Common Mistakes in Writing Astronomy Literature in English

目录

1 用词分析

1.1 近义词的用法区别

1.2 大小写

1.3 单复数

1.4 数字的英文写法

1.5 词义的选取

1.6 冠词

1.7 介词的误用

1.8 比较级

1.9 缩写

1.10 中英文习惯用法

1.11 词性的选取

1.12 形似词

1.13 动词的过去时和过去分词

1.15 及物动词、不及物动词和情态动词的用法

1.16 连词

1.17 用词不简洁或不够准确

2 标点符号

3 规范化

3.1 正斜体

3.2 需空格和不需空格的地方

3.3 参考文献的引用方法

3.4 制图

4 语法分析

4.1 语态

4.2 时态

5 句法分析

5.1 句子成分的缺少或多余

5.2 句子开头

5.3 两个谓语

5.4 复句

5.5 两个句型

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1 用词分析

1.1 近义词的用法区别

例1 “方程”的英文是“equation”，不是“formula”，“formula”的意思是“公式”。

例2 “question”和“problem”翻译成中文都是“问题”，但是英文的意思完全不同，
如“ask a question”，“answer a question”，“formulate a problem”，“solve a problem”等；
[1] I have a question about the last page of your presentation.
[2] I have a problem about the last page of your presentation.
前者的意思是你有不清楚或者不明白的东西要问，后者是指你认为“the last page of your presentation”有错误。

例3 “too”和“also”的用法区别：
[1] I have done this quickly too.
[2] I have also done this quickly.

例4 “few”和“several”用法区分。“several”的意思是“几个”，“few”的意思是“几乎没有”或者“少”，但是“a few”的意思是“几个”。如：
[1] (a) I bought several books today. [1] (b) I bought a few books today.
这两句话的意思略微不同：前者情况是指买的比较多，而后者指的是买的比较少。
[2] There is very few water left in the bottle. (那个瓶子里面几乎没有水了。)
[3] Very few students came to today's seminar. (今天参加讲座的学生很少。)
[4] Few students came last night. (昨晚只来了几个学生。)
[5] A few students came last night. (昨晚来了几个学生。)

例5 很多学生都不能区分科技英语中的property, character 和characteristic。翻译成中文都是“特征”、“特性”和“性质”，但是在英文中意思不同。
[1] property最普通用词，既可指有形或无形的特性，又可指个性或共性的特征。
[2] character多指一类人或事物所具有的独特的典型的特征。
[3] characteristic 指某人或某物天生有别于他人或他物的内部特质或外表特征。

例6 Obscure (动词和形容词) 的主要意思是“遮挡”。很多同学以为“obscure”的意思就是“模糊”，应该用fuzzy, blur, dark, faint 等的时候误用obscure。
[1] The black hole is obscured by the dust along the line of sight.
[2] The image of the star is fuzzy, because the telescope is out of focus.
[3] The image of the star is blurred, because the telescope ...
[4] The source appears to be dark (或者faint), because of the obscuration by the gas
in front of it.

例7 “At last”和“Finally”不完全一样。如“Finally, we reconstruct the expansion history of the Universe up to with the distance moduli of SNe Ia and GRBs.”Finally 换成 At last，意思是不同的：前者的意思是，“最后，我们重建(了) ......”，后者的意思是“我们终于重建(了) ......”。

例8 “suspect or suspicious”(正面) 和“doubt or doubtful”(负面)。例子：
[1] We suspect that the observed deviation of data from the model prediction is caused by the over-simplification of the model. (我们怀疑观测数据和模型的偏离是由于模型过分简化造成的。)
[2] We doubt that the observed deviation of data from the model prediction is caused by the over-simplification of the model. (我们怀疑观测数据和模型的偏离不是由于模型过分简化造成的。)

例9 distinction (定性的区别) 和difference (定量的不同)：
[1] A distinction should be made between a star and a planet.
[2] The difference between the two measurements is only 10%.

