Among these alien motives which affect the devout scheme in its later growth, may be mentioned the motives of charity and of social good-fellowship, or conviviality17; or, in more general terms, the various expressions of the sense of human solidarity18 and sympathy. It may be added that these extraneous uses of the ecclesiastical structure contribute materially to its survival in name and form even among people who may be ready to give up the substance of it. A still more characteristic and more pervasive19 alien element in the motives which have gone to formally uphold the scheme of devout life is that non-reverent sense of aesthetic20 congruity21 with the environment, which is left as a residue22 of the latter-day act of worship after elimination23 of its anthropomorphic content. This has done good service for the maintenance of the sacerdotal institution through blending with the motive6 of subservience. This sense of impulse of aesthetic congruity is not primarily of an economic character, but it has a considerable indirect effect in shaping the habit of mind of the individual for economic purposes in the later stages of industrial development; its most perceptible effect in this regard goes in the direction of mitigating25 the somewhat pronounced self-regarding bias26 that has been transmitted by tradition from the earlier, more competent phases of the regime of status. The economic bearing of this impulse is therefore seen to transverse that of the devout attitude; the former goes to qualify, if not eliminate, the self-regarding bias, through sublation of the antithesis27 or antagonism28 of self and not-self; while the latter, being and expression of the sense of personal subservience and mastery, goes to accentuate29 this antithesis and to insist upon the divergence30 between the self-regarding interest and the interests of the generically31 human life process.
This non-invidious residue of the religious life—the sense of communion with the environment, or with the generic32 life process—as well as the impulse of charity or of sociability33, act in a pervasive way to shape men's habits of thought for the economic purpose. But the action of all this class of proclivities is somewhat vague, and their effects are difficult to trace in detail. So much seems clear, however, as that the action of this entire class of motives or aptitudes34 tends in a direction contrary to the underlying principles of the institution of the leisure class as already formulated35. The basis of that institution, as well as of the anthropomorphic cults36 associated with it in the cultural development, is the habit of invidious comparison; and this habit is incongruous with the exercise of the aptitudes now in question. The substantial canons of the leisure-class scheme of life are a conspicuous37 waste of time and substance and a withdrawal38 from the industrial process; while the particular aptitudes here in question assert themselves, on the economic side, in a deprecation of waste and of a futile39 manner of life, and in an impulse to participation40 in or identification with the life process, whether it be on the economic side or in any other of its phases or aspects.
It is plain that these aptitudes and habits of life to which they give rise where circumstances favor their expression, or where they assert themselves in a dominant41 way, run counter to the leisure-class scheme of life; but it is not clear that life under the leisure-class scheme, as seen in the later stages of its development, tends consistently to the repression42 of these aptitudes or to exemption44 from the habits of thought in which they express themselves. The positive discipline of the leisure-class scheme of life goes pretty much all the other way. In its positive discipline, by prescription45 and by selective elimination, the leisure-class scheme favors the all-pervading46 and all-dominating primacy of the canons of waste and invidious comparison at every conjuncture of life. But in its negative effects the tendency of the leisure-class discipline is not so unequivocally true to the fundamental canons of the scheme. In its regulation of human activity for the purpose of pecuniary47 decency48 the leisure-class canon insists on withdrawal from the industrial process. That is to say, it inhibits49 activity in the directions in which the impecunious51 members of the community habitually52 put forth54 their efforts. Especially in the case of women, and more particularly as regards the upper-class and upper-middle-class women of advanced industrial communities, this inhibition goes so far as to insist on withdrawal even from the emulative55 process of accumulation by the quasi-predator methods of the pecuniary occupations.
The pecuniary or the leisure-class culture, which set out as an emulative variant56 of the impulse of workmanship, is in its latest development beginning to neutralize57 its own ground, by eliminating the habit of invidious comparison in respect of efficiency, or even of pecuniary standing58. On the other hand, the fact that members of the leisure class, both men and women, are to some extent exempt43 from the necessity of finding a livelihood59 in a competitive struggle with their fellows, makes it possible for members of this class not only to survive, but even, within bounds, to follow their bent60 in case they are not gifted with the aptitudes which make for success in the competitive struggle. That is to say, in the latest and fullest development of the institution, the livelihood of members of this class does not depend on the possession and the unremitting exercise of those aptitudes are therefore greater in the higher grades of the leisure class than in the general average of a population living under the competitive system.
In an earlier chapter, in discussing the conditions of survival of archaic61 traits, it has appeared that the peculiar62 position of the leisure class affords exceptionally favorable chances for the survival of traits which characterize the type of human nature proper to an earlier and obsolete63 cultural stage. The class is sheltered from the stress of economic exigencies, and is in this sense withdrawn64 from the rude impact of forces which make for adaptation to the economic situation. The survival in the leisure class, and under the leisure-class scheme of life, of traits and types that are reminiscent of the predatory culture has already been discussed. These aptitudes and habits have an exceptionally favorable chance of survival under the leisure-class regime. Not only does the sheltered pecuniary position of the leisure class afford a situation favorable to the survival of such individuals as are not gifted with the complement65 of aptitudes required for serviceability in the modern industrial process; but the leisure-class canons of reputability at the same time enjoin66 the conspicuous exercise of certain predatory aptitudes. The employments in which the predatory aptitudes find exercise serve as an evidence of wealth, birth, and withdrawal from the industrial process. The survival of the predatory traits under the leisure-class culture is furthered both negatively, through the industrial exemption of the class, and positively67, through the sanction of the leisure-class canons of decency.
With respect to the survival of traits characteristic of the ante-predatory savage68 culture the case is in some degree different. The sheltered position of the leisure class favors the survival also of these traits; but the exercise of the aptitudes for peace and good-will does not have the affirmative sanction of the code of proprieties69. Individuals gifted with a temperament70 that is reminiscent of the ante-predatory culture are placed at something of an advantage within the leisure class, as compared with similarly gifted individuals outside the class, in that they are not under a pecuniary necessity to thwart71 these aptitudes that make for a non-competitive life; but such individuals are still exposed to something of a moral constraint72 which urges them to disregard these inclinations73, in that the code of proprieties enjoins74 upon them habits of life based on the predatory aptitudes. So long as the system of status remains75 intact, and so long as the leisure class has other lines of non-industrial activity to take to than obvious killing76 of time in aimless and wasteful77 fatigation, so long no considerable departure from the leisure-class scheme of reputable life is to be looked for. The occurrence of non-predatory temperament with the class at that stage is to be looked upon as a case of sporadic78 reversion. But the reputable non-industrial outlets79 for the human propensity81 to action presently fail, through the advance of economic development, the disappearance82 of large game, the decline of war, the obsolescence83 of proprietary84 government, and the decay of the priestly office. When this happens, the situation begins to change. Human life must seek expression in one direction if it may not in another; and if the predatory outlet80 fails, relief is sought elsewhere.
