区别辨析 finally, at last, at length, eventually 与 in the end

 (1) finally有两个意思。一是表示一系列事项中的最后一项,意为“最后”;二是表示经过长久等待之后发生或实现的事情,置于动词前,意为“终于”。

  • We need to increase productivity; we need to reduce unemployment; and finally , we need to make our exports competitive on world markets.
    我们需要提高生产率;我们需要减少失业;最后,我们需要使我们的出口产品在国际市场上具有竞争力。
  • After putting it off three times, we finally managed to have a holiday in Greece.
    在推迟了三次之后,我们终于到希腊去度了假。

 (2) ①at last有经过长时间的等待或拖延的意味,意为“终于”,语气比较强。

  • When at last they found him in the valley, he was almost dead.
    当他们终于在山谷里找到他时,他已差不多死了。
  • James has passed his exams at last after failing three times.
    詹姆斯在三次考试不及格之后,终于及格了。

②at last可用作感叹语。

  • At last! Where the hell have you been?
    哎呀!你到底到哪儿去了?

 (3) ①at length可表示“最后,终于”,特别是在过了很长时间之后,有时带有感情色彩。

  • At length he stopped reading, looked up and spoke to the waiting man.
    他终于停止了看书,抬起头来跟这个等着的男子讲话。
  • At length they reached their destination.
    最后他们到达了目的地。

②at length还可表示“冗长地,长时间地;详细地,周密地”。

  • The manager spoke at (great) length on his plans for the future of the firm.
    经理详细地谈了他为公司的未来制订的计划。
  • He explained the difficulty at (great) length .
    他对困难做了详细的说明。

 (4) eventually用法与上述finally第二义相似。

  • The car didn't want to start, but eventually I managed to get it going.
    汽车不好发动,但我终于还是设法使它跑起来了。

 (5) in the end用来表示经过许多变动、问题或踌躇之后某件事情的发生。

  • We made eight different plans for our holiday, but in the end we went to Guilin.
    我们为这次度假制定了八个不同的方案,但最后我们去了桂林。
  • I left in the middle of the film. Did they get married in the end?
    电影放映到中间我就离开了。最后他们结婚了吗?