Here, then, as it seems to them, is an enormous field for the energy of the reformer. Here are many noble goals attainable21 by many of those paths up the Hill Difficulty along which great spirits love to aspire22. Unhappily, the hill will never be climbed by Man as we know him. It need not be denied that if we all struggled bravely to the end of the reformers’ paths we should improve the world prodigiously23. But there is no more hope in that If than in the equally plausible24 assurance that if the sky falls we shall all catch larks25. We are not going to tread those paths: we have not sufficient energy. We do not desire the end enough: indeed in more cases we do not effectively desire it at all. Ask any man would he like to be a better man; and he will say yes, most piously27. Ask him would he like to have a million of money; and he will say yes, most sincerely. But the pious26 citizen who would like to be a better man goes on behaving just as he did before. And the tramp who would like the million does not take the trouble to earn ten shillings: multitudes of men and women, all eager to accept a legacy28 of a million, live and die without having ever possessed29 five pounds at one time, although beggars have died in rags on mattresses30 stuffed with gold which they accumulated because they desired it enough to nerve them to get it and keep it. The economists31 who discovered that demand created supply soon had to limit the proposition to “effective demand,” which turned out, in the final analysis, to mean nothing more than supply itself; and this holds good in politics, morals, and all other departments as well: the actual supply is the measure of the effective demand; and the mere aspirations32 and professions produce nothing. No community has ever yet passed beyond the initial phases in which its pugnacity33 and fanaticism34 enabled it to found a nation, and its cupidity35 to establish and develop a commercial civilization. Even these stages have never been attained by public spirit, but always by intolerant wilfulness36 and brute37 force. Take the Reform Bill of 1832 as an example of a conflict between two sections of educated Englishmen concerning a political measure which was as obviously necessary and inevitable38 as any political measure has ever been or is ever likely to be. It was not passed until the gentlemen of Birmingham had made arrangements to cut the throats of the gentlemen of St. James’s parish in due military form. It would not have been passed to this day if there had been no force behind it except the logic39 and public conscience of the Utilitarians40. A despotic ruler with as much sense as Queen Elizabeth would have done better than the mob of grown-up Eton boys who governed us then by privilege, and who, since the introduction of practically Manhood Suffrage41 in 1884, now govern us at the request of proletarian Democracy.
At the present time we have, instead of the Utilitarians, the Fabian Society, with its peaceful, constitutional, moral, economical policy of Socialism, which needs nothing for its bloodless and benevolent42 realization43 except that the English people shall understand it and approve of it. But why are the Fabians well spoken of in circles where thirty years ago the word Socialist was understood as equivalent to cut-throat and incendiary? Not because the English have the smallest intention of studying or adopting the Fabian policy, but because they believe that the Fabians, by eliminating the element of intimidation44 from the Socialist agitation45, have drawn the teeth of insurgent46 poverty and saved the existing order from the only method of attack it really fears. Of course, if the nation adopted the Fabian policy, it would be carried out by brute force exactly as our present property system is. It would become the law; and those who resisted it would be fined, sold up, knocked on the head by policemen, thrown into prison, and in the last resort “executed” just as they are when they break the present law. But as our proprietary47 class has no fear of that conversion48 taking place, whereas it does fear sporadic49 cut-throats and gunpowder50 plots, and strives with all its might to hide the fact that there is no moral difference whatever between the methods by which it enforces its proprietary rights and the method by which the dynamitard asserts his conception of natural human rights, the Fabian Society is patted on the back just as the Christian51 Social union is, whilst the Socialist who says bluntly that a Social revolution can be made only as all other revolutions have been made, by the people who want it killing52, coercing53, and intimidating54 the people who dont want it, is denounced as a misleader of the people, and imprisoned55 with hard labor to shew him how much sincerity56 there is in the objection of his captors to physical force.
