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微笑的魅力 good morning 回复 2006-9-15 09:19 新邮件
Hello,teacher Patrick,can you please tell me the meaning of "Is it right that only the good die younger"Thank you!:) Have a nice day! >

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Hello 微笑的魅力,
Thanks for your question. I hope you do not mind my replying and explaining to you here instead of by email, as I want more Ai Wu readers to learn and benefit from your question, and what I have to say. I know and expect some people may think that I am doing this with other not so good motives, like trying to show off, or to embarrass the original writer of this question etc. I have my reason to feel this way, as recently when I by chance told one badminton pal at Ai Wu about what I am I doing with my English Clinic, she commented by asking me this "你是否想提高你在爱屋的知名度?" Well, I did not bother to reply her, as I believe those of you who can and do benefit from what I am doing will know the right and fair answer to that.

The simple answer to your question is this : the writer is trying to ask the question whether the good people usually die earlier than the not so good people. Or she may be asking whether it is fair or necessary that they should die earlier than the not so good people. However there is something wrong this question itself. It should have been written as "Is it right that only the good people die young?" or "Should the good people die earlier than others?" The word "younger" is not correct here, not because of a grammatical mistake, but because of wrong usage, i.e. it is just not said this way. Just like in Chinese you say 英年早逝, but you will never say 英年早逝些. To write in proper English, it is not enough to be grammatically correct, but you need to say it the way they usually say that in the English speaking world.

微笑的魅力, have you got it? Do you have an English name?