IT is now believed by many scientists that the cradle of the human race was the Indo-Malaysian intertropical lands.
The discovery of the remains2 of the Pithecanthropus erectus in 1892 by Dr. Eugene Dubois in the pliocene beds of East Java, established as a strong probability what was up to that time regarded as a mere4 speculation5. Keane14 and Sir John Evans15 now assert that man originated in the East in this vicinity and migrated thence to Europe.
In this semi-glacial period, man, having taken on much of his human character and being now an erect3 animal (although in physical and mental respects he still resembled his nearest kin), had little difficulty in migrating.
During the immensely long old Stone Age to which Peroché assigns a period of some three16 hundred thousand years since the beginning of the Ghellian epoch6, the pleistocene precursors7 underwent very few or slight specializations or developments, a fact due mainly to the moderate and unchanging character of the climate during this long period. Progress in the arts, however, there was, to such an extent that in some things the period has not been equalled. Of this character are the exquisitely8 wrought9 flints of the Silurian period, which cannot be reproduced now.
Primitive10 man as he existed in the Stone Age had very little in common with the “primitive men” of today. There are savages12 today who represent, in a way, a degree of savagery13 and a remoteness from civilization that in some respects takes them farther down the social ladder than any of the Aryan race of the Stone Age. “No pure primitive race exists in any part of the world today.”16 Contact with more advanced races has invariably produced, sometimes a good and sometimes an evil effect. Races are what climate, soil, diet, pursuits, and inherited character make them,17 and the Aryan savages of the Stone Age had a different set of these conditions to face from the Negro savages of today.
A WELL-CARED FOR ESKIMO INFANT
(COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)
NATIVE EAST AFRICAN MOTHER AND INFANT
(COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)
It is not surprising to find today a race that in 17many respects represents the Stone Age period of civilization, displaying, together with the most barbarous customs, a wide knowledge of the arts, indicating that there had been contact with some higher race or its representatives.
Tribes grade into one another in the matter of culture so that it is hard to classify them.18 A struggle for existence may leave its mark on an advanced tribe so that while it may in general retain prominent barbaric or primitive characteristics, it will, in every other regard but these, seem an advanced tribe. The Nigritans, for instance,19 have learned from their neighbours, the Abyssinians and the Arabs, the use of iron; yet they have not arrived at the Stone and Bronze ages in culture, and show in their social relations and domestic habits none of the characteristics of the more advanced tribes.
So in the treatment of children. Wherever the treatment of the child is at variance14 with the other customs or conditions of the race, it will almost invariably be discovered that the change is due to economic reasons or to contact with a stronger race. That it is this contact with higher races that has helped undeveloped races to advance, is the opinion of Sir H. H. Johnson.20
“In some respects I think the tendency of the Negro for several centuries past has been an actual18 retrograde one. As we come to read the unwritten history of Africa by researches into languages, manners, customs, traditions, we seem to see a backward rather than a forward movement going on for some thousand years past—a return towards the savage11 and even the brute15. I can believe it possible that, had Africa been more isolated16 from contact with the rest of the world, and cut off from the immigration of the Arab and the European, the purely17 Negroid races, left to themselves, so far from advancing towards a higher type of humanity, might have actually reverted18 by degrees to a type no longer human.”
On the other hand, G. Stanley Hall says that our intercourse19 with the African races “had been a curse and not a blessing20. Our own Indians are men of the Stone Age whom Bishop21 Whipple thought originally the noblest men on earth. Look at them now!”21
Up to a short time ago men of authority asserted that marriage had sprung up from a “state of promiscuity22,” the believers in this theory forgetting that even “among animals the most akin23 to man, this state of promiscuity is rather exceptional.”
Most of the people cited as following this practice have been shown to have individual marriage to the exclusion24 of other forms. Undoubtedly25 in many cases what are called group marriages have19 been mistaken for promiscuity. Almost equally low in the social scale is polyandry, where one woman may have several husbands.
Whatever the origin of marriage, the fact is, however, that the idea of marriage comes after the idea of the child—as in the animal world, the family is established for the purpose of taking care of the children that have been brought into the world.22
In Mahabharata, the Indian poem, we are told that marriage was founded by Swetaketu, son of the Rishi Uddalaka; according to the Chinese annals, the Emperor Fou-hi established the custom; the Egyptians ascribed its introduction to Menes, and the Greeks to Kekrops. Nowhere is it assumed as a condition of the race of all time. Its origin, growth, and development are really the origin, growth, and development of the idea of protecting human offspring.
