You don't just pick up a book, open it at random, and start reading in the middle of a paragraph.

你不仅仅是拾起本书，随意的翻开，并在段落的中间开始阅读。

youdao

Meeting someone via the web is also safer, they argue, than trying to pick up a date at random in a bar.

ECONOMIST: Online dating

They drove around in their bakkies (pick-up trucks), killing black pedestrians at random, and seemed genuinely surprised when black policemen shot back at them.

ECONOMIST: Eugene Terre'Blanche

Imagine that a man walks up to you and tells you this: He will pick a public company at random from a very select group.

FORBES: In Search Of The Next Apple Or Google