1) 作为泛称的起教育作用的机构，school 不加任何冠词。作为一处地点，要按情况加定冠词或不定冠词。

• Is he still at（英国英语）school? 或 Is he still in（美国英语）school?他还在上学吗？
• Dad came to the school to see my teacher yesterday.爸爸昨天到学校来看我的老师。

即使 school 前面有形容词，只要“形容词 + school”还是属于常见的教育机构或教育阶段范畴，就仍然不加任何冠词。

• I joined the office immediately after law school.我念完了法学，就马上进了法律事务所。
• I'd graduated with a B. A. in philosophy in May, and had decided against going straight to graduate school. (Newsweek, Nov. 13, 2006, p.20)我五月份毕业，拿到了哲学学士学位，而且决定不去直接念研究生。

但是如果形容词的内容不属于通常的教育范围，school 就要恢复具体事物的含义，就要用冠词，如：

• graduate from a well-known school

如果 school 前面没有介词而单独出现，就是抽象的“上学”的意思。

• School was an unbearable ordeal for him.上学对他来说是一件无法忍受的苦差事。

2) school 还有“学派”的意思。究竟是“学校”还是“学派”，要看前后文。

• the Dutch school荷兰学派
• the impressionist school印象派
• a politician of the old school老派政治家
• There are several schools of thought on this issue.这个问题上有好几个学派。