He will start circling soon and then I must work on him. I wonder what started him so suddenly ?
Could it have been hunger that made desperate, or was he frieightened by something in the night ?
（海明威老人与海）。
不了解鱼为何惊跳起来？
我查了所有些词典，都说当start用作受到惊吓的意思是，只能是不及物动词vi，为何上句中start是及物动词，表示了使鱼惊吓呢？
把下面二个句子连起来读：
I wonder what started him so suddenly ?Could it have been hunger that made desperate, or was he frieightened by something in the night ?
第二句的it 指代第一句中的what, 即start him的主语。老人自问：是饥饿呢还是受了惊吓？由此可知，it指代what, 而what是started的主语，it可能是饥饿，而饥饿不可能让某人受到惊吓。所以这个句子中的及物动词started him绝对不是受到惊吓的意思。what started him so suddenly意思就是字面意思：哪些原因让它这样忽然的动了起来。假如有人将这个start翻译为“惊吓”，那是依据语境作的发挥，并非海明威用这个词的本意。所以，网友的问题可能也是看了汉译后才产生了这个疑问。假如你只看英文原文，就不会有这个问题了。
