain stopped, Gloria was riding her bicycle to work.
   b. When the rain stopped, Tom rode his bicycle to work.
   Q: Who got wet on the way to work?               
   Ans:   A. Gloria         B. Tom
3. a. Ken went to the store because he was running out of food.
   b. Ann went to the store because she had run out of food.
   Q: Who is better at planning ahead?                 
   Ans: A. Ken                 B. Ann
4. a. Lin taught at this school for nine years.
   b. Smith has been teaching at this school for nine years.
   Q: Who is teaching at this school now?            
   Ans: A. Lin                  B. Smith
5. a. Alice was walking to the door when the doorbell rang.
   b. George walked to the door when the doorbell rang.
   Q: Who had been expecting the doorbell to ring?                              
   Ans:   A. Alice           B. George
6. a. When I got there, Marie had eaten.
   b. When I got there, Joe ate.
   Q: Who was still hungry when I got there?      
   Ans:   A. Marie          B. Joe
7. a. I looked across the street. Mr. Fox was waving at me.
   b. I looked across the street. Ms. Cook waved at me.
   Q: Who began to wave at me before I looked across the street?              
   Ans:   A. Mr. Fox      B. Ms. Cook
8. a. Sara had never had any boyfriend until Tom appeared.
   b. Martha has never had any boyfriend since Tom disappeared.
   Q: Who is probably in love with Tom at the moment?               
   Ans:   A. Sara            B. Martha

Character, characteristic, trait, personality trait, personality, feature
特性、個性、特徵、特質、人格，在定義上將這些字完全區隔是不可能的任務，倒是可以區分哪個字有其他的字沒有的「特質」🙂。

1. Character是人或物不易具備的正面特質，是feature, trait, characteristic這些特性點滴累積的⸢風格⸥或⸢風骨⸥或⸢特性⸥，所以會有a man of character或a person of good character (有風骨的人)這種說法，也可以用以描述地方或物體。例如：
   *It would be very out of character of her to lie. 說謊有違她的風格。
   *My hometown has lost its character. 我的家鄉已經沒了往日格調。

我們也可以從下面這句話體會character跟trait的差別：

*Self-sacrifice is the greatest trait of good character. 犧牲是最偉大的特質。

2. Trait：行為特質。用以區分與他人不同的明顯行為特質，意思與characteristic類似。與characteristic最大不同在於trait不用於描述外表特徵。character是好幾種trait或characteristic的綜合呈現。

*People with small eyes share some special traits. 小眼睛的人共有一些特質。

3. Characteristic：行為特質或外表特徵。用以區分與他人不同的明顯特質或外表特徵。但與trait稍有不同，characteristic多用於可觀察到的行為特質或外表特徵，例如慷慨、大眼睛等。

*The family has an obvious characteristic, big nose.

4. Feature：特性。常用於商品的特性，用於這一方面時偶而也會使用characteristic。feature跟其他幾個字最大的不同是可當動詞使用，表達「呈現重要性」，例如：

*The video will feature highlights from recent sports games.
影片會呈現最近的球類比賽的精彩片段。

5. Personality：個性。從拼字知道personality只用於人。當我們說某個人很好奇、有忌妒心、很友善…等等，這些都是personality。另外也有「名人」的意思，TV personality就是電視名人。

*Amy is no oil painting, but she has a lovely personality.
Amy不吸引人，但是個性很好。

至於這些字義重疊的部分，雖有細微差別，不會有誤解或奇怪說法就沒關係。多閱讀自然就會有所區分，雖然我們無法解釋，用對、不被誤解就好，不必太糾結。重要的是整體表達。

shore, coast, beach…還有bank都是海岸嗎?

我們來分清楚，因為大多數學習者一想到海邊就想到beach。

Shore：海岸或湖岸。陸地跟水域交接的地方，這一個地區經常會時而暴露出陸地、時而被水域所覆蓋，如果這一個地區是由沙子或小石頭等沉澱物質所組成的，就可以稱為beach。整條水域跟陸地交接的這一條線就稱為shoreline (海岸線或湖岸線)。Shoreline是一條隨著潮汐變動的線，通常是指我們在現場時眼睛看到的陸地與水域交界線。

Beach：海灘或湖岸。是沙子或者小卵石沉積而成的非實體陸地，通常是由低潮汐時的水陸交接線一直延伸到陸地上的地理環境改變，例如：懸崖、沙丘、或者植被。beach是shore的一部份。

Coast：沿岸(地區)。是延著海岸線到內陸地勢改變地整個長條形地區，可以包括海岸地區的整個城市。Coastline通常是由空中高處往下看所描繪的陸海交接線。

Bank：河岸。是沿著河流的隆起陸地。