It's a pretty state of affairs, in his view, when the most rigorous thinking that's being done about literature is being done in popular journals.

他认为，关于文学的严肃的思考大多,被发表在流行杂志上很不妥当。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

The Protestant Reformation, and especially the rising energies of Puritanism in the early seventeenth century, are beginning to do a lot to change this state of affairs.

新教宗教改革，尤其是活力不断上升的清教主义,在17世纪早期，为了改变这种状态开始做出许多努力。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选