1 hr confidence:   peer agreement (net): +3 仅举几例来讲 or 等等，等等......
Explanation:
Here it means that just for a few prominent examples there are life insurance, mortgages, hedge funds, and estate plans. There are a lot more if you want to go on.
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Note added at 1 hr 35 mins (2005-05-24 13:12:51 GMT)
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It could also mean that up until now they\'ve gotten into these areas, and are still expanding into others. But given that the change has ocurred over a period of 20 odd years, IMHO these potential areas must have already been exploited.
So I think 仅举几例 is more likely the meaning here.
For starters is an idiom. See the following link...
http://www.bartleby.com/61/30/S0713000.html
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Note added at 1 hr 50 mins (2005-05-24 13:28:30 GMT)
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For a random example,
A: \"That movie was terrible.\"
B: \"What did you not like about the movie?\"
A: \"For starters, the dialog was so fake...\"
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Note added at 23 hrs 4 mins (2005-05-25 10:42:19 GMT)
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首先 is a good translation here. But the Chinese 首先 typically is followed with more examples, like 其次.
\"For starters\" doesn\'t necessarily have to be followed with more examples, it has the meaning of \"光挑最突出的一点（几点）来讲把\", and implicitly has the meaning of giving a prominent example to demonstrate something.
Please see the following link:
http://www.northwoodsoft.com/display/router.aspx?DocID=142
Briggs & Stratton turned to Northwoods Software Development for an XML-based software solution. Now, when a Web page is added or modified in the source language, Briggs\' translation agency (Cogen) is automatically notified. But that\'s just for starters. Because the CMS is native XML, Cogen can export pre-translated text strings and re-import them when the job is complete.
Here the author used the whole phrase of \"that is just for starters\". A lot of times the user could just stop there and not follow up with more examples, although in this case the author does.
If you read through to the end, you\'ll notice the author using \"For starters\" a second time. I guess he loves that phrase. ;-) This time, however, he doesn\'t follow up with another example (no 其次).
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Note added at 23 hrs 5 mins (2005-05-25 10:43:42 GMT)
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correction： 光挑最突出的一点（几点）来讲吧
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Note added at 23 hrs 17 mins (2005-05-25 10:55:43 GMT)
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Well, maybe that was a bad example, I read my last link over again, and the second usage of \"for starters\" does get followed up with more arguments. In situations like this, 首先 would be a very appropriate translation.
The original text that you gave however, didn\'t seem to have anymore following arguments. Of course you could translate \"for starters\" into 首先, but then what? IMHO in this case it would be more appropriate to say \"仅举几例来讲\"
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Note added at 1 day 53 mins (2005-05-25 12:31:44 GMT)
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Here\'s another usage that is very similar to what you are trying to translate:
http://www.gendergappers.org/2005-009.html
The grassroots is not troubled since Dean uses the bible-speak to hold Bush’s feet to the fire on his lies, his attempt to destroy Social Security, the national debt, bearing false witness, media control, the thousands killed in Iraq and his continued attempts to deny women life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - just for starters.
As you can see, the author gives a whole laundry list of items, in this case obviously a list of \"examples\", and then adds on the phrase \"just for starters\". Implicitly he means there are a lot more if one wants to go on.
I\'m not sure if this type usage could easily be found documented in a dictionary.
| wherestip
United States
Local time: 08:14
Native speaker of:  English, Chinese
PRO pts in category: 46
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