高級(jí)英語 Advanced English(張漢熙) 第一冊 9.Mark Twain ---Mirror of America
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Mark Twain ---Mirror of America
Noel Grove
Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well – one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.
Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water -- a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world.
The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ，flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States.
Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos . He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds , piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books, together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic
Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers, gamblers, and thugs as well. From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are. His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it. In later life Twain acknowledged that the river had acquainted him with every possible type of human nature. Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his writing, but he never wrote better than when he wrote of the people a-long the great stream.
When railroads began drying up the demand for steam-boat pilots and the Civil War halted commerce, Mark Twain left the river country. He tried soldiering for two weeks with a motleyband of Confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy. Twain quit after deciding, "... I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating. "
He went west by stagecoach and succumbed to the epidemic of gold and silver fever in Nevada's Washoe region. For eight months he flirted with the colossal wealth available to the lucky and the persistent, and was rebuffed . Broke and discouraged, he accepted a job as reporter with the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, to literature's enduring gratitude.
From the discouragement of his mining failures, Mark Twain began digging his way to regional fame as a newspaper reporter and humorist. The instant riches of a mining strike would not be his in the reporting trade, but for making money, his pen would prove mightier than his pickax. In the spring of 1864, less than two years after joining the Territorial Enterprise, he boarded the stagecoach for San Francisco, then and now a hotbed of hopeful young writers.
Mark Twain honed and experimented with his new writing muscles, but he had to leave the city for a while because of some scathing columns he wrote. Attacks on the city government, concerning such issues as mistreatment of Chinese, so angered officials that he fled to the goldfields in the Sacramento Valley. His descriptions of the rough-country settlers there ring familiarly in modern world accustomed to trend setting on the West Coast. "It was a splendid population – for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained slothsstayed at home... It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day – and when she projects a new surprise, the grave world smiles as usual, and says 'Well, that is California all over. '"
In the dreary winter of 1864-65 in Angels Camp, he kept a notebook. Scattered among notationsabout the weather and the tedious mining-camp meals lies an entry noting a story he had heard that day – an entry that would determine his course forever: "Coleman with his jumping frog – bet stranger $50 – stranger had no frog, and C. got him one – in the meantime stranger filled C. 's frog full of shot and he couldn't jump. The stranger's frog won." Retold with his descriptive genius, the story was printed in newspapers across the United States and became known as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Mark Twain's national reputation was now well established as "the wild humorist of the Pacific slope."
Two year s later the opportunity came for him to take a distinctly American look at the Old World. In New York City the steamship Quaker City prepared to sail on a pleasure cruise to Europe and the Holy Land. For the first time, a sizablegroup of United States citizens planned to journey as tourists -- a milestone , of sorts, in a country's development. Twain was assigned to accompany them, as correspondent 工for a California newspaper. If readers expected the usual glowing travelogue , they were sorely surprised.
Unimpressed by the Sultan of Turkey, for example, he reported, “... one could set a trap anywhere and catch a dozen abler men in a night.” Casually he debunked revered artists and art treasures, and took unholy verbalshots at the Holy Land. Back home, more newspapers began printing his articles. America laughed with him. Upon his return to the States the book version of his travels, The Innocents Abroad, became an instant best-seller.
At the age of 36 Twain settled in Hartford, Connecticut. His best books were published while he lived there.
As early as 1870 Twain had experimented with a story about the boyhood adventures of a lad he named Billy Rogers. Two years later, he changed the name to Tom, and began shaping his adventures into a stage play. Not until 1874 did the story begin developing in ear nest. After publication in 1876, Tom Sawyer quickly became a classic tale of American boyhood. Tom's mischievousdaring, ingenuity , and the sweet innocence of his affection for Becky Thatcher are almost as sure to be studied in American schools to-day as is the Declaration of Independence.
Mark Twain's own declaration of independence came from another character. Six chapters into Tom Sawyer, he drags in "the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard." Fleeing a respectable life with the puritanical Widow Douglas, Huck protests to his friend, Tom Sawyer: "I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't work, Tom. It ain't for me ... The widder eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell – everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."
