After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.
记了一大难复杂的笔记之后，每个人都分到了一根火柴，大家开始使足劲儿要把这根火柴变成一支针。
By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match;
然而，一节课结束时，只有荷米恩·格林佐使她的火柴有一点点变化。
Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.
麦康娜教授让全班人都看了如何让这支火柴变得银白和变尖，还给了荷米恩一个非常少见的微笑。
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.
大家都盼望着上的课程是黑巫术防御法，因此这门课程的老师屈拉，他上的课实在太搞笑了。
His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania，
屈拉上课时，教室里总是弥漫着一股浓烈的大蒜味。人们传说这是屈拉教授为了避开以前在罗马尼亚遇到过的一个吸血鬼。
and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days.
屈拉一直担心那个吸血鬼会有一天跑回来找他。
His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie,
他那顶缠头巾状的帽子，据他自己讲是某个非洲王子为了感谢他帮忙赶走一个难缠的还魂僵尸而送给他的。
but they weren't sure they believed this story.
不过，大家都不怎么相信这个故事。

For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie,
因为有一次谢默斯·范尼更好奇地问他是怎么大战还魂僵尸时，
Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather;
屈拉的脸马上就红了，还借故谈起天气以转移话题。
for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban,
而且大家发现屈拉的头巾帽子总是散发着一种奇特的味儿，
and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
威斯里家的双胞胎坚持说那也是大蒜的味道。如此说来，屈拉对吸血鬼的防卫真是从头到脚，武装到了牙齿呢。
Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else.
哈利发现他与班上其他同学的差距并不大，这使他悄悄松了一口气。
Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards.
大部分同学都是来自一般家庭，而且都跟他一样，一点儿也不觉得自己是个女巫或男巫。
There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.
这儿实在有太多东西要学了，即使像罗恩那样的人也没有超前太多。