Question

英语疑难问题

The village seemed deserted, the only sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat on a short length of rope tied to a tree in a field nearby.

the only sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat
为什么用 being？而不是不是 was 呢？

Answer 1

这句话翻译是，这村庄看起来被遗弃了，唯一的生命迹象，是一只用短绳绑在了附近田地树上的又丑又黑（俺不喜欢直译哈）的山羊。

这里是一个句子，如果用楼主那种说法，the only前应该用的是句号。这就好像是，the old man was sitting on the bench, sleeping的用法（语法上咋叫忘了），但因为后部分的主语与前部分的不符（the only sign of life），所以有点迷惑人。另一个例句，The student was panic, the teacher walking around to see if he was cheating)