1] 基本知识

[1] fairly和 rather都有“相当”，“十分”等意思，但是，fairly常常是褒义的，也接褒义的词，而rather则相反。

[2] rather可以构成 rather a＋形容词＋名词的结构，而fairly永远都是 放在它修饰的词的前面，比如：

It is rather a bad machine

那是一台相当糟糕的机器

It was a fairly a good machine

那是一台相当好的机器

从这个角度出发，rather的用法跟such [这样/这样的]相似，fairly跟very相似，也就是跟大多数的副词相似。

It is rather/such a bad machine

It was a fairly good machine

[3] 一些中性的词，无所谓好坏，就要根据说话者的心情和口气

比如：long, short, big, small, thin, thick 等

The soup is fairly hot

那汤很热啊 〔潜台词：我喜欢啊〕

The soup is rather hot

那汤很热啊 〔潜台词：我不喜欢啊〕

2] 更多的例子

Mary is fairly dilligent

玛丽现在相当勤奋

But she was rather lazy some years ago

但是，几年前她非常懒

She lived in rather a poor family

她生活在一个相当贫穷的家庭

But she had a fairly good father

但是她有一个相当好的父亲

He helped her to get a fairly great habit

他帮助她得到一种相当好的习惯

She then worked fairly well

然后，他工作相当好

She plants apple trees and sells fairly big apples

他种植苹果树并且销售很大的苹果

But she can’t carry the apple-boxes which are rather big.

但是，她不能搬动那些苹果箱，它们大得要命。

So the buyers must carry them

所以，购买者就要自己搬了。