A senior U.S.official acknowledges the clock is ticking on showing the effectiveness of America's multibillion dollar attempt to rebuild Afghanistan.

VOA: standard.2009.09.04

We get used to the ticking of a clock or to noise of traffic but it's actually a very important form of learning because imagine life without it.

我们习惯了钟的滴答声和车来人往的噪音,但这却是一种非常重要的学习形式,我们不妨试想一下无法进行习惯化的情形。

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

Imagine life where you never got used to anything, where suddenly somebody steps forward and waves their hand " and you'd go, "Woah," " and then they wave their hand again and you'd go, "Whoah," -- and you keep-- And there's the loud ticking of a clock and you say, " "Hmmm."

试想你在生活中无法习惯任何事情，要有人突然跳出来向你挥手,你肯定吓得惊叫，“哇“,然后他们再跟你挥手，你又惊叫“哇“,然后你就不停地-,或是在你听到响亮的钟摆声后很惊奇地说，“嗯“

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

They said, as for the speedy trial, the clock starts ticking from Padilla's indictment in 2005, not his detention three years earlier.

NPR: Government Rejects Suspected Terrorist's Speedy Trial Claim

"I'm not saying that the human race is imminently doomed but it's also clear that the clock is ticking and time is running out in order to take action to avoid the escalating damages which could make the whole process unstoppable, " he told CNN.

CNN: Six degrees of devastation

"The filtering technology may mitigate Viacom's damages, but the clock mostly stopped ticking on new violations when this lawsuit began" in March, Boehm contends.

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