He contrived to make a mess of the whole thing.

他挖空心思反而把事情全盤弄糟了。

You can't come round with such yarns．

你別想用這套花言巧語來哄騙我。

It has no counterpart in the world．

舉世無雙。

The storm clouds gathered darkly，烏云密布。

He was daunted by the amount of work still to be done。

還有那么多工作要做，弄得他灰心喪氣。
　　
He was silent in default by any excuse 。

他無可推諉，啞口無言。

His speech was dreary。他的演講枯燥乏味。

The state was in disruption 。

這個國家處于分崩離析之中。

Harcourt had just bought the book, and had reached into his pocket for the money with a free ready gesture to make it appear that he has been accustomed to buying books for young ladies.

哈科特剛選好書，用瀟灑自如的姿態，把手伸進口袋去掏錢。顯得是一位為妙齡女郎買書的老手呢。

由此可見，熟練掌握漢語的四字詞組，充分理解、挖掘英語原文的深刻含義，就能在翻譯中得心應手、運用自如。

既然漢語四字詞組有這么大的優點，我們是不是該反過來考慮考慮如何將我們這一語言精華翻譯成英語呢。四字詞組翻譯成英語有各種不同的方法，如一些人提到的直譯法，意譯法和直譯意譯結合法。在這里我們探討四種翻譯四字詞組的常用方法。