究竟应该说someone faces problems还是problems face someone？

60天口语社群里面有同学提到了一个关于face的问题：为什么可以说the environmental problems facing this country…?

Face这个单词用法有点特别，当它作为动词与problem/challenge/danger等表示“困难或挑战”的单词一起使用时，可以有三种搭配：

(1) Somebody faces something，比如：McManus is facing the biggest challenge of his career.

(2) Somebody is faced with something，比如：We are faced with two unpleasant options.

(3) Something faces somebody，比如：How to combine a career and children is a dilemma facing many women.

柯林斯词典里面也有这样的解释：If you face or are faced with something difficult or unpleasant, or if it faces you, it is going to affect you and you have to deal with it. 这一解释涵盖了上面提到的这三种情况。

可以理解为face具有“对称性”，即我们可以面对问题，问题也可以面对我们。

那么，这三种用法之间有没有什么区别呢？陈用仪的《英语常用词疑难用法手册》指出，face有“无意识地面对”和“有意识地面对”两种用法。

如果是something faces somebody或者somebody is faced with something，则属于“无意识地面对”。比如：

(a) A new problem faces us. 我们遇到一个新的问题。

(b) I was faced with the awful job of breaking the news to the girl's family. 我面临一个头疼的任务，要向女孩的家人通报这一消息。

而如果是somebody faces something，则属于“有意识地面对”，更加强调主观能动性。比如：We have to face reality. 我们必须勇敢面对现实。

除了face之外，另一个单词confront也有类似的用法。我们可以说problems confront somebody，也可以说somebody confronts problems，还可以说somebody is confronted with problems

同样的，如果要强调“某人勇敢面对问题”，则可以用somebody confronts problems，比如：We try to help people confront their problems. 我们试图帮助人们正视他们的问题。

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