Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely bigger than himself, and who had need of a friend.

很久以前，有一个小王子，他所在的那个星球没比他自己大多少，他很需要一个朋友。

It's a slightly different structure to the one with 'no sooner', because with no sooner we use 'than' – after a comparative, sooner – with 'hardly' and 'scarcely' we say “when”: “hardly had I arrived when the train came in”.

这里的句型跟no sooner than（一… … 就）那个句型稍微有点不同，因为我们把no sooner跟than放在一起用（放在soon的比较级sooner后面），但是在hardly和scarcely后面, 我们用when：hardly had I arrived when the train came in（hardly/scarcely...when：一… … 就）。

Gatsby indicated a gorgeous, scarcely human orchid of a woman who sat in state under a white plum tree.

盖茨比指出一位如花似玉的美人，端庄地坐在一棵白梅树下。

Today's referees lack such deterrents—and professional sportsmen can transgress in a way that their classical predecessors could scarcely have imagined.

今天的裁判就没有这样的威慑力了，而职业运动员则能够采用先辈们几乎无法的方式来违法乱纪。

Local residents were scarcely able to cope.

当地居民几乎无法应付。

But a foreign visitor who comes to an American home can scarcely find any variations.

但是，一个到美家庭做客的外人几乎看不出其中的任何差别。

Poor little boy! he was so cold and tired that he could scarcely speak.

可怜的小男孩！又冷又累的他几乎说不出话来了。

" I think Dumbledore might have hoped I would be able to exercise some control over my best friends, " said Lupin, " I need scarcely say that I failed dismally."

“我，邓布利多大概希望我能对我的好朋友进行一些管束。”卢平说，“不用说，我很悲惨地失败了。”

These gallant words which seem so novel to those that speak them were said in accents scarcely changed a hundred times before.

说这些豪言壮语的人可能还觉得他们在说一些前人未曾道过的真理，但是实际上连他们说话的腔调前人也已经用过一百次，而且丝毫也没有变化。

He went his way, his farewell being scarcely so courteous as his greeting.

他上路走了，告别时的态度不像来时那样客气了。

Because you would know being a good utilitarian that taking some, a small amount, he'd scarcely going to notice it, but it will make a huge improvement in the lives and in the welfare of those at the bottom.

因为作为一个优秀的功利主义者，你知道收走一些对他们来说根本无关痛痒的钱，却能大大改善社会底层那些人的生活，增加他们的福利。

Through the trees rises the red moon, and the stars are scarcely seen.

一轮红月正从树林后面徐徐升起，天上几乎见不到星星。

The buildings over there are scarcely visible in the dusk.

傍晚时，那里的建筑物几乎看不见。

But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.

然而，琼西却遭到了打击；她躺在一张油漆过的铁床上，一动也不动，凝望着小小的荷兰式玻璃窗外对面砖房的空墙。

Witness the presidential campaign of Andrew Yang, in which his ethnicity has scarcely been mentioned.

看看杨安泽的总统竞选吧，他的种族背景几乎无人提及。

That said, in 1861, the quintessential middle-class writer and sometime plagiarist, Isabella Beeton, declared that " a Christmas dinner, with the middle classes of this empire, would scarcely be a Christmas dinner without its turkey."

也就是说，在1861年，就像典型的中产阶级作家兼剽窃者伊莎贝拉·比顿宣称的那样，“一顿有这个帝中产阶级参加的圣诞晚餐，如果没有火鸡，就算不上圣诞晚餐。”

She saw there was not much break left in the basket, and the girl was thankful the Scarecrow did not have to eat anything, for there was scarcely enough for herself and Toto for the day.

她看见篮子里的面包所剩不多了，这个女孩于是很庆幸稻草人不用吃任何东西。因为只够自己和托托吃一天的了。

You can scarcely tell where one ends and another begins.

你几乎很难辨别哪里开始, 哪里结束.

But Jonesboro was scarcely more than ten miles below Rough and Ready.

可是琼斯博罗在拉甫雷迪南边最多不过十英里呢。

At times Vashti could scarcely see across her room. The air, too, was foul.

有时瓦西蒂难得看到她房间周围各处。空气也是污浊的。