英语短语"be confined to doing sth." 的核心含义是“被限制只能做某事;(活动、范围等)局限于做某事”,强调因外部约束(如疾病、规则、环境、条件等)而无法从事其他活动,只能局限在某个动作或行为上。
"be confined to" 本身是被动结构,意为“被限制在…;局限于…”(主动形式为"confine sb./sth. to...",表示“将某人/某物限制在…中”);
"to" 是介词,因此后面需接动名词(doing sth.)或名词,不能接不定式(to do)。
1、 主语:通常是人或事物(被限制的对象);
2、 语境:多表示因客观限制(如健康问题、政策、环境等)导致的“只能做某事”;
3、 结构:主语 + be confined to + doing sth.
健康限制:After the surgery, she was confined to taking painkillers every four hours.(手术后,她只能每四小时吃一次止痛药。)
环境限制:Due to the heavy snow, the kids were confined to playing indoors all weekend.(因为大雪,孩子们整个周末只能在室内玩。)
规则限制:Employees are confined to using company devices for work-related tasks.(员工只能使用公司设备处理工作任务。)
兴趣/范围局限:His hobbies are confined to reading classic novels and listening to jazz.(他的爱好仅限于读经典小说和听爵士乐。)
区分"be confined to sth."与"be confined to doing sth.":
接名词(sth.)时,强调“被限制在某个地点/范围”(如:He was confined to the hospital for a week. 他在医院住了一周。);
接动名词(doing sth.)时,强调“被限制在某个动作/行为”(如:He was confined to resting for a week. 他只能休息一周。)。
避免误区:"to"是介词,不能接不定式(错误:be confined to to do;正确:be confined to doing)。
"be confined to doing sth." 本质是“被动限制 + 动作范围”,用于描述受约束的行为状态,核心是“只能做某事,无法做其他”。