John was a poor but very smart kid and he always got top grades at school.

约翰是个贫穷但很聪明的孩子，他总是在学校取得高分。

youdao

"Poor reading skills snowball through the grades," he writes.

“随着年级增长，糟糕的阅读能力这个雪球越滚越大，”他写道。

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The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than his instructor, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running.

鸭子是极棒的游泳能手，事实上，比他的教师更专业，但是，他在飞行上经过艰苦的训练，仅仅能通过级别考试，而在赛跑方面更是惭愧至极。

youdao

Although the president has visited the Gulf coast three times since the spill began, he is getting poor grades.

VOA: standard.2010.06.10

He's not engaged in school and his poor grades don't reflect his obvious intelligence.

CNN: Behind the Scenes: Inner city kids travel to South Africa