在线英语听力室

VOA名师答疑2022--Should We Think ‘Outside’ or ‘Outside of’ the Box?

时间:2022-02-25 01:50:40

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

Should We Think ‘Outside’ or ‘Outside of’ the Box?

Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question about the adverb "outside" from Philip in China.

Question:

Hi,

Should we think ‘outside' or 

Should we think ‘outside' or "outside of" the box?

Could you please tell me the difference between outside of and outside? ... Please tell me which is better,

We should think outside the box.

We should think outside of the box.

Philip, China.

Answer:

Dear Philip,

Thank you for writing to us. "Outside" can have one of four uses in English, as a noun1, adjective2, adverb, or preposition3. It is not surprising that you found it hard to understand. Your question brings up an interesting dispute4 between grammar experts in the United States and Britain. The Oxford5 English Dictionary says that "outside" in phrases like "outside of the box" is an adverb. It changes the meaning of the verb, in this case, "think." Together with the preposition "of" it becomes a two-word preposition. Here are other examples of such two-word prepositions6:

A baby bird flew out of the nest.

He was never close to his sister.

Your example uses "outside of" or "outside" to talk about the space the subject occupies. You can use either "outside" alone or with "of" in that sense. There is another use where "outside of" means "apart from" or "besides." Here are examples of that use:

Outside of their later songs, I do not enjoy the Beatles' music.

I cannot think of a time outside of high school when I wore a tie.

The Merriam-Webster Learners Dictionary says "outside of" is a North American use. Another British dictionary, the online Oxford Dictionaries also sees the use of "outside of" to talk about location as "chiefly North American." But its use in the "apart from" sense is seen as normal for British and American English.

So in British English, you would usually hear,

Think outside the box.

And in American English, you might hear it that way or

Think outside of the box.

What question do you have about American English? Send us an email at [email protected]

And that's Ask a Teacher.

Words in This Story

puzzle – v. to be difficult for (someone) to understand

location –n. a place or position

think outside the box – (expression) If you think outside the box, your thoughts are not limited or controlled by rules or tradition, and you have ideas that are creative and unusual.


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 noun JHux3     
n.名词
参考例句:
  • What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词?
  • This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。
2 adjective UJpyR     
n.形容词;adj.形容词的,用作形容词的
参考例句:
  • Don't apply that adjective to me.不要用那个字眼来形容我。
  • The adjective loose has several senses. 形容词loose有几个义项。
3 preposition LQmxx     
n.介词
参考例句:
  • You should cancel this preposition in the sentence.你应该删去句子中的这个介词。
  • We use different preposition to talk about time,days,months and seasons.我们用不动的介词来谈论时间,日,月和季节等。
4 dispute qt6xI     
n.争端,分歧;v.争论,争吵,辩论,辩驳
参考例句:
  • They are trying to find a way of settling the dispute.他们正设法寻找解决争端的办法。
  • The parties to the dispute should be more polite to each other.争执双方应相互礼貌些。
5 Oxford Wmmz0a     
n.牛津(英国城市)
参考例句:
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
6 prepositions 7b8a15ee38e288a64c84cfeec46fecc3     
n.介词( preposition的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • She lays a lot of emphasis on the usage of prepositions. 她把重点放在介词的使用上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Prepositions and conjunctions are particles. 介词和连词是小品词。 来自《简明英汉词典》

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。