As indicated above, the exemption from pecuniary stress has been carried farther in the case of the leisure-class women of the advanced industrial communities than in that of any other considerable group of persons. The women may therefore be expected to show a more pronounced reversion to a non-invidious temperament than the men. But there is also among men of the leisure class a perceptible increase in the range and scope of activities that proceed from aptitudes which are not to be classed as self-regarding, and the end of which is not an invidious distinction. So, for instance, the greater number of men who have to do with industry in the way of pecuniarily85 managing an enterprise take some interest and some pride in seeing that the work is well done and is industrially effective, and this even apart from the profit which may result from any improvement of this kind. The efforts of commercial clubs and manufacturers' organizations in this direction of non-invidious advancement86 of industrial efficiency are also well know.
The tendency to some other than an invidious purpose in life has worked out in a multitude of organizations, the purpose of which is some work of charity or of social amelioration. These organizations are often of a quasi-religious or pseudo-religious character, and are participated in by both men and women. Examples will present themselves in abundance on reflection, but for the purpose of indicating the range of the propensities87 in question and of characterizing them, some of the more obvious concrete cases may be cited. Such, for instance, are the agitation88 for temperance and similar social reforms, for prison reform, for the spread of education, for the suppression of vice24, and for the avoidance of war by arbitration89, disarmament, or other means; such are, in some measure, university settlements, neighborhood guilds90, the various organizations typified by the Young Men's Christian91 Association and Young People's Society for Christian Endeavor, sewing-clubs, art clubs, and even commercial clubs; such are also, in some slight measure, the pecuniary foundations of semi-public establishments for charity, education, or amusement, whether they are endowed by wealthy individuals or by contributions collected from persons of smaller means—in so far as these establishments are not of a religious character.
It is of course not intended to say that these efforts proceed entirely92 from other motives than those of a self-regarding kind. What can be claimed is that other motives are present in the common run of cases, and that the perceptibly greater prevalence of effort of this kind under the circumstances of the modern industrial life than under the unbroken regime of the principle of status, indicates the presence in modern life of an effective scepticism with respect to the full legitimacy93 of an emulative scheme of life. It is a matter of sufficient notoriety to have become a commonplace jest that extraneous motives are commonly present among the incentives94 to this class of work—motives of a self-regarding kind, and especially the motive of an invidious distinction. To such an extent is this true, that many ostensible95 works of disinterested96 public spirit are no doubt initiated97 and carried on with a view primarily to the enhance repute or even to the pecuniary gain, of their promoters. In the case of some considerable groups of organizations or establishments of this kind the invidious motive is apparently98 the dominant motive both with the initiators of the work and with their supporters. This last remark would hold true especially with respect to such works as lend distinction to their doer through large and conspicuous expenditure99; as, for example, the foundation of a university or of a public library or museum; but it is also, and perhaps equally, true of the more commonplace work of participation in such organizations. These serve to authenticate100 the pecuniary reputability of their members, as well as gratefully to keep them in mind of their superior status by pointing the contrast between themselves and the lower-lying humanity in whom the work of amelioration is to be wrought101; as, for example, the university settlement, which now has some vogue102. But after all allowances and deductions103 have been made, there is left some remainder of motives of a non-emulative kind. The fact itself that distinction or a decent good fame is sought by this method is evidence of a prevalent sense of the legitimacy, and of the presumptive effectual presence, of a non-emulative, non-invidious interest, as a consistent factor in the habits of thought of modern communities.
In all this latter-day range of leisure-class activities that proceed on the basis of a non-invidious and non-religious interest, it is to be noted105 that the women participate more actively106 and more persistently107 than the men—except, of course, in the case of such works as require a large expenditure of means. The dependent pecuniary position of the women disables them for work requiring large expenditure. As regards the general range of ameliorative work, the members of the priesthood or clergy108 of the less naively109 devout sects110, or the secularized denominations112, are associated with the class of women. This is as the theory would have it. In other economic relations, also, this clergy stands in a somewhat equivocal position between the class of women and that of the men engaged in economic pursuits. By tradition and by the prevalent sense of the proprieties, both the clergy and the women of the well-to-do classes are placed in the position of a vicarious leisure class; with both classes the characteristic relation which goes to form the habits of thought of the class is a relation of subservience—that is to say, an economic relation conceived in personal terms; in both classes there is consequently perceptible a special proneness113 to construe114 phenomena in terms of personal relation rather than of causal sequence; both classes are so inhibited115 by the canons of decency from the ceremonially unclean processes of the lucrative116 or productive occupations as to make participation in the industrial life process of today a moral impossibility for them. The result of this ceremonial exclusion117 from productive effort of the vulgar sort is to draft a relatively118 large share of the energies of the modern feminine and priestly classes into the service of other interests than the self-regarding one. The code leaves no alternative direction in which the impulse to purposeful action may find expression. The effect of a consistent inhibition on industrially useful activity in the case of the leisure-class women shows itself in a restless assertion of the impulse to workmanship in other directions than that of business activity. As has been noticed already, the everyday life of the well-to-do women and the clergy contains a larger element of status than that of the average of the men, especially than that of the men engaged in the modern industrial occupations proper. Hence the devout attitude survives in a better state of preservation119 among these classes than among the common run of men in the modern communities. Hence an appreciable120 share of the energy which seeks expression in a non-lucrative employment among these members of the vicarious leisure classes may be expected to eventuate in devout observances and works of piety121. Hence, in part, the excess of the devout proclivity122 in women, spoken of in the last chapter. But it is more to the present point to note the effect of this proclivity in shaping the action and coloring the purposes of the non-lucrative movements and organizations here under discussion. Where this devout coloring is present it lowers the immediate123 efficiency of the organizations for any economic end to which their efforts may be directed. Many organizations, charitable and ameliorative, divide their attention between the devotional and the secular111 well-being124 of the people whose interests they aim to further. It can scarcely be doubted that if they were to give an equally serious attention and effort undividedly to the secular interests of these people, the immediate economic value of their work should be appreciably125 higher than it is. It might of course similarly be said, if this were the place to say it, that the immediate efficiency of these works of amelioration for the devout might be greater if it were not hampered126 with the secular motives and aims which are usually present.