例10 “due to”, “because of”, “since”, “because”和“as”都有“因为”和“由于”的意思，但是使用起来很不一样。
[1] However, due to the fact that (注意此处需要the fact that) the inner disk temperature or BB temperature is lower than several keV, the disk or NS flux below 2 keV contributes a considerable portion in the whole energy band.
或者可以改为：
[2] However, because of the fact that the inner disk ...
[3] However, since the inner disk ...
[4] However, the disk or NS flux below 2 keV contributes a considerable portion in the whole energy band, because the inner disk or BB temperature is lower than several keV.
推荐表达[4]，因为主次关系明确，而且“because”的主要意思就是“因为”，而“since”的主要意思是“自从”(描述时间)。不建议使用“as”，因为“as”的主要意思是“作为”。以下是使用“due to”和“because of”的例子：
[5] Due to the expansion of the universe, the distances between galaxies become farther and farther.
[6] Because of your work, this problem has been solved completely.
在大多数情况下，“due to”和“because of”可以通用，但是意思略微有所不同。“due to”指自然发展、顺理成章的理由，“because of”指主动介入导致结果的理由。

例11 revise、correct、modify 的区别：
“revise or revision or revised”意为“修改或者更新，没有错误，但是不够完善”；
“correct or correction or corrected”意为“修正或者改正，有错误，需要改过来”；
“modify”的意思介于两者之间。

1.2 大小写

例12 能量的单位：eV (不是ev)，keV (不是KeV), MeV (不是meV)，GeV，TeV。

例13 方程后面如果不是句号，后面的紧接的句子不能另起一段，而且第一个字母必须是小写；方程后面如果是句号，后面紧接的句子可以另起一段，也可以不另起一段，但是第一个字母必须是大写。

例14 冒号后面如果接的是句子，则第一个字母是大写；如果是单词或词组，则第一个字母是小写。
[1] It requires that a clock still show proper time after being read: The quantum uncertainty in its position must not introduce significant inaccuracies in its measurement of time over the total running time. (请注意这里的“show”用动词原形，因为“require”是命令语气。)
[2] I classify black holes into three categories: mathematical black holes, physical black holes or astrophysical black holes. (请注意这里的“or”经常被误写为“and”。)

1.3 单复数

例15 “data”是复数(单数是“datum”)；spectrum, nova, formula, nuclear, index, locus, torus, modulus, radius, focus 的复数分别是spectra, novae, formulae, nuclei, indices, loci, tori, moduli, radii, foci。

例16 “In Figure 7, I show the conversion efficiency of different kind (应改为kinds) of black hole accretion systems.”

例17 指示代词的单复数this, that, these, those 的用法。错误的例子：
“This (or that) two pictures are taken ... ”应该改为“These (or those) two pictures are taken ... ”。

1.4 数字的英文写法

例18 如果能够使用一个单词的数一般不用阿拉伯数字。比如“nine books”或者“twenty books”而不是“9 books”或者“20 books”；但是后面接物理量单位时，9 kg 是正确的，nine kg 是错误的。

例19 日期的写法：the first of July, 2006；July first, 2006；the second of July, 2006；the third of July；the 4th of July；the 28th of July；July 28th, 2006；2006-07-28；07-28-2006 (USA), 28-07-2006 (Europe and the rest of world)。

例20 30 年代：“1930s”是正确的，“1930’s”是错误的。

例21 “Up to now, about 20 (应改为twenty) black holes with masses around ten (应改为10) solarmasses, called stellar mass black holes, have been identified observationally.”

1.5 词义的选取

例22 一般情况下使用单词的第一个意思。比如“for”的意思包括“为了”、“因为”，但是在科技文章里面只使用“为了”。需要“因为”的时候用“because”或者“since”。再比如“as”的意思包括“作为”、“因为”等，但是在科技文章里面只使用“作为”。

例23 “while”主要有两个意思：“当...... 时候”和“然而”。但是科技英文尽可能使用单词的第一个意思，因此建议只使用“while”为“当...... 时候”，当需要使用“然而”的时候用“whereas”。

例24 大部分学生都知道even 有几个意思，但是很多学生不清楚如何使用。举几个例子：
[1] Even though (虽然) a scientist does not make a lot of money, I still choose doing research
because ...
[2] Even if (尽管) this book costs a lot of money, I will still buy it because ...
[3] This book is very good, even (甚至) better than the most popular book written by...

例25 primary 的意思，几乎所有的学生都在使用primary 的时候误用作“初始”(initial) 或者“初级”(elementary) 或者“非正式”(preliminary)。实际上primary 的主要意思是“主要”。例子：
[1] The energy spectrum of this source is consisted of two components; the primary (主要) component is a blackbody with a temperature of 1 keV and the secondary (次要) component is a power-law with a photon index of －2.
[2] After analyzing these data, our preliminary (初步) conclusion is that this accretion disk has an inner disk radius of 20 km.
[3] After analyzing these data, our primary (主要) conclusion is that this accretion disk has an inner disk radius of 20 km.

