dozens of / scores of / hundreds of / thousands of / millions of + 复数名词
tens of thousands of / hundreds of thousands of + 复数名词
thousands upon thousands of + 复数名词
- The tower stands 15 meters high.
- She stood three feet high.
- Above the surface of the water, the towers rise to a height of nearly 700 feet.
- The boy weighs 50 kilos.
- The carpet measures 5 meters long and 3 meters across.
- extend to a depth of …
- go down to as much as …
- The bridge has a span of 4,260 feet.
- at the age of 52
- an increase of 3%
- a revenue of $3.4 billion
- a pay raise of 4%
- a salary of 30,000 dollars a year
- How do I love thee? Let me count the way. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. — E. B. Browning
capacity of …
The jug has a capacity of half a liter.
The stadium has a seating capacity of 50,000.
The new truck has a loading capacity of 2.5 tons.
Kyle has 4 times as many nickels as dimes. So for each dime, Kyle has 4 nickels.
The number of nickels is always 4 * the number of dimes.
“There are as many X as Y”, that means that the number of X’s is the same as the number of Y’s. For example, “There are as many cell phones as people in our house” means that the number of cell phones is equal to the number of people.
“There are Z times as many X as Y” means that the number of X’s is equal to Z times the number of Y’s. For example, “There are three times as many cell phones as people in our house” means that the number of cell phones is equal to three times the number of people. If there are 4 people then there are 12 cell phones. “Twice” is short for “two times”.
A is … times as … as B.
A is … times as the amount (the number, the size, the length, the width/breadth, the height, the value, the price, etc.) of B.
Comparisons
A is … times more than B.
- His salary is three times as much as mine.
- His salary is three times the amount of mine.
- His salary is twice more than mine.
- The box is four times as big as that one.
- The box is four times the size of that one.
- The box is three times bigger than that one.
-fold
- a tenfold increase
- Business has increased tenfold.
one more … = another …
two more … = another two …
In another two weeks it’ll be finished.
= In two more weeks it’ll be finished.
He sent yet another fax informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would be fired.
yet / still one more / another / bigger …
This led to yet another angry argument.
yet / still one more example
He’s given us yet / still more work to do.
Inflation had risen to a yet / still higher level.
equal | be / stand head and shoulders above sb. | be much better than others
- He equaled the world record.
- Nobody equals him in strength.
- Nobody matches him in strength.
- In English she has no equal in her class.
A is equal to B.
as good as:almost 几乎……;和……差不多
The injured man is as good as dead.
Everything is as good as settled.
As far as I could see, it needed only a minor adjustment: a turn of a screw here, a little tightening up there, a drop of oil and it would be as good as new.
put sb/sth to shame
They have all been put to shame by a boy who, while playing truant, travelled 1,600 miles.
were extraordinarily similar
were particularly alike
had a lot in common
had considerable commonalities
—well, I saw the ad on the back of the bus stop today.
looking in the mirror, you can’t deny that there is a certain commonality in our visages.
—I guess we do look a little bit alike.
However, as the evidence began to accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate, for the descriptions given by people who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.
- The first people (who were) like ourselves lived so long ago that their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.
- The first people (who were) similar to ourselves …
- The first people who resembled / resembling ourselves …
- The first people who bore / bearing a resemblance to ourselves …
- Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
unlike
Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do least harm to us and our belongings.
a sort of = a kind of …
有些像……的; ……般的
In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero.
Since its discovery, it has become a sort of potholers’ Everest.
They were visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them.
An atom is a kind of solar system.
Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.
prefer A to B
I prefer mutton to beef.
prefer doing to doing
I prefer standing to sitting down.
(A) She doesn’t like to go shopping.
(B) She went shopping yesterday.
(C) She doesn’t live near the shops.
(D) She prefers shopping to studying.
W: Didn’t Marian go shopping with you yesterday?
M: Even if she hadn’t had a lot of studying, she would have preferred staying home to going shopping.
Q: What does the man imply about Marian?
Answer: (A) She doesn’t like to go shopping.
prefer A rather than B
I prefer mutton rather than beef.
prefer to do rather than do
I prefer to stand rather than sit down.
would rather do than do
I’d rather stand than sit down.
… people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters. (A) She wants the man to be at the station when she arrives.
(B) She isn’t sure which train she’ll be on.
(C) The train will be an hour late.
(D) She’ll leave home at 6:30.
M: It says here the next train is due in at 6:30.
W: I know, but I don’t know whether I can make that one. I’d rather call you from the station than have you waiting around for an hour.
Q: What does the woman imply?
Answer: (B) She isn’t sure which train she’ll be on.
It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.
more than + n. 超过， 不止， 不仅仅。。。
- He’s more than a coach, he’s a friend.
- Peace is more than the absence of war.
- These days, it is differences in national regulations, far more than tariffs, that put sand in the wheels of trade between rich countries.
- The open sea was deep and mysterious and anyone who gave more than a passing thought to the bottom confines of the oceans probably assumed that the sea bed was flat.
more than just a pretty face: being attractive but also having other good qualities, such as intelligence
more than a passing acquaintance with : a lot of knowledge about
He has more than a passing acquaintance with wine.
more than anything: very much : very badly
I wanted to believe her more than anything, but I couldn’t.
More than anything (in the world), I’d like to visit Paris again.
more than a match for: easily able to defeat
He was more than a match for his opponent.
more than + adj. = to a great degree : very : extremely (used before an adjective conveying a positive feeling or attitude).
- It’s more than likely that this problem will occur again.
- more likely than not : probably
- The company has more than enough cash available to refinance the loan.
more than A can/could … = beyond
- When my old friend Brian urged me to accept a cigarette, it was more than I could bear.
- The story is more than I can believe.
- The beauty of the West Lake is more than words can describe.
- more than someone can shake a stick at = more than anyone can count : a lot
- more than meets the eye
客观趋向, 往往/常常， 多数情况
tend to do …
have a tendency to do
generally, mostly, on the whole, for the most part
in general, in most cases, by and large, most of the time
- People tend to need less sleep when they get older.
- Women tend to live longer than men.
- The drug is effective but has a tendency to cause headaches.
something like | something / somewhere in the region of + number or n. = about
some + number
kind of = sort of = somewhat
adv. 有点……
I’m kind of hungry.
He felt sort of embarrassed.