Some deduction104 is to be made from the economic value of this class of non-invidious enterprise, on account of the intrusion of the devotional interest. But there are also deductions to be made on account of the presence of other alien motives which more or less broadly traverse the economic trend of this non-emulative expression of the instinct of workmanship. To such an extent is this seen to be true on a closer scrutiny127, that, when all is told, it may even appear that this general class of enterprises is of an altogether dubious128 economic value—as measured in terms of the fullness or facility of life of the individuals or classes to whose amelioration the enterprise is directed. For instance, many of the efforts now in reputable vogue for the amelioration of the indigent129 population of large cities are of the nature, in great part, of a mission of culture. It is by this means sought to accelerate the rate of speed at which given elements of the upper-class culture find acceptance in the everyday scheme of life of the lower classes. The solicitude130 of "settlements," for example, is in part directed to enhance the industrial efficiency of the poor and to teach them the more adequate utilization131 of the means at hand; but it is also no less consistently directed to the inculcation, by precept132 and example, of certain punctilios of upper-class propriety133 in manners and customs. The economic substance of these proprieties will commonly be found on scrutiny to be a conspicuous waste of time and goods. Those good people who go out to humanize the poor are commonly, and advisedly, extremely scrupulous134 and silently insistent135 in matters of decorum and the decencies of life. They are commonly persons of an exemplary life and gifted with a tenacious136 insistence137 on ceremonial cleanness in the various items of their daily consumption. The cultural or civilizing138 efficacy of this inculcation of correct habits of thought with respect to the consumption of time and commodities is scarcely to be overrated; nor is its economic value to the individual who acquires these higher and more reputable ideals inconsiderable. Under the circumstances of the existing pecuniary culture, the reputability, and consequently the success, of the individual is in great measure dependent on his proficiency139 in demeanor140 and methods of consumption that argue habitual53 waste of time and goods. But as regards the ulterior economic bearing of this training in worthier141 methods of life, it is to be said that the effect wrought is in large part a substitution of costlier142 or less efficient methods of accomplishing the same material results, in relations where the material result is the fact of substantial economic value. The propaganda of culture is in great part an inculcation of new tastes, or rather of a new schedule of proprieties, which have been adapted to the upper-class scheme of life under the guidance of the leisure-class formulation of the principles of status and pecuniary decency. This new schedule of proprieties is intruded143 into the lower-class scheme of life from the code elaborated by an element of the population whose life lies outside the industrial process; and this intrusive144 schedule can scarcely be expected to fit the exigencies of life for these lower classes more adequately than the schedule already in vogue among them, and especially not more adequately than the schedule which they are themselves working out under the stress of modern industrial life.
All this of course does not question the fact that the proprieties of the substituted schedule are more decorous than those which they displace. The doubt which presents itself is simply a doubt as to the economic expediency145 of this work of regeneration—that is to say, the economic expediency in that immediate and material bearing in which the effects of the change can be ascertained146 with some degree of confidence, and as viewed from the standpoint not of the individual but of the facility of life of the collectivity. For an appreciation147 of the economic expediency of these enterprises of amelioration, therefore, their effective work is scarcely to be taken at its face value, even where the aim of the enterprise is primarily an economic one and where the interest on which it proceeds is in no sense self-regarding or invidious. The economic reform wrought is largely of the nature of a permutation in the methods of conspicuous waste.
But something further is to be said with respect to the character of the disinterested motives and canons of procedure in all work of this class that is affected148 by the habits of thought characteristic of the pecuniary culture; and this further consideration may lead to a further qualification of the conclusions already reached. As has been seen in an earlier chapter, the canons of reputability or decency under the pecuniary culture insist on habitual futility149 of effort as the mark of a pecuniarily blameless life. There results not only a habit of disesteem of useful occupations, but there results also what is of more decisive consequence in guiding the action of any organized body of people that lays claim to social good repute. There is a tradition which requires that one should not be vulgarly familiar with any of the processes or details that have to do with the material necessities of life. One may meritoriously150 show a quantitative151 interest in the well-being of the vulgar, through subscriptions152 or through work on managing committees and the like. One may, perhaps even more meritoriously, show solicitude in general and in detail for the cultural welfare of the vulgar, in the way of contrivances for elevating their tastes and affording them opportunities for spiritual amelioration. But one should not betray an intimate knowledge of the material circumstances of vulgar life, or of the habits of thought of the vulgar classes, such as would effectually direct the efforts of these organizations to a materially useful end. This reluctance153 to avow154 an unduly155 intimate knowledge of the lower-class conditions of life in detail of course prevails in very different degrees in different individuals; but there is commonly enough of it present collectively in any organization of the kind in question profoundly to influence its course of action. By its cumulative156 action in shaping the usage and precedents157 of any such body, this shrinking from an imputation158 of unseemly familiarity with vulgar life tends gradually to set aside the initial motives of the enterprise, in favor of certain guiding principles of good repute, ultimately reducible to terms of pecuniary merit. So that in an organization of long standing the initial motive of furthering the facility of life in these classes comes gradually to be an ostensible motive only, and the vulgarly effective work of the organization tends to obsolescence.
