obscure, vague, ambiguous, unclear 与 dim 这些词都含有“不明确的”、“模糊的”意思。
(1) obscure用于表达因光线不足而使人看不清楚。该词的引申意义可以表示语法、文字、记忆等因复杂、深奥、模棱两可而使人看不懂或无法理解。
- The path grew more and more obscure in the fading light.
小径在渐渐变弱的光线下变得越来越模糊不清。 - The poetry of Ezra Pound is sometimes difficult to understand because it contains so many obscure references.
艾兹拉·庞德的诗有时候难以理解，因为诗歌中含有许多令人费解的典故。
(2) vague指含混的，不清楚的，多用于比喻意义，用来表示因逻辑关系不清、言辞笼统或不确切而导致的意义不清楚；也可表示轮廓形状的不清楚和模糊。
- She is so vague that I can never understand what she is trying to say.
她说话含含糊糊，我怎么也听不明白她想说些什么。 - Without glasses, I can see only the vague outline of your face.
不戴眼镜的话，我只能看到你脸部模糊不清的轮廓。
(3) ambiguous指可能有多种理解而使得意义不明确。
- “Look at those pretty little girls' dresses” is ambiguous , because it is not clear whether the girls or the dresses are “pretty”.
“看看那些漂亮的小女孩的连衣裙”这句话有歧义，因为不清楚是“小女孩”还是“连衣裙”是“漂亮的”。 - The first sentence in this paragraph is ambiguous ; it can be interpreted in many ways.
本段第一句话含糊不清，可以被解释为多种意思。
(4) unclear指句意、字迹不清楚，使人难以看懂。
- Unclear writing is difficult to understand.
模糊的字迹使人难以辨认。
(5) dim指光线暗淡的，也可指记忆不清晰的，或意识模糊的。
- The light is too dim to read the newspaper by.
光线太暗了，不能看报纸。 - I have a dim recollection of it.
我依稀记得这事。 - Though heavily sedated, she has a dim awareness of what was happening.
尽管用了大量镇静剂，她还是迷迷糊糊地感觉到正在发生的事情。
