They borrow the characters from what had been already something quite close to an alphabet and had only a relatively small number.

他们从十分接近字母系统的书写体系中,借来字符使用,而这些字符相对较少

耶鲁公开课 - 古希腊历史简介课程节选

Those are the two biggest rating agencies in the U.S. today and they're extremely powerful organizations because they --Standard & Poor's also does letter grades, a slightly different system, but almost the same.

如今他们是美国最大的两家评级机构,而且他们是非常权威的组织,标准普尔也进行字母评级,体系上有些区别,但基本相同

耶鲁公开课 - 金融市场课程节选