What is true of the efficiency of organizations for non-invidious work in this respect is true also as regards the work of individuals proceeding159 on the same motives; though it perhaps holds true with more qualification for individuals than for organized enterprises. The habit of gauging160 merit by the leisure-class canons of wasteful expenditure and unfamiliarity161 with vulgar life, whether on the side of production or of consumption, is necessarily strong in the individuals who aspire162 to do some work of public utility. And if the individual should forget his station and turn his efforts to vulgar effectiveness, the common sense of the community-the sense of pecuniary decency—would presently reject his work and set him right. An example of this is seen in the administration of bequests163 made by public-spirited men for the single purpose (at least ostensibly) of furthering the facility of human life in some particular respect. The objects for which bequests of this class are most frequently made at present are schools, libraries, hospitals, and asylums166 for the infirm or unfortunate. The avowed167 purpose of the donor168 in these cases is the amelioration of human life in the particular respect which is named in the bequest164; but it will be found an invariable rule that in the execution of the work not a little of other motives, frequency incompatible169 with the initial motive, is present and determines the particular disposition170 eventually made of a good share of the means which have been set apart by the bequest. Certain funds, for instance, may have been set apart as a foundation for a foundling asylum165 or a retreat for invalids171. The diversion of expenditure to honorific waste in such cases is not uncommon172 enough to cause surprise or even to raise a smile. An appreciable share of the funds is spent in the construction of an edifice173 faced with some aesthetically174 objectionable but expensive stone, covered with grotesque175 and incongruous details, and designed, in its battlemented walls and turrets176 and its massive portals and strategic approaches, to suggest certain barbaric methods of warfare177. The interior of the structure shows the same pervasive guidance of the canons of conspicuous waste and predatory exploit. The windows, for instance, to go no farther into detail, are placed with a view to impress their pecuniary excellence178 upon the chance beholder179 from the outside, rather than with a view to effectiveness for their ostensible end in the convenience or comfort of the beneficiaries within; and the detail of interior arrangement is required to conform itself as best it may to this alien but imperious requirement of pecuniary beauty.
In all this, of course, it is not to be presumed that the donor would have found fault, or that he would have done otherwise if he had taken control in person; it appears that in those cases where such a personal direction is exercised—where the enterprise is conducted by direct expenditure and superintendence instead of by bequest—the aims and methods of management are not different in this respect. Nor would the beneficiaries, or the outside observers whose ease or vanity are not immediately touched, be pleased with a different disposition of the funds. It would suit no one to have the enterprise conducted with a view directly to the most economical and effective use of the means at hand for the initial, material end of the foundation. All concerned, whether their interest is immediate and self-regarding, or contemplative only, agree that some considerable share of the expenditure should go to the higher or spiritual needs derived from the habit of an invidious comparison in predatory exploit and pecuniary waste. But this only goes to say that the canons of emulative and pecuniary reputability so far pervade180 the common sense of the community as to permit no escape or evasion181, even in the case of an enterprise which ostensibly proceeds entirely on the basis of a non-invidious interest.
It may even be that the enterprise owes its honorific virtue182, as a means of enhancing the donor's good repute, to the imputed183 presence of this non-invidious motive; but that does not hinder the invidious interest from guiding the expenditure. The effectual presence of motives of an emulative or invidious origin in non-emulative works of this kind might be shown at length and with detail, in any one of the classes of enterprise spoken of above. Where these honorific details occur, in such cases, they commonly masquerade under designations that belong in the field of the aesthetic, ethical184 or economic interest. These special motives, derived from the standards and canons of the pecuniary culture, act surreptitiously to divert effort of a non-invidious kind from effective service, without disturbing the agent's sense of good intention or obtruding185 upon his consciousness the substantial futility of his work. Their effect might be traced through the entire range of that schedule of non-invidious, meliorative enterprise that is so considerable a feature, and especially so conspicuous a feature, in the overt186 scheme of life of the well-to-do. But the theoretical bearing is perhaps clear enough and may require no further illustration; especially as some detailed187 attention will be given to one of these lines of enterprise—the establishments for the higher learning—in another connection.
Under the circumstances of the sheltered situation in which the leisure class is placed there seems, therefore, to be something of a reversion to the range of non-invidious impulses that characterizes the ante-predatory savage culture. The reversion comprises both the sense of workmanship and the proclivity to indolence and good-fellowship. But in the modern scheme of life canons of conduct based on pecuniary or invidious merit stand in the way of a free exercise of these impulses; and the dominant presence of these canons of conduct goes far to divert such efforts as are made on the basis of the non-invidious interest to the service of that invidious interest on which the pecuniary culture rests. The canons of pecuniary decency are reducible for the present purpose to the principles of waste, futility, and ferocity. The requirements of decency are imperiously present in meliorative enterprise as in other lines of conduct, and exercise a selective surveillance over the details of conduct and management in any enterprise. By guiding and adapting the method in detail, these canons of decency go far to make all non-invidious aspiration188 or effort nugatory189. The pervasive, impersonal190, un-eager principle of futility is at hand from day to day and works obstructively to hinder the effectual expression of so much of the surviving ante-predatory aptitudes as is to be classed under the instinct of workmanship; but its presence does not preclude191 the transmission of those aptitudes or the continued recurrence192 of an impulse to find expression for them.
In the later and farther development of the pecuniary culture, the requirement of withdrawal from the industrial process in order to avoid social odium is carried so far as to comprise abstention from the emulative employments. At this advanced stage the pecuniary culture negatively favors the assertion of the non-invidious propensities by relaxing the stress laid on the merit of emulative, predatory, or pecuniary occupations, as compared with those of an industrial or productive kind. As was noticed above, the requirement of such withdrawal from all employment that is of human use applies more rigorously to the upper-class women than to any other class, unless the priesthood of certain cults might be cited as an exception, perhaps more apparent than real, to this rule. The reason for the more extreme insistence on a futile life for this class of women than for the men of the same pecuniary and social grade lies in their being not only an upper-grade leisure class but also at the same time a vicarious leisure class. There is in their case a double ground for a consistent withdrawal from useful effort.
It has been well and repeatedly said by popular writers and speakers who reflect the common sense of intelligent people on questions of social structure and function that the position of woman in any community is the most striking index of the level of culture attained193 by the community, and it might be added, by any given class in the community. This remark is perhaps truer as regards the stage of economic development than as regards development in any other respect. At the same time the position assigned to the woman in the accepted scheme of life, in any community or under any culture, is in a very great degree an expression of traditions which have been shaped by the circumstances of an earlier phase of development, and which have been but partially adapted to the existing economic circumstances, or to the existing exigencies of temperament and habits of mind by which the women living under this modern economic situation are actuated.
