That would leave the end of the rail clean, with no broken plate. But the end of the rail is bent and the plate is twisted off. We looked at that the first thing. Nobody could twist that plate off. The engine did it when it left the track. "You see, Miss Warfield, the weight of the engine, like a wedge, simply forced one of these rails out of alignment. Don't you understand how a hundred ton wedge driven against the track, at the start of an upgrade, could do it?" The old peasant woman stood behind the track boss. The thing was a sort of awful game.英文原著 · 《The Sleuth of St. James Street》
She did not speak, but the vicissitudes of the inquiry advanced her, or retired her, with the effect of points, won or lost. "I understand perfectly," replied Marion, "how the impact of the heavy engine might drive both rails out of alignment, if they offered an equal resistance, or one of them out if it offered a less resistance. This is straight track. The wedge would go in even. It should have spread the rails equally. That's the probable thing. But instead it did the improbable thing; it spread one. I hold the improbable thing always in question.英文原著 · 《The Sleuth of St. James Street》
You came up in Albany politics, I can't imagine there's an alignment of forces you haven't seen before.美剧 · 《Billions》
And a lack of alignment, for which you're both to blame.美剧 · 《Billions》
With my alignment. One leg's shorter than the other.美剧 · 《Friends》