菲利斯·惠特利是一个年轻的非裔美国奴隶，他的主人是殖民地时期的美国地主约翰·惠特利。

Phyllis Wheatley was a young African-American slave who belonged to landowner John Wheatley in Colonial America.

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主人们有时候允许奴隶赎身。

Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their way out of bondage.

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

在接下来的十二年里，他做了三个主人的奴隶。

He spent the next twelve years as a slave working for three masters.

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He's playing with Freudian slips. Of course, what he's thinking about all the time is the master-slave game, and so here it comes out, when he's talking about his brother's diving: "He's a master diver. You really have to slave away at it."

他在开Freudian滑倒的玩笑，当然，他一直想的是,主人-奴隶的游戏，当谈到他兄弟的潜水时，他提到了：,“他是个跳水能手，你真得埋头苦干拼命练习这个了“

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选