The fact has already been remarked upon incidentally in the course of the discussion of the growth of economic institutions generally, and in particular in speaking of vicarious leisure and of dress, that the position of women in the modern economic scheme is more widely and more consistently at variance194 with the promptings of the instinct of workmanship than is the position of the men of the same classes. It is also apparently true that the woman's temperament includes a larger share of this instinct that approves peace and disapproves195 futility. It is therefore not a fortuitous circumstance that the women of modern industrial communities show a livelier sense of the discrepancy196 between the accepted scheme of life and the exigencies of the economic situation.
The several phases of the "woman question" have brought out in intelligible197 form the extent to which the life of women in modern society, and in the polite circles especially, is regulated by a body of common sense formulated under the economic circumstances of an earlier phase of development. It is still felt that woman's life, in its civil, economic, and social bearing, is essentially198 and normally a vicarious life, the merit or demerit of which is, in the nature of things, to be imputed to some other individual who stands in some relation of ownership or tutelage to the woman. So, for instance, any action on the part of a woman which traverses an injunction of the accepted schedule of proprieties is felt to reflect immediately upon the honor of the man whose woman she is. There may of course be some sense of incongruity199 in the mind of any one passing an opinion of this kind on the woman's frailty200 or perversity201; but the common-sense judgment202 of the community in such matters is, after all, delivered without much hesitation203, and few men would question the legitimacy of their sense of an outraged204 tutelage in any case that might arise. On the other hand, relatively little discredit205 attaches to a woman through the evil deeds of the man with whom her life is associated.
The good and beautiful scheme of life, then—that is to say the scheme to which we are habituated—assigns to the woman a "sphere" ancillary206 to the activity of the man; and it is felt that any departure from the traditions of her assigned round of duties is unwomanly. If the question is as to civil rights or the suffrage207, our common sense in the matter—that is to say the logical deliverance of our general scheme of life upon the point in question—says that the woman should be represented in the body politic208 and before the law, not immediately in her own person, but through the mediation209 of the head of the household to which she belongs. It is unfeminine in her to aspire to a self-directing, self-centered life; and our common sense tells us that her direct participation in the affairs of the community, civil or industrial, is a menace to that social order which expresses our habits of thought as they have been formed under the guidance of the traditions of the pecuniary culture. "All this fume210 and froth of 'emancipating211 woman from the slavery of man' and so on, is, to use the chaste212 and expressive213 language of Elizabeth Cady Stanton inversely214, 'utter rot.' The social relations of the sexes are fixed215 by nature. Our entire civilization—that is whatever is good in it—is based on the home." The "home" is the household with a male head. This view, but commonly expressed even more chastely216, is the prevailing217 view of the woman's status, not only among the common run of the men of civilized218 communities, but among the women as well. Women have a very alert sense of what the scheme of proprieties requires, and while it is true that many of them are ill at ease under the details which the code imposes, there are few who do not recognize that the existing moral order, of necessity and by the divine right of prescription, places the woman in a position ancillary to the man. In the last analysis, according to her own sense of what is good and beautiful, the woman's life is, and in theory must be, an expression of the man's life at the second remove.
But in spite of this pervading sense of what is the good and natural place for the woman, there is also perceptible an incipient219 development of sentiment to the effect that this whole arrangement of tutelage and vicarious life and imputation of merit and demerit is somehow a mistake. Or, at least, that even if it may be a natural growth and a good arrangement in its time and place, and in spite of its patent aesthetic value, still it does not adequately serve the more everyday ends of life in a modern industrial community. Even that large and substantial body of well-bred, upper and middle-class women to whose dispassionate, matronly sense of the traditional proprieties this relation of status commends itself as fundamentally and eternally right-even these, whose attitude is conservative, commonly find some slight discrepancy in detail between things as they are and things as they should be in this respect. But that less manageable body of modern women who, by force of youth, education, or temperament, are in some degree out of touch with the traditions of status received from the barbarian220 culture, and in whom there is, perhaps, an undue221 reversion to the impulse of self-expression and workmanship—these are touched with a sense of grievance222 too vivid to leave them at rest.
In this "New-Woman" movement—as these blind and incoherent efforts to rehabilitate223 the woman's pre-glacial standing have been named—there are at least two elements discernible, both of which are of an economic character. These two elements or motives are expressed by the double watchword, "Emancipation224" and "Work." Each of these words is recognized to stand for something in the way of a wide-spread sense of grievance. The prevalence of the sentiment is recognized even by people who do not see that there is any real ground for a grievance in the situation as it stands today. It is among the women of the well-to-do classes, in the communities which are farthest advanced in industrial development, that this sense of a grievance to be redressed225 is most alive and finds most frequent expression. That is to say, in other words, there is a demand, more or less serious, for emancipation from all relation of status, tutelage, or vicarious life; and the revulsion asserts itself especially among the class of women upon whom the scheme of life handed down from the regime of status imposes with least litigation a vicarious life, and in those communities whose economic development has departed farthest from the circumstances to which this traditional scheme is adapted. The demand comes from that portion of womankind which is excluded by the canons of good repute from all effectual work, and which is closely reserved for a life of leisure and conspicuous consumption.
More than one critic of this new-woman movement has misapprehended its motive. The case of the American "new woman" has lately been summed up with some warmth by a popular observer of social phenomena: "She is petted by her husband, the most devoted226 and hard-working of husbands in the world.... She is the superior of her husband in education, and in almost every respect. She is surrounded by the most numerous and delicate attentions. Yet she is not satisfied.... The Anglo-Saxon 'new woman' is the most ridiculous production of modern times, and destined227 to be the most ghastly failure of the century." Apart from the deprecation—perhaps well placed—which is contained in this presentment, it adds nothing but obscurity to the woman question. The grievance of the new woman is made up of those things which this typical characterization of the movement urges as reasons why she should be content. She is petted, and is permitted, or even required, to consume largely and conspicuously—vicariously for her husband or other natural guardian228. She is exempted229, or debarred, from vulgarly useful employment—in order to perform leisure vicariously for the good repute of her natural (pecuniary) guardian. These offices are the conventional marks of the un-free, at the same time that they are incompatible with the human impulse to purposeful activity. But the woman is endowed with her share-which there is reason to believe is more than an even share—of the instinct of workmanship, to which futility of life or of expenditure is obnoxious230. She must unfold her life activity in response to the direct, unmediated stimuli231 of the economic environment with which she is in contact. The impulse is perhaps stronger upon the woman than upon the man to live her own life in her own way and to enter the industrial process of the community at something nearer than the second remove.
