今年國中會考完不久，就有英文老師來問我考題中的英語時態等文法問題。不過我更關注的是許多句子看似合乎文法，但卻不是自然、道地的英文。歷年會考英語考題都存在許多這類的句子，今年也不例外。
以下是筆者與美國編輯 Rebecca Albee 就考題中表達不符英文習慣之處提出的意見，並以 Google 搜尋的數據作客觀對比。如果一個五六字短語，Google 搜尋不到，就表示母語人士平常大概不會這麼說、這麼寫，就不用去學，更不要拿來教。相對的，若我們建議的說法可以找到很多例子，就表示這是自然道地的說法，才值得模仿學習。
第一部分: 單題
2. My mom puts the on to keep her hands away from water when she washes the dishes.
(A) gloves (B) jacket (C) ring (D) socks
試評：戴手套 puts gloves on, 不需要定冠詞，若寫成 puts the gloves on, 則意味「戴上這雙手套」。洗碗盤戴手套，還需要說是為了 to keep her hands away from water 嗎？這是句贅語。
No results found for "puts the gloves on to keep her".
"to keep her hands away from water" About 5 results (全出自今年國中會考英語考題報導)
比較自然的寫法是 My mom puts gloves on when she does the dishes.
8.It’s great that we can buy train tickets over the phone without going out. It
us a lot of time.
(A)lends(B) prepares (C) saves (D) takes
試評：這題是「太好了，透過電話不用出門就能訂車票。」的英文直譯。問題是 buy train tickets over the phone 英文不就很清楚了？不須畫蛇添足再加上 without going out，這是中英語言在表達時的差異。
9.Mozart his first music when he was only six years old.
(A)is writing (B) has written (C) will write (D) wrote
試評：莫札特 5 歲時創作第一首曲，怎麼變成 6 歲？“Mozart's musical ability started to become apparent when he was a toddler… Musically, he developed very rapidly and began to compose his own works at the age of five.” (Wikipedia) “His first documented composition, a Minuet and Trio in G major… was composed when he was just five years old.” (Classic FM)
12. Josh has planned to make a trip to New York and some of his friends there.
(A) visit (B) visits (C) visiting (D) visited
試評：這考題的英文不太自然，也太囉嗦。若把地名以 * 替代 (表示可以是任何地方)，Google 上搜尋不到任何一筆：
No results found for "has planned to make a trip to * and visit".
No results found for "to * and visit some of his friends there".
這題英文可改成：Josh plans/is planning to go to New York and visit his friends there.
14.We were so sure that Jerry well on the difficult job. His past experience in other work showed he was the right guy for it. So when he failed, no one believed it.
(A) had done (B) did (C) has done (D) would do
試評：這題公布的答案是 (D) would do，但除了 (C) has done 明顯不適合外，(A) had done (B) did 應該也可以呀！
第二部分: 題組
(18-19) Jammie: But I think it’d be even better to just give your things to people who need them. I just sent out a lot of things last week.
18.What can we learn about Buffy’s friends?
(A)Matt has experience of yard sales.
(B)Jamie had a successful yard sale last week.
(C)Albert thinks weather is important for yard sales.
(D)Debby thinks things are cheaper online than at yard sales.
試評：我上星期剛送走不少東西。英文是 I just gave away a lot of things last week. 在台灣很常見用 sent out 來表示「送走」。其實英文 sent out 是「廣寄郵件」、「廣發邀請函」的意思。
If you send out things such as letters or bills, you send them to a large number of people at the same time. She had sent out well over four hundred invitations that afternoon.
此外，(A) Matt has experience of yard sales. 介詞宜用 with。見以下 Google 搜尋統計：
"experience of yard sales" About 5 results (其中 2 筆出自今年考題報導)
"experience with yard sales" About 1,740 results
(Jerome Su, May 31, 2020)