She has never been so lucky (again) as she was one day last May.

[diamondcutter]

She has never been so lucky as she was one day last May. She was walking home from school that day when she ran into a friend.

Source: The Grammar Book--An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, the second edition, Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman

I’d like to know if the adverb “again” should be added into the first sentence like this:

She has never been so lucky again as she was one day last May. According to the original sentence, she has been that lucky once. That was one day last May.

 

[5jj]

No. The present perfect, the so and the never tell us that this was a one-off peak of luck; such a peak has not been repeated.

 

[diamondcutter]

I see. But when translated into Chinese, we will add the word "again", otherwise it will sound odd.

 

[Rover_KE]

You can discuss that in the Other Languages forum.