So long as the woman's place is consistently that of a drudge232, she is, in the average of cases, fairly contented233 with her lot. She not only has something tangible234 and purposeful to do, but she has also no time or thought to spare for a rebellious235 assertion of such human propensity to self-direction as she has inherited. And after the stage of universal female drudgery236 is passed, and a vicarious leisure without strenuous237 application becomes the accredited238 employment of the women of the well-to-do classes, the prescriptive force of the canon of pecuniary decency, which requires the observance of ceremonial futility on their part, will long preserve high-minded women from any sentimental239 leaning to self-direction and a "sphere of usefulness." This is especially true during the earlier phases of the pecuniary culture, while the leisure of the leisure class is still in great measure a predatory activity, an active assertion of mastery in which there is enough of tangible purpose of an invidious kind to admit of its being taken seriously as an employment to which one may without shame put one's hand. This condition of things has obviously lasted well down into the present in some communities. It continues to hold to a different extent for different individuals, varying with the vividness of the sense of status and with the feebleness of the impulse to workmanship with which the individual is endowed. But where the economic structure of the community has so far outgrown240 the scheme of life based on status that the relation of personal subservience is no longer felt to be the sole "natural" human relation; there the ancient habit of purposeful activity will begin to assert itself in the less conformable individuals against the more recent, relatively superficial, relatively ephemeral habits and views which the predatory and the pecuniary culture have contributed to our scheme of life. These habits and views begin to lose their coercive force for the community or the class in question so soon as the habit of mind and the views of life due to the predatory and the quasi-peaceable discipline cease to be in fairly close accord with the later-developed economic situation. This is evident in the case of the industrious241 classes of modern communities; for them the leisure-class scheme of life has lost much of its binding242 force, especially as regards the element of status. But it is also visibly being verified in the case of the upper classes, though not in the same manner.
The habits derived from the predatory and quasi-peaceable culture are relatively ephemeral variants243 of certain underlying propensities and mental characteristics of the race; which it owes to the protracted244 discipline of the earlier, proto-anthropoid cultural stage of peaceable, relatively undifferentiated economic life carried on in contact with a relatively simple and invariable material environment. When the habits superinduced by the emulative method of life have ceased to enjoy the section of existing economic exigencies, a process of disintegration sets in whereby the habits of thought of more recent growth and of a less generic character to some extent yield the ground before the more ancient and more pervading spiritual characteristics of the race.
In a sense, then, the new-woman movement marks a reversion to a more generic type of human character, or to a less differentiated245 expression of human nature. It is a type of human nature which is to be characterized as proto-anthropoid, and, as regards the substance if not the form of its dominant traits, it belongs to a cultural stage that may be classed as possibly sub-human. The particular movement or evolutional feature in question of course shares this characterization with the rest of the later social development, in so far as this social development shows evidence of a reversion to the spiritual attitude that characterizes the earlier, undifferentiated stage of economic revolution. Such evidence of a general tendency to reversion from the dominance of the invidious interest is not entirely wanting, although it is neither plentiful246 nor unquestionably convincing. The general decay of the sense of status in modern industrial communities goes some way as evidence in this direction; and the perceptible return to a disapproval247 of futility in human life, and a disapproval of such activities as serve only the individual gain at the cost of the collectivity or at the cost of other social groups, is evidence to a like effect. There is a perceptible tendency to deprecate the infliction248 of pain, as well as to discredit all marauding enterprises, even where these expressions of the invidious interest do not tangibly249 work to the material detriment250 of the community or of the individual who passes an opinion on them. It may even be said that in the modern industrial communities the average, dispassionate sense of men says that the ideal character is a character which makes for peace, good-will, and economic efficiency, rather than for a life of self-seeking, force, fraud, and mastery.
The influence of the leisure class is not consistently for or against the rehabilitation251 of this proto-anthropoid human nature. So far as concerns the chance of survival of individuals endowed with an exceptionally large share of the primitive252 traits, the sheltered position of the class favors its members directly by withdrawing them from the pecuniary struggle; but indirectly253, through the leisure-class canons of conspicuous waste of goods and effort, the institution of a leisure class lessens254 the chance of survival of such individuals in the entire body of the population. The decent requirements of waste absorb the surplus energy of the population in an invidious struggle and leave no margin255 for the non-invidious expression of life. The remoter, less tangible, spiritual effects of the discipline of decency go in the same direction and work perhaps more effectually to the same end. The canons of decent life are an elaboration of the principle of invidious comparison, and they accordingly act consistently to inhibit50 all non-invidious effort and to inculcate the self-regarding attitude.
