问英语｜英语常见问题解答

核心问题 1

For $\$ three hours we waited for the decision, only to be told to return the next day. (TOEFL)

near to 可以作“接近”解,为什么用在这里是错误的呢?

词典解答 1

near to 可表示“位置”或“空间”上的接近,不能表示数值上的接近。应改为 nearly。not nearly $^{1}$

核心问题 2

Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. (New Concept English, Book 4, p. 8)

[原译] 蜘蛛不是昆虫, 尽管许多人都这样认为, 它甚至与昆虫几乎没有联系。(中译本)

请问 nor nearly 是“几乎没有”吗？

词典解答 2

译者没有注意到 nor 对 nearly 词义的制约作用。须知 nor even nearly related to them 是一个省略句，等于 and they are not even nearly related to them。nearly 单独使用时确实作“几乎”“将近”（almost）解。但是，当 not 与 nearly 连用时，就不再作“几乎”解了。not（never, nor) nearly = by no means, far from（远不，根本不，完全不，一点儿不，相差很远）。例如：

It's not nearly so easy as you think. 远远不是你所想象的那么容易。
It is not nearly as late as I thought. 根本不像我原来想象的那么晚。
I have $200, but that will not be nearly enough for my journey. 我有 200 美元,但远远不够我旅行之用。
There are not nearly enough people there to do the job. 那里根本就没有足够的人手来干这件事。
It's not nearly so expensive as I thought. (Hornby) 它远不是我想象的那么贵。
There are not nearly enough members present to hold a meeting. (LEG) 出席的成员远远没有达到可以开会的人数。

[试译]与许多人的看法不同，蜘蛛并不是昆虫，甚至与昆虫根本没有任何亲缘关系。请做下面的英语试题：

Playing the violin well is not ____ so easy as you imagine. So you must get fully ready to overcome many difficulties. A. absolutely B. thoroughly C. nearly D. almost
—That is a beautiful table cloth. —Yes, but it is not ____ long enough for this table. A. nearly B. almost C. hardly D. mostly