■赖世雄编著《英文实用解析词汇》(下)(清华大学出版社 1997年12月第1版) p1：
the key of the room (×)
从以上可知，赖世雄先生认为key 作“钥匙”讲，其后不可以接of。然而事实却是key之后不仅可以接to，也可以接of。这一论点在中外语法专著中都可以找到论证。
■请看以下论证：
1. 吕志士主编《英语惯用法大词典》(中国科学技术出版社 1994年12月第1版)p1072: key作“钥匙”解，后面一般跟介词to，表示是“……的钥匙” ，但现在也有跟介词of的情况，如：Please dend us a porter with a key of that room.
2. 杨民生主编《英语语法正误词典》(湖北教育出版社 1996年3月第1版)p599: key 1)作“钥匙”讲时可与to或 of连用。
R：I’ve lost the key to (或of )the door. 这门上的钥匙我掉了。
3. 张道真编著的《现代英语用法词典》(重排本)(外语教学与研究出版社1994年10月第1版)p754:Have you got the key of this door?
4. 王文昌主编《英语搭配大词典》(增订版)(江苏教育出版社2004年11月第2版)p960: Have you got the key of this door? 你有该门的钥匙吗？
5. L. G. Alexander 编著Longman English Grammar(1988)
2.47: the key of the door
2.10.1: the key of the car
6. Lingoes(http://www.lingoes.cn) 之“句酷双语例句”：
W: All right, sir. Here is the key of the room. Please leave it atthe counter when you go out. 好的，先生。这是房间的钥匙，您出去的时候，请把它交给服务台。
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 我必把大卫家的钥匙放在他肩头上；他开了，就没有人能关；他关了，就没有人能开。
He pulled out the key of his closet.他拿出他房间的钥匙。
I’ve lost the key of my house,so I’ll have to force an entry.我丢了房间钥匙,因此将不得不破门而入。
■另外，请看英美人使用key之后接of的真实例证：
1. BNC(英国国家语料库http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk)
和BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/：
Well it’s the key of somebody’s cottage It’s the key of somebody’s caravan but it’s not ours.
Nobody’s going to listen. Just one other detail; the key of my cottage.
The key of the back door was in her pocket,...
Superintendent Mercer arrived shortly afterwards and I handed over the key of the Biology Lab to him.
Until Rainbow, fishing for the key of her downstairs door,...
He’s lost the key of the door …
2. BUY CORPUS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2009) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http://www.americancorpus.org/：
2009 When he took the key of my father’s car and pressed it into a piece of soap that my father found before Nnamabia could take it to a locksmith, she made vague sounds about how he was just experimenting and it?
2009 The lovely ringing tones the house keys made when they jangled against the key of my upstairs bedroom still sound in my ears.
2002 He may not have felt exactly like Ulysses landing on the coast of Ithaca but while turning the key of his front door and quietly entering years seemed to have passed since he left for work that morning.
2001 Well, most of us wouldn’t give the key of our houses to our mailman, so the story interests us.
1994 And what if the lover had walked in on them, he must have the key of the door, what change in direction would have happened then?
以上例证足以证明key之后接of是正确的。