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1 cult | |
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜 | |
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2 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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3 disintegration | |
n.分散,解体 | |
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4 exigencies | |
n.急切需要 | |
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5 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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6 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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7 subservience | |
n.有利,有益;从属(地位),附属性;屈从,恭顺;媚态 | |
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8 devoutness | |
朝拜 | |
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9 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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10 phenomena | |
n.现象 | |
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11 underlying | |
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的 | |
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12 disintegrates | |
n.(使)破裂[分裂,粉碎],(使)崩溃( disintegrate的名词复数 )v.(使)破裂[分裂,粉碎],(使)崩溃( disintegrate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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14 extraneous | |
adj.体外的;外来的;外部的 | |
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15 proclivities | |
n.倾向,癖性( proclivity的名词复数 ) | |
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16 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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17 conviviality | |
n.欢宴,高兴,欢乐 | |
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18 solidarity | |
n.团结;休戚相关 | |
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19 pervasive | |
adj.普遍的;遍布的,(到处)弥漫的;渗透性的 | |
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20 aesthetic | |
adj.美学的,审美的,有美感 | |
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21 congruity | |
n.全等,一致 | |
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22 residue | |
n.残余,剩余,残渣 | |
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23 elimination | |
n.排除,消除,消灭 | |
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24 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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25 mitigating | |
v.减轻,缓和( mitigate的现在分词 ) | |
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26 bias | |
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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27 antithesis | |
n.对立;相对 | |
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28 antagonism | |
n.对抗,敌对,对立 | |
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29 accentuate | |
v.着重,强调 | |
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30 divergence | |
n.分歧,岔开 | |
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31 generically | |
adv.一般地 | |
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32 generic | |
adj.一般的,普通的,共有的 | |
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33 sociability | |
n.好交际,社交性,善于交际 | |
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34 aptitudes | |
(学习方面的)才能,资质,天资( aptitude的名词复数 ) | |
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35 formulated | |
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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36 cults | |
n.迷信( cult的名词复数 );狂热的崇拜;(有极端宗教信仰的)异教团体 | |
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37 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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38 withdrawal | |
n.取回,提款;撤退,撤军;收回,撤销 | |
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39 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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40 participation | |
n.参与,参加,分享 | |
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41 dominant | |
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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42 repression | |
n.镇压,抑制,抑压 | |
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43 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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44 exemption | |
n.豁免,免税额,免除 | |
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45 prescription | |
n.处方,开药;指示,规定 | |
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46 pervading | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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47 pecuniary | |
adj.金钱的;金钱上的 | |
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48 decency | |
n.体面,得体,合宜,正派,庄重 | |
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49 inhibits | |
阻止,抑制( inhibit的第三人称单数 ); 使拘束,使尴尬 | |
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50 inhibit | |
vt.阻止,妨碍,抑制 | |
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51 impecunious | |
adj.不名一文的,贫穷的 | |
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52 habitually | |
ad.习惯地,通常地 | |
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53 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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54 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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55 emulative | |
adj.好胜 | |
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56 variant | |
adj.不同的,变异的;n.变体,异体 | |
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57 neutralize | |
v.使失效、抵消,使中和 | |
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58 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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59 livelihood | |
n.生计,谋生之道 | |
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60 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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61 archaic | |
adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的,已不通用的 | |
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62 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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63 obsolete | |
adj.已废弃的,过时的 | |
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64 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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65 complement | |
n.补足物,船上的定员;补语;vt.补充,补足 | |
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66 enjoin | |
v.命令;吩咐;禁止 | |
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67 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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68 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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69 proprieties | |
n.礼仪,礼节;礼貌( propriety的名词复数 );规矩;正当;合适 | |
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70 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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71 thwart | |
v.阻挠,妨碍,反对;adj.横(断的) | |
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72 constraint | |
n.(on)约束,限制;限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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73 inclinations | |
倾向( inclination的名词复数 ); 倾斜; 爱好; 斜坡 | |
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74 enjoins | |
v.命令( enjoin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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76 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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77 wasteful | |
adj.(造成)浪费的,挥霍的 | |
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78 sporadic | |
adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular;分散的 | |
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79 outlets | |
n.出口( outlet的名词复数 );经销店;插座;廉价经销店 | |
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80 outlet | |
n.出口/路;销路;批发商店;通风口;发泄 | |
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81 propensity | |
n.倾向;习性 | |
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82 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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83 obsolescence | |
n.过时,陈旧,废弃 | |
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84 proprietary | |
n.所有权,所有的;独占的;业主 | |
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85 pecuniarily | |
adv.在金钱上,在金钱方面 | |
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86 advancement | |
n.前进,促进,提升 | |
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87 propensities | |
n.倾向,习性( propensity的名词复数 ) | |
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88 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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89 arbitration | |
n.调停,仲裁 | |
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90 guilds | |
行会,同业公会,协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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91 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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92 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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93 legitimacy | |
n.合法,正当 | |
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94 incentives | |
激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 ); 刺激; 诱因; 动机 | |
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95 ostensible | |
adj.(指理由)表面的,假装的 | |
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96 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
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97 initiated | |
n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始,创始,启蒙,介绍加入 | |
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98 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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99 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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100 authenticate | |
vt.证明…为真,鉴定 | |
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101 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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102 Vogue | |
n.时髦,时尚;adj.流行的 | |
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103 deductions | |
扣除( deduction的名词复数 ); 结论; 扣除的量; 推演 | |
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104 deduction | |
n.减除,扣除,减除额;推论,推理,演绎 | |
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105 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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106 actively | |
adv.积极地,勤奋地 | |
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107 persistently | |
ad.坚持地;固执地 | |
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108 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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109 naively | |
adv. 天真地 | |
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110 sects | |
n.宗派,教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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111 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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112 denominations | |
n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 );教派;面额;名称 | |
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113 proneness | |
n.俯伏,倾向 | |
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114 construe | |
v.翻译,解释 | |
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115 inhibited | |
a.拘谨的,拘束的 | |
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116 lucrative | |
adj.赚钱的,可获利的 | |
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117 exclusion | |
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行 | |
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118 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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119 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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120 appreciable | |
adj.明显的,可见的,可估量的,可觉察的 | |
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121 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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122 proclivity | |
n.倾向,癖性 | |
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123 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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124 well-being | |
n.安康,安乐,幸福 | |
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125 appreciably | |
adv.相当大地 | |
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126 hampered | |
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127 scrutiny | |
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
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128 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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129 indigent | |
adj.贫穷的,贫困的 | |
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130 solicitude | |
