Chapter 2 The Fate of the Edsel

RISE AND FLOWERINGIN the calendar of American economic life, 1955 was the Yearof the Automobile². That year, American automobile makers⁴ soldover seven million passenger cars, or over a million more thanthey had sold in any previous year. That year, General Motorseasily sold the public $325 million worth of new common stock,and the stock market as a whole, led by the motors, gyratedupward so frantically⁵ that Congress investigated it. And thatyear, too, the Ford⁷ Motor Company decided⁸ to produce a newautomobile in what was quaintly⁹ called the medium-pricerange—roughly, from $2,400 to $4,000—and went ahead anddesigned it more or less in conformity¹⁰ with the fashion of theday, which was for cars that were long, wide, low, lavishlydecorated with chrome, liberally supplied with gadgets¹³, andequipped with engines of a power just barely insufficient¹⁴ tosend them into orbit. Two years later, in September, 1957, theFord Company put its new car, the Edsel, on the market, tothe accompaniment of more fanfare¹⁵ than had attended thearrival of any other new car since the same company’s ModelA, brought out thirty years earlier. The total amount spent onthe Edsel before the first specimen¹⁶ went on sale wasannounced as a quarter of a billion dollars; its launching—asBusiness Week declared and nobody cared to deny—was morecostly than that of any other consumer product in history. Asa starter toward getting its investment back, Ford counted onselling at least 200,000 Edsels the first year.
There may be an aborigine somewhere in a remote rainforest who hasn’t yet heard that things failed to turn out thatway. To be precise, two years two months and fifteen dayslater Ford had sold only 109,466 Edsels, and, beyond a doubt,many hundreds, if not several thousands, of those were boughtby Ford executives, dealers¹⁸, salesmen, advertising²⁰ men,assembly-line workers, and others who had a personal interestin seeing the car succeed. The 109,466 amounted toconsiderably less than one per cent of the passenger cars soldin the United States during that period, and on November 19,1959, having lost, according to some outside estimates, around$350 million on the Edsel, the Ford Company permanentlydiscontinued its production.
How could this have happened? How could a company somightily endowed with money, experience, and, presumably,brains have been guilty of such a monumental mistake? Evenbefore the Edsel was dropped, some of the more articulatemembers of the car-minded public had come forward with ananswer—an answer so simple and so seemingly reasonable that,though it was not the only one advanced, it became widelyaccepted as the truth. The Edsel, these people argued, wasdesigned, named, advertised, and promoted with a slavishadherence to the results of public-opinion polls and of theiryounger cousin, motivational research, and they concluded thatwhen the public is wooed in an excessively calculated manner,it tends to turn away in favor of some gruffer but morespontaneously attentive²² suitor. Several years ago, in the face ofan understandable reticence²³ on the part of the Ford MotorCompany, which enjoys documenting its boners no more thananyone else, I set out to learn what I could about the Edseldebacle, and my investigations²⁴ have led me to believe that whatwe have here is less than the whole truth.
For, although the Edsel was supposed to be advertised, andotherwise promoted, strictly²⁵ on the basis of preferencesexpressed in polls, some old-fashioned snake-oil-selling methods,intuitive rather than scientific, crept in. Although it wassupposed to have been named in much the same way, sciencewas curtly²⁶ discarded at the last minute and the Edsel wasnamed for the father of the company’s president, like anineteenth-century brand of cough drops or saddle soap. Asfor the design, it was arrived at without even a pretense²⁷ ofconsulting the polls, and by the method that has been standardfor years in the designing of automobiles²⁸—that of simply poolingthe hunches²⁹ of sundry³¹ company committees. The commonexplanation of the Edsel’s downfall, then, under scrutiny³², turnsout to be largely a myth, in the colloquial³³ sense of that term.
But the facts of the case may live to become a myth of asymbolic sort—a modern American antisuccess story.
