2.by the time句型的时态问题

如果问国内中学生见到by the time时首先想到什么，回答很可能是“完成时”，其原因是老师对“完成时”深信不疑，而且每当考题出现by the time或by the end of…时，学生就不假思索地选择某个涉及完成时的选项。不可否认，by the time或by the end of…等结构经常与完成时连用，表示已完成的动作，但是，它们也可与其他时态连用表示当时的状态、位置或动作，如一般时、进行时和将来时。这些时态使用的频率并不比完成时少多少。问题的关键是我们不真正了解by the time的习惯用法，仍套用过时的理论。首先我们看一看美国一些名人使用的句子：

1.By the time I reached high school,I was playing on Punahou’s teams,and could take my game to the university courts….（Obama）

2.By the time we’d paid the restaurant bill and walked next door,the theater was already full.（Obama）

例句3～8出自美国前总统Bill Clinton的自传My Life：

3.By the time everyone else had taken three to five minutes,it was past ten o’clock.（从句用过去完成时）

4.By the time Al and I mentioned it,the FBI,the CIA,and the Justice Department were all investigating each other for what they had or hadn’t done in the affair.

5.By the time I went to bed for a couple of hours’sleep,I was feeling better about the speech.

6.He never lost his patience,his energy never flagged,and by the time we got to the last lap,he sometimes seemed to know me better and what I wanted to say better than I did.

7.By the year 2000,the high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent.

8.I was lucky enough to be among the first group in our town to take algebra in the eighth,not the ninthgrade,which meant I’d have a chance to take geometry,algebra II,trigonometry,and calculus by the time I finished high school.

例句9～12出自美国国务卿希拉里自传Living History：

9.By the time I was preparing to take on the role,history was finally catching up to reality.

10.I went below to put on my bathing suit,and by the time I came back up on deck,Jackie,Ted and Bill were already in the water.

11.By the time we arrived at Spaso House,the Ambassador’s official residence,I was feeling a little better.

12.By the time I returned from South Asia,the President and his administration were preparing to square off with the Republican Congress over the contract with America.

（1）接一般过去时（以系动词为主）：

1.By the time of Christ,the Fremont people occupied the northern two-thirds of the state.

2.By the time she had her curls arranged…,she looked as grave as any judge.

3.By the time Matthew was 14 months old,Carolyn was certain he needed help.

4.By the time Mrs.Roosevelt woke,a little after eight,the temperature was eighty degrees.

5.By the time she started classes,she was off assistance.

6.And by the time my sister graduated,I found myself in the first–violin chair.

7.By the time she made her way to the rear window,Chessy was pale and trembling and wishing for nothing more than that the night were over.

8.By the time they had eaten their meal,all preparations for Lin Piao’s division to cross the river were completed.（从句是过去完成时，主句是过去时）

（2）接过去进行时：

1.By the time we married,I was teaching,trying cases,publishing and speaking as Hillary Rodham.

2.By the 1968 Olympics,athletes in many events were using steroids and stimulants.

3.Morland’s head was throbbing by the time he rounded Half Moon Street.

4.By the time that Robin joined them she and Mr.Hitchens were sitting companionably by the window.

5.By the middle of November,two months after the accident,he was planning his new future.

6.By this time,humans elsewhere in the world were crossing much greater distances of water.

（3）一般现在时：

1.By the time it reaches central Ethiopia the gorge is a mile deep.

2.By the time the birds die,there’s not much a pika could digest.

3.I agree with Aurora;the audience must know the verdict by the time the movie ends.

4.By the time the warranty expires,usually around three years or 36,000 miles,value drops–typically by an additional five percent.

5.It（virus）causes disease and it transmits maybe to one or two generations,but by the time it has gone through that,it never transmits further.（从句用完成时）

6.Statistics show that by the time Americans reach the age of sixty-five,95 percent of them are either dependent upon friends,relatives or charity,or they must continue to work.

（4）将来时：

1.By the time he is five or six years old,he will begin to take care of the chickens and pigs.

2.By the end of the century the German government will move from provincial Bonn to cosmopolitan Berlin.

3.By this time tomorrow,and every day,there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people.

4.By A.D.2000,unless something desperate happens,there will be as many as seven billion people on the surface of the earth.

5.It has been estimated that by the year 2050 the elderly could number between 48 and 80 million people.

