Police的特殊用法拾零

有学生问：在英语语法书和教辅书上读到，“当police表总称时，其前必须要有定冠词”。但事实上我经常见到它前面不用冠词的情况啊。比如下面这道题，它是一道2006年山东卷高考英语试题：

Police are now searching for a woman who is reported to __________ since the flood hit the area last Friday.

A. have been missing               B. have got lost

C. be missing                          D. get lost

答案是B。这句中的police前就没有定冠词。

这个学生的问题很好。先把police的用法归纳如下：

▲police的意思是“警察”，指警察这个官方机构。The police are the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.  它是单数形式的复数名词，前面一般要用定冠词the，但在英语报道或口语中，有时省略不用，作主语时谓语动词用复数形式。

The police are also looking for a second car.警方也在寻找另一辆车。

The police have caught the murderer.警察已经抓获杀人凶手。

His strange behavior made the police suspicious.他不寻常的举止引起了警察的怀疑。

It's the duty of the police to preserve the public order.维护公共秩序是警察的职责。

Police sealed off all the exits from the building. 　 　警方把建筑物的所有出口都封锁住了。

Police asked passers-by if they had seen the accident.警察询问过路的人是否目击了这次事故。

Police had to break up the crowd. 警察不得不驱散人群。

Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward. 警方呼吁目击者挺身而出。

Police say they have arrested twenty people following the disturbances.警方说骚乱发生后他们已逮捕了20人。

After hours of questioning by police, she made a full confession.经过警察数小时的审问，她才供认了全部罪行。

Clashes broke out between police and demonstrators.警方与示威者发生了冲突。

▲police可以指人（即：警察）。Police are men and women who are members of the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.

当police指具体的人时，可用they，their等复数代词指代，可以受these, most, several, many, dozens of等表示不确切的量词修饰，也可以受两个以上的基数词修饰，此时的police相当于复数policemen。但不可用a或one修饰police表示单个警察。例如：

More than one hundred police have ringed the area.这一地区已被上百名警察包围。

Many police have put their lives on the line.许多警察都冒着生命的危险。

There are so many police out before the gala parade.在节日游行前许多警察在岗上。

Several police hurried out in their police car.几个警察坐着警车匆忙地赶出去了。

▲police可用在其他名词前作定语。 (www.hxen.com)

I noticed a police car shadowing us.我注意到一辆警车尾随着我们。

Terrorists bombed several police stations.恐怖分子炸毁了几所警察局。