THE origins of the Edsel go back to the fall of 1948, sevenyears before the year of decision, when Henry Ford II, whohad been president and undisputed boss of the company sincethe death of his grandfather, the original Henry, a year earlier,proposed to the company’s executive committee, which includedErnest R. Breech, the executive vice-president, that studies beundertaken concerning the wisdom of putting on the market anew and wholly different medium-priced car. The studies wereundertaken. There appeared to be good reason for them. Itwas a well-known practice at the time for low-income ownersof Fords, Plymouths, and Chevrolets to turn in their symbols ofinferior caste as soon as their earnings³⁶ rose above fivethousand dollars a year, and “trade up” to a medium-pricedcar. From Ford’s point of view, this would have been all welland good except that, for some reason, Ford owners usuallytraded up not to Mercury, the company’s only medium-pricedcar, but to one or another of the medium-priced cars put outby its big rivals—Oldsmobile, Buick, and Pontiac, among theGeneral Motors products, and, to a lesser³⁷ extent, Dodge³⁸ andDe Soto, the Chrysler candidates. Lewis D. Crusoe, then avice-president of the Ford Motor Company, was not overstatingthe case when he said, “We have been growing customers forGeneral Motors.”
The outbreak of the Korean War, in 1950, meant that Fordhad no choice but to go on growing customers for itscompetitors, since introducing a new car at such a time wasout of the question. The company’s executive committee putaside the studies proposed by President Ford, and therematters rested for two years. Late in 1952, however, the end ofthe war appeared sufficiently³⁹ imminent⁴⁰ for the company to pickup⁴¹ where it had left off, and the studies were energeticallyresumed by a group called the Forward Product PlanningCommittee, which turned over much of the detailed⁴² work tothe Lincoln-Mercury Division, under the direction of RichardKrafve (pronounced Kraffy), the division’s assistant generalmanager. Krafve, a forceful, rather saturnine⁴³ man with ahabitually puzzled look, was then in his middle forties. The sonof a printer on a small farm journal in Minnesota, he hadbeen a sales engineer and management consultant⁴⁴ beforejoining Ford, in 1947, and although he could not have knownit in 1952, he was to have reason to look puzzled. As the mandirectly responsible for the Edsel and its fortunes, enjoying itsbrief glory and attending it in its mortal agonies, he had arendezvous with destiny.
IN December, 1954, after two years’ work, the Forward ProductPlanning Committee submitted to the executive committee asix-volume blockbuster of a report summarizing its findings.
Supported by copious⁴⁵ statistics, the report predicted the arrivalof the American millennium⁴⁶, or something a lot like it, in 1965.
By that time, the Forward Product Planning Committeeestimated, the gross national product would be $535 billion ayear—up more than $135 billion in a decade. (As a matter offact, this part of the millennium arrived much sooner than theForward Planners estimated. The G. N. P. passed $535 billionin 1962, and for 1965 was $681 billion.) The number of carsin operation would be seventy million—up twenty million. Morethan half the families in the nation would have incomes of overfive thousand dollars a year, and more than 40 percent of allthe cars sold would be in the medium-price range or better.
The report’s picture of America in 1965, presented in crushingdetail, was of a country after Detroit’s own heart—its banksoozing money, its streets and highways choked with huge,dazzling medium-priced cars, its newly rich, “upwardly mobile”
citizens racked with longings⁴⁸ for more of them. The moral wasclear. If by that time Ford had not come out with a secondmedium-priced car—not just a new model, but a newmake—and made it a favorite in its field, the company wouldmiss out on its share of the national boodle.
