2011英语四级考试语法讲义：几个本地常见的句式

　　有没有写过像下面这样的句子：
　　“Due to growth in business, we now have the following career opportunities to offer to the right candidates.”
　　&“Due to expansion, we have a number of vacancies within our Singapore operation and are seeking to recruit technicians.”
　　这两个常常可以见到的句子都很好，很清楚。我要谈谈的只是“due to”的位置问题。
　　严格地说，“due to”不管是当“由于”或“应归于”解，都不放在句前，而要出现在句后，最好是在“Be”之后，如：
　　① The company's problems are due to bad management and staff shortage.
　　② Some staff came late, due to traffic congestion.
　　如果要“由于”出现在句前也行，但要用“due to”的同义词“owing to, because of, on account of”，甚至“thanks to”。因此，文前的两句话和下面两句都最好改一改：
　　③ Due to their outward appearance, American Chinese are still considered Chinese. （→ Because of）
　　④ Due to the opening up of China's economy, many people have been going there to do business. （→On account of）
　　另一个本地常见的句式是：“The reason is because……”，如：
　　⑤ Janet cannot speak Mandarin well. The reason is because she has not learned it properly.
　　根据句子结构，上面这话的主句是“The reason is”，后面的分句应该是名词性的才适合当接系动词“is”的补足语（complement）。因此，最好把原因副词分句“because she has not learned it properly”改为名词分句（noun clause）：
　　The reason is that she has not learned it properly.
　　不然就要调整句式如下：
　　⑥ Janet cannot speak Mandarin well because she has not learned it properly.
　　⑦ The reason why Janet cannot speak Mandarin well is that she has not learned it properly.
　　最后一个渐渐见到的句式和从属连词（Subordinating conjunction）“because”有关。
　　习惯上，由“because”引发的原因副词分句（adverb clause of reason）要在主句之后出现，如上述第⑥句；又如：
　　⑧ The students carried out demonstrations because the government was corrupted.
　　但是用美式英语者偶尔倒过来写：
　　“Because the government was corrupted, the students carried out demonstrations.”
　　一般上，这里的“because”可由“as, since, now that”取代，如下：
　　⑨ As the government was corrupted, the students carried out demonstrations.
　　⑩ Since Sam was the best candidate, he got the job.
　　（11） Now that the business has grown, we have the following career opportunities to offer to suitable applicants.