1. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back.

一些機構終于松了一口氣，但是其他一些機構——包括教堂，倡導生命權利的團體和澳大利亞醫學協會——都尖銳地抨擊這個法案，指責法案的通過過于匆忙。但是似乎大勢已定，不可逆轉了。

2. In Australia - where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their part - other states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia.

在澳大利亞，人口老齡化、延長壽命的技術、變化著的社會態度都在發揮作用。其他的州也會考慮制定類似的有關安樂死的法律。

3. There are, of course, exceptions. Small--minded officials, rude waiters, and ill mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.

當然，例外是存在的。在美國，心胸狹窄的官員、粗魯的餐廳服務員、沒有禮貌的出租車司機也并不少見。然而這樣的情況太多了，值得人們探討這些問題。

4. We live in a society in which the medicinal and social use of substances (drugs) is pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves.

我們生活在一種藥品(藥物)的醫學用途和社會用途都很廣泛的社會里： 用一片阿司匹林止頭痛，用葡萄酒來社交，早上喝咖啡提神，抽一支煙來定神。

5. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued.

對藥品的依賴性首先表現為不斷增長的耐藥量，要想得到同樣的效果所需要的藥品劑量越來越大，然后表現為停止用藥后，出現令人不適的停藥癥狀。

6. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?"

上星期參議員羅博特多爾質問時代華納公司的高級管理人員們："難道這就是你們想要成就的事業?你們已經出賣了自己的靈魂，但是難道你們還非要腐化我們的國家，威脅到我們的孩子們嗎?"

7. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be..."

"對任何一個民主社會的考驗，"他在《華爾街雜志》的一個專欄文章中寫到，"不在于它能夠多有效地控制各種意見的表達，而在于這個社會是否能給予盡可能廣泛的思想自由和表達自由，無論有時這種結果是多么容易引起爭議，多么令人不快…"

8. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders' meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society's ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students.

在上個月的股東大會上關于搖滾歌詞的討論中，萊文宣稱說："音樂不是社會問題的根源"，他甚至還用他的兒子作為例子。他的兒子是紐約州布朗克斯的教師，用說唱音樂與學生們進行溝通。

9. Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" of "a touch on the brakes" , makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth.

有很多用于描述貨幣政策的詞匯，例如"觸動經濟剎車"以"操縱經濟軟著陸"，這樣貨幣政策聽起來像是一門精確的科學。沒有什么比這樣描述貨幣政策更遠離事實的了。

10. Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since, conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America's, have little productive slack.

經濟學家們對英美兩國良好的通貨膨脹數據尤其感到驚訝，因為傳統的計算方法顯示兩國的經濟，特別是美國的經濟，幾乎沒有生產淡季。