CNN news 2009-11-01 加文本

1.The British Foreign Office says it will not meet the pirates’ demand for money in return for the release of Rachel and Paul Chandler.

in return for作为对…的回报,作为…的交换条件

例句：An answer or response in return for something done.
      答谢，致谢为回报已做事情的答复或回复

2.However, it’s still far less than the government predicted.

far less比较级的修饰

1）a bit, a little, rather, much, far, by far, many, a lot, lots, a great deal, any, still, even等

2）还可以用表示倍数的词或度量名词作修饰语。

3）以上词(除by far)外，必须置于比较级形容词或副词的前面。

3.Yes, around a hundred thousand people visit the White House each month, so a pretty big list.

pretty除了作为形容词“漂亮的”之外，还可以用作副词，相当的，非常的，与fairly意思相似。