【问】 No matter how hardly he pushed，the door would not open.(不管他怎么用力推，门也不开。)这个句子有毛病吗?

【答】 在英语里有若干形容词，其副词有两种形式：跟形容词同形的副词和以-ly结尾的副词。例 如 ： clean—cleanly，close—closely，deep—deeply，direct—directly，high—highly，wide—widely，hard—hardly，late—lately，near—nearly 等。其中 clean—cleanly，close—closely，deep—deeply，direct—directly，high—highly等，它们与形容词同形的副词和以-ly结尾的副词在基本词义上无重大区别，只是用法有所不同(参见deep/deeply，high/highly)。但是，hard与hardly，late与lately，near与nearly却具有完全不同的含义。副词hard作“努力地”、“用力地”、“厉害地”解，而副词hardly作“几乎不”(almost not)解，He hardly works.，不是表示“他努力工作。”，而是表示“他几乎不工作”。把hardly误用作hard，不仅是中国人常犯的毛病，而且也是其他非英语国家的人常犯的毛病。例如，有一位非英语国家的教授在来信中表扬一位研究生时说He works very hardly。与此相类似，late作“晚”、“迟”解，而lately作“最近”、“近来”解(见lately);near作“近”、“附近”解，而nearly作“几乎”(almost)解(见near/nearly)。请做下面的英语试题：

1. Evolution has hardly changed the horseshoe crab over millions of years.

A. carefully B. probably C. scarcely D. slowly(TOEFL 教程)

2. This pair of shoes isn’t good，but that pair is____better.

A. rather B. less C. ever D. hardly(攻读硕士学位研究生入学考试英语试题，85A)

3. Duncairn，a castle built in the twelfth century on the western coast of Scotland，is____a few feet high.

A. hardly more than B. almost more than

C. just as much as D. nearly more than(Nelson，400D)