1. No matter how fancy the school is, or how many computers there are, without a good teacher, learning is difficult and not at all interesting. (P2)

　　无论学校多么与众不同，有多少台电脑，如果没有优秀的教师，学习都将非常困难，毫无兴趣。

　　no matter what ( how, etc.) 不管什么(如何等)，引导让步状语从句。例如：

　　No matter what happened, he would not say a word. 不论发生了什么，他都不会说一句话。

　　He had to get the car fixed, no matter how much it cost.不管花费多高，他都必须得修车。

　　2. “It's my job to bring meaningful and interesting things for them to study, and then to‘get out of the way’ so to speak.”(P3)

　　我的工作就是将那些有意义的，生动有趣的东西交给学生，让他们去研究，然后，这么说吧，让开，让他们独立去做。

　　1) get out of the way 闪开，让开。例如：

　　A fire engine is coming; let's get out of the way. 救火车过来了，我们快让开。

　　2) so to speak /say = as it were

　　[作插入语] 可以这么说，打个比喻说 (用来引起一个比喻或夸张的说法)。例如：

　　The horse is, so to speak, a member of the farming family. 那匹马可以说是这户农家的一个成员。

　　3. When asked to explain what it is that he does to make his students so enthusiastic about school, he pauses and thinks deeply. “I think it comes down to respect...”(P3)

　　当被要求解释到底是他做了什么使他的学生对学业如此热情时，他停顿了一下，认真地思索了一会儿，说道：“我认为归根结底是尊重……”

　　come down to 可以归结为，实质上是；有时表示“落到这个地步”。例如：

　　It comes down to two choices. You can either improve yourself, or leave and never return. 归结起来有两条出路：你要么提高自己，要么离开别再回来。

　　I never thought she would come down to asking my advice about her affairs.我从没想到她竟会落得为自己的事要向我求教的地步。

　　4. Even though my classmates had been learning English for five years, many students still couldn't speak the language freely, though most of them could read and write pretty well. (P9)

　　即使我的(日本)同学们学英语已经五年了，他们许多人仍然不能自如地讲英语，尽管他们大多数读得和写得不错。

　　even though = even if 即使，尽管。例如：

　　Annie felt all this, even though she couldn't find phrase to express it. 安妮感觉到了这一切，尽管她找不到词语来表达。

　　5. It is also shown by how well you apply yourself even to subjects in which you have little interest, and how much you can achieve even when you don't like a teacher's style. ( P11)

　　(态度 )还表现为你对几乎不感兴趣的学科的专注如何以及即使你对某位老师的风格不欣赏时，你还能学到多少。

　　apply oneself to 专注于，致力于。例如：

　　If you apply yourself to the job in hand, you'll soon finish it.如果你专心于手头的工作，你很快就会做完。

　　It is difficult to apply oneself to a boring task. 致力于厌烦的工作是非常困难的。

　　(文/孙丽； 英语辅导报冀教高一版 04~05学年度第11期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)