先看下面一道高考题:

　　Rather than ________ on a crowded bus, he always prefers ________ a bicycle.

　　A. ride; ride B. riding; ride

　　C. ride; to ride D. to ride; riding

　　熟练掌握与rather搭配的短语用法,是解这道题的突破口。为了增加试题的难度与答案的隐蔽性,题干采用了倒装句这一语法现象。一旦掌握了prefer to do sth. rather than do sth. 这一句型结构,便很容易选出C为正确答案。

　　rather的用法可从以下几点掌握:

　　一、rather作副词,意为"宁愿;宁可"。作此意解的rather常和would / had连用,构成固定短语。would / had rather…than译为"宁愿……而不愿" ,应该特别注意此短语的否定构成及其后接的动词形式。如:

　　He would rather have the small one than the large one. 他宁愿要一个小的,而不要大的。

　　I'd rather take the slowest train than go there by air. 我宁愿坐最慢的火车,也不乘飞机去那里。

　　I would rather not tell you the secret right now. 我现在不愿把那个秘密告诉你。

　　would / had rather 后接从句时,从句中的谓语动词用虚拟语气。如:

　　I would / had rather you posted the letter right away, 我倒希望你把这封信立即发出。

　　I would / had rather that she had stayed at home. 她那时要是留在家里就好了。

　　二、rather作副词用时,意为"更确切地"。 此用法的rather常用在or rather这一短语中,表示想要纠正已经说过的话,或欲使已说过的话更确切。如:

　　He worked till late last night, or rather, early in the morning. 他一直工作到深夜,或者更确切地说,到今天凌晨。

　　The building is like a palace, or rather a temple. 这幢建筑物像一座宫殿,或者更确切地说像一座寺庙。

　　三、rather作副词用时, 还可作"相当;颇;有点儿"解。如:

　　You've done rather well.你做得相当好。

　　The way he is living is rather strange to me. 他的生活方式我觉得很怪。

　　rather, fairly, quite, pretty的区别:

　　1. 从程度上说, fairly是最轻的一个;quite比fairly 语气稍强;rather 在程度上比quite更重一些;pretty 和rather 差不多,但大多数情况下用于非正式文体。如:

　　They were getting along fairly well with each other. 他们相处还不错。

　　He was quite polite, but he wasn't ready to help me. 他相当有礼貌,但他并不愿意帮助我。

　　There's something rather strange about the way he talks to you. 他跟你说话的样子真有点怪。

　　Twenty-five is pretty old to take up ballet dancing.二十五岁才学跳芭蕾,年纪就太大了。

　　2. rather 和quite可放在不定冠词前,也可放在不定冠词之后,还可以和动词连用,而fairly 和pretty没有这些用法。如:

　　That is quite / rather a surprising result. =That is a quite / rather surprising result. 那是一个相当惊人的结果。

　　I rather / quite like to go for a walk after supper. 我颇喜欢在晚饭后出去散步。

　　3. 只有rather可以修饰比较级,还可和too连用。如:

　　This computer is rather more expensive than that one.这部电脑比那部昂贵一些。

　　This book is rather too difficult for the beginners.这部书对初学者来说太难了。

　　四、rather than 的用法。

　　rather 不仅是一个表示程度的副词,还能用来表示选择,意为"而非;(与其……)倒不如"。rather than 经常用在"平行结构"里,即连接两个对等成分。

　　I'd prefer to go in August rather than July. 我愿八月去,不愿七月去。

　　I'd call her hair chestnut rather than brown. 我宁愿说她的头发是栗色,而不是棕色。

　　We ought to invest in new machines rather than buildings. 我们应该在新的机器上而不是在房屋上投资。

　　I decided to write rather than telephone. 我决定写信而不打电话。

　　Rather than get money in such a dishonest way, he would beg in the streets. 他宁愿在街上乞讨,也不愿以这种不正当的手段挣钱。

　　I always prefer starting early, rather than leaving everything to the last minute. 我总是愿意早开始而不愿意把所有事情都留到最后。

　　(文/杨时务；英语辅导报高三版2003-2004学年第3期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)