My year was really spent doing a lot of soul-searching.
我把这一年都花在了深刻的反省上。
Sounds like there will be a lot of soul-searching involved.
如此说来,我们似乎需要进行大量自省。
Obviously, it's only a pretense.
很明显,这只是一个托词。
My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that.
亲爱的孩子,我们别再演戏了。