Police的特殊用法拾零

■本站特約作者  劉永科

有學生問：在英語語法書和教輔書上讀到，“當police表總稱時，其前必須要有定冠詞”。但事實上我經常見到它前面不用冠詞的情況啊。比如下面這道題，它是一道2006年山東卷高考英語試題：

Police are now searching for a woman who is reported to __________ since the flood hit the area last Friday.

A. have been missing               B. have got lost

C. be missing                          D. get lost

答案是B。這句中的police前就沒有定冠詞。

這個學生的問題很好。先把police的用法歸納如下：

▲police的意思是“警察”，指警察這個官方機構。The police are the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.  它是單數形式的復數名詞，前面一般要用定冠詞the，但在英語報道或口語中，有時省略不用，作主語時謂語動詞用復數形式。

The police are also looking for a second car.警方也在尋找另一輛車。

The police have caught the murderer.警察已經抓獲殺人兇手。

His strange behavior made the police suspicious.他不尋常的舉止引起了警察的懷疑。

It's the duty of the police to preserve the public order.維護公共秩序是警察的職責。

Police sealed off all the exits from the building. 　 　警方把建筑物的所有出口都封鎖住了。

Police asked passers-by if they had seen the accident.警察詢問過路的人是否目擊了這次事故。

Police had to break up the crowd. 警察不得不驅散人群。

Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward. 警方呼吁目擊者挺身而出。

Police say they have arrested twenty people following the disturbances.警方說騷亂發生后他們已逮捕了20人。

After hours of questioning by police, she made a full confession.經過警察數小時的審問，她才供認了全部罪行。

Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators.警方與示威者發生了沖突。

▲police可以指人（即：警察）。Police are men and women who are members of the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.

當police指具體的人時，可用they，their等復數代詞指代，可以受these, most, several, many, dozens of等表示不確切的量詞修飾，也可以受兩個以上的基數詞修飾，此時的police相當于復數policemen。但不可用a或one修飾police表示單個警察。例如：

More than one hundred police have ringed the area.這一地區已被上百名警察包圍。

Many police have put their lives on the line.許多警察都冒著生命的危險。

There are so many police out before the gala parade.在節日游行前許多警察在崗上。

Several police hurried out in their police car.幾個警察坐著警車匆忙地趕出去了。

▲police可用在其他名詞前作定語。 (www.hz123456.com)

I noticed a police car shadowing us.我注意到一輛警車尾隨著我們。

Terrorists bombed several police stations.恐怖分子炸毀了幾所警察局。