On the other hand, the Ford bosses were well aware of theenormous risks connected with putting a new car on themarket. They knew, for example, that of the 2,900 Americanmakes that had been introduced since the beginning of theAutomobile Age—the Black Crow (1905), the Averageman’s Car(1906), the Bug-mobile (1907), the Dan Patch (1911), and theLone Star (1920) among them—only about twenty were stillaround. They knew all about the automotive casualties that hadfollowed the Second World War—among them Crosley, whichhad given up altogether, and Kaiser Motors, which, though stillalive in 1954, was breathing its last. (The members of theForward Product Planning Committee must have glanced ateach other uneasily when, a year later, Henry J. Kaiser wrote,in a valediction⁴⁹ to his car business, “We expected to toss fiftymillion dollars into the automobile pond, but we didn’t expect itto disappear without a ripple⁵⁰.”) The Ford men also knew thatneither of the other members of the industry’s powerful andwell-heeled Big Three—General Motors and Chrysler—hadventured to bring out a new standard-size make since theformer’s La Salle in 1927, and the latter’s Plymouth, in 1928,and that Ford itself had not attempted to turn the trick since1938, when it launched the Mercury.
Nevertheless, the Ford men felt bullish—so remarkably⁵² bullishthat they resolved to toss into the automobile pond five timesthe sum that Kaiser had. In April, 1955, Henry Ford II,Breech, and the other members of the executive committeeofficially approved the Forward Product Planning Committee’sfindings, and, to implement⁵³ them, set up another agency, calledthe Special Products Division, with the star-crossed Krafve as itshead. Thus the company gave its formal sanction to the effortsof its designers, who, having divined the trend of events, hadalready been doodling for several months on plans for a newcar. Since neither they nor the newly organized Krafve outfit,when it took over, had an inkling of what the thing on theirdrawing boards might be called, it became known to everybodyat Ford, and even in the company’s press releases, as theE-Car—the “E,” it was explained, standing⁵⁴ for “Experimental.”
The man directly in charge of the E-Car’s design—or, to usethe gruesome trade word, “styling”—was a Canadian, then notyet forty, named Roy A. Brown, who, before taking on theE-Car (and after studying industrial design at the Detroit ArtAcademy), had had a hand in the designing of radios, motorcruisers, colored-glass products, Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, andLincolns.* Brown recently recalled his aspirations⁵⁵ as he went towork on the new project. “Our goal was to create a vehiclewhich would be unique in the sense that it would be readilyrecognizable in styling theme from the nineteen other makes ofcars on the road at that time,” he wrote from England, whereat the time of his writing he was employed as chief stylist forthe Ford Motor Company, Ltd., manufacturers of trucks,tractors, and small cars. “We went to the extent of makingphotographic studies from some distance of all nineteen ofthese cars, and it became obvious that at a distance of a fewhundred feet the similarity was so great that it was practicallyimpossible to distinguish one make from the others.… Theywere all ‘peas in a pod.’ We decided to select [a style that]
would be ‘new’ in the sense that it was unique, and yet at thesame time be familiar.”
While the E-Car was on the drawing boards in Ford’s stylingstudio—situated⁵⁷, like its administrative⁵⁸ offices, in the company’sbarony of Dearborn, just outside Detroit—work on it progressedunder the conditions of melodramatic, if ineffectual, secrecy⁶⁰ thatinvariably attend such operations in the automobile business:
locks on the studio doors that could be changed in fifteenminutes if a key should fall into enemy hands; a security forcestanding round-the-clock guard over the establishment; and atelescope to be trained at intervals⁶¹ on nearby high points ofthe terrain⁶² where peekers might be roosting. (All suchprecautions, however inspired, are doomed⁶³ to fail, because noneof them provide a defense⁶⁴ against Detroit’s version of theTrojan horse—the job-jumping stylist, whose cheerful treacherymakes it relatively⁶⁵ easy for the rival companies to keep tabs onwhat the competition is up to. No one, of course, is betteraware of this than the rivals themselves, but thecloak-and-dagger stuff is thought to pay for itself in publicityvalue.) Twice a week or so, Krafve—head down, and sticking tolow ground—made the journey to the styling studio, where hewould confer with Brown, check up on the work as itproceeded, and offer advice and encouragement. Krafve wasnot the kind of man to envision his objective in a singlerevelatory flash; instead, he anatomized the styling of the E-Carinto a series of laboriously⁶⁷ minute decisions—how to shape thefenders, what pattern to use with the chrome, what kind ofdoor handles to put on, and so on and on. If Michelangeloever added the number of decisions that went into theexecution of, say, his “David,” he kept it to himself, but Krafve,an orderly-minded man in an era of orderly-functioningcomputers, later calculated that in styling the E-Car he and hisassociates had to make up their minds on no fewer than fourthousand occasions. He reasoned at the time that if theyarrived at the right yes-or-no choice on every one of thoseoccasions, they ought, in the end, to come up with a stylisticallyperfect car—or at least a car that would be unique and at thesame time familiar. But Krafve concedes today that he found itdifficult thus to bend the creative process to the yoke⁶⁸ ofsystem, principally because many of the four thousand decisionshe made wouldn’t stay put. “Once you get a general theme,you begin narrowing down,” he says. “You keep modifying, andthen modifying your modifications⁶⁹. Finally, you have to settle onsomething, because there isn’t any more time. If it weren’t forthe deadline you’d probably go on modifying indefinitely.”
