What does it matter what you say about somebody? It comes up all through his work that you never can pin anyone down.

VOA: standard.2009.12.17

That's a quite difficult argument to pin down does it work or does it not work.

这个论证很难确定,是不是说得通。

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选

You need to pin down an object of study, a first principle from which other principles can emerge, and part of the process is to say, "Hey, it's not literature we're talking about.

首要原则是，需要锁定要谈论，即学习的目标，可是，谁知道什么是文学。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

He is Charles Foster Kane. I don't think you can ever pin Welles down,"

VOA: standard.2009.12.17

So it's not that the result is going to be that I'm going to try to convince you that death isn't bad, but it takes actually a little bit of work to pin down precisely what is it about death that's bad and how can it be death?

所以，这么说,并不是我试图让你相信死亡不是坏事，但是这的确要花点时间来准确地说清楚,什么让死亡成了坏事，和怎样才算死亡？

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选

Because once you actually push people,to pin them down, what do you mean by it,you end up with something that's either just not true, or not interesting,or not necessary, or not particularly unique to death.

因为你一旦逼问他们这到底是什么含义，得到的东西既不会是真实的，也不会是必要和有趣的，也不会是对于死亡来说独特的。

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选