WHEN it comes to drilling C-E translation, a major difficulty lies in the fact that a selected para just contains so many ideas that more often than not these concepts (relating to lexical, grammatical, and semantic levels) baffle the trainee. And soon s/he will probably give up.
One way to deal with this is to focus merely on sentences that contain the specific structures a trainee wants to learn by practicing repeatedly. In terms of all the difficulties facing English learners, function words—and the concepts they express—stand out as one of the most difficult. I will train myself to do this special drill to master them.
First, try to translate 简直 in various Chinese sentences:
1. 他在1990年代录制的唱片获得的评论现在读起来简直卑躬屈膝。必须停止这种盲目的偶像崇拜。(from 莱布雷希特专栏：詹姆斯·列文性侵事件带来的三个教训)
T-1: Those comments on his records made in the 1990s sound fairly/blatantly sycophantic. Such blind adoration of an idol must be ended.
2. 崔林说，“这对于一个家庭来说，简直是灾难。”（from 供不应求的临终关怀服务：绝症患者“救命”稻草般的最后尊严）
"This means nothing less than a disaster to the family", said Cui Lin.
"To the family, ” Cui Lin said, "this is actually a disaster."
3. 日媒普遍认为，这一消息简直是晴天霹雳，美、韩一旦同朝鲜对话，那朝鲜的敌人只剩日本一家，日本就成了“孤家寡人”。（from 扶桑谈｜安倍访美背后有三重焦虑：打“朝鲜威胁”牌不好使了）
4. 这个消息实在是太悲伤了，我希望给波波维奇和他的家人送上最好的祝福，这消息简直太令人心碎了。” (from 相伴40年爱妻离世，波波维奇该为家庭自私一次了)
5. 这样的故事，这样的人，简直太多太多了。（from 90后叙利亚战地记者：爆炸热浪扑到脸上，最大的输家是平民）
6. 这样的性价比看起来简直爆表。(from 东风日产大型SUV途达上市性价比“爆表”，但存在两个槽点)
7. 据李焕说，蒋经国听到朱汇森的报告后，非常生气，直说：“他们简直乱来。” (from 《世纪》专稿｜蒋经国为何解散台湾对大陆的“反统战”组织)
8. 一些澳大利亚人，少数人，总是通过有色镜片看待中国——简直是墨镜，”他说。(from 中国驻澳大使：一些澳大利亚人简直是通过墨镜看待中国)
9. 从航天器工程的角度来说，在最后时刻添加需求，简直是天方夜谭。(from “慧眼”卫星研制幕后：面对技术难度，始终选择Hard模式)
10. 有一次，她在公交车上听到一位想请人给自己让座位的缅甸老人说：“这些车真不错，如果我有座位的话，简直可以睡着坐回家了。” (from 环球网：西方空头支票让缅甸失望，转型之痛后重新认识中国)
