thick, slow, stupid, retarded, dumb, backward, awkward 与 muddle-headed 这些词均可表示能力或智力不佳。
(1) thick可作“脑子不清楚，笨，迟钝”解，指在学习或理解方面较慢，英国人常用，较随便，常含贬义。
- My head's rather thick this morning — I drank too much last night.
我今天早上脑子不太清醒——昨晚喝得太多了。 - I have had enough of teaching thick/thickheaded pupils.
我可是受够了教笨学生。 - You'll never get that through his thick head!
你永远也无法让他那笨脑瓜理解这一点。
(2) slow可作“迟钝”解，是指思维不敏捷、理解事物慢，是委婉的说法。
- He is very slow in learning English/at maths.
他学英语／数学很迟钝。 - He's rather slow ; he does not understand/learn quickly.
他相当迟钝，理解事物／学东西很慢。
(3) stupid意为“愚蠢，傻气”，指缺乏智力，或由于先天或由于其他原因心智不清。
- I think he was born stupid .
我认为他是天生愚蠢。 - How could you be so stupid?
你怎么那么傻？ - Sorry, I made a stupid mistake last time.
抱歉，上次我犯了个愚蠢的错误。 - Your idea sounds stupid to me.
你的想法听起来很傻。
(4) retarded指“弱智的”。
- This is a school for retarded children.
这是个智障儿童学校。
(5) dumb意为“笨，傻，迟钝”，主要用在美式英语中，常含贬义。
- He is so dumb that you can sell him the Brooklyn Bridge.
他是个傻得出奇的家伙。
(6) backward意为“不聪明，智力差”，是委婉的说法。
- He's intellectually backward .
他有智力障碍。 - He is a rather backward child.
他是一个弱智儿童。
(7) awkward指“笨手笨脚的”。
- He is an awkward child, he is always falling down or knocking things over.
这孩子笨手笨脚的，总是摔倒或是碰倒东西。 - I'm rather awkward with tools, you do the job.
我笨手笨脚的，不大会用工具，你做这活吧。
(8) muddle-headed意为“糊涂的”。
- I never expected him to be so muddle-headed .
我从来没想到他的脑袋瓜是如此糊涂。
