Just as English humour can enjoy self-depreciation, so defeat at the national game brings a smile of resigned superiority as might a wet summer or a long queue.

就如英国幽默可以对自卑一笑置之一样，在国际比赛中失利英国人也只是像遇到潮湿的夏天或长长的队伍一样用一个带有听由天命的优越感一笑了之。

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Victories may not come just by willing them, but prophecies of defeat are often self-fulfilling.

胜利可能不会因为你的央求而垂青于你，而失败往往是自我实现的预言。

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Having a willingness to take risks socially, to be assertive, to self-disclose, and be responsive to others are strategies to defeat loneliness.

敢于承担一定的社会风险、自信进取、自我表露以及对他人负责都是用来击败寂寞的武器。

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With Fox as a congenial Hollywood superstar and Woods as a volatile New York City cop, the movie turns self-parody into self-defeat.

NEWYORKER: The Hard Way

After that defeat, the party is self-destructing in the land of Ronald Reagan.

ECONOMIST: A new Republican heartland

Faced with a looming deadline and terrible data, Mr. Greenberg suggests, the DSM directors did what any reasonable, self-protecting institution would do: They lowered the statistical criteria for acceptable standards of reliability and turned defeat into victory.

WSJ: Book Review: DSM-5 | The Book of Woe | Saving Normal