Nine years after Tom Sawyer swept the nation, Huck was given a life of his own, in a book often consider ed the best ever written about Americans. His raft flight down the Mississippi with a runaway slave presents a moving panorama for exploration of American society.
On the river, and especially with Huck Finn, Twain found the ultimate expression of escape from the pace he lived by and often deplored, from life's regularities and the energy-sapping clamorfor success.
Mark Twain suggested that an ingredient was missing in the American ambition when he said: "What a robustpeople, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges."
Personal tragedy haunted his entire life, in the deaths of loved ones: his father, dying of pneumonia when Sam was 12; his brother Henry, killed by a steamboat explosion; the death of his son, Langdon, at 19 months. His eldest daughter, Susy, died of spinal meningitis , Mrs. Clemens succumbed to a heart attack in Florence, and youngest daughter., Jean, an epileptic, drowned in an upstairs bathtub .
Bitterness fed on the man who had made the world laugh. The moralizing of his earlier writing had been well padded with humor. Now the gloves came off with biting satire. He pretended to praise the U. S. military for the massacre of 600 Philippine Moros in the bowl of a volcanic, crater . In The Mysterious Stranger, he insisted that man drop his religious illusions and depend upon himself, not Providence, to make a better world.
The last of his own illusions seemed to have crumbled near the end. Dictating his autobiography late in life, he commented with a crushing sense of despair on men's final release from earthly struggles: "... they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence; where they achieved nothing; where they were a mistake and a failure and a foolishness; where they have left no sign that they had existed – a world which will lament them a day and for-get them forever.”
(from National Geographic, Sept., 1975)
第九課
馬克o吐溫--美國的一面鏡子
(節(jié)選)
諾埃爾o格羅夫
在大多數(shù)美國人的心目中，馬克o吐溫是位偉大作家，他描寫了哈克o費(fèi)恩永恒的童年時(shí)代中充滿詩情畫意的旅程和湯姆o索亞在漫長的夏日里自由自在歷險(xiǎn)探奇的故事。的確，這位美國最受人喜愛的作家的探索精神、愛國熱情、浪漫氣質(zhì)及幽默筆調(diào)都達(dá)到了登峰造極的程度。但我發(fā)現(xiàn)還有另一個(gè)不同的馬克o吐溫--一個(gè)由于深受人生悲劇的打擊而變得憤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的馬克o吐溫，一個(gè)為人類品質(zhì)上的弱點(diǎn)而憂心忡忡、明顯地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。
印刷工、領(lǐng)航員、邦聯(lián)游擊隊(duì)員、淘金者、耽于幻想的樂天派、語言尖刻的諷刺家：馬克o吐溫原名塞繆爾o朗赫恩o克萊門斯，他一生之中有超過三分之一的時(shí)間浪跡美國各地，體驗(yàn)著美國的新生活，爾后便以作家和演說家的身分將他所感受到的這一切介紹給全世界。他的筆名取自他在蒸汽船上做工時(shí)聽到的報(bào)告水深為兩口尋(12英尺)--意即可以通航的信號(hào)語。他的作品中有二十幾部至今仍在印行，其外文譯本仍在世界各地?fù)碛凶x者，由此可見他的享譽(yù)程度。
