本站特约作者 李翔　　

　 　

《牛津初中英语》八年级下补充习题(译林出版社 2010年11月第3次印刷)p17: 　　

Amy: Really? (4) _______your aunt____(be) in Beijing these days?　　

与之相配套的《牛津初中英语》八年级下教师教学用书(译林出版社 2010年11月第5次印刷)p137所给答案为4  Has been　　

然而，张月祥教授在其编著的《英语语法一点通》(上海外语教育出版社2007年1月第1版)p374-374上却说：these days的英文释义是now, at present, nowadays，指现在，尤指对比过去的现在，因此不能与包括现在完成时在内的过去时间表示法连用，而是要求与[1]一般现在时，[2]与现在进行时连用。　　

到此可知以上两种观点是互相矛盾的。那么，究竟these days能否和除一般现在时与现在进行时之外的其它时态连用吗？还是让事实来回答吧。　　

1.和现在完成进行时连用　　

■周国珍主编《英汉详注词典》(上海交通大学出版社 1997年10月第1版)p1486:We have been doing a hard day’s work these days.这些天来，我们一直工作的很辛苦。　　

■The CORPUS OF CONTEMPORAY AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2011) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http://www.americancorpus.org/ ：　　

1993 Tomorrow we will try to go again to Srebrenica with food and with relief supplies, and of course we will take the people that are the most vulnerable ones, the wounded, the sick, as we have been doing these days, but no empty trucks to Srebrenica.　　

1995 You have been working these days for upwards of 20 years at Marshall Field's, give me a feel for the excitement that goes through this place on the day after Thanksgiving?　　

2001 Certainly, hardly anyone his son has been playing against these days has been much of a deterrent.　　

2. 和现在完成时连用　　

■简清国主编《外研社・建宏英汉多功能词典》(外语与教学研究出版社1997年1月第1版) P378: I haven’t seen her these days. 我这些天来都没见到她。　　

■The CORPUS OF CONTEMPORAY AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2011) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http://www.americancorpus.org/ ：　　

1991 …,one more piece of bad luck for a people who have found these days particularly difficult.　　

1992 She has done enough these days.　　

1995 The first hand in the air does not engender confidence; then again, you realize that students have lived everywhere these days.　　

1995 Things have changed these days.　　

1997 I quote Martin Luther King in this book, and I cite his evocation of Christianity as the source of his feeling that man should be free and go on to wonder why, where Martin Luther King has celebrated these days, but the Christian faith that inspired him is very widely neglected in the same places.　　

1999 If a 12-year-old has heard Clinton these days, it's probably because, after James Brown (or Brown's celebrated " funky drummer " Clyde Stubblefield), Clinton's music is sampled ubi-quitously by hip-hop record producers.　　

2002 Much of what we have seen these days is really the comeuppance of earlier policies.　　

2003 The camera appeared ordinary enough. One of those digital jobbies that stored hundreds of images on one chip and downloaded directly to a computer. The kind every tourist seemed to have invested in these days.　　

2006 " What voir dire has turned into these days is the psychological stacking of juries as much as possible, " she says.　　

2010 More kids must have had cars these days.　　

2010 Advocacy, ubiquitous as the phrase has become these days, does not appear to be a big enough strategy to shield us from the shifting political realities and economic downturn.　　

■TIME MAGAZINE CORPUS (1923-2006) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) (http://corpus.byu.edu/time)：　　

2001 The dauphins have been lucky these days　　

 

3. 和一般过去时连用

■席玉虎主编《英语常用词用法详解大词典》(A-M)(商务印书馆国际有限公司 2007年6月北京第1版)p903: He was in the pubblic  eyes these days.他进来极为公众所关注。　　

■张道真编著《现代英语用法词典》(外语教学与研究出版社1994年10月第1版)p305: Did any young people care these days about anything old people said to them?　　

The CORPUS OF CONTEMPORAY AMERICAN ENGLISH (1990-2011) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University) http://www.americancorpus.org/ ：　　

1990 She never ate anything these days.　　

1992 A lot of women carried them these days　　

1994 He was all she spoke of these days.　　

1995 Polly was no expert, but as far as she knew, no one wore ribbons these days.　　

1996 …, I know very few people named Washington these days.　　

1998 Half the guys in Casey's classes wore earrings these days.　　

1999 She always felt chilled these days, had for the past year.　　

2004 She slept little these days.　　

2006 He offered his hand-something he disliked doing these days.　　

2009 What gets kids riled up these days? Oh, I know. Money!　　

2009 I barely saw Ethan these days as it was.　　

2010 She even seemed taller these days.　　

2010 She smiled more these days than when they'd first met.　　

■BUY-BNC BRTISH NATIONAL CORPUS (UK,1980s-1993) (Mark Davies, Brigham Young University ) http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/：　　

Very few married men wore rings these days .　　

A process which went slowly these days .　　

When your family members went mad these days you had to keep them at home,  …　　

He didn't think she threw knives these days and mercifully she hadn't sung " The Cowboys' Christmas party " since their time in Chelsea.　　

Adam suspected that these days Rufus might be quite fastidious about wine, a wine snob even, the kind that savours bouquets and talks about nice little domestic burgundies and so forth, but in those days it was plonk he wanted.　　

It seemed that these days his friends needed an excuse to blow the family money on their own pleasure; it had to be in a good cause.　　

She shivered, even though it was hot, and fancied death and disaster lurked everywhere these days .　　

She loomed large these days , as in the weeks after the funeral. Her airy presence filled the house.　　

Neither of them looked happy these days .　　

No longer did MPs defer to the Speaker, grant courtesy titles or bow when they left ; these days it was the loudest voice that got a hearing.　　

His friends had stopped coming and the workshops he took these days were in colleges far afield.　　

Maisie was the only person to whom Henry ever talked these days .　　

She hoped so; Mama rarely laughed these days .　　

It was the sort of thing that happened these days .　　

从以上英美语真实的例证，可以看出：these days除了和一般现在时与现在进行时连用之外，还可以和现在完成时、现在完成行时及一般过去时连用，尤其经常和一般过去时连用。