Something “funny” has just been said by one of the actors, and those who have heard it are responding by an outburst of “laughter.”
Recall likewise the equally familiar picture of a huge circus tent with its bewildering array of equip194ment for the performance of feats9 of strength and daring, surrounded by tier upon tier of seats filled with expectant holiday-makers. The entertainment is about to begin; from an entrance come the blaring strains of a brass10 band, and a long, gaily11 bedecked procession circles slowly before the gaping12 throng13. At the end of the procession are half a dozen men of uncouth14 gait and bizarre appearance, their faces whitened and spotted15, queer conical caps on their heads, and wearing enormous, shapeless garments as white and spotted as their faces.
These men say nothing—they simply go through all sorts of foolish antics. But at the mere16 sight of them the same uproar17 of discordant18 sounds fills the air, the spectators, like those of the theatre and with even greater vehemence19, uniting in a very bedlam20 of guffaws21.
Pass, finally, to the open street, alive with men and women hurrying to their work. Some one has carelessly dropped on the sidewalk the slippery skin of a fruit. The first man to step on it feels his legs195 give way beneath him, strives frantically22 to keep his balance, waves his arms about, and ends by plumping to the ground with a heavy thud. At once he is beset23 by the “smiles” and “chuckles” of those who have witnessed his fall; and, hurt and annoyed, he scrambles24 to his feet, gives himself a hasty brush, and disappears as rapidly as possible.
Now, just what is this singular phenomenon of laughter, so readily induced and from such a variety of causes? What is there in the words of an actor, the antics of a clown, or the misfortune of another person, to provoke, under the circumstances mentioned, the peculiar25 reaction of bodily and facial contortion26 and inarticulate vocal27 utterance that, regarded dispassionately, seems almost repulsive28? What useful purpose can be served by such behaviour, such an obvious departure from the well-ordered ways of the reasoning life? In a word, why do we laugh?
It is a question far more easily asked than answered, as every one has discovered who has really pondered it. The answer that immediately comes to196 mind—“We laugh because we are amused”—not only is hopelessly inadequate30, but to a large extent is incorrect. It can readily be shown that people sometimes laugh in situations where their mental state is anything but that of amusement. In one well-authenticated instance a frontiersman, on returning to his home and finding it in ruins, with his wife and children mutilated corpses31, began to laugh and continued laughing until he died from the rupture32 of a blood-vessel. In another case, cited among the responses to a questionnaire on laughter issued by that well-known American psychologist, President G. Stanley Hall of Clark University, a number of young people from nineteen to twenty-four years of age were sitting together when the death of a friend was announced. “They looked at each other for a second, and then all began to laugh, and it was some time before they could become serious.”
A young woman, replying to the same questionnaire, confessed that she often laughed when hearing people speak of the death of their friends, “not be197cause it is funny or pleases her, but because she cannot help it.” Another young woman reported that on hearing of the death of a former school-mate she felt deeply grieved, yet “laughed as heartily33 as she had ever done in her life,” and, in spite of every effort to control herself, “had to break out into a laugh repeatedly.” A third “must always laugh when she hears of a death, and has had to leave the church at a funeral because she must giggle34.”
Even the shock of a severe physical pain is known to provoke occasionally, not tears but laughter. “A young man,” says C. G. Lange, “whom I was treating with a powerful caustic35 for an ulceration of the tongue, invariably, at the moment when the pain was at its highest, was attacked by a violent outburst of laughter.”
One has only to think also of the laughter caused by tickling36 to realise that it is not always true to say that we laugh because we are amused. And when it is true, this answer, instead of solving the problem of laughter, merely raises it in another form, since198 it then becomes necessary to explain why we are amused by the sayings and happenings at which we laugh. Most students of laughter have indeed felt that the important thing to do is to determine the nature of the laughable, a task itself of considerable difficulty and leading to the most diverse conclusions in the numerous explanatory formulas which have been advanced from time to time, but which, when closely scrutinised, are chiefly noteworthy for their incompleteness.
