thus far 到目前為止

　　釋義

　　You use thus far to indicate up to this point.

　　例句

　　A successful and effective mortgage-finance reform bill could fix what's broken in the current system and build on what has worked thus far.

　　GRE

　　Given the great expense of conducting such experiments with proper controls, and the limited promise of experiments performed thus far, it is questionable whether further experiments in this area should even be conducted.

　　由于控制這類實驗需要大量的投入，同時目前看來其結(jié)果并不明朗，因此這個領(lǐng)域是否值得在未來繼續(xù)探索還有待商榷。

　　in advance of 在……之前

　　釋義

　　If one thing happens or is done in advance of another, it happens or is done before the other thing.

　　例句

　　Hackers look for computers with security flaws in advance of an attack.

　　GRE

　　Marison was a scientist of unusual insight and imagination who had startling success in discerning new and fundamental principles well in advance of their general recognition.

　　Marison是一個具有非凡的洞悉力和想象力的科學(xué)家，遠(yuǎn)在某些全新的基本原理被人們普遍認(rèn)識之前，他早就能夠成功地令人吃驚地將其察覺發(fā)現(xiàn)。

　　lead to 導(dǎo)致

　　釋義

　　If something leads to a situation or event, usually an unpleasant one, it begins a process which causes that situation or event to happen.

　　例句

　　Racial prejudice among the republics could lead to civil war.

　　GRE

　　Ironically, the proper use of figurative language must be based on the denotative meaning of the words, because it is the failure to recognize this literal meaning that leads to mixed metaphors and their attendant incongruity.

　　充滿諷刺意味的是，比喻性語言的恰當(dāng)使用必須建立在理解單詞確切含義的基礎(chǔ)上，因為正是由于未能認(rèn)識到單詞的字面意思才導(dǎo)致混亂的比喻，因而造成比喻上的牛頭不對馬嘴。