11.否定比较句 (1) (2) (3) (4) I couldn\'t agree more.我完全同意。
You couldn\'t be better off, could you?你现在境况再好不过了，是吧？ Nothing is farther from the truth.这真是荒谬透顶。
I can hardly imagine two men le capable of getting on together.很难想象有比他们俩在一起更合不来的人。
I was weighed down with grief; my friend\'s books offered little release, le escape.我感到悲伤，心情沉重；朋友借书给我看也没能使我觉得轻松点，更谈不上使我忘记这一切了。
He could not care le about money.他最不在乎钱了。 (5)
(6)
试译：As for the time for the attack, Hitler told his reluctant generals, “the start cannot take place too early.It is to take place in all circumstances(if at all poible) this autumn.Young scienti cannot realize too soon that existing scientific knowledge is not nearly so complete, certain and unalterable as many textbooks seem to imply.The importance of science cannot be overemphasized.Notes：本次的重点是否定比较句，所选句子的特点是被比较对象省略未提，因而构成翻译难点。前三句是优势比较，后三句是劣势比较；前者实际意义是最高级的肯定，后者实际是最高级或强调的否定。
这类句子难就难在其暗示意，被比对象虽然省略，其意思仍含于句中。如句2=you couldn’t be better off than now,could you?如不译出被省略部分，汉语就会模糊甚至歪曲原意（你不能再好了，是吗？）句3也是如此，句末省略了than that remark之类的词，不明示便会译成“没有什么离真理更远了”，也无法达意。劣势比较情况相同，句4省掉了than them,句5是程度递进的比较，escape的否定程度更大于relaese,该词本身具有引申义，不能按字面译，至于句6，它似乎有两个否定似乎应表肯定，但实际情况是强调否定，所以其具有习语性质，在美国口语中可省not，成为could care le,意义不变。《英汉大词典》（上海译文出版社1989）在care下列有此条，举例为I could(couldn’t)care le what happens“不管发生什么我都不在乎”。这两种情况很值得注意。
年轻的科学工作者应尽快认识到现有科学知识绝不像很多教科书暗示的那样全面、肯定、一成不变。 Paage 11 Lateral thinking
A father is busy putting decorations on to the Christmas tree but as quickly as he puts them on his two-year-old son pulls them off.He is about to put the child in a playpen when his wife suggests that it might make more sense to put the tree in the play-pen 婴儿用围栏and leave the child outside.Instead of keeping the child away from the tree one can keep the tree away from the child.Lateral thinking 又称为戴勃诺理论、发散式思维法、水平思维法involves moving sideways to look at things in a different way.Instead of fixing on one particular approach and then working forward from that the lateral thinking tries to find other approaches.
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.A committee that is convinced that parking meters are the only way to control city parking will spend its time deciding what meters to use, where to put them and how to patrol them.A lateral thinker would look at other approaches: letting people park anywhere they liked so long as they left their headlights on; giving people licences which would allow them to park free in town on only one day a week and so encouraging car sharing; visible licences that the motorist would pay for if he wanted to park anywhere in town.
Our thinking traditions are very firmly based on logical thinking in which we start off with a certain way of looking at things and then see what we can deduce from that.This can be called vertical thinking since it involves building on what is accepted as traditional.Vertical thinking is for using ideas and lateral thinking is for changing them.
Most of our thinking does not take place at the logical stage but at the pereceptual stage which prededes this.Lateral thinking is to do with changing perceptions and finding new ways of looking at things.Lateral thinking is the practical proce of creativity.There are various deliberate techniques such as the use of stepping stones(produced, for instance, by reversing the usual situation).Lateral thinking turns creativity into a tool.In a patterning system such as the mind provocation is as important as analysis---and more important for changing ideas.译文：
横向思维
父亲忙着往圣诞树上挂装饰品，刚挂上，两岁的儿子就给扯了下来。他正要把孩子放进游戏围栏里，妻子却建议说，也许把圣诞树放进去而让孩子呆在外面更好些。不让孩子靠近树倒不如把树放在孩子们够不着的地方。横向思维就是从场面换个角度看问题。进行这种思维的人不是把注意力放在某一方法上并按此着手行动而是试试是否还有其他方法。
你把洞挖得再深点也不等于你另挖了一个洞。如果有一个委员会确信只有使用停车计时器才能控制市内存车，那么它就会花时间去考虑使用何种计时器，计时器装在何处及如何检查这些问题。横向思维者则会考虑其他办法，如只要人们打开车灯，他们愿意把车停在那儿都行；发给他们停车许可证，允许他们一周只有一天在城里免费停车，这样可以鼓励人们合用车；或是发行一种张贴于车窗上的许可证，驾车人买了它就可在城里任何地方停车。
我们传统思考方式牢固建立在逻辑推理上。我们往往从某一角度考察问题，然后看看从中能推断出什么。这种方式可称为纵向思维，因为它以公认为一贯确立的东西为基础。纵向思维倾向于利用已有观念而横向思维则倾向于改变观念。我们思考问题往往不是处于理性阶段，而是理性阶段之前的感性阶段。横向思维要做的是改变观念，找到考虑问题的新方法。横向思维是进行创造的实际过程。有各种周密的方法手段，如利用垫脚石（举个例子，把通常的情况反过来考虑）。横向思维把创造力变成一种工具。在像大脑这样按固定方式工作的系统里，刺激和分析一样重要----在改变观念上，刺激更为重要。