6.By the end of the year,we will be in a situation where year in,year out,we can look forward to at least 10 percent inflation.

（5）将来进行时（表示将来）：

1.By 1989,according to estimates from the Economic Unit,families will be devoting 49 percent of their personal consumption spending to services.

2.In the ordinary course of events,by the time earnings hit bottom,investors will be looking ahead to recovery and accepting higher price-earnings ratios.

上述例子的时态多样化说明没必要把by与完成时紧密联系在一起。我们不妨这样解释：

a）涉及by the time或by this time或by September等时间状语时，主句谓语的时态是多样化的。

b）描述当时的状态或场景时，也就是涉及系动词be时，以一般时为主。描述已完的动作或表示截止当时已达到的数量和持续时间以完成时为主。

实际上，by…结构主要用于描述事件发展过程，说明到某一时刻进展如何，用于叙述性段落，而不是脱离上下文孤立使用。如果说明幼儿的成长过程，用by the time引导每一时间段是理想的选择。读者们可从下面几段文章中找到一些感觉。下面第一段文章说明菜单的演化：

The highly decorated late 19th century menus,which were influenced by Victorian Art,gave way to modern art in the 20th century.Developments with graphics and printing allowed distinctive menu cover art.By the 1930s,the menu was seen as a part of the restaurant’s plan to create a memorable meal.By the end of 1960s,the increasingly popular coffee shops and restaurants…used new menu graphics.

下一段摘自Living History第395页，描述两人谈话的过程：

Chelsea nodded politely and picked at her salad.Another course arrived.

“I think you’re nearly as pretty as your mama,”the Senator said with that silky Southern charm that had gained him quite a reputation.

By the middle of the meal,he mused,“You’re as pretty as your mama.She’s real pretty and you’re pretty too.Yes,you are.You’re as pretty as your mama.”

By the time dessert arrived,Thurmond was saying,“I do believe you’re prettier than your mama.Yes,you are,and if I was seventy years younger,I’d court you!”

下一段摘自Tweet Success（Lynn Rosellini）。在介绍鸟类学者David Sibley的家庭背景后，作者写到：

By age five,David was tracing bird paintings from books.By eight,he was banding birds with his father’s crew at Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California,and later at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale.By 12,he memorized hundreds of bird calls.“That’s a Bell’s vireo!”he exclaimed once on a trip in Illinois.His father shook his head.“No,we’re too far east.There wouldn’t be any here.”But David plodded around a pond to get a closer look.Sure enough,he was right.

描述事件经过：

Custom at Duquesne University dictated that if a professor was ten minutes late,class was cancelled.One professor arrived early for a 9 a.m.lecture.He placed his hat on his desk,and went to the faculty room.Before he knew it,it was 9:10.By the time he got back to his classroom,it was empty.

The next day,he let his students have it.“When my hat is here,”he fumed,“I’m here!”

The following day,the professor arrived at 9 a.m..He was met by the sight of 28 hats on 28 desks–and no students.

药品广告：

Got back pain?Sleep it off with

ThermaCare air-activated HeartWraps.

Wear one to bed and get 8 hours of muscle relaxing heat

so circulation flows in,helping pain flow out.

By the next morning,you’re as good as new.

How’s that for a wake-up call?

描述儿童心理发展：

Recent scientific studies reveal that babies respond to moods,thoughts,emotions,etc.,from sixth month of pregnancy on.The mental tape recorders are running with infants,developing their subconscious thought patterns before birth.Babies arrive in this world subconsciously knowing….Those feelings and thoughts begin to manifest themselves in the behavior of children.Everything is stored for the whole life in the subconscious,and by the time a child is six years old,the self-image is practically set.

案例分析：

▲By the time he was ten,Edison______experiments in chemistry.（高考模拟题）

A.had already done

B.already had done

C.was already doing

D.already did

提供的答案是A，而最好的答案是C。

▲《2003年北京卷考试说明》在解释2002年高考北京卷时提供的样文中有：

By the time we arrived at the campsite,it had already been dark.

这样使用by the time是盲目套用规则，写成it was already dark更好。

美国前总统克林顿在自传My Life一书中，使用by then或by the end of the month之类的句子中没使用完成时的与使用完成时的比例大约是8：6，而使用by the time近60次，其中半数以上没有使用完成时。