[译] 我国从前几乎没有造船工业。
[误] In our country, there was barely any shipbuilding industry.

[正] In our country, there was hardly any shipbuilding industry.
[注] 副词 barely, hardly 作"几乎没有"解, 是同义词, 如: They had barely time to catch the train. 他们差一点没赶上火车。They hardly had time to catch the train. 但 hardly (=scarcely) 之后可以跟 any, anybody, anything, anywhere, ever 与 at all (=almost no 与 almost not), 而 barely 却不能, 如: She hardly ever sees that eminent scholar. 她几乎没见过那位著名的学者。/He is hardly at all interested in chemistry. 他对化学几乎毫无兴趣。/Hardly anybody came to the meeting. 几乎无人来开会。