【问】 (1) Hardly had we got into the country_________it began to rain.

(2) I had scarcely come in_______ the phone ran.

(3) He had barely arrived______ he had to leave again.

(4) He had no sooner returned________he bought a fine house.

我知道这些句型都是“刚一……就……”，但是我总记不住什么时候使用when，什么时候使用than，有时候记住了，过一个阶段又忘了。

【答】 这几个句型是很容易弄混的。例如，有一本英语著作在讲than的用法时说：than用于other之后表示“除……之外”;用于rather，sooner之后表示“与其……(宁愿)……;用于scarcely，hardly之后，表示“就……(表示时间)”。其实，scarcely和hardly并不能与than连用表示时间。为了牢记正确的用法，可以采用这样的记忆方法：在上列句型里，than只与副词的比较级连用(no sooner... than)，而副词scarcely和hardly，barely不是比较级，不能与than连用，而只能与when或before连用：

1. He had no sooner arrived than he asked for food. (CGEL)

他刚到，就要食物。

2. We'd hardly arrived before we had to go back. (LDCE)

我们刚到，就得往回返。

3. He had hardly had time to settle down when he sold the house and left the country.

(New Concept English，Book 2，L.38)

他刚刚住下来，就把那幢房子卖了，离开了这个国家。