A convincing scientific explanation of marriage, however, has been set forth26 by Westermarck.23 Among the great sub-kingdom of the Invertebrata not even the female parent exhibits any anxiety about the offspring. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs of the highest order, the insects, and in most cases the mother does not even see her young.24
20
Parental care is rare among the lowest vertebrata. Among fishes the young are generally hatched without the assistance of the parents. There are exceptions to this among the Teleostei, where the male assumes the usual maternal27 functions of constructing a nest and jealously guarding the ova deposited there by the female. The male of certain species of the Arius, carries the ova in his pharynx. Nearly all of the reptiles28, having placed their eggs in a convenient sunny spot, pay no more attention to them.
With few exceptions, the relations of the sexes of the lower vertebrata can be described as fickle29; they meet in the pairing time, part again, and have little more to do with one another.
“The Chelonia form,” says Westermarck, “with regard to their domestic habits, transition to the birds, as they do also from a zo?logical and particularly from an embryological point of view.” He then goes on to show that parental affection in the latter class, not only on the side of the mother but on that of the father, has come to high development. Members of the two sexes aid each other in nest-building, the females bringing the materials and the males doing the work. Other duties which come with the mating season are 21shared by both, the mother being concerned with incubation and the father aiding her by taking her position when she leaves the nest for intervals30, providing her with food which he gathers, and protecting her from dangers. When the breeding season is over and the young have come, a new set of duties is evolved. Young birds are not left alone by their parents, absences being necessitated31 only by searches for food for all members of the nest. When dangers threaten the nest both father and mother defend it bravely.
FAMILY LIFE AMONG BIRDS. GROUP OF AMERICAN EGRET (COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)
All efforts are made to have the young shift for themselves as soon as they have grown strong enough to make it feasible. Independence and self-dependence come only after they are in all ways capable of meeting their needs.
On the other hand, there are some species whose young, from the beginning of their ultra-oval existence, require and receive no care from the parents. The duck is one of a species which leaves all parental care to the female. In general it may be said that both parents share the parental duties, the chief duties, such as hatching and rearing of the young, falling to the mother, while the father gathers food and keeps off enemies.25
The relations of the two sexes are, therefore, very intimate, and association lasts even after the22 breeding season has passed. And only the birds of the Gallinaceous family are an exception to the rule of making such association permanent once it has been started, death alone ending it.
Real marriage is to be found only among birds.26 For mammals the same cannot be said, for though the mother generally gives much attention to the young, the father does not always have as much concern. He even, in some cases, is the enemy of his own offspring. Yet even in the cases of mammals there are durable32 associations between the sexes. Very often these last only during the rutting season, but among whales, seals, hippopotami, the Cervus campestris,27 gazelles,28 the Neotragus Hemprichii and other small antelopes33, reindeer34, the Hydromus coypus, squirrels, moles35, the ichneumon, and certain carnivorous animals, among the latter cats, martens, the yaguarundi of South America, and the Canis Brasiliensis and perhaps the wolf, there are durable matings. Association between the sexes is common among all of these animals for periods after the young have been born. And in all cases the male is the family’s protector.
What is an exception among the lower mammals is, however, a rule among the Quadrumana. According to the natives of Madagascar some species23 of Prosimii are nursed by both male and female in common. Among the Arctopitheci the female is always assisted by the male in taking care of the young.
Coming to the man-like apes, we are told by Lieutenant36 de Crespigny that “in the northern part of Borneo they live in families—the male, female, and young one. On one occasion,” he says, “I found a family in which were two young ones, one of them much larger than the other, and I took this as a proof that the family tie had existed for at least two seasons. They build commodious37 nests in the trees which form their feeding-ground, and, so far as I could observe, the nests, which are well lined with dry leaves, are occupied only by the female and young, the male passing the night in the fork of the same or another tree in the vicinity. The nests are very numerous all over the forest, for they are not occupied above a few nights, the mias (or orang-utan) leading a roving life.”
Dr. Savage says that the gorillas38 live in bands and that but one male is seen in every band. M. du Chaillu says that the male gorilla39 is always accompanied by the female.
It is among the Negritians of Africa that we find today the at-hand evidence of the attitude of man toward his progeny40 in the first stages of culture, or perhaps the last stages of savagery. It must be remembered that in Africa, however, habits of other races will be found grafted41 on the24 negro stock, thereby42 causing them to appear sometimes unusually gentle or again unusually advanced. In Africa the Semitic and the Hamitic grafts43 on negro stock provide many varieties of mankind, just as in Oceania, the Mongol (Malay) and the Caucasian (Indonesian) grafts on the negro stock have produced many varieties there. As an example of the methods of the lowest of savage tribes, there is, however, no better example than the Papuans of New Guinea of whom the ethnologist, Keane, says: “They stand in some respects on the lowest rung of the social ladder.”
