有一读者问： 语法书上讲表示季节的名词之前不用冠词，但高中英语课文中的Winter Sleep一课却都用了定冠词the。为什么？ 是不是科技文章就应该这样？

先让我们将这篇课文中含有季节词的句子以及与其有关的句子全部抄录如下：

(1)Some birds will fly away to the south when the weather turns cold. Other birds and all animals stay with you, but you will not see all the animals all through the winter. In the cold weather some of them hibernate.

(2)Hibernating in that way, the animal can sleep all through the winter. You might wonder how it manages to live without eating for so many months. The answer lies in two facts. The first is it has stored supples of fat in its body during the summer and autumn.

(3)They sleep during the winter but their sleep is not such a deep one, and their body temperature does not drop. In the autumn the bear eats and eats and becomes very fat indeed... On warm winter days he may think that spring has arrived; he gets up and walks around.

(4)The squirrel is an animal which makes secret food stores for the winter.

从上述四例可以看到，春夏秋冬四季都包括在内。其中winter, summer和autumn之前的确都有定冠词，但spring前却用的是零冠词（即不用任何冠词）。另外，我们怀疑是否会有一本语法书讲表示季节的名词之前一律不用冠词。

现在让我们具体地探讨一下上述四例中的季节词的用法吧：

1. 例（1）与例（2）中的all through the winter用定冠词比较容易解释，显然是与all through有关。我们知道，all through或through或throughout后接时间词时，这个时间词前一般须用定冠词the，如all through the night, through the week, throughout the year等 。季节词当然也是一样。那么为什么all through与时间词之间须用定冠词the呢？ 我们猜想可能是由于这种时间词不代表时间的一点而是有意表示一个具体的或特定的过程的缘故。

2. 例（2）中的during the summer and autumn与例（3）中的during the winter则与介词during有关。与all through一样，介词during也一般须后接“the+时间词”，如during the day, during the night, during the week等。其理由与all through the winter同。

3. 例（3）中spring之前为什么没有冠词呢？ 据语法家们说，当说一个季节即将来临或刚刚来临时，一般不用冠词。spring has arrived即意味着刚刚开始，故不用冠词，再如：

(5)Summer approaches.

(6)Winter came early that year.

(7)We often have a spell of hot weather after the beginning of autumn. （注意这里如用美国英语fall[秋天]，前面须用定冠词the）

4. 最后一个问题就是如何解释例（3）in the autumn与例（4）for the winter中的定冠词the了。我们知道，在季节词前是否用定冠词，往往随人随时而异，并无一成不变的规则可以遵循 。但不少语法家都指出下列情况下常用定冠词the：

1. 显然特指某一季节时，如：

(8)Her book will be published in the autumn. （= the autumn of this year）

(9)Where do you spend the summer — by the sea or in the mountains? （= the coming summer）

2. 不强调时间而表示季节的内涵时，如：

(10)In the spring he swam in the rivers. （表示大地回春，天已转暖，冰雪已化等）

(11)The winter was coming on. （暗示寒冷的冬天）

(12)They had done with summer before the summer came.（第一个summer纯指时期，故无冠词；第二个summer有夏热的内涵，故前有定冠词the）

根据上述分析，我们倾向于例（3）的the autumn与例（4）的the winter也都有各自的内涵： 前者暗示秋天是收获季节，熊可尽情地吃；后者则暗示严寒肃杀万木枯干的冬天。