n.焦虑 | |
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131 utilization | |
n.利用,效用 | |
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132 precept | |
n.戒律;格言 | |
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133 propriety | |
n.正当行为;正当;适当 | |
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134 scrupulous | |
adj.审慎的,小心翼翼的,完全的,纯粹的 | |
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135 insistent | |
adj.迫切的,坚持的 | |
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136 tenacious | |
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
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137 insistence | |
n.坚持;强调;坚决主张 | |
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138 civilizing | |
v.使文明,使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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139 proficiency | |
n.精通,熟练,精练 | |
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140 demeanor | |
n.行为;风度 | |
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141 worthier | |
应得某事物( worthy的比较级 ); 值得做某事; 可尊敬的; 有(某人或事物)的典型特征 | |
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142 costlier | |
adj.昂贵的( costly的比较级 );代价高的;引起困难的;造成损失的 | |
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143 intruded | |
n.侵入的,推进的v.侵入,侵扰,打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 );把…强加于 | |
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144 intrusive | |
adj.打搅的;侵扰的 | |
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145 expediency | |
n.适宜;方便;合算;利己 | |
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146 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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148 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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149 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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150 meritoriously | |
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151 quantitative | |
adj.数量的,定量的 | |
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152 subscriptions | |
n.(报刊等的)订阅费( subscription的名词复数 );捐款;(俱乐部的)会员费;捐助 | |
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153 reluctance | |
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
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154 avow | |
v.承认,公开宣称 | |
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155 unduly | |
adv.过度地,不适当地 | |
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156 cumulative | |
adj.累积的,渐增的 | |
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157 precedents | |
引用单元; 范例( precedent的名词复数 ); 先前出现的事例; 前例; 先例 | |
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158 imputation | |
n.归罪,责难 | |
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159 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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160 gauging | |
n.测量[试],测定,计量v.(用仪器)测量( gauge的现在分词 );估计;计量;划分 | |
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161 unfamiliarity | |
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162 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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163 bequests | |
n.遗赠( bequest的名词复数 );遗产,遗赠物 | |
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164 bequest | |
n.遗赠;遗产,遗物 | |
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165 asylum | |
n.避难所,庇护所,避难 | |
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166 asylums | |
n.避难所( asylum的名词复数 );庇护;政治避难;精神病院 | |
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167 avowed | |
adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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168 donor | |
n.捐献者;赠送人;(组织、器官等的)供体 | |
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169 incompatible | |
adj.不相容的,不协调的,不相配的 | |
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170 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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171 invalids | |
病人,残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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172 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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173 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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174 aesthetically | |
adv.美地,艺术地 | |
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175 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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176 turrets | |
(六角)转台( turret的名词复数 ); (战舰和坦克等上的)转动炮塔; (摄影机等上的)镜头转台; (旧时攻城用的)塔车 | |
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177 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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178 excellence | |
n.优秀,杰出,(pl.)优点,美德 | |
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179 beholder | |
n.观看者,旁观者 | |
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180 pervade | |
v.弥漫,遍及,充满,渗透,漫延 | |
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181 evasion | |
n.逃避,偷漏(税) | |
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182 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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183 imputed | |
v.把(错误等)归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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184 ethical | |
adj.伦理的,道德的,合乎道德的 | |
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185 obtruding | |
v.强行向前,强行,强迫( obtrude的现在分词 ) | |
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186 overt | |
adj.公开的,明显的,公然的 | |
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187 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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188 aspiration | |
n.志向,志趣抱负;渴望;(语)送气音;吸出 | |
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189 nugatory | |
adj.琐碎的,无价值的 | |
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190 impersonal | |
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的 | |
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191 preclude | |
vt.阻止,排除,防止;妨碍 | |
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192 recurrence | |
n.复发,反复,重现 | |
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193 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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194 variance | |
n.矛盾,不同 | |
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195 disapproves | |
v.不赞成( disapprove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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196 discrepancy | |
n.不同;不符;差异;矛盾 | |
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197 intelligible | |
adj.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的 | |
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198 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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199 incongruity | |
n.不协调,不一致 | |
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200 frailty | |
n.脆弱;意志薄弱 | |
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201 perversity | |
n.任性;刚愎自用 | |
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202 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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203 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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204 outraged | |
a.震惊的,义愤填膺的 | |
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205 discredit | |
vt.使不可置信;n.丧失信义;不信,怀疑 | |
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206 ancillary | |
adj.附属的,从属的 | |
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207 suffrage | |
n.投票,选举权,参政权 | |
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208 politic | |
adj.有智虑的;精明的;v.从政 | |
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209 mediation | |
n.调解 | |
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210 fume | |
n.(usu pl.)(浓烈或难闻的)烟,气,汽 | |
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211 emancipating | |
v.解放某人(尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚)( emancipate的现在分词 ) | |
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212 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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213 expressive | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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214 inversely | |
adj.相反的 | |
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215 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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216 chastely | |
adv.贞洁地,清高地,纯正地 | |
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217 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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218 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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219 incipient | |
adj.起初的,发端的,初期的 | |
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220 barbarian | |
n.野蛮人;adj.野蛮(人)的;未开化的 | |
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221 undue | |
adj.过分的;不适当的;未到期的 | |
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222 grievance | |
n.怨愤,气恼,委屈 | |
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223 rehabilitate | |
vt.改造(罪犯),修复;vi.复兴,(罪犯)经受改造 | |
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224 emancipation | |
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放 | |
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225 redressed | |
v.改正( redress的过去式和过去分词 );重加权衡;恢复平衡 | |
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226 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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227 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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228 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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229 exempted | |
使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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230 obnoxious | |
adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的 | |
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231 stimuli | |
n.刺激(物) | |
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232 drudge | |
n.劳碌的人;v.做苦工,操劳 | |
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233 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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234 tangible | |
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的 | |
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235 rebellious | |
adj.造反的,反抗的,难控制的 | |
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236 drudgery | |
n.苦工,重活,单调乏味的工作 | |
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237 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
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238 accredited | |
adj.可接受的;可信任的;公认的;质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 );委托;委任;把…归结于 | |
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239 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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240 outgrown | |
长[发展] 得超过(某物)的范围( outgrow的过去分词 ); 长[发展]得不能再要(某物); 长得比…快; 生长速度超过 | |
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241 industrious | |
adj.勤劳的,刻苦的,奋发的 | |
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242 binding | |
有约束力的,有效的,应遵守的 | |
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243 variants | |
n.变体( variant的名词复数 );变种;变型;(词等的)变体 | |
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244 protracted | |
adj.拖延的;延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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245 differentiated | |
区分,区别,辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 ); 区别对待; 表明…间的差别,构成…间差别的特征 | |
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246 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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247 disapproval | |
n.反对,不赞成 | |
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248 infliction | |
n.(强加于人身的)痛苦,刑罚 | |
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249 tangibly | |
adv.可触摸的,可触知地,明白地 | |
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250 detriment | |
n.损害;损害物,造成损害的根源 | |
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251 rehabilitation | |
n.康复,悔过自新,修复,复兴,复职,复位 | |
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252 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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253 indirectly | |
adv.间接地,不直接了当地 | |
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254 lessens | |
变少( lessen的第三人称单数 ); 减少(某事物) | |
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255 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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