1.6 冠词

例26 可数名词以单数出现的时候前面必须加冠词“a”或者“the”。“a”是不定冠词，没有特指的含意；“the”是定冠词，必须有特指。比如：
[1] (a) I bought a book about Einstein yesterday. (有很多关于爱因斯坦的书，我买了其中的一本，但是从这句话了你无法了解到底是哪一本。)
[1] (b) I bought the book about Einstein we discussed in the class yesterday.
[1] (c) I bought the book about Einstein's love stories.
[1] (d) I bought the book about Einstein. (尽管没有明确指出，但是谈话的双方都知道是哪一本书，或者世界上只有一本关于爱因斯坦的书。)
[2] I bought three books about Einstein's general relativity. (随便三本。)
[3] I bought the three books about Einstein's general relativity. (只有三本。)
[4] I bought the three most popular books about Einstein's general relativity. (三本最受欢迎的。)
[5] I bought three most popular books about Einstein's general relativity. (最受欢迎的其中三本。)
[2]—[5] 的意思完全不同。

例27 “the equation 3”,“the table 4”,“the figure 5”都是错误的，因为“the”都不需要。

例28 “In above calculations, we have ... ”改为
“In the above calculations, we have ... ”(显然是特指。)

例29 same 前面一般加the，因为是特指。比如“The same method is also used here. ”几乎所有同学都错误地写成“Same method
is also used here.”
再比如“We have chosen the cross-correlation method, the same as that used by Ling & Zhang(2006).”是正确的。

例30 single 后面如果是可数名词单数的话，仍然需要在single 前面加“a”或者“the”，比如“a single book”，“the single tree”。

例31 物理量符号前面一般不需要加“the”，因为已经是特指了。例如“Empirically, γ is roughly correlated to observed peak (需改为the observed peak) spectral energy Ep by lg Ep =(2.76 ±0.07) － (3.61 ± 0.26) lg γ. We employ this empirical relation to estimate the (删除the) Ep of Swift GRBs and correct the observed peak luminosity to a bolometric band.”但是“We employ this empirical relation to estimate the peak energy Ep of Swift GRBs and correct the observed peak luminosity to a bolometric band.”就是正确的。

例32 “If there is sufficient amount of matter around a black hole ... ”修改为“If there is a sufficient amount of matter around a black hole ... ”。

例33 对于英文单词前不定冠词a 和an 的用法。元音字面开始的单词前面加an，辅音字母开始的单词前面加a，但是有几个地方需要注意：a uniform (因为这里u 的发音是辅音)，an hour (因为这里h 不发音)。有两类用法原则上都是正确的。
(1) 按照缩写的第一个字母代表的单词前面加a 或者an。如“a NLS1 galaxy”(“a Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy”), or“an UV peak”(an ultraviolet peak) 都是正确的。
(2) 按照因为缩写的第一个字母的发音，元音发音的前面加an，辅音发音的前面加a。因此“A、E、F、H、I、L、M、N、O、R、S、X”前面加an，“B、C、D、G、J、K、P、Q、T、U、V、W、Y、Z”前面加a。例如“a NLS1 galaxy”和“a UV bump”也都是正确的。但是第二种用法更加普遍被接受，因此建议全部使用第二种用法。如果你坚持一定要使用第一种用法，则最好整篇文章保持一致。由于很多英语为母语的人甚至编辑也不理解上面两个用法的道理，有时候即使你整篇文章都采用了第二种用法，也会遇到编辑把“a UV peak”改成“an UV peak”。

1.7 介词的误用

例34 similar to，different from 和differ from 经常被误用为similar with，different with 和differ with。例如：
“Our solution differs with (应改为from) the solutions obtained in previous studies”。
但是下面几个例子是正确的：
[1] We differ with you on solving this problem, by including the effects of magnetic fields.
[2] The brothers differ in their interests.
[3] The houses in the row differ only in small details.
[4] We differ about moral standards.

1、different with侧重于与人作比较：

We're not like them. It's different with us 

2、different from侧重于事物不同：

Her second book is different from her first.

