jennin64

1. Napoleon did just manage to reach Moscow in his ill-fated invasion of 1812-but it would seem that news of his poor American deal did not.
儘管拿破崙在1812年那次失敗的侵略中, 的確是抵達了莫斯科 - 不過他和美國那筆糟糕交易的消息看來並沒有(抵達莫斯科).

備註: 拿破崙在1803年, 把路易西安納賣給美國. 而1867年俄國把阿拉斯加賣給美國. 由前後文判讀本句, 意思是說, 拿破崙和美國那次糟糕的交易, 俄國似乎不知道, 所以才會在1867年把阿拉斯加便宜賣給美國.

2. Yeah, living so far from the city makes it difficult to come here as much as I'd like.
是啊, 雖然我很想來, 但住在離城市拿麼遠的地方, 讓來這裡變得很困難.

解析:
as much as: 雖然 (= although)


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Napoleon did just manage to reach Moscow in his ill-fated invasion of 1812 - but it would seem that news of his poor American deal did not. For, astonishingly, the Russians went on to become the third victims of major land deals with America. On March 30th 1867, the U.S. Secretary of State, William Seward, bought Alaska from Tsar Alexander II for a mere $7.2 million - thereby acquiring another 586,000 square miles of territory for less than 2 cents per acre. The Tsar presumably thought that this remote, frozen and virtually uninhabited piece of land had nothing at all to commend it - and at first, the American people agreed with him, for Alaska was known as 'Seward's folly' and 'Seward's ice box' for years. In 1896, however, gold was struck at Klondike in the Yukon, and since then, over 750 million dollars' worth has been mined. In 1968, black gold was discovered - and an estimated 100 billion tons of coal are also lying underground, just waiting to be dug up.