Сlive is not remotely interested in motor racing.

[Nonverbis]

Upstream Proficiency by Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley, Workbook.




Answer key:




What troubles me is B.

Сlive is not remotely interested in motor racing.

In meaning "remotely" is negation here. And "not" is negation as well.
Double negation equals positive meaning.

This meants that Clive is very interested rather than remotely.

I suppose therer two possible variants here:
1. "Even" is missing:
Clive is not even remotely interested in motor-racing.
Weak idea because the logic of this exercise implies choosilng two suitable words.

2. An error in the answer key.

Well, there is also a strong possibility that my reasoning is absolutely wrong.

Could you help me cope with this problem?

 

[emsr2d2]

The answer key is correct. Those were the two answers I picked before looking at the rest of your post. In this context, "not remotely" means "not at all".

I won't be watching England v Wales tonight. I'm not remotely interested in football.
You can try asking my sister out on a date but I can assure she's not remotely interested in you.
We bought our cousin a microscope for his birthday but it turns out he's not remotely interested in science. That was a waste of money!

 

[SoothingDave]

It's not a double negative.

Understand it as "not even remotely interested." Someone who is remotely interested still has some, small amount of interest. Being not that means there is absolutely no interest. None.

 

[Barque]

In meaning "remotely" is negation here.

It just means "even a little". So not remotely equates to not even a little.

 

[Tdol]

Double negation equals positive meaning.

Most of the time, this is not the case. Pedants have argued this for decades and been widely ignored by people who use double negatives.