在馬克o吐溫青年時(shí)代，美國的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是這個(gè)年輕國家中部的交通大動(dòng)脈。龍骨船、平底船和大木筏載運(yùn)著最重要的商品。木材、玉米、煙草、小麥和皮貨通過這些運(yùn)載工具順流而下，運(yùn)送到河口三角洲地區(qū)，而砂糖、糖漿、棉花和威士忌酒等貨物則被運(yùn)送到北方。在19世紀(jì)50年代，西部領(lǐng)土開發(fā)高潮到來之前，遼闊的密西西比河流域占美國已開發(fā)領(lǐng)土的四分之三。
1857年，少年馬克o吐溫作為蒸汽船上的一名小領(lǐng)航員踏人了這片天地。在這個(gè)新的工作崗位上，他接觸到的是各式各樣的人物，看到的是一個(gè)多姿多彩的大干世界。他完全地投身到這種生活之中，經(jīng)常在操舵室里聽著人們談?wù)撁耖g爭斗、海盜搶劫、私刑案件、游醫(yī)賣藥以及河邊的一些化外民居的故事。所有這一切，連同他那像留聲機(jī)般準(zhǔn)確可靠的記憶所吸收的豐富多彩的語言，后來都有機(jī)會(huì)在他的作品中得以再現(xiàn)。
蒸汽船的甲板上不僅擠滿了富有開拓精神的人們，而且也載著一些娼妓、賭棍和歹徒等社會(huì)渣滓。從所有這些形形色色的人身上，馬克o吐溫敏銳地認(rèn)識(shí)了人類，認(rèn)識(shí)了人們的言與行之間的差距。他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半時(shí)間是他真正接受教育的開端，而且也是最具有深遠(yuǎn)意義的教育。到了晚年，馬克o吐溫還聲言是密西西比河使他了解了各種各樣的人的本性。這種生活體驗(yàn)對他的全部創(chuàng)作都起了促進(jìn)作用，然而他描寫得最為成功的還是那些密西西比河上的人物。
隨著鐵路運(yùn)輸?shù)陌l(fā)展，社會(huì)上對汽船領(lǐng)航員的需求日漸減少，而內(nèi)戰(zhàn)的爆發(fā)又阻礙了商業(yè)貿(mào)易的發(fā)展。這時(shí)，馬克o吐溫便離開了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦聯(lián)游擊隊(duì)的一支雜牌隊(duì)伍里當(dāng)了兩個(gè)星期的兵。那支隊(duì)伍想方設(shè)法避免與敵軍交戰(zhàn)。在確信"我比發(fā)明撤退的人更精通撤退"之后，馬克o吐溫離開了那支隊(duì)伍。
他乘驛站馬車來到西部，在內(nèi)華達(dá)州的華蘇地區(qū)受到當(dāng)時(shí)正流行的淘金熱的誘惑。同那只有既幸運(yùn)而又鍥而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大財(cái)富三心二意地打了八個(gè)月交道之后，他遭到了失敗。在破產(chǎn)和灰心之余，他接受了為弗吉尼亞市《領(lǐng)土開發(fā)報(bào)》當(dāng)記者的工作，這一行動(dòng)將獲得文學(xué)界永久的感激。
自從他因淘金失敗而感到心灰意冷之后，馬克o吐溫便開始努力博取作為一名報(bào)社記者和幽默作家的地區(qū)性聲望。從事新聞報(bào)道工作當(dāng)然不能使他像淘金成功者一樣立成巨富，但在掙錢方面他的筆桿卻比他的鋤鎬要有效得多。1864年春季，在他加盟《領(lǐng)土開發(fā)報(bào)》還不足兩年之時(shí)，他又乘驛站馬車前往舊金山，那兒在當(dāng)時(shí)和現(xiàn)在都是有前途的年輕作家成長的搖籃。
馬克o吐溫磨煉并試驗(yàn)了他的新筆力，但他卻因?qū)懥艘恍┘怃J的評論文章而被迫暫時(shí)離開這座城市。他圍繞著虐待華人等一類問題對市政府提出的尖銳批評惹得一些官員大為惱火，因之他只好逃到薩克拉門托山谷的金礦區(qū)暫避風(fēng)頭。他對那兒的拓荒者們的描寫使西海岸地區(qū)富有創(chuàng)新精神的現(xiàn)代人倍感親切。"這兒的人們真是了不起--因?yàn)槟切┍渴直磕_、無精打彩、呆頭呆腦的懶漢都呆在家里……正是那些人們?yōu)榧永Ｄ醽嗂A得了這樣的聲譽(yù)：當(dāng)他們著手進(jìn)行一項(xiàng)宏偉的事業(yè)時(shí)，他們會(huì)不計(jì)代價(jià)或風(fēng)險(xiǎn)而以一種豪邁的氣概和闖勁勇往直前，一千到底。加利福尼亞人至今仍保持著這樣的聲譽(yù)，因而，每當(dāng)他們發(fā)起一項(xiàng)新的驚天動(dòng)地的壯舉時(shí)，那些素來穩(wěn)重的人便會(huì)像往常一樣微笑著說：'看吧，這完全是加利福尼亞的風(fēng)格'。"
1864年與1865年之交的那個(gè)冬天，馬克o吐溫是在安吉爾斯礦區(qū)度過的。在這段沉悶的日子里，他記了一本筆記。在雜亂無章的有關(guān)天氣情況和乏味無趣的有關(guān)礦區(qū)飯食情況的記錄條目中夾著一條敘述當(dāng)天聽到的一則故事的記錄--這條記錄決定了他一生事業(yè)的發(fā)展方向："科爾曼用他的跳蛙--與陌生人賭50美元--陌生人沒有跳蛙，科爾曼去給他弄來一只--陌生人利用這段時(shí)間將科的跳蛙肚子塞滿鉛彈，這樣，科的跳蛙跳不起來，陌生人的跳蛙便得以獲勝。"
經(jīng)過馬克o吐溫的生花妙筆改寫之后，這個(gè)故事登在美國各地的報(bào)紙上，成了家喻戶曉的"卡拉韋拉斯縣有名的跳蛙"。至此，馬克o吐溫作為"太平洋海岸狂放的幽默大師"的聲望已在全國范圍內(nèi)牢固地確立起來了。
兩年之后，他得到了一個(gè)以美國人特有的眼光去觀察歐洲舊大陸的機(jī)會(huì)。在紐約市，"費(fèi)城號(hào)"蒸汽船準(zhǔn)備進(jìn)行一次到歐洲和圣地的觀光航行。這是美國人第一次組織較大規(guī)模的團(tuán)體觀光旅行--也可以看作是一個(gè)國家發(fā)展史上的某種里程碑。馬克o吐溫作為加利福尼亞一家報(bào)紙的記者被委派隨同觀光團(tuán)采訪。如果讀者們期望能讀到有關(guān)這次旅行見聞的神采飛揚(yáng)的描寫的話，那他們是要倍感意外的。
舉例來說，他對于那沒有給他留下什么好印象的土耳其君主蘇丹是這樣報(bào)道的，"人們可以任意選擇一個(gè)地方設(shè)一個(gè)陷阱，一夜之間準(zhǔn)可捕捉到十幾個(gè)更有能耐的人。"他信口開河地對一些受人景仰的藝術(shù)家和藝術(shù)珍品加以鄙薄，甚至對宗教圣地也敢于以褻瀆性的言辭加以侮蔑。回國以后，越來越多的報(bào)紙開始刊登他的文章，整個(gè)美國都同他一齊歡笑。他一回到美國，他的旅行雜記《傻子出國旅行記》立即成為暢銷書。
