quite a girl

这种结构仅用于口语。尤其是美国英语。这个结构中的名词虽然没有定语，但都暗含着一个形容词的概念（如不寻常的，了不起的）：

1. Quite a gale blew up. (gale = strong wind) 刮起了好大的风。

2. She is quite a girl. (a girl = a very attractive girl) 她真是个迷人的姑娘。

3. Quite a crowd gathered. 集聚了好多好多的人。

4. That's quite a story. 真是个有趣的故事。

5. He's quite a gardener, you know. 你知道，他真是个不错的园丁。

6. It takes quite a time. 那要花很长的时间。

7. He is quite an expert on Roman coins. 他是一位相当了不起的罗马货币鉴赏家。

但是,名词前到底暗含着什么样形容词的概念,常常必须根据上下文才能确定:

1. Be more careful where you put your pen in future, I had quite a (very difficult) time finding it. 以后要注意把钢笔放在什么地方，这次可叫我找苦了。

2. We had quite a (wonderful) time at your party last night. 昨天夜里在你们的聚会上玩得真是太快活了。

脱离上下文,很难断定,在 party 之前究竟暗含着一个什么样的形容词:

That was quite a party. (noisy, nice, interesting, long or wild) 那真是一个不寻常的聚会（吵闹的？美好的？有趣的？很长的？疯狂的？）。