八、形容词、副词及其比较级
1.形容词的句法功能
形容词在句中做定语、表语和主语。考生应注意：
(1)以 “a” 开头的形容词如alone, alike, asleep, awake等不能做前置定语，可做表语或后置定语。
(2)某些以副词词缀 “-ly” 结尾的词是形容词，如friendly, leisurely, lovely等。
(3)下列动词既是实义动词又是系动词，注意用做系动词时，要求形容词做表语：remain, keep, become, get, grow, go, come, turn, stay, stand, run, prove, seem, appear, look。如：
All those left undone may sound great in theory, but even the truest believer has great difficulty when it comes to specifics.
2.副词主要测试其修饰作用
考生应了解：副词可修饰谓语动词、非谓语动词、形容词、副词、介词短语、整个句子。如：
This pair of shoes isn’t good, but that pair is hardly better.
(与前半句的否定意义吻合)
It’s essential that people be psychologically able to resist the impact brought about by the transition from planned economy to market economy.
Andrew, my father’s younger brother, will not be at the picnic, much to the family’s disappointment.
Most of us are of the opinion that this set of training program is among the most wisely devised ones we have seen so far.
3.考比较级时，考生应把握
(1)形容词和副词比较级的形式是否和比较连词对应出现，即是否符合原级比较及比较级的结构。如：
Do you enjoy listening to records? I find records are often as good as, or better than an actual performance.
On the whole, ambitious students are more likely to succeed in their studies than are those with little ambition.
(2)比较的成分是否属于同类事物或同类概念。如：
The number of registered participants in this year’s marathon was half that of last year’s.
Young readers, more often than not, find the novels of Dickens far more exciting than Thackeray’s.
(3)比较级的修饰语如 a little, a lot, the, any, even, far, hardly, lots, much, rather，还有表示倍数比较的词等，他们的位置是：修饰语+as…as…, 或修饰语+more…than…。如：
Smoking is so harmful to personal health that it kills seven times more people each year than automobile accidents.
“Do you regret paying five hundred dollars for the painting?” “No, I would gladly have paid twice as much for it.”
(4)下列词和短语不用比较级形式却表示比较概念：
inferior，minor，senior，prior，prefer to，superior，major，junior，preferable，differ from，compared with，in comparison with，different from，rather than。如：
Their watch is superior to all the other watches on the market.
4.最高级形式应注意的问题
(1)最高级比较范围用介词in, over, of, among。
in, (all)over用于在某一范围内的比较，如：in China, all over the world； of, among 用于在同一群体内同类事物的比较，如：among the teachers, of the four dresses。
注意：among…相当于one of…，不说among all…。这一点考生应与汉语表达区别开来。如：
Of all visible lights, red light has the longest and violet the shortest wavelength.
(2)比较级形式表示最高级意义时，比较对象的范围应用：
any other +单数名词
the other +复数名词
the others
anyone/anything else
上述词是用来将比较级结构转变成最高级意义的关键词语，切不可遗漏，否则会造成逻辑混乱的错误。如不能说：John runs faster than anyone.注意与汉语表达的不同。
5.有关比较级的特殊句型
(1)not so much…as…与其说……不如说……
The chief reason for the population growth isn’t so much a rise in birth rates as a fall in death rates as a result of improvements in medical care.
(2)no/not any more…than…两者一样都不……The heart is no more intelligent than the stomach, for they are both controlled by the brain.
There is no reason they should limit how much vitamin you take, any more than they can limit how much water you drink.
(3)no /not any less…than…两者一样都……She is no less beautiful than her sister.
(4)just as…so….正如……，……也……(用倒装结构)Just as the soil is a part of the earth, so is the atmosphere.
