General McClellan kept making excuses for his failure to act.

VOA: special.2009.09.17

With the abhorred shears she cruelly punishes the virgin poet for his failure on the one hand to use the sexual body that God has endowed him with, but you also have the image here of the poet's death.

她用剪刀残忍了惩罚了未失童真的诗人,一方面因为他没能利用上帝赋予他的,性的肉体，但这里也有诗人死亡的形象。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

But in fact, in his own way, he's talking about his inability ; to keep his child alive there; in a kind of metaphorical way, speaking of his failure to build a fence to last.

但事实上，以他自己的方式，他在诉说自己的无能,不能让孩子活下来;,以一种象征性的方式，谈论自己不能制作出一个一直在那的栅栏。

耶鲁公开课 - 现代诗歌课程节选

She could not help see that many of his experiments had ended in failure.

VOA: special.2009.09.26

He said he feared his speech had been a failure.

VOA: special.2009.11.12