例35 “to do something”和“in order to do something”是有明显区别的，大部分同学使用时不进行区分。比如：
[1] I have solved this problem to get this result. (我已经解决了这个问题，导致我得到了这个结果。)
[2] I have solved this problem in order to get this result. (为了得到这个结果，我已经解决了这个问题。)
“To get this result I have solved this problem.”和“In order to get this result I have solved this problem.”的意思一样，但是在这种情况下，建议使用“In order to ... ”，因为没有引起歧义的可能性。

1.8 比较级

例36 副词没有比较级。比如：
“This problem can be solved using this method more easily.”是正确的，但是，如果 easily 换成easier则是错误的。
“better, best, most, least, worse, worst”等取不规则变化的比较级是例外，如“You can do this better.”
“You better do this.” “This problem is best solved by... ” “This development is most advanced.” “That development is least advanced.” “This process is best described by ... ”都是正确的。

1.9 缩写

例37 “Professor”的缩写是“Prof.”不是“Pro.”，如“Dear Pro. Zhang”是错误的。

1.10 中英文习惯用法

例38 x2的英文正确表达是chi-squared，而chi square 是错误的。平方根是square root；均方根是root mean square (RMS)。

例39 椭圆的长轴和短轴分别为：major (不是long) axis, minor (不是short) axis。

例40 数学中的上限和下限分别是lower limit 和upper limit，而不是low limit 和 up limit。

例41 关于图的一些英文说明：
(1) 一个figure 如果由几个图组成，每个图叫做panel，而不是sub-figure，图的位置通常称为top panel, middle panel, bottom panel, upper panel, upper-left panel, lower-right panel, 等等；
(2) 图中线条的说法是solid line, dotted line (不是dot line), dashed line (不是dash line), dot-dashed line。

例42 “大质量”是“high mass”，不是“large mass”；小质量“low mass”是正确的，“small mass”是错误的；大质量恒星：high-mass star，小质量恒星：low-mass star。

例43 “亮度可以从以下方程计算得到”经常被写成“The luminosity can be calculated from the below equation.”正确的写法是：
[1] The luminosity can be calculated from the following equation.
[2] The luminosity can be calculated from the equation as follows . (following也可) 若将其中的following 换成followings 则是错误的。

例44 “Physicists were looking for a fundamental explanation why (应改为for why) the electron mass could not be any different from its measured value.”

例45 最右边、左边、上面、下面：rightmost, leftmost, uppermost, lowermost。经常错误地写为 most right, ...

例46 “数量级”是“order of magnitude”，但是经常被误用为“order”，例如“The mass of this black hole is about one order smaller (应改为smaller by about one order of magnitude) than that one.”

1.11 词性的选取

例47 “sun”是名词，“solar”是形容词。正确表达：“the mass of the Sun”(太阳的质量)，“solar mass”(太阳质量，是质量单位)。“sun mass”, “sun energy”等是错误的。

例48 “evenly”和“even”的区别：“All girls should sit on the chairs with even (偶) numbers.” “Students are evenly (对半) divided into two groups.”

例49 “辐射”的动词、名词和形容词分别是：radiate, radiation (不可数名词) 和 radiative (radiative process, radiative efficiency，但是注意radiating source 的意思是“发出辐射的源” (看到的辐射来自于这个源)，而radiative source (不常使用) 的意思是“源是会辐射的”(但是看到的辐射倒不一定来自于这个源))；emission (可数名词) 的意思是“发射” (动词是emit，没有形容词，所以只能使用名词或者动名词作为形容词，如emission process (不使用emitting process)，emitting source 和emission source 都是正确的(发射源))；irradiation (不可数名词) 的意思是“照射”，导致的主要结果是“辐射”会进入到被照射的对象；illumination (不可数名词) 的意思是“照亮”，导致的主要结果是被照亮的物体表面变亮。

例50 “复杂”的动词、名词和形容词分别是：complicate, complication 和complicated (与complex、sophisticated 大致同义，但是3 个词的含义略有不同：complicated 或者complication 是指比较乱、多个因素同时并交互起作用；complex 是指规模比较大，但是并不乱；sophisticated 指逻辑关系比较复杂)。

例51 constrain (动词) 和constraint (名词), relative 和relatively 等。下面一段话中有很多错误：
“Compared (改为comparing) to the joint constraints with GRBs and without GRBs, we can find the contribution of GRBs to the joint cosmological constrains (改为constraints), although the contribution of GRBs to the cosmological constraint (改为constraints) would be not enough significant to that of SNe Ia now (改为not be significant enough, compared to that of SNe Ia at
present). This is mainly caused by the relative (改为relatively) large statistical scatters of (改为scattering in) the GRB relations and the relative (改为relatively) small data (改为number) of GRBs (此处添加in the sample,) comparing (改为compared) to that of SNe Ia now (改为currently).”上面的“enough significant”还可以改为“sufficiently significant”。