To mention only a few of the theories of the comic finding place in psychological works, it is affirmed by some authorities that the essence of the laughable is that it induces a sudden sense of superiority in the person moved to laughter. This is the “sudden glory” theory of Thomas Hobbes, and in support of it is cited more especially the familiar fact that nobody likes to be laughed at. It also finds support in the undoubted feeling of contempt which so often accompanies the laughter provoked by the buffooneries of a mountebank37, the dialogue and action199 of a farce38 comedy, and the so-called “comic pictures” now to be found in such lamentable39 profusion40 in many of our newspapers. In some slight degree, too, there may be a “sudden glory” in the laughter at the awkwardness and groundless fears of a child, or at his na?ve remarks, and in the laughter occasioned by mischances to other people. But certainly there is much that is laughable—notably the kindly41 banter42 between friends—that cannot reasonably be said to engender43 any feeling of superiority. And, more than this, we are all of us, every day of our lives, witnessing things that do suddenly arouse in us a lively feeling of superiority, but without moving us to laughter—moving us, rather, to pity and perhaps tears.
Even as amended44 by the psychologist Bain, the “sudden glory” theory remains45 inadequate. Bain defines “the occasion of the ludicrous” as “the degradation46 of some person or interest possessing dignity in circumstances that excite no other strong emotion.” This is a decided47 improvement, because it200 clearly recognises that the laughable must be devoid48 of elements awakening49 counteracting50 emotions. But it is open to the criticism that laughter is frequently excited by objects and occurrences in which, unless the imagination be severely51 wrenched52, it is impossible to assume that ideas of degradation are dominant53 or even operant.
When, for example, we laugh at the spectacle of a child half hidden in his grandfather’s hat, what do we think of as degraded? Is it the child, the hat, or the absent grandfather? In such an instance can the idea of degradation properly be said to enter at all? So, likewise, it is difficult to conceive the presence of any idea either of degradation or superiority in the ringing laughter of a child at his puppy’s gambols54 or at the frisking of his kitten. And how explain on such a principle the laughter at non-malicious witticism55?
Appreciating the inapplicability of the Hobbesian doctrine56 in any form as explanatory of all sources of laughter, other investigators58 have emphasised the201 principle of contrast and incongruity59, but to scarcely more satisfactory effect. “Laughter,” says Herbert Spencer, “naturally results only when consciousness is unawares transferred from great things to small—when there is what we call a descending60 incongruity.” The manifest insufficiency of this theory is avoided in the more extensive one, to which Darwin inclines, defining the laughable as that which is queer, unusual, disagreeing with or contrary to our mental habits or the normal order of affairs. Assuredly there is almost always an element of queerness in the things at which we laugh. Yet it is also certain that the queer does not always make us laugh. As Camille Mélinaud has pointed61 out:
“There are things contrary to the normal order that have nothing ludicrous about them; and if the view were true that queerness is the laughable element, those things that are strangest and most unusual should be the ones most certain by their very nature to excite laughter. But we do not laugh at the dancing horses, the jumping pigs, the musicians202 playing on bottles, of the circus, all of which are most contradictory62 of what we are accustomed to. If we laugh at the circus, it is at the accessory jokes and incidents in the detail. A conjurer’s tricks, seemingly contradictory as they are of all our experiences and notions, do not make us laugh. We laugh at his jokes and his funny ways of proceeding63, but we wonder at his tricks.” (Popular Science Monthly, vol. liii, p. 398.)
Mélinaud’s own view, oddly enough, is about as unconvincing as any that has ever been formulated64, for, while laying stress on the principle of incongruity, he insists that laughter comes only when the laugher, “by a rapid process of thought,” submits the object of his mirth to a reflective analysis and arrives at the laugh-provoking conclusion that what seems absurd is really quite natural from the point of view of the person or thing laughed at. Then, and not until then, do we feel amused. On such a theory one might well wonder that children ever find it possible to laugh, and that laughter is so prev203alent among adults who are not accustomed to any very high degree of logical thinking.
