The closure of petrol stations in country areas would be little short of disastrous for people who live in villages.

关闭农村地区的加油站对生活在乡下的人来说简直就是一种灾难。

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"You have to be more patient than anything you have heard or read about," Dr. Raglin said. "People are indoctrinated with what they can achieve in a short time with a little bit of work."

Raglin说，“你必须比你听到或读到的任何事都要更有耐心，人们被灌输了做少许工作、在短时间之内能完成什么的思想。”

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To live in a strange house with strange people is little short of torture, while the height of bliss is to receive the kind looks of women, and never to be slighted by them.

和一群陌生人同住在陌生的房子中丝毫不亚于受到百般折磨，而最大的欣慰也不过是被其中的女人投以慈爱的目光而非受到她们的诃责。

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Frankly it would be little short of astonishing if even Mr Hester, with his background in investment banking, understood everything that RBS gets up to around the world.

BBC: RBS chairman gives up ?1.4m shares reward

So it is unsurprising that much of the media - and many of you in the comments you leave here and on Twitter - say that it would be little short of a scandal if the bank's senior executives were to receive big pay awards when bonuses and longer-term performance rewards are decided early next month.

BBC: What is ��appropriate�� pay at RBS?

There seems to be a prevailing view that it is little short of scandalous that Goldman Sachs in the UK may defer the handing over of shares to its executives, so that they would be liable to next year's income tax rate of 45% on the payments rather than this year's 50% (see this morning's FT for more on this).

BBC: The going rate for Goldman