例52 base 和basing，based 容易误用。
[1] Base (改为Basing) on these data, we can calculate the mass of the black hole.
[2] Base (改为Based) on these data, the mass of the black hole can be calculated.请注意其中的“on”是必需的。

例53 “the anti-correlation shows larger scattering”中scattering 改为scatter。

例54 拟合“fit”。错误的例句：
[1] The fit result agrees with the model prediction well.
[2] The fits are shown in Figure 1.
正确的例句：
[3] The fitting result agrees with the model prediction well.
[4] The fittings are shown in Figure 1.
[5] We fit the data with the model.
[6] We have fitted the data with the model.
[7] We have fit the data with the model.
[8] The data are fitted with the model.
不建议使用“The data are fit with the model.”原因是“fit”的形容词的意思是“合适、健康”等，比如
“This old man is very fit.”这个老人很健康(特指行动敏捷)，反义词是“unfit”。

例55 “double”是形容词和动词，“twice”是名词。下面是正确的例句：
[1] They discovered a double neutron star system.
[2] The double neutron stars in the systems have been observed many times.
[3] This observation program has doubled the number of neutron stars known so far.
[4] He concluded that QPOs at both the NS spin frequency and twice of it should be detected during long (super) burst events for 4U 1636-53.
但是注意“triple”和“quadruple”同时是形容词、名词和动词。

1.12 形似词

例56 “photo”是“照片”，“photon”是“光子”，大部分学生不能区分这两个英文单词的意思。

例57 注意“assess”(评估、估计) 和“access”(访问、靠近、接近、取得) 的区别。

例58 complement (ary, arity) (补充), compensate (补偿), compliment(ary) (赞扬)。

例59 applying 不是appling (很多学生在加“ing”的时候都把“y”去掉)，同样的例子有：studying, flying, accompanying。加“ed”的时候才是需要把“y”换成“i”：applied,studied, flied, accompanied。

1.13 动词的过去时和过去分词

例60 区分show 的过去时(showed) 和过去分词(shown)。

例61 accompanied 和 accompanying：“the fall-back matter after the accompanied (改为accompanying) supernova explosion forms an accretion disk around the black hole.”

1.14 词组搭配

例62 “spherically symmetric”和“spherical symmetry”是正确的。“spherical symmetric”和“sphericallysymmetry”是错误的。

例63 “detail description”，“in details”是错误的，正确的是“detailed description”，“in detail”。

例64 “Unlike in the case with the uniformity of the universe, no apparent violation of this law is known.”改为“Unlike the case of ... ”

例65 “NELGs are intermediate Seyfert galaxies whose broad line regions are lightly (应改为slightly)obscured.”

例66 关于“take into account”的正确例子：
[1] We will take the force into account.
[2] We will take into account the force.
[3] We will take account of the force.
而“We will take into account of the force.”是错误的。

例67 “These observations have made the studies of the formation processes of stars, planets, galaxies and quasars possible.”需要修改为
“These observations have made possible the studies of the formation processes of stars, planets, galaxies and quasars.”(请注意“possible”的位置)。

例68 “These black holes have masses between 105 — 1010 solar masses”修改为“These black holes
have masses between 105 and 1010 solar masses”。

例69 “Tremendous observational evidence supporting the existence of black holes in the universe is gradually permitting the uncovering (应改为uncovering of) the mysteries of black holes.”

例70 “The left panel in (应改为of) Figure 9 shows a theoretical calculation of... ”

例71 “However this possibility, if true, may have fundamental impacts to the evolution and fate of the universe, as I will discuss in the end of this chapter.”修改为
“However, this possibility, if true, may have fundamental impacts regarding the evolution and fate of the universe, as I will discuss at the end of this chapter.”

1.15 及物动词、不及物动词和情态动词的用法

例72 “cannot”是美国式用法，“can not”是英国式用法。

例73 “We also referred (应改为referred to) Figure 3 and Figure 4 in the text.”

例74 “However, in science direct evidence is not always what leads (应改为leads to) the discovery of something.”