Altogether different from any of the foregoing is the more recent theory of the French philosopher, Henri Bergson, as presented in a special treatise65 on laughter, of which an excellent translation by C. Brereton and F. Rothwell has lately been published in this country. Bergson recognises, as not every investigator57 has done, the essentially66 spontaneous character of laughter, and he insists with Darwin on postulating67 queerness as an indispensable element in the laughable. But, as he sees it, the queerness must be of a specific sort in order to excite laughter—must consist, in fine, in an automatic inelasticity, whether of form, action, or thought, which is in sharp contrast to the wonted mobility69 of life. It is our immediate29 recognition of this automatism and rigidity70 that moves us to laughter.
When, Bergson affirms, we laugh at a man who stumbles and falls in the street, our laughter is caused, not by his sudden change of attitude, but by204 the involuntary element in this change. “Perhaps there was a stone on the road. He should have altered his pace or avoided the obstacle. Instead of that, through lack of elasticity68, through absent-mindedness and a kind of physical obstinacy—as a result, in fact, of rigidity or of momentum—the muscles continued to perform the same movement when the circumstances of the case called for something else. That is the reason of the man’s fall, and also of the people’s laughter.” So with our laughter at the appearance and horseplay of a clown. We laugh at his painted face because we immediately recognise in it “something mechanical encrusted upon the living,” and we laugh at his antics because of their automatic, machine-like character.
In fact, “We laugh every time a person gives us the impression of being a thing. We laugh at Sancho Panza tumbled into a bed-quilt and tossed into the air like a foot-ball. We laugh at Baron72 Munchausen turned into a cannon-ball and travelling through space.” In laughter caused by puns, jests,205 and witticisms73, the same principles of automatism and inelasticity obtain, though of course in much subtler form. Analyse closely all varieties of the comic and you always get back to the basic idea of “something mechanical in something living.” Or, Bergson concludes, “The comic is that side of a person which reveals his likeness74 to a thing, that aspect of human events which, through its peculiar inelasticity, conveys the impression of pure mechanism75, of automatism, of movement without life.”
Really to appreciate both the plausibility76 and the shortcomings of this novel theory of the laughable one must read Professor Bergson’s book. It is there elaborated so ingeniously that one finds it difficult to give instances of the comic to which it cannot in some way be applied77. Even the laughter of children at the bobbing up of their jack-in-the-box, the fall of their house of cards, or the tail-chasing gyrations of their kitten, may conceivably be explained on the assumption that what the children laugh at is the automatic character of the bobbing, the falling, and206 the whirling. On the other hand, these very examples irresistibly78 suggest that the Bergsonian explanation is, after all, rather strained and far-fetched, and that, in common with its less thorough-going predecessors79, it overlooks the elusive80 something fundamental to the laughable. This impression is deepened when we recall the extent to which automatism, rigidity, inelasticity, prevail in the affairs of men without exciting so much as a smile.
“The attitudes, gestures, and movements of the human body,” says Professor Bergson, in stating one of his many subsidiary laws of the comic, “are laughable in exact proportion as that body reminds us of a mere machine.” Why, then, do we not laugh when we observe the machine-like precision with which a company of soldiers march on parade or execute the evolutions of drill? Surely one could not find a better example of “something mechanical in something living.” And, again, “any arrangement of acts and events is comic which gives us, in a single combination, the illusion of life and the distinct im207pression of a mechanical arrangement.” The bobbing of the jack-in-the-box meets this formula, and we do laugh at the jack-in-the-box. But it is met equally well by the strangely lifelike movements of such devices as the automatic chess-player and the type-setting machine, yet these do not ordinarily elicit81 any appreciable82 manifestation83 of mirth.
