poor 是一个很常见的英语单词，意思是"贫穷的，贫困的"、"不善于…的，差的"，在口语里还有"可怜的，令人同情的"意思。今天呢，我发现这个单词还有两个我们平常不太常见的意思，是在两本不同的英文小说里读到的，所以拿来和大家一起分享学习。我们先来看看它的常见用法：
1. 贫穷的，贫困的
Her family were so poor they couldn't afford to buy her nice clothes.
她家里很穷，买不起漂亮衣服。
We aim to help the poorest families.
我们的目标是帮助最贫困的家庭。
2. 不善于…的
He's poor at sports.
他不擅长体育运动。
She's a good teacher but a poor manager.
她长于教学，却拙于管理。
3.次等的，低劣的
The jacket was of very poor quality.
这件夹克质量非常差。
She's been in poor health for some time now.
她身体不好已经有有一段时间了，
Her hearing is poor, so speak fairly loudly.
她的听力不好，所以要很大声说才行。
3. 可怜的，令人同情的
'I have stacks of homework to do.'
'Oh, you poor thing.'
"我有一大堆家庭作业要做"
"噢，可怜的人儿。"
Poor kid was sick for weeks.
可怜的孩子病了几个星期。
学习了poor的常规用法，来看看两个不太常见的用法：
But he was a poor example: no tutorial system devised by man could have stopped him from getting at books.
不过他是个特殊的例子：人所制定的任何教育制度都无法让他离开书本。
a poor example 你不能说"一个很贫穷的或者很可怜的例子"，译为"特殊的例子"比较合适。
They slept till morning. After a rather poor breakfast, he said, "well, the first thing is to go to the store and buy food."
大家一觉睡到天亮，吃了一顿简单的早餐后，他说："咱们第一件要做的事情就是去店里买些吃的。"
同样这里的a rather poor breakfast 如果译为"可怜的早餐"也不太好，译为"简单的早餐"比较符合语境和汉语的习惯。
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