例75 may, maybe, may be。如：
[1] (a) This maybe the reason. 应该修改为：
[1] (b) This may be the reason. 或者
[1] (c) Maybe this is the reason.
[2] (a) He agreed that this burst may totally from the external shock. 修改为：
[2] (b) He agreed that this burst may come totally from the external shock. 或者
[2] (c) He agreed that this burst may originate totally from the external shock. 或者
[2] (d) He agreed that this burst may be totally from the external shock.
但[2] (b) 中 may 如果换成 maybe 则是错误的。

1.16 连词

例76 “So”作为句子的开头太频繁，可以适当使用“Therefore”, “Hence”,“Consequently”, “Thus”, “As a result”等。因此应该避免使用“So”作为句子的开头。

例77 “And”, “But”作为句子的开头太频繁，尽量不用“And”, “But”作为句子的开头，可以适当使用“However”，“Nevertheless”等作为句子的转折。

1.17 用词不简洁或不够准确

例78 “The two scenarios are almost equally well to represent the high-z LGRB rate excess.”可以修改为“The two scenarios almost equally well represent the high-z LGRB rate excess.”

例79 It is found that although this case can well reproduce the observed logN—log P distribution, but much over produces (改为significantly over-produces) the observed GRBs at z ~ 2 and lack to produce (改为under-produces) GRBs at z > 3.

例80 “Despite of (改为Despite) tremendous progress in black hole research, many fundamental questions concerning (改为characteristics of) astrophysical black holes in the physical universe remain not fully understood or clarified.”

2 标点符号

例81 方程是句子的一部分，前后(主要是方程后面) 都必须有标点符号。

例82 分号(;) 的使用：为了避免一个句子太长，或者强调主要的内容，通常英文中分号后面是对前面的补充(中文的分号是排比)。例如：
[1] I teach a graduate course on frontiers of astrophysics between 7:20 pm to 9:45 pm every Thursday；I deliberately arranged to have my classes in the evenings because ...
[2] In this work, a simple method is provided to combine GRB data into the joint observational data analysis to constrain cosmological models; in this method those SNe Ia data points used for calibrating the GRB data are not used to avoid any correlation between them.

例83 经常(几乎100%) 看到学生不会在latex 里面正确输入引号。正确的做法：`test’生成ps或者PDF之后是‘test’。但是大部分学生都是输入：’test’。类似的情况是: ``test”而不是”test” 。

例84 Some of the discussions, especially on the question“will (改为Will) all matter in the universe eventually fall into black holes?”, (此处逗号应删除) are quite speculative.

3 规范化

3.1 正斜体

例85 关于正体和斜体：正文里面数学符号、物理量符号等(如)这些数学符号都是能够取值的) 应该是斜体，单位是正体而不是斜体(如kg, km, eV)，函数如sin, cos, log 等应该是正体；公式里面的文字说明(因为不能取值) 必须是正体(latex 中“\rm ”命令的功能就是把后面的内容变成正体)。下标里面也是一样的规则。比如“黑洞质量” 是正确的，但是、、MBH(M正，BH斜)
都是错误的。

3.2 需空格和不需空格的地方

例86 单位和前面的数字之间必须有空格，如10 eV, 20 kg, 40 km；在公式里面加空格$m=10\ {\rmkg}$，或者$m={\rm10\ kg}$，或者$m=10\mbox{ } {\rm kg}$（注意“\ ”和“\mbox{ }”的效果是一样的）。但是如果写成$m=10{\rm kg}$，或者$m={\rm 10 kg}$，则单位和前面的数字之间就没有空格了。

例87 左括号“(”和前面的字母之间必须有空格，和后面的字母之间没有空格，右括号“)”和前面的字母之间没有空格，和后面的字母之间有空格(除非右括号“)”的后面是标点符号)。例如：This problem has been solved (Einstein 1915) and consequently applied to many astrophysical settings (Freedman 1932; Lieu 1945). 逗号 “,” 和点号“.”和前面的字母之间没有空格，和后面的字母之间有空格。

例88 用上标表示的单位出现小数点的情况：0.1角秒(0".1)，0.1角分(0′.1)，0.1度(0°.1)，1.1角秒(1".1)，1.1角分(1′.1)，1.1度(1°.1)，这里单位和数字之间没有空格。

3.3 参考文献的引用方法

例89 天文类英文期刊参考文献的常用引用方法：
[1] Zhang et al. (1999) have shown that black holes can eat matter...
[2] It has been shown by Zhang et al. (1999) that black holes eat matter.
[3] It has been known that black holes can eat matter (Zhang et al. 1999).
常见的错误例句是：
[1] Zhang et al. 1999 have shown...
[2] It has been shown by Zhang et al. 1999 that black holes eat matter.
[3] It has been known that black holes can eat matter (Zhang et al. (1999)). 请注意括号的位置。

3.4 制图

例90 关于画图：坐标轴需要名称和单位，几乎所有绘图程序缺省设置的图上的字母和数字字体都太小，基本原则是按照杂志要求的尺寸印出来后图上的字母和数字和正文的字体相当或者略大，但是应该比“figure caption”的字体大一些。

4 语法分析

4.1 语态

例91 尽量不要使用主动式，特别是“People have done... ”，应该写“It has been calculated... byxxx”(如果你不想强调到底是谁做的，而仅仅想列出是谁做的，就不要写“by xxx”，而只要列出参考文献就可以了)。

例92 “Several issues about black hole growth have clarified.”应该修改为“Several issues about black hole growth have been clarified.”