It is, however, when we turn to Bergson’s deductions84 from his theory of the comic that we are most strongly impelled85 to question its soundness. Emphasizing as he does the element of automatism in the laughable, he logically enough infers that the function of laughter is to serve as a social corrective. “The rigid71, the ready-made, the mechanical, in contrast with the supple86, the ever-changing, and the living, absent-mindedness in contrast with attention, in a word, automatism in contrast with free activity, such are the defects that laughter singles out and would fain correct.” We laugh, that is to say, only at imperfections in our fellow-men, or at things which remind us of imperfections, and the reason we laugh208 is that, consciously or unconsciously, we wish to call attention to them by way of, in Bergson’s own words, “a kind of social ragging.”
Stated thus baldly, the underlying87 defect of such an explanation of laughter becomes plainly apparent.3 What has happened is that its author has read into the phenomenon of laughter a meaning applicable only under special circumstances. If it were true that we laugh only at what is imperfect and therefore ugly, however attenuated88 in ugliness, it would be impossible to understand the well-nigh universal eagerness for laughter; an eagerness which has led mankind to reward lavishly89, even extravagantly90, those who make it their business to provide occasions for laughter—the writers of farces91 and comedies, the fun-making actors and clowns, the producers of 209“comic pictures.” The egregious92 falsity of this “deformity” theory, as it may fairly be called, becomes still more manifest when we endeavour to apply it to account for the laughter of childhood, the period of life when laughter is most free and exuberant93, but precisely94 when it is incredible to assume that it is motivated by any corrective impulse, conscious or otherwise.
To tell the truth, the attempt to reach a wholly satisfactory solution of the problem of laughter by striving to define the characteristics of the laughable seems foredoomed to failure. For, after all, the laughable must always remain a more or less uncertain quantity, if only for the reason that, as shown by facts of everyday observation, what makes one person laugh may not be in the least laugh-provoking to another. Yet everybody, or almost everybody, does laugh to some extent, and therefore the proper point of approach would rather seem to be through a study of the act of laughter itself and of its consequences with regard, not to the person or thing or210 phrase laughed at, but to the person doing the laughing.
Attacking the problem from this altogether different angle, one is soon in a position to discern several facts of real helpfulness in an explanatory way. By no means the least important is the extreme exuberance95 of laughter in childhood, to which reference has just been made. Once the child has begun to laugh—usually during the fourth or fifth month after birth, although occasional outbursts of a shadowy sort of laughter have been observed before the fourth month—it laughs with a truly amazing spontaneity and frequency. There seems to be nothing which may not become an object of laughter to a child, and, more than this, in direct contradiction to all theories postulating a reflective element at the bottom of every laugh, as often as not the laughter of childhood is conspicuously96 devoid of such an element.
For example, to cite a few observations from the record of a lady, Miss Milicent Shinn, whose pains211taking study of the infancy97 of her niece Ruth is among the most stimulating98 of contributions to the modern science of child psychology99, it appears that toward the end of the fifth month this little girl “habitually laughed with glee when any one smiled or spoke100 to her.” And when, two months later, she was taken into the open and allowed to roll about on a quilt, “the wooing of the passing freshness, the play of sun and shadow, the large stir of life in moving and sounding things, all this possessed101 her and made her ‘laugh and ejaculate with pleasure.’” Also, like almost every child of her age, little Ruth would be moved to hilarious102 mirth by being given a ride on somebody’s foot, or tossed and jumped about in one’s arms. Laughter, again, followed the successful accomplishment103 of any intellectual or muscular feat4, such as pointing out pictures she had been asked to identify, climbing stairs, or deliberately104 letting herself fall “so as to come down sitting with a thud.”
The same tendency to excessive, even seemingly212 causeless laughter in the opening years of life has been noted105 by other close students of the emotions and their expression. Some have attempted, with the usual futile106 results, to explain it by an analysis of the things at which the child laughs. Others, more cautiously and more accurately107, content themselves with describing it as a means whereby Nature provides a salutary outlet108 for surplus nervous energy.
