我看见一个黑色的东西放在那里，但一个站在喷泉旁边的女人就在它旁边，所以我不知道那是什么东西，也不能分辨那是不是她的东西。

I saw something black sitting there, but it was right next to a woman standing by the fountain, so I could not tell what it was or if it was hers.

youdao

尽管没有人知道它是什么东西，但人们都知道怎样称呼它：“卓帕王子”，根据的是那个著名的神秘吸血兽“卓帕卡·布拉”(chupacabra，是世界第三大著名怪兽，前两位分别是大脚怪和尼斯湖水怪)。

Even though no one knew what it was, they knew what to call it: "Prince chupa," after the mysterious vampire chupacabra (the world's best-known monster after Bigfoot and Nessie).

youdao

再说，它算是什么东西，哪有资格决定自己的大小呢？

Who was it to say what size it should be, anyway?

youdao

Unfortunately, we now have lived with it forever, so don't think of it as actually being anything dynamic particularly. It's just a name.

不幸的是，我们现在得一直沿用这个名字了,所以别认为它指的是什么动态的东西,这只是个名字。

麻省理工公开课 - 计算机科学及编程导论课程节选

In fact, as a little helper, notice what it's sort of automatically including for me: What's this thing here?

事实上，作为一个帮助程序，请注意,它为我自动分类：这个是什么东西？

哈佛公开课 - 计算机科学课程节选

Whatever the number two is, it's something that our mind can grasp but isn't actually in the physical world.

不管数字2是什么,它是心灵可以掌握的东西,而在物质世界中却不存在

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选