來(lái)自American Heritage Dictionary
According to a widely repeated but unjustified tradition,“between is used for two, and among for more than two.” It is true that between is the only choice when exactly two entities are specified: the choice between (not among ) good and evil, the rivalry between (not among ) Great Britain and France.
根據(jù)重復(fù)多次但沒(méi)什么根據(jù)的傳統(tǒng)看法愈涩，“between 用于兩者之間轨域，而 among 用于二者以上匀钧。” 當(dāng)只提到兩個(gè)實(shí)體時(shí)，between 確實(shí)是唯一的選擇： the choice between （而不用 among ） good and evil（善與惡之間的選擇），the rivalry between （不用 among ） Great Britain and France（英法間的對(duì)抗）。
When more than two entities are involved, however, or when the number of entities is unspecified, the choice of one or the other word depends on the intended sense. Between is used when the entities are considered as distinct individuals; among, when they are considered as a mass or collectivity. Thus in the sentence The bomb landed between the houses, the houses are seen as points that define the boundaries of the area of impact (so that we presume that none of the individual houses was hit). InThe bomb landed among the houses, the area of impact is considered to be the general location of the houses, taken together (in which case it is left open whether any houses were hit).
當(dāng)牽涉到兩個(gè)以上實(shí)體時(shí)，如果實(shí)體的數(shù)目不確定精拟，選擇其中之一則取決于傾向性。當(dāng)實(shí)體被看作不同的個(gè)體時(shí)用between ； 當(dāng)其被看作整體或集合時(shí)用among 蜂绎。 因此在句子The bomb landed between the houses 中栅表，房屋被看作一個(gè)限定了中彈地區(qū)的界限（ 所以我們假設(shè)一所所單獨(dú)的房子未被擊中）。在The bomb landed among the houses 中师枣，被中彈地區(qū)被看作是房屋的整體地區(qū)（ 在這種情形下房屋是否被擊中并未說(shuō)明）怪瓶。
By the same token, we may speak of a series of wars between the Greek cities, which suggests that each city was an independent belligerent, or ofa series of wars among the Greek cities, which allows as well the possibility that the belligerents were shifting alliances of cities. For this reason, among is most appropriate to indicate inclusion in a group.
同樣的表示法，我們可以說(shuō)a series of wars between the Greek cities践美， 表示每個(gè)城市是獨(dú)立的參戰(zhàn)者洗贰，我們也可以說(shuō)a series of wars among the Greek cities， 表示存在某些城市做為聯(lián)合參戰(zhàn)者的可能性陨倡。 因此敛滋，among 最適合表示包括在一群成一組人之內(nèi)：There is a spy among you (this last is arguably appropriate even when there are only two addressees;
