Comparison

1 Complete the sentences with the comparative or superlative form of the adverb in brackets.

(Hoàn thành câu với dạng so sánh hơn hoặc so sánh nhất của trạng từ trong ngoặc.)

1 Who works _________ (hard) out of all the students in the class?

2 There isn't much traffic today, so we should arrive _________ (soon) than we expected.

3 If you ate _________ (slowly), you'd enjoy your food more!

4 Erik did _________ (badly) than I did in this month's test.

5 My grandparents' house isn't far, but my aunt lives _________ (near) of all my family.

2 What are the rules for forming a) short and long comparative adjectives and b) short and long superlative adjectives?

(Các quy tắc để hình thành a) tính từ so sánh hơn ngắn và dài  và b) tính từ so sánh nhất ngắn và dài là gì?)

3 Underline the correct words to complete the text.

(Gạch dưới những từ đúng để hoàn thành đoạn văn.)

If you were Costis Mitsotakis, you might consider yourself the world's unluckiest man. Costis was the only person in his village not to buy a ticket in the Spanish Christmas lottery. When they won first prize, everyone except Costis received a share of the total prize of nearly £600 million, so he was the ¹ poorest / most poor person in his village that Christmas. But there are other contenders. For example, US park ranger Roy Sullivan was even unluckier ² as / than Costis. He was struck by lightning seven times in his lifetime - the world record! However, that's nothing like as bad as Britain's John Lyne, who is perhaps the ³ most / more unfortunate of all. At eighteen months old, he accidentally drank disinfectant and had to have his stomach pumped. And the older he got, the worse things became. He's been run over, nearly drowned and had a car crash. John's life has been more accident-filled than you would think possible. But he doesn't think he's unlucky. As far as he's concerned, most of his accidents could have ended a lot more seriously, so he may actually be the world's luckiest man!

LEARN THIS! Comparative structures

1 We usually use more / less and (the) most/(the) least to form comparative and superlative adverbs. However, we add -er and (the) -est to some adverbs.

You should drive more carefully.

He used to drive faster. Now I drive the fastest.

2 We can use the following structure to show that two things change together because they are connected:

The longer he lives, the crazier things get.

The harder I tried, the better my life became.

3 Comparatives often have a clause after than:

She's more upbeat than she used to be.

He's less unhappy than I imagined.

John swam further than he intended to.

Tạm dịch

LEARN THIS! Cấu trúc so sánh

1 Chúng ta thường sử dụng more/less và (the)most/(the) less để tạo thành các trạng từ so sánh và so sánh nhất. Tuy nhiên, chúng ta thêm -er và (the) -est vào một số trạng từ.

Bạn nên lái xe cẩn thận hơn.

Anh ấy thường lái xe nhanh hơn. Bây giờ tôi lái xe nhanh nhất.

2 Chúng ta có thể sử dụng cấu trúc sau để chỉ ra rằng hai sự vật thay đổi cùng nhau vì chúng được kết nối với nhau:

Càng sống lâu, mọi thứ càng trở nên điên rồ hơn.

Tôi càng cố gắng thì cuộc sống của tôi càng trở nên tốt đẹp hơn.

3 Dạng so sánh hơn thường có mệnh đề sau than:

Cô ấy lạc quan hơn trước.

Anh ấy ít bất hạnh hơn tôi tưởng tượng.

John đã bơi xa hơn dự định.

4 Read the Learn this! box. Then find examples of rules (1-3) in the text in exercise 3.

(Đọc phần Learn this! Sau đó tìm ví dụ về các quy tắc (1-3) trong văn bản ở bài tập 3.)

5 Complete the sentences with a comparative, using the words in brackets.

(Hoàn thành câu bằng dạng so sánh hơn, sử dụng từ trong ngoặc.)

1 His journey was _______ than he'd expected. (dangerous)

2 The more you worry, _______ the test will seem. (scary)

3 The _______ it got, the _______ his parents grew. (late/concerned)

4 Trains usually go _______ but the bus costs less. (quick)

5 Lena's _______ than she used to be- nowadays, she always looks on the dark side. (optimistic)

2.1  Comparative structures

(Cấu trúc so sánh)

• Comparative and superlative adjectives are formed with -er and -est or more / most and less / least, unless they are irregular:

• Comparative and superlative adverbs are usually formed with more and most, unless they are irregular.

• A few comparative and superlative adverbs are formed with -er and -est, like adjectives: early, fast, hard, late, near, soon.

I arrived a lot later than I realised.

Who gets up the earliest in your family?

• Some determines also have comparative and superlative forms.

few   fewer   fewest

little   less   least

much / many   more   most

Tạm dịch

• Tính từ so sánh và so sánh nhất được hình thành với -er và -est hoặc more/most và less/ít nhất, trừ khi chúng bất quy tắc:

• Các trạng từ so sánh hơn và so sánh nhất thường được hình thành với more và most, trừ khi chúng có bất quy tắc.

• Một số trạng từ so sánh và so sánh nhất được hình thành với -er và -est, giống như tính từ: sớm, nhanh, chăm, muộn, gần, sớm.

Tôi đến muộn hơn rất nhiều so với tôi nhận ra.

Ai dậy sớm nhất trong gia đình bạn?

• Một số từ xác định còn có dạng so sánh và so sánh nhất.

few   fewer   fewest (ít)

little   less   least (ít)

much / many   more   most (nhiều)

2 Match the two halves of the comparative sentences.

(Nối hai nửa của câu so sánh.)

3 Write the words in the correct order to make comparative sentences.

(Viết các từ theo đúng thứ tự để tạo thành câu so sánh hơn.)

1 that / one / than / is / This / expensive / cap / more / slightly

__________________________________________

2 do / far / than / My / scarier / I / finds / brother /spiders

__________________________________________

3 lot / cycling / energetic / Walking / is / than / less / a

__________________________________________

4 little / planned / Her / than / a / she'd / shopping / took / longer

__________________________________________

5 news / you / surprised / I / the / less / than / was / no / at

__________________________________________

5 Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first.

(Hoàn thành câu thứ hai sao cho có nghĩa giống câu thứ nhất.)

1 That was the worst holiday I'd ever had!

I'd never had a holiday as ________________________ one!

2 If we walk fast, we'll get there quicker.

The ________________________, we’ll get there.

3 Fast food used to be less healthy.

Fast food is ________________________ used to be.

4 My jacket is nothing like as comfortable as yours.

Your jacket is far ________________________ mine.

5 Your brother is the same age as me.

Your brother is just ________________________ I am.

6 Indian food is far spicier than English food.

English food is nothing ________________________ Indian food. 

Choose a suitable word or phrase (marked A, B, C or D) to fill in each blank.

His mother is _____ mine, but he is younger than me.