核心畫面

Take the two halves apart. Cross means going straight over something instead of following the edge of it or going round. Country is the part that moves: it can mean open land — fields, mud, hills — or it can mean a whole nation. Hold both readings at once and the word opens up. Read country as open land and you are outside, off the road, with uneven ground under your shoes. Read it as a nation and you are covering a huge distance, one side to the other. Either way, something wide is being crossed rather than gone around.

把這個字拆成兩半來看。cross 是「直接穿過去」,不是繞路,也不是沿著邊走。真正會變的是 country 這一半。更多收起把這個字拆成兩半來看。cross 是「直接穿過去」,不是繞路,也不是沿著邊走。真正會變的是 country 這一半。它可以是「野地」——田、泥巴、山坡;也可以是「一整個國家」。兩種讀法同時放在心裡,這個字就通了。把 country 讀成野地,畫面就是你人在戶外,離開了鋪好的路,腳下高低不平。把它讀成國家,畫面就變成一段很長的距離,從這一頭到那一頭。不管是哪一種,重點都一樣:有一大片東西是被「穿過去」的,不是被繞開的。這也是為什麼判斷意思時,看後面接什麼名詞最快。

Two branches

穿過野地,不走大路

這一組把 country 讀成「野地」。腳下是泥巴、草和山坡,不是柏油路,也不是跑道。

adjective · B1

Going across fields, hills and open land instead of along main roads or round a marked track.

越野的

把 country 讀成「國家」

cross 還是「穿過去」,但被穿過的東西換了:從一片野地換成一整個國家,甚至換成好幾個國家之間的比較。

adjective · B2

Going from one part of a country to a far part of it, usually a very long way across.

橫越全國的