The whole tenor of a conversation is a part of the meaning of each separate statement; the beginning and the end define and travesty the intermediate conversation.
整场谈话的基调,构成了其中每一句话的部分含义;开头与结尾会界定、也会扭曲中间那些话的意思。
— Robert Louis Stevenson · Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers · Truth of Intercourse —