12. Effect

　　What you may think it means: To cause something to change。你以为单词的含义是：引起某事发生变化。

　　What it really means: An event that causes a change。单词的真正含义是：引起变化事件。

　　A lot of people staunchly

　　defend the wrong definition of this and it’s understandable. When action A causes a change in object B, action A affected object B and object B has been affected. Effect is an event that causes a change. In our prior example, action A is, in and of itself, an effect because it affects things. It’s admittedly confusing to explain but easy to remember. If it’s a noun, it’s an effect. If it’s a verb, it’s an affect。很多人是错误用法的拥趸者，这是可以理解的。当行动A导致事物B发生变化，行动A影响了事物B，因此，事物B受到了影响。Effect其实是指引起变化的事件。在先前的例子中，行动A本身就是个effect(事件)，因为它影响了事物。不得不说，这么解释起来很容易引起困惑，不过记起来却不难。如果是名词，那就是effect(事件)；如果是动词，那就是affect(影响)。