BBC news 2009-08-28 加文本

1.We don't know for sure the scale of climate threats, how much sea level will rise, how much were the changes will affect crop fields and so on.

for sure肯定地,无疑地,确实地

例句：You'll have it for sure by the end of the week.
      这个周末你一定能收到它的。

and so on等等,诸如此类,以此类推

例句：I have lots of interest, such as singing, dancing, drawing and so on.
      我有许多兴趣，例如唱歌，跳舞，画画等等。

2.A number of senior sources have confirmed the details of a meeting between Richard Holbrooke and President Karzai the day after the election.

a number of若干,一些,许多

例句：He found a number of people already working there.
      他发现很多人已经在那里干活了。

3.Richard Holbrooke is said to have twice raised the idea of a second round run-off because of concerns about the voting process.

raise the idea of  提出某种想法，相当于bring up an idea

4.The bad loans have brought Nigeria's banking system to the brink of collapse and 68 top business executives are in custody.

bring to the brink of collapse将银行系统带到崩溃的边缘

最近几天关于尼日利亚银行的报道中多次出现这种说法，另外一个就是On the verge of collapse，处于崩溃的边缘。