It began with this news: READER: "The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessities under their late want of Corn, & for His giving them now a prospect of a very Comfortable Harvest.

VOA: special.2009.04.20

It was astonishing enough that somebody-- but perhaps understandable--that somebody in that situation would decide to take a class on death and then have himself, submit himself, to my getting up here week after week, there's no prospect for an afterlife, it's a good thing that we're all going to die.

某个，某个处于那种情况下的人-,会决定上一门有关死亡的课,然后一周接一周地让自己来上我的课,忍受我讲的没有来世，我们所有人都会死是好事，这是足够让人震惊的，但也许也是可以理解的。

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选

I like Thai food just fine, but the prospect of having Thai food day after day after day-- for thousands, millions, billions, trillions of years no longer seems an attractive proposal.

我也喜欢泰国菜，但是想到日复一日-,吃上几十亿年,看似不再是美妙提议。

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选

The president criticized the creditors, who he said held out for the prospect of an unjustified, taxpayer-funded bailout.

VOA: standard.2009.04.30

The list of reasons why teams coming from abroad were not thrilled at the prospect of several weeks in Nigeria for this year's Under-17 World Cup is long.

VOA: standard.2009.11.05