三十六歲時(shí)，馬克o吐溫開始定居于康涅狄格州哈特福德鎮(zhèn)，他的最優(yōu)秀的作品全是在那段時(shí)間里問世的。
早在1870年，馬克o吐溫就試著寫了一篇關(guān)于一個(gè)他名之為比利o羅杰斯的男孩子的童年歷險(xiǎn)故事。兩年后，他又將主人公的名字改為湯姆，并著手將故事改編成劇本。直到1874年他才開始認(rèn)真地?cái)U(kuò)展故事情節(jié)?！稖穙索亞》于1876年出版后，很快成為美國兒童故事的經(jīng)典之作。這部描寫湯姆的頑皮、勇敢、機(jī)智以及他對貝琪o莎切爾的天真純潔的感情的故事幾乎像《獨(dú)立宣言》一樣成了今天美國學(xué)校里的必讀書本。
馬克o吐溫本人的獨(dú)立宣言卻是由另一個(gè)人物表達(dá)出來的。在《湯姆o索亞》第六章里，他引出了"村里的流浪少年，鎮(zhèn)上酒鬼的兒子哈克貝利o費(fèi)恩"。哈克不愿在清教徒道格拉斯寡婦家過上等人的體面生活，從那里逃出來后對他的朋友湯姆o索亞發(fā)牢騷說："我試過了，還是不行;不行啊，湯姆。那不是我過的日子……那寡婦家吃飯要聽鐘聲，睡覺要聽鐘聲，起床也要聽鐘聲，什么事情都得規(guī)規(guī)矩矩，簡直叫人受不了。"
《湯姆o索亞》風(fēng)靡美國九年之后，哈克被賦予獨(dú)立的生命，成為一本被許多人認(rèn)為是最成功的描寫美國人的作品的書中的主人公。他同一個(gè)逃跑出來的奴隸一起乘坐木筏沿著密西西比河順流而下的漂流航程展現(xiàn)了一幅幅揭示美國社會(huì)生活全貌的生動(dòng)畫面。 通過對密西西比河，尤其是對哈克o費(fèi)恩這一人物的描寫，馬克o吐溫將自己想從那束縛著自己并常常令自己苦惱的生活步調(diào)中擺脫出來，從生活中的各種清規(guī)戒律以及為了事業(yè)成功而進(jìn)行的艱苦掙扎中解放出來的愿望表達(dá)得淋漓盡致。
馬克o吐溫認(rèn)為，美國人的理想中缺少了一種成分。他說："我們只消偶爾地躺下來好好放松休息一下，保持鋒棱利角，我們將有可能成為一個(gè)多么朝氣蓬勃的民族，一個(gè)多么富有思想的民族啊!"
馬克o吐溫的一生都籠罩在悲劇的陰影之中，自己的親人一個(gè)接一個(gè)地去世：他的父親在他十二歲那年死于肺炎，他的兄弟亨利在一次汽船爆炸事故中遇難;他的兒子朗頓才滿十九個(gè)月即離開人世。他的大女兒蘇茜死于脊膜炎;克萊門斯夫人在佛羅倫薩死于心臟病;而他的小女兒也因癲癇病的發(fā)作淹死在樓上的浴盆里。
這位曾令全世界歡笑的人自己卻飽嘗了人世的辛酸。他早期作品中的道德說教厚厚地包著一層幽默的外衣，現(xiàn)在幽默換成了辛辣的諷刺。對于美國軍隊(duì)在一個(gè)火山口上屠殺六百名菲律賓摩洛人的行為，他沒有直接進(jìn)行抨擊，而是假裝為之高唱贊歌。在《神秘的陌生人》中，他指出人類應(yīng)該拋棄宗教幻想，依靠自己而不是上帝的力量去創(chuàng)造一個(gè)更加美好的世界。
他自己的最后一個(gè)幻想到后來似乎也破滅了。在晚年口述自傳的時(shí)候，他以極端絕望的心情談到人從塵世的苦難中的最終解脫："……他們從世界上消失了，在這個(gè)世界上他們無足輕重，無所成就;甚至他們的存在本身就是個(gè)錯(cuò)誤，是個(gè)失敗，是種愚蠢。這個(gè)世界上也沒有留下絲毫能表明他們存在過的痕跡。這個(gè)世界贈(zèng)給他們的只是一日的哀傷和永久的遺忘。"
(摘自《國家地理》，1975年9月)
詞匯(Vocabulary)
idyllic ( adj. ) :pastoral or picturesque;pleasing and simple 田園詩的;田園風(fēng)光的;生動(dòng)逼真的;質(zhì)樸宜人的
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cynical ( adj.) :believing that people are notivated in all their actions only by selfishness;denying the sincerity of people's motives and actions，or the value of living玩世不恭的;憤世嫉俗的
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obsess (v.) :haunt or trouble in mind，esp. to an abnormal degree;preoccupy greatly使分心;使心神困擾(尤指精神反常、著迷)
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frailty ( n.) :the quality or condition of being frail;weakness(esp. moral weakness)脆弱性;虛弱性(尤指意志薄弱)
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tramp ( n.) :the act of tramping;a journey on foot;hike步行;徒步旅行
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prospector ( n.) :a person who prospects for valuable ores，oil，etc.(礦藏等的)勘探者;探礦者
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starry-eyed ( adj.) :with the eyes sparkling in a glow of wonder，romance，visionary dreams，etc.過于理想的;不切實(shí)際的;盲目樂觀的
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acid-tongued ( adj.) :sharp，sarcastic in speech說話尖刻的
