U-turns

Sure, there are the fortunate few from whom the journey has thus far been smooth sailing, but for the vast majority of us, there are fits and starts, hiccups, confusion, mistakes, wrong turns, U-turns, graceless moments.

诚然，少数幸运儿的人生迄今一帆风顺，但我们对大多数人而言，生命里会有断断续续、会有中断的时候、会有困惑、错误、会拐错弯、掉错头，还有颜面尽失的时候。

And since many new things, perhaps most new things, turn out to be bad ideas, this means U-turns and embarrassments and all the other troubles that politicians and administrators dislike so intensely.

而事实上，许多新事物，或者说大多数新事物，都不是什么好主意，这也就意味着政策反复和其他尴尬情形。政客和管理者对这些麻烦都深恶痛绝。

U-turns, refinements and clarifications are frequent.

方针、政策等的急速转变，调整提高以及解释说明屡见不鲜。