As an example of the low state of culture in which part of them exist it is said that those near Astrolabe Bay on the north-west coast of New Guinea had no knowledge of the metals, all their implements44 being of stone, wood, or bones; neither had they knowledge of fire, the grandfathers of the present generation being able to recall the time when they had no fire at all, but ate their food raw. In the study of these people we are studying contemporaries of our own neolithic45 ancestors.
According to their most popular myth, a crocodile named Nugu was responsible for the frequent disappearance46 of children until the tribe made an agreement to supply him with pig’s fat instead. Here we have the beginning of the theory of sacrifice.
A FAMILY OF ANTHROPOID47 APES. FROM A DRAWING BY DAN BEARD. (COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)
FAMILY OF POLAR BEARS (COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. NEW YORK CITY)
“In their treatment of children they are often 25violent and cruel,” says Alfred Russell Wallace,29 and an example of their idea of kindness may be gathered from the following description of the “ornamentation” of a young Papuan:
“The faces of both men and women are frequently ornamented48 all over with cicatrices either circular or chevron-shaped. The operation is a painful and costly49 one, as the professional tattooer50 has to be highly paid for his trouble, and not every child’s friends can afford the fee demanded. The instrument used is the claw of the flying-fox. The unfortunate patient is not allowed to sleep for two or three nights before the operation is performed, and then, when he is ready to drop from weariness, the tattooer begins his work, and completes it at one sitting. I never saw the actual process, but a child was brought for my inspection51 whose face had just been finished off. It was in a painful state of nervous irritation52, and the face swelled53 to an enormous size.”30
Of the condition of these people no one is better able to speak than Lieutenant Governor J. H. P. Murray,31 who describes tribes where the savages have only weapons of wood, know nothing of the bow and arrow, and are noted54 for their immorality55.
“It is very often the case that the best of the26 young girls are sold by their parents as courtesans, the native name being Jelibo. I came across men married, and possessing, in addition, these women. Young fellows, not having reached puberty, had clubbed together in parties of three and four, and bought young girls from the parents to make courtesans. At feasts, these girls are used for the purpose of enriching themselves and their owners.”32
As to the attitude of the children, we gain some idea of the aboriginal56 point of view by this statement:
“There are some villages in which children absolutely swarm57, but there are few large families; practically every one is married, but there are many couples who have no children, or only one or two. In many parts of the territory it is considered a disgrace for a woman to have a child until she has been married at least two years; infanticide and abortion58, though rarely proved, are said to be common, and a medical expert would probably discover the existence of other checks to population. The result of all this is that in some districts the population is increasing while in others it is not; such investigations59 as we have been able to make lead, in the absence of definite statistics, to the conclusion that the population in that part of the territory which is under control is certainly not diminishing, though the increase, if any, is probably very small. The reason why27 the population does not increase as one would expect now that village warfare60 has ceased is, as far as I can see, simply that neither men nor women want children, which I take to be the chief cause that limits population elsewhere. The reason why they do not want them is, I think, partly because they find them a nuisance (which is a consideration that was probably effective even before the white man came) and partly that, in their present state of transition from one stage of development to another, they do not exactly see what there will be for their children to do.”
Another custom of these people is to bury children alive, when the parents or some person of importance dies; the excuse given for this practice is that the child will be needed to wait on the parent in the other world, a practice that lasted long among the civilized61 Egyptians.
Cannibalism62 is rife63 among these people. Mr. Murray reports that on one occasion a young man was brought before him for having murdered a man in order to please a married woman with whom he was in love—a lover who has not “killed his man” being considered lukewarm.
“On my remonstrating64 with him on the impropriety of paying attention to a married woman he informed me that there were no girls in the village, as they had all been killed and eaten in a recent raid. The position of a young man who found himself in a village where all the women were either married or eaten was no doubt a difficult28 one, and I hope that I took it into consideration in passing sentence.”33
How little is the feeling among these people over the murder of children, is shown from the fact that murder is the only outlet65 for their feelings!
“I have known cases where a man, grieving over the loss of a relative or over some slight that has been put upon him, has set fire to his house, quite regardless of whether any one was inside, with the result, occasionally, that a child is burnt to death, and I recently tried a case of murder which was the direct outcome of grief over the death of a pig. The prisoners were brothers, and their pig bore the pretty name of Mehboma; but Mehboma died, and the brothers in their unquenchable grief went forth and killed the first man they saw. The victim had nothing to do with Mehboma’s death, but the mourning brothers did not care for that—somebody had got to be killed over it. The prisoners told me that it was the custom of the village to show their grief in this way, so that their neighbours must occasionally have suffered rather severely66.”34
As the Australians are closely allied67 to the Papuans and represent about the same period of culture, we may postulate68 their attitude toward woman and a marriage from the description of an early Victorian tribe-marriage given by Brough Smith and quoted by A. H. Keane, the latter au29thor remarking that “a common test of a people’s culture is the treatment of their women, and in this respect the Australians must, as Prof. R. Semon shows, be ranked below the Bushman and on a level with the Fuegians.”
