苏轼8

The question is that: how did Wang , togther with his few associates, manage to secure his reforms against ther overwhelming opposition? And what were the opposition's efforts to safeguard people's interests? How did Su get embroiled in this political turmoil?

This chapter gives us a glimpse of the political structure of Song dynasty, in which the government centered no clear-cut responsibility on one man as prime minister, with the emperor holding the balance of power. So in the case of Wang, he was sure to have misplaced his ambition and the emperor clearly was misguided, but more importantly, the tragedy also reflects the significance of checks and balances with regard to the political power.

1. It's necessary to understand the nature of the political battle because the party strife shadowed Su Tungpo's entire life.

party strife  党争

You can override or reject (以权力)否决 a decision if you're more powerful than the person who originally made the decision. And Congress has the power to override or nullify the Presidential veto if they have a two-thirds vote. 如果国会赞成票达到三分之二，就有权力推翻总统的否决。

The word override can be used in a number of contexts. You can override or ride on top of the grass. You can override a horse, or ride it too hard. An army can override or dominate the enemy in a war. And a judge can override or set aside a decision in court. Regardless of which meaning you're using, remember that the thing doing the overriding always has the upper hand.

UK [ˌəʊ.və'raɪd] US [ˌoʊ.vɚ-] verb (overrode, overridden)

1. to use your authority to reject sb's decision, order, etc.

• (以权力)否决,推翻,不理会

【SYN】 overrule :

»The chairman overrode the committee's objections and signed the agreement.

主席不顾委员会的反对,迳行签署了协议

■to be more important than something 比…更重要；压倒；凌驾

•Parents' concern for their children's future often overrides all their other concerns.父母对子女未来的考虑往往重于他们对所有其他事情的关心。

The wagon is the vehicle that takes you from place to place. The star is high above the night sky. To hitch your wagon to the star, hence, suggests that you’re aiming high.

There’s not such a long piece of rope to find of course, so you know that this phrase is to be read metaphorically.

Also, again using the imaginary long rope, if you hitch your wagon to a star, it gives you a constant sense of direction in the dark. As it is well put in the second example above, it’s better than to “wander aimlessly through life.”

Actually I’m not so sure about that. So many people aim at the wrong things in life that I am not so sure any more.

e.g. John hitched his wagon to a star and decided to run for the presidency.约翰野心勃勃，决定竞选总统。

野心勃勃不能说是坏事，所以这个词这和空想家含义不同，因为星星的connotation是黑夜，以及方向，虽然可能遥不可及，但是有目标和方向的。