Except for later, minor⁷⁰ modifications of the modifiedmodifications, the E-Car had been fully⁷¹ styled by midsummer of1955. As the world was to learn two years later, its moststriking aspect was a novel, horse-collar-shaped radiator⁷² grille,set vertically⁷⁴ in the center of a conventionally low, wide frontend—a blend of the unique and the familiar that was there forall to see, though certainly not for all to admire. In twoprominent respects, however, Brown or Krafve, or both, lostsight entirely⁷⁵ of the familiar, specifying⁷⁶ a unique rear end,marked by widespread horizontal wings that were in boldcontrast to the huge longitudinal tail fins⁷⁷ then captivating themarket, and a unique cluster of automatic-transmission pushbuttons on the hub of the steering⁷⁸ wheel. In a speech to thepublic delivered a while before the public had its first look atthe car, Krafve let fall a hint or two about its styling, which, hesaid, made it so “distinctive” that, externally, it was “immediatelyrecognizable from front, side, and rear,” and, internally, it was“the epitome⁸⁰ of the push-button era without wild-blue-yonderBuck Rogers concepts.” At last came the day when the men inthe highest stratum⁸¹ of the Ford Hierarchy⁸² were given their firstglimpse of the car. It produced an effect that was little short ofapocalyptic. On August 15, 1955, in the ceremonial secrecy ofthe styling center, while Krafve, Brown, and their aides stoodby smiling nervously⁸³ and washing their hands in air, themembers of the Forward Product Planning Committee, includingHenry Ford II and Breech, watched critically as a curtain waslifted to reveal the first full-size model of the E-Car—a clay one,with tinfoil⁸⁴ simulating aluminum⁸⁵ and chrome. According toeyewitnesses, the audience sat in utter silence for what seemedlike a full minute, and then, as one man, burst into a round ofapplause. Nothing of the kind had ever happened at anintracompany first showing at Ford since 1896, when old Henryhad bolted together his first horseless carriage.
ONE of the most persuasive⁸⁶ and most frequently citedexplanations of the Edsel’s failure is that it was a victim of thetime lag between the decision to produce it and the act ofputting it on the market. It was easy to see a few years later,when smaller and less powerful cars, euphemistically called“compacts,” had become so popular as to turn the oldautomobile status-ladder upside down, that the Edsel was agiant step in the wrong direction, but it was far from easy tosee that in fat, tail-finny 1955. American ingenuity—which hasproduced the electric light, the flying machine, the tin Lizzie, theatomic bomb, and even a tax system that permits a man,under certain circumstances, to clear a profit by making acharitable donation *—has not yet found a way of getting anautomobile on the market within a reasonable time after itcomes off the drawing board; the making of steel dies, thealerting of retail⁸⁷ dealers, the preparation of advertising andpromotion campaigns, the gaining of executive approval for eachsuccessive move, and the various other gavotte-like routines thatare considered as vital as breathing in Detroit and its environsusually consume about two years. Guessing future tastes ishard enough for those charged with planning the customaryannual changes in models of established makes; it is far harderto bring out an altogether new creation, like the E-Car, forwhich several intricate new steps must be worked into thedance pattern, such as endowing the product with a personalityand selecting a suitable name for it, to say nothing ofconsulting various oracles⁸⁹ in an effort to determine whether, bythe time of the unveiling, the state of the national economy willmake bringing out any new car seem like a good idea.
