VOA慢速英语:A Review of Education Reports This Past Year

in the middle of在…中间,在…中途

例句：The saw the fire blazing away in the middle of the night.
      午夜他们看见火不停地在燃烧。

      The lorry usually delivers our stock in the middle of the night.
      卡车通常会在半夜把我们的货物送来。

2.The next highest number of comments was forty-nine.

next highest修饰最高级

最高级前可用 the very, the second, much the, (by) far the, not quite the, nearly, almost, by no means 等修饰。

He is far more careful than I am. 他比我仔细得多。

This is much the most important. 这是最重要的。

Hainan is China’s second largest island. 海南是中国第二大岛。

This is quite far the most expensive bicycle in the shop. 这是这家商店里最最贵的自行车。

注：very不能修饰比较级，却可修饰最高级，但它与一般的修饰最高级的副词有所不同，即它要放在最高级前的定冠词之后，而不是之前(另外，second, third, next等也要放在定冠词之后)。

3.We discussed the California digital textbook program as well as the use of digital textbooks in general.

as well as既…又…,不仅…而且…,以及,除…外

例句：She's endowed with intelligence as well as beauty.
      她生来聪明貌美。

in general一般说来,大体上,整个地

例句：We are in general creatures of habit.
      总的来说，我们都是习惯性的生物。