It is undoubtedly109 this. Ask any child who has learned to talk—or, better, ask a grown person who has retained to a marked degree the faculty110 for hearty111 laughter—and the chances are you will be told that, while in any given instance the laugher may be far from clear as to why he has laughed, he does know that the involuntary movements of the laughter to which he yielded were preceded by peculiarly compelling sensations, variously expressed in such phrases as, “I had to laugh or burst,” “I had to do something to relieve the strain,” “I felt bubbling213 over,” “I felt a quiver, a thrill, a creepy feeling passing from my stomach to my mouth.”
That is to say, the evidence from the abounding112 laughter of childhood—pre-eminently a period of rapid physical growth and of the accumulation of a large store of nervous energy—as also the evidence from the laughter of unusually mirthful adults, who are, as a rule, persons of large build and of corresponding nervous force, suggests irresistibly the conception of laughter as an instinct implanted in us for the performance of an important physiological113 function. This view finds additional support in the familiar “giggling silliness” of the adolescent period, that strange period of unusual growth and stress, and the one in which are most likely to occur those singular attacks of untimely hilarity114 at funerals and on other solemn occasions, as mentioned among the responses to President Hall’s questionnaire. No more than the little child or your friend the jolly man does the adolescent always know at what he is214 laughing. He simply knows that he is impelled to laugh by forces latent in his being and over which he has no control.
Nor is it only as a relief from neural115 tension that laughter benefits the one who laughs. In the studies of laughter in childhood made by such investigators as Preyer116, Sully, and Miss Shinn, one finds frequent allusion117 to occasions when laughter is obviously a reaction from a state of mental strain, and has a specifically useful effect in easing the mind. There is reason to believe that this is actually one of its constant ends—that it is a device for lightening the burden of mentation by temporary interruption of the thought process.
As all educators are well aware, the first years of life and the adolescent period are not only the years of greatest physical growth, but the years when the severest demands are made on the mind, both by the task of acquiring knowledge and by the perturbations of adolescence118. They are the years when the mind, in its immaturity119, is most in need of some protective215 mechanism to enable it automatically and at frequent intervals121 to take a holiday as it were. Such a mechanism is admirably provided in laughter, which, as every laugher will at once appreciate, when not unduly122 prolonged leaves behind it a pleasurable feeling of exhilaration and greater mental as well as physical well-being123.
We laugh, then, in infancy and adolescence, not primarily because we are “light-hearted” or “amused,” but to satisfy a natural instinct of both physiological and psychological utility. We laugh less in maturity120, partly because we have not, as a rule, the same necessity of getting rid of surplus nervous energy, partly because our minds have passed the tender formative age, and partly because widening experience has developed sentiments and ideas tending to inhibit124 laughter. Nevertheless we do still need to a certain extent the relief which laughter brings; we feel in some degree the old hunger for it, and consequently, often at very slight provocation125, we yield, and even cultivate opportunities for yield216ing, to the impulse which was so conspicuously operant in the years of our youth. As with every instinct, moreover, the laughing process may, and occasionally does, become perverted126, as in the laughter of cynicism and contempt, and in the abnormal laughter of the overwrought—itself, however, the modern medical psychologist assures us, a medium of relief from an unbearable127 strain.
As to the things at which we commonly laugh—the “laughable” whose nature has so perplexed128 philosophers—all that may safely be said is that their laugh-provoking power depends not so much on an inherent “comicality” as on the circumstances under which they occur to us, and our point of view toward them as determined129 by previous training and experience. Certainly, for instance, we cannot laugh at a subtle bit of wit until we have had education in the appreciation130 of the skilful131 use of language. The instincts of imitation and of sympathy, further, have a share in determining on many an occasion the functioning of the laughing instinct. Time and217 again we laugh merely because we see other people laughing. Personally I am inclined to think also that much at which we laugh as adults is laughable to us only by reason of subconscious132 association with similar occurrences which chanced to move us to laughter in our childhood. But on this point nothing positive should be asserted pending133 psychological investigation134 which has yet to be made.
