People differ to the extent it will hurt them to watch me slam my thumb with a hammer.

不同的人看到我用锤子打拇指,会感受到不同程度的痛苦。

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

In comes the prehensile thumb, and the next thing you know you get a colossal earthquake, and the possessor of the prehensile thumb disappears from the earth -which is to say, very possibly the human species will never develop.

就像对人类进化至关重要的大拇指，经历了一场大地震后，如果所有有这种拇指的人都消失了,那么人类就很可能永远不能进化。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选