Faithfully executing the prescribed routine, the Special ProductsDivision called upon its director of planning for marketresearch, David Wallace, to see what he could do aboutimparting a personality to the E-Car and giving it a name.
Wallace, a lean, craggy-jawed pipe puffer with a soft, slow,thoughtful way of speaking, gave the impression of being thePlatonic idea of the college professor—the very steel die fromwhich the breed is cut—although, in point of fact, hisbackground was not strongly academic. Before going to Ford,in 1955, he had worked his way through Westminster College,in Pennsylvania, ridden out the depression as a constructionlaborer in New York City, and then spent ten years in marketresearch at Time. Still, impressions are what count, andWallace has admitted that during his tenure⁹² with Ford heconsciously stressed his professorial air for the sake of theadvantage it gave him in dealing⁹³ with the bluff⁹⁴, practical men ofDearborn. “Our department came to be regarded as asemi-Brain Trust,” he says, with a certain satisfaction. Heinsisted, typically, on living in Ann Arbor⁵⁹, where he could baskin the scholarly aura of the University of Michigan, rather thanin Dearborn or Detroit, both of which he declared wereintolerable after business hours. Whatever the degree of hissuccess in projecting the image of the E-Car, he seems, by hissmall eccentricities⁹⁵, to have done splendidly at projecting theimage of Wallace. “I don’t think Dave’s motivation for being atFord was basically economic,” his old boss, Krafve, says. “Daveis the scholarly type, and I think he considered the job aninteresting challenge.” One could scarcely ask for better evidenceof image projection⁹⁶ than that.
Wallace clearly recalls the reasoning—candid enough—thatguided him and his assistants as they sought just the rightpersonality for the E-Car. “We said to ourselves, ‘Let’s faceit—there is no great difference in basic mechanism⁹⁷ between atwo-thousand-dollar Chevrolet and a six-thousand-dollarCadillac,’” he says. “‘Forget about all the ballyhoo,’ we said, ‘andyou’ll see that they are really pretty much the same thing.
Nevertheless, there’s something—there’s got to be something—inthe makeup⁹⁸ of a certain number of people that gives them ayen for a Cadillac, in spite of its high price, or maybe becauseof it.’ We concluded that cars are the means to a sort ofdream fulfillment. There’s some irrational⁹⁹ factor in people thatmakes them want one kind of car rather thananother—something that has nothing to do with the mechanismat all but with the car’s personality, as the customer imaginesit. What we wanted to do, naturally, was to give the E-Car thepersonality that would make the greatest number of peoplewant it. We figured we had a big advantage over the othermanufacturers of medium-priced cars, because we didn’t haveto worry about changing a pre-existent, perhaps somewhatobnoxious personality. All we had to do was create the exactone we wanted—from scratch.”
As the first step in determining what the E-Car’s exactpersonality should be, Wallace decided to assess the personalitiesof the medium-priced cars already on the market, and those ofthe so-called low-priced cars as well, since the cost of some ofthe cheap cars’ 1955 models had risen well up into themedium-price range. To this end, he engaged the ColumbiaUniversity Bureau of Applied¹⁰⁰ Social Research to interview eighthundred recent car buyers in Peoria, Illinois, and another eighthundred in San Bernardino, California, on the mental imagesthey had of the various automobile makes concerned. (Inundertaking this commercial enterprise, Columbia maintained itsacademic independence by reserving the right to publish itsfindings.) “Our idea was to get the reaction in cities, amongclusters of people,” Wallace says. “We didn’t want a crosssection. What we wanted was something that would showinterpersonal factors. We picked Peoria as a place that isMidwestern, stereotyped¹⁰², and not loaded with extraneousfactors—like a General Motors glass plant, say. We picked SanBernardino because the West Coast is very important in theautomobile business, and because the market there is quitedifferent—people tend to buy flashier cars.”
