The semiotician's answer to this is it never could have happened simply as an act of agency, as an act of will.

符号学者这样解释,这不是一己之力的结果。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

One can never come before something that, of course, has already happened, but this fiction of an impossible firstness is something that Milton is working very hard to accomplish here.

一个人绝不可能先于，已经发生的事情，但弥尔顿在这里就是要,努力达成这种不可能的先知。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

This had never happened in an English class before.

这种情况在以前的英语课上从来就没发生过！

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选