人称代词it

代词it一般指物不指人，如：

（1）You cannot eat your cake and have it.凡事不能两全。

（2）A: What have they been doing to the road?他们一直在路上干嘛？

     B: Widening it.加宽路面。

（3）Language plays a great part in our life. Perhaps because of its familiarity, we rarely observe it, taking it rather for granted, as we do breathing or walking.语言在我们的生活里起着重大的作用。也许由于它太司空见惯了，我们对它很少注意，把它只看成像呼吸或者走路那样是理所当然的事。

但it 可指小孩、婴儿、团体等，如：

（4）What is it? A boy or a girl?生了个什么？男孩还是女孩？

（5）A child learns to speak the language of its environment.小孩学习说他周围环境所使用的语言。

（6）Parliament's answer to all awkward problems is to establish a Royal Commission whose findings it can then ignore.议会对所有麻烦问题的答案就是成立一个皇家委员会，然后对该委员会的调查结果就不理睬了。

（7）The committee has met and it has rejected the proposal.委员会已开过会，拒绝了这项建议。

it 具有轻蔑的含义时亦可指成人，如：

（8）Would you like to marry Malcolm? Fancy being owned by that! Fancy seeing it every day!你想和马尔科姆结婚吗？真想不到为他所占有！真想不到要每天看见他！