昨天有網友提到一個我以前評論過的網上補習老師，說他教的東西有問題。我於是便上Youtube看看他又說了些什麼，留意到他談到一個課題，覺得可以拿出來跟大家討論一下，反正今天不用上班嘛！這位「地區性」補習老師最喜歡說他找到某本書的錯誤，然後大肆分析一番，不過這些所謂錯誤很多時都是些小問題，沒有什麼討論價值，就只有他自己以為是驚世大發現而已！
他在一個最近上載的視頻中提到發現到另外兩個補習「名」師在他們的書中一句錯誤的英文，這句英文全句是：
Researches have found that those who are
likely to intimidate others are usually found to be lack of parental care and
support.
首先，這位何Sir說「researches這字是一定，一定不會有衆數的，我們查字典便知」，那是否真的這樣呢？打開MED一看，在這字的Get it Right Box中的確有這樣的解說：
Researchis an uncountable noun, and so:
- it is hardly ever used in the
plural
- it never comes after a or a
number
e.g. Her latest work confirmed the
findings of earlier researches. (x)
但我們不能因此這麼快便下結論，再看看其他學習型字典怎樣說。你會發現LDOCE，OALD，CALD，MWALD這四本字典都有給予researches這字作為複數形式，證明這位網上老師根本在胡說八道。不過，兩個問題卻出來了：
1.那為什麼MED會這樣說？
2.那什麼時候才應該用researches？
我認為MED的說法是稍為偏頗了一點，很容易誤導學生。要留意的是它只是說hardly ever used（甚少用），而不是不能用，學生稍不留神便會以為寫衆數是錯的。那researches究竟有多不常用呢？我們上Google搜查一下會發現，research的hit rates是1.66 billion，而researches則少很多，但也有17 million，所以多少只是相對而言，衆數用法絕對不算罕有。可惜，一般外國人寫的語法書都沒有解釋這個現象，他們均只集中討論research這字的發音問題，以致很多老師學生對這個課題一知半解！
現在回答第二個問題，何時才應用researches？在我手頭上芸芸的語法書中，只有一本對此有作解釋，它便是Cobuild Usage，看看它怎樣說：
You can refer to the research that
someone is doing as their research or their researches. You normally only
use researches after the possessive form, such as 'my', 'his' or
'Gordon's':
e.g. Soon after, Faraday began his
researches into electricity. (Cobuild Usage)
e.g. What have their
research(es) shown? (OALD8)
其他字典的例子也證實這種用法，暫時還沒找到例外：
e.g. His researches in the
field of disease prevention produced unexpected results. (CALD3)
e.g. He ... despisedTom's
researches into the subject. (SOED6)
e.g. Gould was helped in his researches by local naturalists. (LDOCE5)
e.g. Gould was helped in his researches by local naturalists. (LDOCE5)
e.g. In the course of my
researches, I came across some of my grandfather's old letters. (OALD8)
e.g. We read about Sigmund Freud's
researches into human psyche. (MWALD)
e.g. Given that my researches have shown that people are
prone to misspell other pairs of common verbs and nouns that end in -ise
or -ice, I’ve listed some of these below as well. (from an article by Catherine Soanes)
除了possessive form外，research和researches還有另外一些分野。相比起research，researches是較為formal和old-fashioned的英式用法（見LDOCE，OALD和MWALD）。所以，儘管researches可以接受，但何Sir所引述的那句英文還是錯的，因為researches前面沒有possessive form，所以應該改為Research has found that ...。
故事未完，何Sir繼續指出這句的另一個錯誤 - lack。對於一個補習「名」師來說，這的確算是一個相當低級的錯誤，但何Sir的解說也並不算好。我有時覺得學生沒心機學英文，老師很多時要負很大的責任。像在講解lack為什麼是錯的時候，這位何Sir花了近5分鐘，又相對又什麼的，囉囉嗦嗦，但始終搔不著癢處，一些重點還沒有說出來。現在讓我來解給大家聽。在這下面這句說話中：
Researches have found that those who are
likely to intimidate others are usually found to be lack of parental care and
support.
lack本身可以是（及物）動詞或名詞，而這裏的lack後面有一個of，所以明顯這是一個noun。我們可以說：
They lack (v.) parental care and
support.
There is a lack (n.) of parental
care and support (on the part of ...)
但卻不能說：
They are found to be lack of parental
care and support. (x)
蓋在句中用什麼句型除了要看lack這個字外，還要兼看前面的動詞find，因為find這字是可以帶出不同句型組合的。
現在這位何Sir說這句的lack應用動詞，刪去be和of後變成：
(Research has found that) those (...)
are usually found to lack parental care and support.
這樣的改法當然可以，但在刪去句中的defining relative clause後，我們根本可以直接說：
Research has found that those (people)
lack parental care and support.
而無需用上被動式，現在這樣不是簡潔得多嗎？而更重要的一點他沒提及的是，通常find在這個意思下，object後面都是接形容詞或分詞的。看看MWALD怎樣說：
[+ obj]a : to discover (someone) in a specified
state
▪He found them waiting for him. ▪ I found her relaxing by the pool. ▪ He was found dead the next morning. ▪ The crisis found them unprepared. [=they were unprepared when the crisis occurred]
▪He found them waiting for him. ▪ I found her relaxing by the pool. ▪ He was found dead the next morning. ▪ The crisis found them unprepared. [=they were unprepared when the crisis occurred]
所以這句最好的改法其實是：
Research has shown/revealed that those (who are likely to
intimidate others) are usually found lacking in parental care and
support.
斜體字是我改動了的地方，注意由於句子中出現了兩個found，所以我將第一個改用了另一個動詞。另外lack除了可以是名詞或動詞外，也可加上ing變成一個形容詞，後面的介系詞則改為in。類似的用法也可在字典中找到：
e.g. The new designs have been found lacking in some
important way. (LDOCE)
這位何Sir喜歡發掘別人的錯誤，奈何自己上述兩項解說，充其量只算是勉強合格，實際上並不到位。要挑人家的錯誤不難，但要解對給別人知卻不容易，這點連古大師都辦不到，更何況是這位老師！
昨天有網友問我這麼喜歡研究英文，為什麼不去應徵教英文？這個其實我近年已經試過很多次了，但因為沒資歷，沒經驗，所以連面試的機會都沒有，只有一些零星的機會教新來港的小學生。但大家都知道我教的英文不是初階英文，所以我對此興趣實在不大。其實我教的雖然不是最基本的文法，但也不是些什麼深奧的東西，只要你肯花點時間細讀和用心思考，要明白其實不難！簡單的英文在市場上已經太多，根本無需我再去寫，我還是希望集中精力寫些我認為是實用性高的英文教材！
