Question

英语问题：关于冠词

这是新概念2册的一篇课文：
The secretary told me that Mr. Harmsworth would see me. I felt very nervous when I went into his office.He did not look up from his desk when I entered. After I had sat down, he said that business was very bad.He told me that the firm could not afford to pay such large salaries. Twenty people had already left. I knew that my turn had come.'Mr.Harmsworth,' I said in a weak voice.'Don't interrupt,' he said.Then he smiled and told me I would receive an extra thousand pounds a year!
我想问的是这句he said that business was very bad.
business前为什么不加the？我觉得应该加，毕竟是特定的他们公司的生意，不是全世界的生意。

Answer 1

1、在专有名词、物质名词、抽象名词以及人名、地名前是不需要加冠词的。
2、business是抽象名词，上文在他与老板交谈之前也曾未提到过business,因而不用the也能很清楚的表达意思。
另外，business这里是泛指，“生意不景气”，所指代的是business的大环境，而非他们本公司的business.
3、如果非要特指的话，完全可以用形容词性物主代词来替代：he said that our business....
如果照LZ的意思，老板说the business,谁知道他是说的本公司的生意，还是老板在外面还有的生意？ 望采纳，祝在英语学习的路上平云直上！

Answer 2

business(生意) 是个不可数名词。不可数名词表示泛指，不加冠词，加定冠词表示特指。
比如：Water is colourless. The water of the basin is black.
此句不加冠词是说目前市场生意很不好做，是泛指，不是特指某个企业的生意。

Answer 3

"生意",这里所说的生意不只是自己公司的，还包括与本公司打交道的其他公司的生意，还包括整个大气候下的不景气的生意