PRIMITIVE FAMILY LIFE AMONG THE HOPI INDIANS (COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)
“A man having a daughter of thirteen or fourteen years of age,” says Mr. Smith in his description of the marriage customs in vogue69 among the Victorian tribes, “arranges with some elderly person for the disposal of her; and, when all are agreed, she is brought out and told that her husband wants her. Perhaps she has never seen him but to loathe70 him. The father carries a spear and a waddy, or tomahawk, and, anticipating resistance, is thus prepared for it. The poor girl, sobbing71 and sighing, and muttering words of complaint, claims pity from those who will show none. If she resists the mandates72 of her father, he strikes her with his spear; if she rebels and screams, the blows are repeated; and if she attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the waddy or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and scolds and beats the ground with her kan-nan (fighting-stick); the dogs bark and whine73; but nothing interrupts the father, who, in the performance of his duty, is strict and mindful of the necessity of not only enforcing his authority, but of showing to all that he has the means to enforce it. Seizing the bride by her long hair he drags her to the home prepared for her by her new owner. Further resistance often subjects her to30 brutal74 treatment. If she attempts to abscond75, the bridegroom does not hesitate to strike her savagely76 on the head with his waddy, and the bridal screams and yells make the night hideous77.”
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1 parental | |
adj.父母的;父的;母的 | |
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2 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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3 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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4 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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5 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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6 epoch | |
n.(新)时代;历元 | |
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7 precursors | |
n.先驱( precursor的名词复数 );先行者;先兆;初期形式 | |
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8 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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9 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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10 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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11 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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12 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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13 savagery | |
n.野性 | |
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14 variance | |
n.矛盾,不同 | |
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15 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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16 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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17 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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18 reverted | |
恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还 | |
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19 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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20 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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21 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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22 promiscuity | |
n.混杂,混乱;(男女的)乱交 | |
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23 akin | |
adj.同族的,类似的 | |
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24 exclusion | |
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行 | |
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25 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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26 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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27 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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28 reptiles | |
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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29 fickle | |
adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的,不坚定的 | |
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30 intervals | |
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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31 necessitated | |
使…成为必要,需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 durable | |
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33 antelopes | |
羚羊( antelope的名词复数 ); 羚羊皮革 | |
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34 reindeer | |
n.驯鹿 | |
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35 moles | |
防波堤( mole的名词复数 ); 鼹鼠; 痣; 间谍 | |
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36 lieutenant | |
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员 | |
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37 commodious | |
adj.宽敞的;使用方便的 | |
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38 gorillas | |
n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 );暴徒,打手 | |
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39 gorilla | |
n.大猩猩,暴徒,打手 | |
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40 progeny | |
n.后代,子孙;结果 | |
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41 grafted | |
移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 ); 嫁接; 使(思想、制度等)成为(…的一部份); 植根 | |
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42 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
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43 grafts | |
移植( graft的名词复数 ); 行贿; 接穗; 行贿得到的利益 | |
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44 implements | |
n.工具( implement的名词复数 );家具;手段;[法律]履行(契约等)v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 );执行;贯彻;使生效 | |
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45 neolithic | |
adj.新石器时代的 | |
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46 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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47 anthropoid | |
adj.像人类的,类人猿的;n.类人猿;像猿的人 | |
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48 ornamented | |
adj.花式字体的v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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50 tattooer | |
文身师,黥墨师 | |
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51 inspection | |
n.检查,审查,检阅 | |
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52 irritation | |
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53 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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54 noted | |
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55 immorality | |
n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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56 aboriginal | |
adj.(指动植物)土生的,原产地的,土著的 | |
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57 swarm | |
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
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58 abortion | |
n.流产,堕胎 | |
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59 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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60 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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61 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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62 cannibalism | |
n.同类相食;吃人肉 | |
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63 rife | |
adj.(指坏事情)充斥的,流行的,普遍的 | |
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64 remonstrating | |
v.抗议( remonstrate的现在分词 );告诫 | |
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65 outlet | |
n.出口/路;销路;批发商店;通风口;发泄 | |
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66 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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67 allied | |
adj.协约国的;同盟国的 | |
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68 postulate | |
n.假定,基本条件;vt.要求,假定 | |
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69 Vogue | |
n.时髦,时尚;adj.流行的 | |
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70 loathe | |
v.厌恶,嫌恶 | |
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71 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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72 mandates | |
托管(mandate的第三人称单数形式) | |
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73 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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74 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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75 abscond | |
v.潜逃,逃亡 | |
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76 savagely | |
adv. 野蛮地,残酷地 | |
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77 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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