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cynic ( n.) :a cynical person玩世不恭的人;好挖苦人的人;憤世嫉俗的人
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navigable ( n.) :wide and deep enough，or free enough from obstructions，to be traveled on by vessels可行船的;可通航的;可航行的
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attest ( n.) :serve as proof of;demonstrate;make clear作為……的證據(jù)，為……作證;論證;表明
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artery ( n.) :a main road or channel干線，干道，大路;干渠
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keelboat ( n.) :a large，shallow freight boat with a keel，formerly used on the Mississippi，Missouri，etc.(舊時(shí)密西西比河、密蘇西河等用的)龍骨船
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flatboat ( n.) :a boat with a flat bottom，for carrying freight in shallow waters or on rivers平底船
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molasses ( n.) :a thick，usually dark brown syrup produced during/he refining of sugar，or from sorghum，etc.糖蜜，糖漿
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cub ( n.) :an inexperienced，awkward youth閱歷淺的年輕人
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cosmos ( n.) :the universe considered as a harmonious and orderly system宇宙
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feud ( n.) :a bitter，long-continued，and deadly quarrel，esp. between clans of families(尤指部落或家族間的)世仇，累世宿仇，夙怨，長期不和
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lynch (v.) :[Am.]murder(an accused person)by mob action and without lawful trial，as by hanging[美]私刑處死
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phonographic ( adj.) :[Am.]of a phonograph or the sounds made by sb. [美]留聲機(jī)的，唱機(jī)的
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teem ( v.) :be full，as though ready to bring forth young;abound;swarm充滿;富于;大量地出現(xiàn);涌現(xiàn)
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flotsam ( n.) :transient，unemployed people;vagrants流離失所者，流浪者，游民;失業(yè)者;被毀掉的人
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hustler ( n.) :[Am.slang]a prostitute[美俚]妓女
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thug ( n.) :a rough，brutal hoodlum，gangster，robber，etc.惡棍;暴徒;強(qiáng)盜
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motley ( adj. ) :having or composed of many different or clashing elements;heterogeneous混亂的;雜亂的
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succumb ( v.) :①give way(to);yield;submit ②die ①屈服，屈從(常與to連用)②死
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epidemic ( n.) :the rapid，widespread occurrence of a fad，fashion，etc.(風(fēng)尚、風(fēng)氣、愛好等的)一時(shí)流行，風(fēng)行
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flirt ( v.) :trifle or toy(with)玩弄，戲耍;做著玩;不認(rèn)真地對待，不認(rèn)真地考慮(常與with連用)
