几乎每篇学术论文都会涉及到“数量”或“量化”。在平常工作中，笔者发现不少作者在“量”的表述上犯了不该犯的错误，具体表现在：以汉语思维来“表达”“量”。如：“Spontaneous combustion of coal occurred when temperatures is in close to 350°C”。从表面看，这句话似乎没有问题，但其中的“when temperatures is in close to 350°C”是赤裸裸的汉语思维“表达”，尽管中国读者能看懂，但英美读者会感到非常别扭。所以，“Spontaneous combustion of coal occurred at temperatures close to 350°C”是比较地道的表达。

下面再举几个例子：

例一：It was found that the adsorbed area of the modified pomelo peel was increased, mostly were mesoporous, and the pore size of 2-20 nm, were suitable for the passage of dye macromolecules.

   上面的语句显然不地道，笔者建议将其修改为：It was found that the adsorbed area of the modified pomelo peel was increased, and most of the pores were mesoporous with sizes of 2-20 nm, which were suitable for the passage of dye macromolecules. 这里需强调一下，假如其中的孔径大小不是在一定的范围，而是一“固定”值，如10nm，那么“with the size of 10nm”就会更地道。在一定范围的情况下，size一般为“复数”形式，如with sizes of 10-20nm，或 with sizes ranging from 10-20nm，或with sizes between 10 and 20nm等等。

例二：The present study further investigated this synthesis by examining the crystallinity of a set of synthetic nontronite incubated at 23, 95, and 150°C.

   这句话表达地道，其中的“at 23, 95, and 150°C”更简练。笔者在阅读英文文献过程中也看到，在表达一固定温度时，如80°C，有些作者会以“at the temperature of 80°C”表述；而在一定温度范围的情况下，如“80-150°C”，有些会以“at temperatures of 80-150°C”表示。但笔者建议，在学术论文中尽可能以简易形式“at 80°C”或“at 80-150°C”表达。  

   笔者还想强调一下，学术论文中的“温度”一般以“at”引出，而不是以“in”引出。

例三：Jakobsson and Moore (1986) found that at 100°C palagonite formed a rim on basaltic glass at a rate of 2.8 um/y, and that this rate doubled with every 12°C increase in temperature. At temperatures＞120°C, nontronite formed a rim on olivine crystals at a rate of 0.3 um/y; this rate doubled with every 8°C increase, but nontronite growth was not observed at lower temperatures. This growth rate is faster than the rates measured experimentally by Decarreau et al. (1987), but drops more rapidly with temperature.

   上面这段不仅非常专业，而且表达非常地道。在其中的“at a rate of 2.8 um/y”，作者以“/y”表达“per year”；而在“At temperatures＞120°C”中，以“＞”替代“greater than”，也就是说，在学术论文中要尽可能使用大家公认的简写形式和数学符号。

例四：From measurements of crystal growth at several temperatures, they derived an Arrhenius relationship for nontronite formation, indicating that a ferric smectite with coherent domains～100A in size should form in ～ 10 y at 25°C and in ～ 200 y at 2°C.

   这句表达也非常地道。作者以“～”替代“about”或“around”或“approximately”；以“y”表示“years”，这符合学术论文的撰写要求。