Conceding, however, that the laughable is and must always remain elusive, baffling, uncertain, there need be no uncertainty135 as to our view of laughter itself. To laugh—to laugh spontaneously and heartily—is under nearly every circumstance a good thing both for the body and for the mind. Like sleep, it refreshes; like food, it strengthens. Humanity in truth would be the poorer—and the shorter-lived—were it ever to lose this splendid heritage of the power to laugh.
This is why I have said so much about laughter in the present book. To parents in especial knowledge of its true significance is important. They will not then fall into the mistake, too often made at present,218 of curbing136 their children’s instinctive137 tendency to laugh. Rather, they should deliberately seek to cultivate in them a keen sense of humour, and encourage them in merriment—not because it is a thing pleasing in itself, but because of its positive developmental value. Directly or indirectly138 to repress this basic instinct is always dangerous, leading to warpings of character, and at times undoubtedly contributing to the causation of that strangest and most misunderstood of human maladies, hysteria, to which we must now give some consideration.
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presto
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| adv.急速地；n.急板乐段；adj.急板的 | |
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weirdly
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| 古怪地 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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grimaces
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| n.（表蔑视、厌恶等）面部扭曲，鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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bedlam
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| n.混乱，骚乱；疯人院 | |
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guffaws
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| n.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的名词复数 )v.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的第三人称单数 ) | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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scrambles
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| n.抢夺( scramble的名词复数 )v.快速爬行( scramble的第三人称单数 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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contortion
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| n.扭弯，扭歪，曲解 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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rupture
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| n.破裂；(关系的)决裂；v.(使)破裂 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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giggle
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| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
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caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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tickling
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| 反馈，回授，自旋挠痒法 | |
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mountebank
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| n.江湖郎中；骗子 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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42
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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43
engender
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| v.产生，引起 | |
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Amended
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| adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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45
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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48
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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49
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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50
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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51
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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52
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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53
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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54
gambols
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的第三人称单数 ) | |
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55
witticism
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| n.谐语，妙语 | |
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56
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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57
investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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58
investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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59
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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60
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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61
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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62
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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64
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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65
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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66
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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67
postulating
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| v.假定，假设( postulate的现在分词 ) | |
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68
elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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69
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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rigidity
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| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
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71
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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72
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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73
witticisms
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| n.妙语，俏皮话( witticism的名词复数 ) | |
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74
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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75
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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76
plausibility
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| n. 似有道理, 能言善辩 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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82
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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83
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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84
deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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88
attenuated
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| v.（使）变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变薄；（使）变小；减弱 | |
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89
lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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91
farces
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| n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 )；闹剧；笑剧剧目；作假的可笑场面 | |
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egregious
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| adj.非常的，过分的 | |
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93
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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95
exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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96
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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97
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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98
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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99
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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100
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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101
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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102
hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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103
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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104
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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105
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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106
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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107
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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108
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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110
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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111
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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112
abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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113
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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114
hilarity
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| n.欢乐；热闹 | |
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115
neural
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| adj.神经的，神经系统的 | |
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116
preyer
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| 猛兽，猛禽 | |
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117
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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118
adolescence
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| n.青春期，青少年 | |
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119
immaturity
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| n.不成熟；未充分成长；未成熟；粗糙 | |
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120
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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121
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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122
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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123
well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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124
inhibit
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| vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制 | |
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125
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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126
perverted
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| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
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127
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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128
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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129
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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130
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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131
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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132
subconscious
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| n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的) | |
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133
pending
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| prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的 | |
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134
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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135
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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136
curbing
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| n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 ) | |
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137
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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138
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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