Time travel belongs not to the realm of realistic possibility but rather to fiction, and within that world it is part of a genre

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问题    Time travel belongs not to the realm of realistic possibility but rather to fiction, and within that world it is part of a genre involving dreams about the realization of desires, like a magic spirit in a bottle, or a pact with the devil, or, in the present case, a proposal by the editor of a magazine. In literature, if these desires come to pass, they almost always lead to regret, or to hell. I think I know how to avoid such unfortunate ends.
   I would start by asking this powerful figure if she were willing to transport me far, far back in time. Once I received an affirmative response, I would strike a deal. 【F1】I would propose exchanging this trip spanning a thousand years for the same amount of time, only divided into small trips to the immediate past. Bound by her word, which is unbreakable, she’d have no choice but to grant me my request.
   【F2】With this simple trick, I would change a worthless opportunity to see a historical spectacle that would be of no use to me at all for a practical power that can make my life easier. These small jumps will be more useful than any other thing I could possibly have. 【F3】They will allow me to go back each time I’ve made an error, and fix it; or when I’ve said something I regret, and not say it; or when I haven’t found an adequate answer to a question, and show off with one that I hatched after some further thought. I will be in a position to overcome what Rousseau called l’esprit de l’escalier, the ingenious phrase that occurs to us when we’re leaving the house where we should have uttered it
   Rousseau had good reasons to assign a name to that all too common circumstance. The original anecdote that gave rise to the expression can be found in his "Confessions." At dinner with important guests, a woman asked him, either out of spite or ignorance, if he had children. Everyone knew that he had five, and that he had put them up for adoption. In the anxious silence that followed, Rousseau managed only to stumble in the negative, and he spent the rest of the night being upset about it. 【F4】But when he left, repairing down those fateful stairs, the perfect response struck him: "Ma’am, that is not a question to ask a bachelor." (I suspect that Rousseau wrote the eight hundred pages of his "Confessions" just to deliver that phrase, and thus to find peace.) 【F5】If only he could have availed himself of the time-travel device that I’ll be getting, he’d have gone back and had some relief.
【F2】

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答案耍了个小把戏后,我会把握住机会,让超能力发挥实际作用,以使我的生活更顺畅,而不是把机会浪费在回看历史大事件上,这对我一点用都没有。

解析 ①本句为主从复合句。②With引导的独立主格With this simple trick承接上文,trick指代的是上文作者的提议。③主干的谓宾结构change…opportunity to…for a practical power意为“把无意义的机会交换成有实际能力的机会”。后置定语to see a historical spectacle修饰opportunity,说明机会的具体所指:回看历史大事件。其后的定语从句that would be…at all,修饰的是a historical spectacle。句末的that can make my life easier也是定语从句,修饰a practical power。
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