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

The pig is eager to eat" means the state of affairs that we're talking about is when the pig does the eating.

猪想吃东西",意思是我们在说猪吃东西,这个事件的状态

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

Defamiliarization" means precisely pulling you up short or taking you by surprise, making you feel that what you thought was going to be the case or what you thought was the state of affairs is not the state of affairs.

陌生化“就是指让你“突然停下“,或者说，令你惊讶，猝不及防地，让你感觉,我以为会发生的,或者你原本以为事情处于这个状态，而事实却并非如此。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选