rule out sth.中等

Psychologist Nina Strohminger at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study, says she wants the effect to be real but cannot rule out some unknown confounding variable.

未参与该研究的宾夕法尼亚大学心理学家尼娜·斯特罗明格说，她希望这种效果是真实的，但无法排除某个未知混杂变量的影响。

Their analysis ruled out the possibility that it was firms’ political influence, rather than their CSR stand, that accounted for the leniency: Companies that contributed more to political campaigns did not receive lower fines.

他们的分析排除了一种可能性，即从轻处罚是因为公司的政治影响力而非其企业社会责任立场：为政治竞选捐款更多的公司并没有被处以更低的罚款。

judges to rule out gene patenting.

法官排除基因专利。