核心畫面
Picture yourself pointing at something alive and moving — in the sea, in the grass, in the dark — before you have decided what to call it. A creature is a life, with its name and shape left open. That openness is what lets the word stretch: towards the nameless thing in a story, and towards something that owes its existence to whoever made it.
可以想成你指著一個活著、會動的東西，但還沒替它取名字：海裡的、草叢裡的、黑暗中的都算。creature 給人的感覺就…更多收起
可以想成你指著一個活著、會動的東西，但還沒替它取名字：海裡的、草叢裡的、黑暗中的都算。creature 給人的感覺就是「一條生命」，形狀和名字先空著。也正因為空著，這個字才伸得出去——一邊伸向故事裡叫不出名字的怪東西，一邊伸向「靠某個人才存在的東西」。原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
creaturenoun/ˈkɹiː.tʃə/
- 1
A living being, such as an animal, monster, or alien.
- insects and other creatures
- But what would be the sentiment of uppertendom, when it should be rumored that the beautiful young creature, of the proud Clarence Delwood's choice, had stooped so low, as to maintain herself by her own hands?
- 2
An unidentified, mysterious, and often monstrous animal or being.
- When it comes to this creature you have to unlearn everything you've ever learned about physiology. For example, when its appendages emerge to feed, they do so using incredible bursts of growth, quite unlike anything ever seen before […]
- Tammy and Cherise heard the creature's roar. “I think they got him,” Tammy said. “See, I told you. Everything's going to be alright.” Cherise smiled. The beast swung its other, human-like arm, knocking the entire barricade down, […]
- 3
derogatoryA human.
- He's a creature of habit.
- Otherwise, Partridge discovered himself to be an amiable creature, with a disconcerting habit of occasionally muddling himself up with ethical questions of extreme profundity, sandwiched in between technicalities of Art, and the ordinary affairs of life, a process which was inclined to be a trifle confusing to the lay mind.
- 4
lifestylereligionA created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
- Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.
- the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.
- 5
A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
- "You know what I advise," said Mrs. Smith. "Ask Miss Dunstable to advance the money on the same security which the duke holds. She will be as safe then as he is now. And if you can arrange that, stand for the county against him; perhaps you may be beaten." "I shouldn't have a chance." "But it would show that you are not a creature in the duke's hands. That's my advice," said Mrs. Smith, with much spirit; […]
- they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。