Are we then to repudiate57 Fabian methods, and return to those of the barricader, or adopt those of the dynamitard and the assassin? On the contrary, we are to recognize that both are fundamentally futile58. It seems easy for the dynamitard to say “Have you not just admitted that nothing is ever conceded except to physical force? Did not Gladstone admit that the Irish Church was disestablished, not by the spirit of Liberalism, but by the explosion which wrecked60 Clerkenwell prison?” Well, we need not foolishly and timidly deny it. Let it be fully61 granted. Let us grant, further, that all this lies in the nature of things; that the most ardent62 Socialist, if he owns property, can by no means do otherwise than Conservative proprietors63 until property is forcibly abolished by the whole nation; nay64, that ballots65, and parliamentary divisions, in spite of their vain ceremony, of discussion, differ from battles only as the bloodless surrender of an outnumbered force in the field differs from Waterloo or Trafalgar. I make a present of all these admissions to the Fenian who collects money from thoughtless Irishmen in America to blow up Dublin Castle; to the detective who persuades foolish young workmen to order bombs from the nearest ironmonger and then delivers them up to penal66 servitude; to our military and naval67 commanders who believe, not in preaching, but in an ultimatum68 backed by plenty of lyddite; and, generally, to all whom it may concern. But of what use is it to substitute the way of the reckless and bloodyminded for the way of the cautious and humane69? Is England any the better for the wreck59 of Clerkenwell prison, or Ireland for the disestablishment of the Irish Church? Is there the smallest reason to suppose that the nation which sheepishly let Charles and Laud70 and Strafford coerce71 it, gained anything because it afterwards, still more sheepishly, let a few strongminded Puritans, inflamed72 by the masterpieces of Jewish revolutionary literature, cut off the heads of the three? Suppose the Gunpowder plot had succeeded, and set a Fawkes dynasty permanently73 on the throne, would it have made any difference to the present state of the nation? The guillotine was used in France up to the limit of human endurance, both on Girondins and Jacobins. Fouquier Tinville followed Marie Antoinette to the scaffold; and Marie Antoinette might have asked the crowd, just as pointedly74 as Fouquier did, whether their bread would be any cheaper when her head was off. And what came of it all? The Imperial France of the Rougon Macquart family, and the Republican France of the Panama scandal and the Dreyfus case. Was the difference worth the guillotining of all those unlucky ladies and gentlemen, useless and mischievous75 as many of them were? Would any sane76 man guillotine a mouse to bring about such a result? Turn to Republican America. America has no Star Chamber77, and no feudal78 barons79. But it has Trusts; and it has millionaires whose factories, fenced in by live electric wires and defended by Pinkerton retainers with magazine rifles, would have made a Radical of Reginald Front de Boeuf. Would Washington or Franklin have lifted a finger in the cause of American Independence if they had foreseen its reality?
No: what Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon could not do with all the physical force and moral prestige of the State in their hands, cannot be done by enthusiastic criminals and lunatics. Even the Jews, who, from Moses to Marx and Lassalle, have inspired all the revolutions, have had to confess that, after all, the dog will return to his vomit80 and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire81; and we may as well make up our minds that Man will return to his idols82 and his cupidities, in spite of “movements” and all revolutions, until his nature is changed. Until then, his early successes in building commercial civilizations (and such civilizations, Good Heavens!) are but preliminaries to the inevitable later stage, now threatening us, in which the passions which built the civilization become fatal instead of productive, just as the same qualities which make the lion king in the forest ensure his destruction when he enters a city. Nothing can save society then except the clear head and the wide purpose: war and competition, potent83 instruments of selection and evolution in one epoch84, become ruinous instruments of degeneration in the next. In the breeding of animals and plants, varieties which have arisen by selection through many generations relapse precipitously into the wild type in a generation or two when selection ceases; and in the same way a civilization in which lusty pugnacity and greed have ceased to act as selective agents and have begun to obstruct85 and destroy, rushes downwards86 and backwards87 with a suddenness that enables an observer to see with consternation88 the upward steps of many centuries retraced89 in a single lifetime. This has often occurred even within the period covered by history; and in every instance the turning point has been reached long before the attainment90, or even the general advocacy on paper, of the levelling-up of the mass to the highest point attainable by the best nourished and cultivated normal individuals.
We must therefore frankly91 give up the notion that Man as he exists is capable of net progress. There will always be an illusion of progress, because wherever we are conscious of an evil we remedy it, and therefore always seem to ourselves to be progressing, forgetting that most of the evils we see are the effects, finally become acute, of long-unnoticed retrogressions; that our compromising remedies seldom fully recover the lost ground; above all, that on the lines along which we are degenerating92, good has become evil in our eyes, and is being undone93 in the name of progress precisely94 as evil is undone and replaced by good on the lines along which we are evolving. This is indeed the Illusion of Illusions; for it gives us infallible and appalling95 assurance that if our political ruin is to come, it will be effected by ardent reformers and supported by enthusiastic patriots96 as a series of necessary steps in our progress. Let the Reformer, the Progressive, the Meliorist then reconsider himself and his eternal ifs and ans which never become pots and pans. Whilst Man remains97 what he is, there can be no progress beyond the point already attained and fallen headlong from at every attempt at civilization; and since even that point is but a pinnacle98 to which a few people cling in giddy terror above an abyss of squalor, mere progress should no longer charm us.
