谈“cannot (never)… too…”结构用法及延伸

请看下面这道高考题：

—I was riding along the street and all of a sudden, a car cut in and knocked me down.

—You can never be ______ careful in the street.（北京高考题）

A. much B. very

C. so D. too

分析：该题考查的是“cannot (never)… too…”结构的用法。答案为D，句意为“在街上骑车，你越小心越好”。

“cannot … too…”结构表示“无论怎么……也不算过分”、“越……越好”、“要格外……”的意思。表示此意的结构有下列几种：

1. cannot +动词+too +形容词或副词。如：

We cannot be too careful in doing experiments.

我们做实验时越仔细越好。

I cannot thank you too much.

我怎么感谢你也不过分。

2. cannot + over动词/cannot + be +over-形容词。如：

We cannot overemphasize the importance of learning a foreign language.

我们无论怎么强调学习外语的重要性也不过分。

We cannot be over- vigilant.

我们应该特别警惕。

3. cannot+动词+too much （much enough）。如：

We cannot praise him too much. 《汉英大词典》

我们无论怎样表扬他也不算过分。

He is very reliable. You can’t trust him too much (much enough).

他很可靠，他是你最值得信赖的人。

但是，具体问题也要具体分析，不能一概而论：

He can't spend too much time arguing with you about this matter. He has other fish to fry.

他不能用太多的时间和你辩论这件事，他另有要事。

《汉英大词典》

因为，这个too much不是修饰动词spend，而是修饰 time。

4. cannot +动词+形容词或副词+enough。

在“cannot… too…”结构中的too可换成enough; not也可换成never, hardly，no等否定词。如：

I couldn’t get home fast enough.

我恨不得马上回家。（我能越早回家越好。）

You can never be strong enough.

强壮的身体有百利无一害。

Drinking water can never be pure enough.

饮用水越纯越好。

No man can have too many friends.

朋友越多越好。

5. cannot +动词+too many +可数名词（或too much +不可数名词）。如：

I think it right that one cannot learn too much knowledge.

我认为一个人的知识越多越好。

It is wrong to think that one cannot bear too many children.

认为一个人生的孩子愈多愈好是错误的。