例93 “The configuration is consists of three parts.”是错误的。有两个正确的写法：
[1] The configuration is consisted of three parts.
[2] The configuration consists of three parts.

例94 “模型分为三类”经常被写成“Models divide into three classes”，正确的写法是“Models are divided into three classes”。

例95 黑洞位于星系的中心：“Black hole locates in center of galaxy.”是错误的，应该改为“A black hole is located in the center of a galaxy.”每一个星系的中心都有一个黑洞：“A black hole is found in the center of every galaxy.”或者“Every galaxy harbors a black hole at its center.”所观测的5 个星系中心都有一个黑洞：“Each of the five galaxies observed harbors a black hole at its center.”或者“A black hole is found (located) in the center of each of the five galaxies observed.”

4.2 时态

例96 关于时态的正确使用：
(1) 叙述你本论文的工作使用一般现在时；
(2) 描述你以前的相关工作使用一般过去时；
(3) 描述别人以前的工作使用一般过去时；
(4) 但是当你现在的工作是以前你的或者别人的某个工作的延续时，对那个工作的描述需要使用一般完成时；
(5) 在文章的summary 部分描述本文章的结果时可以使用一般现在时、过去时和一般完成时，
如“The black hole we studied in this work ... ”,“In this paper we have calculated... ”,“It has been shown that ... ”,“We study this problem ... ”,“We analyze these data... ”,“We start from ... ”,“We found that ... ”,“We conclude that”,“It is shown”,“In this paper we calculate ... ”；
(6) 在回复审稿人的信里面，谈到你这篇文章中你做了什么的时候用一般过去式，或者一般完成时，如：
[1] Thanks for the referee's suggestion. Actually we calculated the mass accretion of three sources, but
neglected to include the result in the paper.
[2] We included Figure 2 and Table 3 in the revised manuscript.
[3] We thank the referee for these insightful comments and suggestions.
[4] We have improved the manuscript substantially.
[5] The manuscript has been improved significantly by including...
[6] 如果是回复审稿人的第二封信，开头可写为：We have further improved the manuscript following the suggestions in the second referee report...
(7) 描述发生在过去的一件事用过去时，描述虽然过去发生的、但是已经被认定为“普遍事实 (general truth)”的使用一般现在时，如：
[1] Homan et al. (2006a, 2006b, 2007a) suggested that XTE J1701-462 was a Z source, because it exhibited typical CDs of Z sources and its timing properties were also consistent with those of Z sources.
例句[1] 并没有错误，但是如果写成：Homan et al. (2006a, 2006b, 2007a) suggested (发生在过去) that XTE J1701-462 is (普遍事实) a Z source, because it exhibited (发生在过去) typical CDs of Z sources and its timing properties are (普遍事实) also consistent with those of Z sources. 则意义有所不同，更加强调“XTE J1701-462 is a Z source”和“its timing properties are also consistent with those of Z sources”是被认定的“普遍事实”。
再举两个例句：
[2] In yesterday's battle, three soldiers were killed and one was injured.
[3] Now a total of 15 soldiers are dead and nine soldiers are injured.

5 句法分析

5.1 句子成分的缺少或多余

例97 宾语里面不要出现不特指的人，很多文章出现“This has enabled people (people 应删除) to do”。

例98 “get”(包括“got”) 使用的太多，可以适当使用“obtain”, “derive”, “deduce”, “acquire”等(“This result is got.”不要使用)。

例99 “Very importantly, SNe eject a lot of matter... ”是正确的。“Very importantly, SNe are powerful fountains of high energy particles... ”是错误的，importantly 应该修改为important。

例100 “As one of our valued authors I believe you may interested to hear about IOP Asia-Pacific, a new website from IOP Publishing dedicated to showcasing research from the Asia-Pacific region.”这句话有两个错误，一个是主语不清楚，一个是被动用错了。需要修改为“As one of our valued authors, I believe, you may be interested to ... ”。