点击收听单词发音
1 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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2 socialist | |
n.社会主义者;adj.社会主义的 | |
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3 millennial | |
一千年的,千福年的 | |
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4 iniquitous | |
adj.不公正的;邪恶的;高得出奇的 | |
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5 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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6 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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7 moth | |
n.蛾,蛀虫 | |
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8 acrobat | |
n.特技演员,杂技演员 | |
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9 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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10 laborer | |
n.劳动者,劳工 | |
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11 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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12 radical | |
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
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13 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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14 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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15 anarchist | |
n.无政府主义者 | |
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16 vegetarian | |
n.素食者;adj.素食的 | |
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17 ethics | |
n.伦理学;伦理观,道德标准 | |
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18 prescription | |
n.处方,开药;指示,规定 | |
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19 physically | |
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律 | |
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20 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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21 attainable | |
a.可达到的,可获得的 | |
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22 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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23 prodigiously | |
adv.异常地,惊人地,巨大地 | |
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24 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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25 larks | |
n.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的名词复数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了v.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的第三人称单数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了 | |
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26 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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27 piously | |
adv.虔诚地 | |
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28 legacy | |
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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29 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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30 mattresses | |
褥垫,床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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31 economists | |
n.经济学家,经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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32 aspirations | |
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音 | |
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33 pugnacity | |
n.好斗,好战 | |
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34 fanaticism | |
n.狂热,盲信 | |
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35 cupidity | |
n.贪心,贪财 | |
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36 wilfulness | |
任性;倔强 | |
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37 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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38 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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39 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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40 utilitarians | |
功利主义者,实用主义者( utilitarian的名词复数 ) | |
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41 suffrage | |
n.投票,选举权,参政权 | |
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42 benevolent | |
adj.仁慈的,乐善好施的 | |
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43 realization | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
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44 intimidation | |
n.恐吓,威胁 | |
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45 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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46 insurgent | |
adj.叛乱的,起事的;n.叛乱分子 | |
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47 proprietary | |
n.所有权,所有的;独占的;业主 | |
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48 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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49 sporadic | |
adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular;分散的 | |
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50 gunpowder | |
n.火药 | |
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51 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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52 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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53 coercing | |
v.迫使做( coerce的现在分词 );强迫;(以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段)控制;支配 | |
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54 intimidating | |
vt.恐吓,威胁( intimidate的现在分词) | |
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55 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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57 repudiate | |
v.拒绝,拒付,拒绝履行 | |
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58 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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59 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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60 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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61 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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62 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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63 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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64 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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65 ballots | |
n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 );选举;选票;投票总数v.(使)投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 ) | |
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66 penal | |
adj.刑罚的;刑法上的 | |
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67 naval | |
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的 | |
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68 ultimatum | |
n.最后通牒 | |
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69 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
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70 laud | |
n.颂歌;v.赞美 | |
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71 coerce | |
v.强迫,压制 | |
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72 inflamed | |
adj.发炎的,红肿的v.(使)变红,发怒,过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73 permanently | |
adv.永恒地,永久地,固定不变地 | |
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74 pointedly | |
adv.尖地,明显地 | |
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75 mischievous | |
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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76 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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77 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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78 feudal | |
adj.封建的,封地的,领地的 | |
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79 barons | |
男爵( baron的名词复数 ); 巨头; 大王; 大亨 | |
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80 vomit | |
v.呕吐,作呕;n.呕吐物,吐出物 | |
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81 mire | |
n.泥沼,泥泞;v.使...陷于泥泞,使...陷入困境 | |
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82 idols | |
偶像( idol的名词复数 ); 受崇拜的人或物; 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物; 神像 | |
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83 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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84 epoch | |
n.(新)时代;历元 | |
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85 obstruct | |
v.阻隔,阻塞(道路、通道等);n.阻碍物,障碍物 | |
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86 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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87 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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88 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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89 retraced | |
v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 );回忆;回顾;追溯 | |
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90 attainment | |
n.达到,到达;[常pl.]成就,造诣 | |
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91 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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92 degenerating | |
衰退,堕落,退化( degenerate的现在分词 ) | |
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93 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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94 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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95 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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96 patriots | |
爱国者,爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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97 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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98 pinnacle | |
n.尖塔,尖顶,山峰;(喻)顶峰 | |
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