As I see it, the official function of this simile is to give us a sense of the size of Satan's shield and thereby to give us a sense of the size of Satan himself.

在我看来，这个比喻的正式的作用,是要给我们展现出撒旦的屏障的规模,因此来展现撒旦自身的伟岸。

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How, though, can all this modernisation be squared with the maintenance of what every senior official says is the capital's great quality, its function as the ancient vessel of Chinese history and culture?

ECONOMIST: Get ready for an enormous show of triumphalism

"There is a worsening of the respiratory function, related to the state of his depressed immune system, " Villegas said, reading an official statement on state-run VTV.

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