1.      The prayers and the meals, the lessons and the walks, which were arranged with a conventional regularity here, oppressed her almost beyond endurance.

在這裡，按照傳統規律安排的祈禱、三餐、功課、步行，壓得她喘不過氣來。

2.      She is as thirsty as thirsty can be.

她渴得不得了。

3.      One might as well expect the leopard to change its spots as expect him to change his hot temper.

要他改變壞脾氣就像奢望美洲豹改變斑點一樣，不可能！／／江山易改，壞脾氣難移啊！／／狗改不了吃屎，期待他改掉壞脾氣是不可能的／／想要他改變火爆的脾氣簡直比登天還難。

4.      You have made two blunders in as many minutes.

才短短兩分鐘，你就犯了兩個大錯（出了兩個紕漏）。（意思是：你犯錯的次數也太頻繁了吧！）

5.      You got a prejudice all right—against a race that』s black.  That』s why I called you white racist that night.  But when you deal with a black person, I don』t feel any bad vices.

你確實有偏見──你歧視黑種民族，所以我那天晚上才會罵你是白人種族主義者；不過，你和個別黑人互動時，我倒感覺不到你有任何惡意。

6.      The V sign itself is a challenge, for the famous Chruchillian invention that used to mean allied victory is no longer valid.  Instead of having to do with war, V today is made to mean peace.

V字手勢很難定義，因為邱吉爾這個眾所周知的發明在過去說的是盟軍勝利，可是現在已經變了，V不再和戰爭相關，反而是和平的標記。

7.      What is feared as failure in American society, is, above all, aloneness.  And aloneness is terrifying because it means that there is no one, no approved cause to submit to.

在美國社會裡，最可怕的人生挫敗就是孤立，因為那就表示你沒有任何人或公認的理念可以擁抱。

8.      Sonar is a term that refers both to the application of underwater sound to the detection and location of objects in the sea and to the apparatus used in such application.

「聲納」有雙重意義，一方面指的是運用水面下的聲音來探測並定位海中物體，另方面則是指探測時所用的儀器。

9.      All the facts concerning Mr. Powers』 family background, his upbringing, his personal experience, his social connections and his occupation have been subjected to intense study.

鮑爾先生的家庭背景、成長過程、個人經驗、社交人脈、工作職業都已經被嚴密的調查過。

10.  Rostow was about to become, for lack of anyone or anything better, a very influential intellectual—the wrong man at the wrong place with the wrong idea.

由於當時缺乏有才之士，儘管人頭不對、場域錯置、理念偏差，羅斯透後來竟然變成一個很有影響力的知識份子。

11.  His appointment to the position is still in doubt.

他的任命還有變數。

12.  The statement declared that the international economic order must be changed or the gap between developed and developing countries would continue to widen.

那份聲明宣告，國際經濟秩序必須改變，否則已開發和開發中國家之間的差距將持續加大。

The Year 2050

As the year 2050 approaches, total world population is nearing the 12 billion mark and continuing to rise.  The population of Africa has trebled to approximately 2 billion people.  Vastly greater numbers of the poor are working ever more marginal lands.  The cutting of forests and the erosion of hillsides have accelerated, resulting in scarcity of food and fuel.  Rivers, dams and irrigation systems are silting up, much of the best farm land has become saline or water-logged, and lowland areas are subject to increasingly frequent and disastrous floods.  Millions have migrated to urban slums, where poverty, overcrowding, and poor sanitation make life almost unbearable and where the chief form of entertainment involves sophisticated communications technologies constantly parading the images of wealth before the realities of poverty.  Traditional community structures and values have long since broken down.  And a significant proportion of the desperate have turned to crime, or are seeking relief in alcohol and drugs.

時至2050年，全球總人數邁向120億並且持續攀升，非洲的人口總數呈三倍成長，已經接近20億。急劇增加的貧窮人口擴散到越來越偏遠的地區耕作，砍伐森林、水土流失的腳步加快，造成嚴重的糧食匱乏，能源短缺。河川、水壩、灌溉系統淤塞，良田變成鹽田或澇田，低窪地區越來越多嚴重的水患。數以百萬計的人口蜂擁到都會的貧民窟中，終日面對幾乎無法忍受的貧窮、擁擠、和惡劣的衛生條件，然而同時，她們在困頓的現實中最主要的娛樂，卻是在當代精密傳訊科技中不斷炫耀的富裕圖像。傳統社區結構和價值觀早已解體，許多走投無路的人於是鋌而走險或者在酒精和毒品中尋求慰藉。