在网上看到一条解释,说是fail to do sth, 意思是not to do sth,并没有做某事。eg, He failed to enter the final tournament. 他没能进入最终决赛。 fail in sth, 意思是在尝试某事的过程中失败,通常表达法为sb fails in his attempt to do...简单来说就是fail to do的动词偏向于用短暂性动词,fail in可以接表持续动作的词。
不知道解释清楚没,感觉在gmac还是偏向于fail to do来简洁表达。
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2377923&langid=22 在这个论坛里,有关于fail to do和 fail in doing 的争论。
争议主要在fail in doing 上。 大家给了一个例句 是: She failed in giving him a daughter.
对于这个句子大家有两种理解
1. She gave him a daughter, but that is not what other's want. So, she failed.
2. She didn't give him a daughter.