每天早上四点起床简直是活受罪。

Getting up at four o'clock every morning is sheer purgatory.

他毫无耐性，对他来说排队等候完全是活受罪。

He's so impatient that waiting in queues is sheer purgatory for him.

待在原地，整夜忍受这种活受罪的滋味——这是不是更好呢？

To stay where he was, and endure this living death all night—was that better?

这就是我们现在所说的‘死要面子活受罪、赔了丈夫又折兵’吧。

This is what we now call 'Siyaomianzi a pain, lost her husband and folding soldiers' it.

虽然许多人认为这种方式简直是活受罪，但一直以来却是每位来宾得以被大人物认识的最好方法。

However much popular opinion may regard receiving lines as nasty ordeals, they were invented to be, and remain, the easiest way to get everyone recognized by the key people.