令人震惊的

Their behaviour was at times appalling; when little they would spend long stretches of each class on the floor behind the benches, playing with bits of mercury, pricking it with needles and pen nibs, watching it slip into the coarse splintery cracks of the dusty floorboards, and forcing it out again, marvelling at the way it shrugged the dirt off its rounded shoulders.

有时她们的举动简直令人感到震惊。年纪小时，在一节课的大段时间里，她们会蹲在凳子后面的地板上，弄着几滴水银玩，用针和笔尖刺水银，瞧着水银珠滚进粗糙的、锯齿状的，布满灰尘的地板裂缝里，然后又把水银挑出来，惊异地发觉水银怎样把尘土从它的圆肩膀上甩掉。

Then, as though summoned by some kind of karmic force, the Olympics produced a parable for the Chinese. Like a one-man play on the perils of over-training and stifling national pressure, China's star hurdler Liu Xiang arrived in the Bird's Nest to run his first qualifying race — and then decided that it was all too much. The athlete who was supposed to be the face of China's Olympics turned his back to the crowds and limped off the track. After a shocked silence, the weeping announcers on Chinese TV intoned that it was acceptable to continue idolizing Liu because he had done his best.

还有，好像传召一些有点功夫的军队，奥运会上演中国寓言，像一男子玩那个冒险的过度训练并被扼杀在国家的压力下，中国的明星跨栏选手刘翔到达鸟巢跑他的第一场资格赛——那么显然所有的训练太多，假设那个运动员从面向中国的奥运会转向背后的观众并一瘸一拐走下跑道，在震惊与沉默之后，哭泣的中国电视播音员可以给一种特别的、令人可以接受的声调继续刘的偶像崇拜，因为他做了他最好的。

The split between the two groups can hardly be papered over.

这两个团体间的分歧难以掩饰。

This approach not only encourages a greater number of responses, but minimizes the likelihood of stale groupthink.

这种做法不仅鼓励了更多的反应，而且减少跟风的可能性。