Baseball teams, however, play 29 every day for six months.
答案：(B) almost
語意「棒球隊幾乎每天都要打球，長達六個月」，almost（幾乎）符合這種強調頻繁程度的語氣；hardly（幾乎不，語意相反）、somehow（不知怎麼地）、rarely（很少，語意相反）都不合。
hardly 常被當成 hard 的副詞，讀成「努力地」，或是只抓到「幾乎」兩個字，其實它是否定副詞，意思是「幾乎不」。這個誤會不解開，這題就會出現兩個看起來都對的選項。
這題鑑別度 61，是同篇最高，分開的是「有沒有先看選項彼此之間的關係」。四個選項裡 hardly 與 rarely 意思幾乎相同（都是「很少、幾乎不」）。四選一只能有一個答案，兩個同義的選項不可能同時對，所以它們必定同時錯——還沒回頭讀句子就能砍掉一半。這一招在字彙題非常好用，看到兩個同義選項先劃掉。剩下 almost 與 somehow，再回句子看：Baseball teams, however, play ___ every day for six months。前一句剛說足球一年只打不超過十四場，however 要求後面走反方向，也就是棒球的場次極多。almost every day（幾乎每天）正好把場次拉到最大。
hardly 是「幾乎不」，hardly ever 就是「幾乎從不」，方向與 however 的要求相反。rarely 同樣是「很少」，一樣走反方向。somehow 是「不知怎麼地、以某種方式」，用來表達說話的人講不清楚原因，跟頻率無關，放進 play somehow every day 語意不通。hardly 是否定副詞這件事，從位置上也看得出來——它跟 seldom 一樣放在一般動詞前面、be 動詞後面（97 年第 29 題的 was seldom visited 就是靠這個位置定案的）。
almost every day（幾乎每天）、almost all of（幾乎全部的）、hardly ever（幾乎從不）、hardly any（幾乎沒有）、hardly...when...（一……就）、rarely（很少、難得）。
Fans of professional baseball and football argue continually over which is America's favorite sport. Though the figures on attendance for each vary with every new season, certain 26 remain the same.
To begin with, football is a quicker, more physical sport, and football fans enjoy the emotional involvement they feel while watching. Baseball, on the other hand, seems more mental, like chess, and 27 those fans that prefer a quieter, more complicated game.
28 , professional football teams usually play no more than fourteen games a year. Baseball teams, however, play 29 every day for six months.
Finally, football fans seem to love the half-time activities, the marching bands, and the pretty cheerleaders. 30 , baseball fans are more content to concentrate on the game's finer details and spend the breaks between innings filling out their own private scorecards.