The Influence of Mass Culture

⒈Journalists keep trying to find people who are at 1 or at 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 rather than people at 3 or 7(the more moderate positions) where most people actually are.

on a scale of 1 to 10  "从1到10范围内" ，外国人经常用这个来问别人对某件事物的评价，就相当于中国人说"十分制，你打几分"或"一到十分，你打几分"~所以翻译得时候可以随意些~比如，

On a scale of one to ten, what is your pain?

从一到十的话你痛的等级是多少?

文中那句话是个定语从句，people是先行词，一般定从翻译成"...的先行词"理解，比如，The man (who is employed at the drug store) is my cousin.在药店工作的那个男的是我的堂兄弟。就把定从翻译成"...的男人"。

所以，那句话就是，"一到十分之间，寻找一分或九分的人，而不是寻找三分到七分的人"

⒉because they knew it could be persuade people into beliving the president's lying under oath was of no great consequence.

"be＋of＋名词"相当于形容词~

比如，be of importance＝important

be of significance＝significant

所以，加个great就是相当于"very"。比如，be of great help=very helpful

be of great importance＝very important

所以，be of no great consequence就是"不重要的"，"在誓言背后总统的谎言是不重要的"无足轻重就是无关紧要的意思，所以译成无足轻重当然在中文表达上更好~