5.2 句子开头

例101 “We”作为句子的开头太频繁：只有作者特别想强调是“我们”做的，而不是“别人”做的时候才使用“We”作为句子的开头，在一篇文章的开始和总结部分可以适当地使用一些，正文中间一般都是使用倒装句字。

例102 “Now”作为句子的开头太频繁。因为科技论文的基本时态就是一般现在时，所以基本上没有必要使用“Now”(见关于时态的讨论)。

例103 尽量不要出现“We feel ... ”“We think ... ”之类的句子。

例104 科技论文中不用下列口语化的东西：it's, can't, couldn't，doesn't 等。

例105 除了命令式之外，一个完整的句子必须有主语(而且只能有一个)、谓语和宾语。很多同学在一个句子里面用多个主语。如
[1] (a) The black hole binary is a very exciting source of high frequency QPOs, we therefore decided to study it. 是错误的，因为这个句子有两个主语：“the black hole binary”和“we”。
正确的写法是：
[1] (b) We decided to study the black hole binary, because it is a very exciting source of high frequency QPOs. 或者
[1] (c) The black hole binary is a very exciting source of high frequency QPOs; we therefore decided to study it. 使用了分号
再给一个例句：
[2] (a) The black hole binaries contain a primary black hole and a companion star, the mass exchange between them through an accretion disk in the well-known thin accretion disk model.里面有几个错误，修改后如下，
[2] (b) A black hole binary contains a primary black hole and a companion star, in which the mass exchange between them is through an accretion disk described by the well-known thin accretion disk model.

5.3 两个谓语

例106 “This is come from ... ”应该改为“This comes from”(或者“This is from”)。

例107 “This radio-quiet quasar is also have a relativistic jet.”改为“This radio-quiet quasar also has a relativistic jet.”

5.4 复句

例108 复句里面“which”和“that”是主语，比如“Thus the temperature is determined by the heating of the central source's luminosity, which is (注意这里需要“is”) given by equation 2.”

例109 一个句子作为宾语时，该句子前面应该有that：
[1] We find (改为find that) the ΛCDM model is consistent with the joint data in 1－σ confidence region.
[2] It is actually the expansion of the event horizon which (改为that) swallows the infalling shell.
[3] Almost all gravitational potential energy is converted into the kinetic energy of the accreted matter which (改为that) free-falls into the black hole and thus is (注意这里需要“is”) lost into the event horizon of the black hole.
[4] I am thinking about the environment distribution to (改为that may) course this missing emission.

例110 复句里面主谓颠倒，如“It was not clear who did it and why was it (改为it was) necessary to make the universe suitable for our existence.”

例111 不要用特别长的句子：“The fit parameters listed in Table 3 are more accurate than those listed in Table 5, because, as shown by the top panels in Figure 2, the count rate variation within each of the 29 HID regions used to group data for producing the PCA spectra is extremely minimized, while, as shown by the bottom panels in Figure 2, the count rate varies substantially within most of the eight segments used to group data for producing the broadband spectra.”主语很多，结果超复杂！可以简
化为
“The fit parameters listed in Table 3 are more accurate than those listed in Table 5, because the count rate variation is minimized within each of the 29 HID regions used to group data for producing the PCA spectra, as shown by the top panels in Figure 2. However, the count rate varies substantially within most of the eight segments used to group data for producing the broadband spectra, as shown by the bottom panels in Figure 2.”

5.5 两个句型

例112 “A 随着B 增加而增加”的正确翻译是：“A increases with increasing B.”或者“A increases with B.”例如：
[1] However, when the source moves on the upper track, the inner disk radius increases with increasing of (改为with) the disk accretion rate.
[2] Panel B in Figure 11 shows the inferred NS surface magnetic field strength during the episodes in which the inner disk radius increases with the increasing of the (改为increasing) disk accretion rate.
错误的翻译：
[1] A increases by increasing B.
[2] A increases with B increases.
[3] A increases with increases B.

例113 “A 随着B 增加而减少”的正确翻译是：“A decreases with increasing B.”下面给出例句：The inner disk radius decreases with increasing of the (改为the increasing) disk accretion rate.

Common Mistakes in Writing Astronomy Literature in English
ZHANG Shuang-nan1, XU Yun2
(1. Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049; 2. Shanghai Astronomical
Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030)
We have collected and corrected some common mistakes made by Chinese students in writing astronomy literature in English. Brief explanations of these mistakes are given in Chinese. We plan to update this collection periodically. Comments, suggestions and criticisms are all welcome.