burn down意为“烧毁”,通常是指建筑物被完全烧塌。如:
(1)The school building was burned down in that big fire.
在那场大火中,学校大楼被烧毁。
(2)The whole village was burned down by the enemy.
整个村庄都被敌人烧毁了。
【注】burn down作“烧毁”解释时,也可以用作不及物动词。如:
(3)The woodshed burned down in half an hour.
木棚半小时内被烧毁。
【注】burn down还有“火势减弱”之意。如:
(4)The fire has burned down to a spark.
火已减弱,仅剩一点火星。
▲burn up也有“烧毁”“烧掉”之意,但一般不是指建筑物。如:
(5)Let’s burn up all this waste paper.
咱们把这些废纸都烧掉吧。
(6)The fire burned up more than $ 500,000 worth of antiques.
这场火烧掉了价值50多万美元的古董。
(7)All his books were burned up in the fire.
他所有的书都在这场火灾中被焚。
(8)Fires burned up 1,800 acres of timber.
大火烧毁了1800英亩的木料。
【注】burn up还有“烧旺”“烧起来”之意。如:
(9)Please put some wood on the fire and make it burn up.
请在火上加些木料使它烧旺。
【注】burn up亦可作“用光体力”解释。如:
(10)His work burned him up. 他的工作使他精疲力尽。