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colossal ( adj.) :1ike a colossus in size;huge;gigantic;enormous巨大的，龐大的
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rebuff ( v.) :check or repulse挫敗;阻止
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broke (adj.) :[colloq.]having little or no money;bankrupt[口]無錢的，身無分文的;破了產(chǎn)的
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hone (v.) :sharpen with or as with a hone把……放在磨石上磨
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scathing ( adj. ) : searing;withering;injurious;harsh or caustic嚴(yán)厲的，尖刻的
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sluggish ( adj. ) :slow or slow-moving;not active;dull(行動(dòng))緩慢的;遲鈍的
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sloth ( n.) :a lazy person懶漢
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astound ( v.) :bewilder with sudden surprise;astonish greatly;amaze使震驚，使驚愕，使大吃一驚
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tedious ( adj.) :long or verbose and vearisome;triesome;boring冗長乏味的;使人厭倦的;沉悶的
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travelogue ( n.) :a lecture on travels, usually accompanied by the showing of pictures旅行見聞講座
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Sultan ( n.) :a Moslem ruler蘇丹(一些伊斯蘭教國家統(tǒng)治者的稱號(hào))
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debunk ( v.) :[Am.colloq.]expose the false or exaggerated claims，pretensions，glamour，etc.[美口]揭露，揭發(fā)，揭穿
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revere ( v.) :regard with deep respect，love，and awe;venerate尊敬，崇敬;敬畏
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ingenuity ( n.) :the quality of being ingenious;cleverness，originality，skill，etc.機(jī)靈，機(jī)智，足智多謀;獨(dú)創(chuàng)性，創(chuàng)造力;熟練，巧妙
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juvenile ( adj.) :young and youthful年輕的;青年的
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pariah ( n.) :any person despised or rejected by others;outcast為社會(huì)所遺棄者;流浪者
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puritanical ( adj.) :extremely or excessively strict in matters of morals and religion宗教(或道德)上極端拘謹(jǐn)?shù)?/p>
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panorama ( n.) :an unlimited view in all directions全景;全圖
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deplore ( v.) :be regretful or sorry about懊悔，悔恨，對……深感遺憾
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sap ( v.) :undermine in any way;weaken;exhaust削弱;耗竭
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clamor ( n.) :a loud outcry;uproar大聲呼喊，喧嚷，喧囂，吵鬧
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robust ( adj. ) :strong and healthy;full of vigor;hardy健壯的;精力充沛的
