Annie racked her brains in vain.

安妮徒劳地绞尽脑汁。

And presently, Margaret, racking her brain to talk to Fanny, heard her mother and Mrs. Thornton plunge into the interminable subject of servants.

不久，玛格丽特正在绞尽脑汁想和范妮说话，听到她的母亲和桑顿夫人陷入了没完没了的仆人话题。

She did her best, she asked advice of Mrs. Cornelius, she racked her brain to remember what Hannah did that she left undone, she reboiled, resugared, and restrained, but that dreadful stuff wouldn't 'jell'.

她尽了全力，征询了科尼利厄斯太太书上的意见，绞尽脑汁地回忆汉娜做的事中有哪些她没有做。她重新烧煮，重新加糖，重新过滤，但那鬼东西就是不“结冻”。

She had a bad memory for names, and it irritated her not to be able to think of them, so that she would pause in the middle of some story to rack her brains.

她的名字记性不好，想不起来让她很恼火，以至于她会在某个故事进行到一半时停下来绞尽脑汁。