【明報專訊】Bill is sweating heavily. What has he done?

Dr Panda: Hey Bill, congratulations! I heard your team won the football game.

Bill: Thank you. Although the first half was (1) rather uneventful, it turned out to be (2) quite exciting in the second half. Our captain scored the first goal near the end of the first half and we picked up the momentum there.

Dr Panda: I see! Did you join in the attack?

Bill: I tried to and I (3) almost managed to mount an attack, but then someone got the ball from me. He ran fast and I couldn't catch up with him.

Dr Panda: What a pity... but I guess you worked well with you team?

Bill: Indeed. My friend managed to score a penalty kick and we grasped the chance well. We were (4) extremely happy when we won the game.

We use various adverbs of degree to talk about the intensity of an action or a state of an event. Here are some of the adverbs of degree:

(arrow from weak to strong)

pretty → fairly → rather → quite → very → extremely → absolutely

e.g. ˙This song is extremely beautiful.

˙He is very angry with his son's misbehaviour.

˙The weather is too cold for swimming.

■Now you try

Select the suitable adverb of degree in the following sentences:

1. Tammy isn't just a good singer. She's ( absolutely / too ) fantastic.

2. Vicky is ( quite / completely ) crazy. You can never guess what she's going to do.

3. This work requires a ( highly / enough ) skilled technician to complete.

4. Hong Kong people are ( fairly / very ) stressed. There are many Hong Kong people with mental illnesses.

(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

uneventful (adj) 平靜的

turn out (v phr) 發展成(某結果)

momentum (n) 勢頭

penalty kick (n) 罰球(12碼)

[Smarties' Power English 第245期]