有一读者问：在某年国际货币基金组织的招考试题中有一道题是指出下面一句中的错处：
(1)Due to the failure of the air cooling system, many in the audience had left the meeting before the principal speaker arrived.
这句话错在何处？
按照规范英语， due to 中的 due 是形容词，须用作表语，后接介词 to， 合在一起构成一固定词组，意谓“由于，起因于”，必须置于系动词之后，如：
(2)The postponement of the game was due to the rain.
英语里还有一个与 due to 同义的说法，即相当于介词的 owing to。 owing to 的用法与 due to 不同，它常用以引导一个原因状语短语，如：
(3)Owing to the rain , the game was put off.
所以，按照规范英语，句（1）中的 due to 是错误的，应改为 owing to。 但在当代英语中， owing to 被代之以 due to 的情况并不罕见。然而，如果说将 due to 短语用作原因状语不是规范英语的话， owing to 短语却可在规范英语中用作表语，如：
(4)The extraordinary beauty of Japanese cherry trees in blossom is chiefly owing to the fact that, in the majority of species, the blossoms appear before the leaves—so that the whole tree becomes like one great blossom, or white and pink clouds of blossoms.