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haunt ( v.) :appear or recur repeatedly to，often to the point of obsession(思想、回憶等)縈繞;(疾病等)纏住
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pneumonia ( n.) :inflammation or infection of the alveoli of the lungs of varying degrees of severity and caused by any of a number of agents，such as bacteria or viruses肺炎.
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meningitis ( n.) :inflammation of the meninges.esp. as the result of infection by bacteria or viruses腦脊膜炎
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epileptic ( n.) :a person who has epilepsy癲癇患者
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pad ( v.) :stuff，cover，or line with a pad or padding填塞;襯填
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crater ( n.) :a bowl-shaped cavity，as at the mouth of a volcano or on the surface of the moon碗形洞(如火山口、環(huán)形山、月亮表面的坑狀地方)
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crumble ( v. ) :fall to pieces;disintegrate;decay破碎，破裂;使?jié)⑸?，使瓦解，消?/p>
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lament ( v.) :feel or express deep sorrow for;mourn or grieve for為……而悲痛;哀悼;為……而傷心
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短語(Expressions)
every bit: (infml)equalIy;entirely完全，同樣地
例：He is every bit as mean as she is.他與她同樣平庸。
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in print: (of a book)available for sale from the publisher;(of a person's work)printed in a book，efc.(指書)可買到，已出版
例：It was the first time he had seen his work in print.這是他第一次看見自己的作品出版。
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soak up: to receive and absorb stll.接受并吸收
例：That child soaks up new facts like a sponge!那孩子吸收新知識(shí)像海綿似的!
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succumb to: stop resisting;yield to，submit to屈服，屈從
例：Several children have measles，and the others are bound to SUCcumb to it.有幾個(gè)孩子患了麻疹，其他孩子也必然會(huì)被傳染。
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flirt with: to deal playfully or superficiMly with不認(rèn)真考慮、對待
例：I am flirting with the idea of getting a job.我胡思亂想著要去找份工作。
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of sorts: (derogative)of a poor or inferior type(貶義)差勁的，劣等
例：It was a meal of sorts，but nobody enjoyed it.這勉強(qiáng)算是一頓飯，誰都沒有吃好。
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au over: what one would expect 0f the person specified正像所說的人一樣
例：That sounds like my sister all over.聽起來跟我姐姐一模一樣。
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in earnest: seriously，not jokingly嚴(yán)肅地，認(rèn)真地
例：Both sides are deeply in earnest，with passions that approximate those of civil war。雙方都很堅(jiān)決認(rèn)真，像是鼓足勁要打一場內(nèi)戰(zhàn)似的。
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