The town lay on a flat plain at the base of an Allegheny Mountain valley so steep that the hillsides rose straight upward along the Little Connemaugh River.

VOA: standard.2010.04.26

Because there's not a lot of room between the canals, that's why they're so steep when you walk up these things.

由于运河之间的陆地空间狭小,这就解释了为何你上楼时会觉得很陡峭

耶鲁公开课 - 欧洲文明课程节选

If we have a small engine, and we have to pull the car up a steep hill,a difficult hill, the engine is more likely to collapse,to blow up.

如果我们用的引擎很小，想把车开上一个陡峭崎岖的山坡，引擎很容易损毁，爆炸。

哈佛公开课 - 幸福课课程节选