I had just gotten over a serious illness that I won't bother to talk about except that it had something to do with the miserably weary splitting up and my feeling that everything was dead.

我刚熬过一场重大疾病，具体就不说了,只是这与我和妻子不幸的分离有些关系,我感觉万物都没有了生机。

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

I mean it wasn't terrible, it was sort of a precursor to what people are trying to do It flopped miserably, but I'm glad we did it.

其实也没那么糟糕，它就是个先兆，预示了现今人们,很悲惨它失败了，不过我很高兴我们做过。

斯坦福公开课 - 微软CEO-Steve.Ballmer谈科技的未来课程节选

And the commune, despite the fact that there's lots of-- you could hear in the distance the guns sometimes getting closer and closer, and attempts to break out fail miserably, they pass all sorts of impressive social legislation.

在公社里,尽管有很多...,公社不远处不时能听到枪声,不断逼近,而突围的尝试又屡次惨败,他们还通过了各式法律法规

耶鲁公开课 - 1871年后的法国课程节选