He could not afford to buy a house.

他买不起房子。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

We could not afford to overlook such a serious offence.

对这样严重的违法行为，我们决不能视若无睹。

《牛津词典》

They could not afford to spoil those maps by careless colouring.

他们不敢用随意的涂色毁了那些地图。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

Once they discovered their moral freedom, once they discovered that they could thwart God and work evil in the world, and abuse and corrupt all that God had created, then God could not afford to allow them access to the tree of life.

一旦他们意识到了，道德自由,一旦他们违背上帝，开始作恶,摧残，腐化，上帝的创造物,上帝便不准他们再接近生命树。

耶鲁公开课 - 旧约导论课程节选

So if you can make 100 tons of the drug but it costs $100,000 a gram that might not be a useful drug because nobody could afford to use it.

虽然你能制造一百吨药,但每克药得十万美元,这药就没什么用,因为没人能用得起它

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

The OFT said too many people were granted loans they could not afford to repay.

BBC: Payday lenders told to improve by OFT

It could not afford to disseminate its political messages as it had in the past.

CNN: AllPolitics - Ethics Transcript

Anyway, Cambodia could not afford to subsidise agriculture even if it made sense to do so.

ECONOMIST: But Cambodia's WTO membership may not make much difference