The questions that the Columbia researchers fared forth⁵⁶ toask in Peoria and San Bernardino dealt exhaustively withpractically everything having to do with automobiles except suchmatters as how much they cost, how safe they were, andwhether they ran. In particular, Wallace wanted to know therespondents’ impressions of each of the existing makes. Who, intheir opinion, would naturally own a Chevrolet or a Buick orwhatever? People of what age? Of which sex? Of what socialstatus? From the answers, Wallace found it easy to puttogether a personality portrait of each make. The image of theFord came into focus as that of a very fast, strongly masculinecar, of no particular social pretensions¹⁰³, that mightcharacteristically be driven by a rancher or an automobilemechanic. In contrast, Chevrolet emerged as older, wiser,slower, a bit less rampantly¹⁰⁵ masculine, and slightly moredistingué—a clergyman’s car. Buick jelled into a middle-agedlady—or, at least, more of a lady than Ford, sex in cars havingproved to be relative—with a bit of the devil still in her, whosemost felicitous¹⁰⁶ mate would be a lawyer, a doctor, or adance-band leader. As for the Mercury, it came out as virtuallya hot rod, best suited to a young-buck racing¹⁰⁷ driver; thus,despite its higher price tag, it was associated with personshaving incomes no higher than the average Ford owner’s, sono wonder Ford owners had not been trading up to it. Thisodd discrepancy¹⁰⁸ between image and fact, coupled with thecircumstance that, in sober truth all four makes looked verymuch alike and had almost the same horsepower under theirhoods, only served to bear out Wallace’s premise¹¹¹ that theautomobile fancier, like a young man in love, is incapable¹¹² ofsizing up the object of his affections in anything resembling arational manner.
By the time the researchers closed the books on Peoria andSan Bernardino, they had elicited¹¹³ replies not only to thesequestions but to others, several of which, it would appear, onlythe most abstruse¹¹⁴ sociological thinker could relate tomedium-priced cars. “Frankly¹¹⁵, we dabbled,” Wallace says. “Itwas a dragnet operation.” Among the odds¹¹⁶ and ends that thedragnet dredged up were some that, when pieced together, ledthe researchers to report:
By looking at those respondents whose annual incomes range from $4,000to $11,000, we can make an … observation. A considerable percentage ofthese respondents [to a question about their ability to mix cocktails¹¹⁷] are inthe “somewhat” category on ability to mix cocktails.… Evidently, they do nothave much confidence in their cocktail-mixing ability. We may infer thatthese respondents are aware of the fact that they are in the learningprocess. They may be able to mix Martinis or Manhattans, but beyondthese popular drinks they don’t have much of a repertoire¹¹⁸.
Wallace, dreaming of an ideally lovable E-Car, was delighted asreturns like these came pouring into his Dearborn office. Butwhen the time for a final decision drew near, it became clearto him that he must put aside peripheral¹¹⁹ issues likecocktail-mixing prowess and address himself once more to theold problem of the image. And here, it seemed to him, thegreatest pitfall¹²⁰ was the temptation to aim, in accordance withwhat he took to be the trend of the times, for extremes ofmasculinity, youthfulness, and speed; indeed, the followingpassage from one of the Columbia reports, as he interpreted it,contained a specific warning against such folly¹²¹.
Offhand¹²² we might conjecture¹²³ that women who drive cars probably work,and are more mobile than non-owners, and get gratifications out ofmastering a traditionally male role. But … there is no doubt that whatevergratifications women get out of their cars, and whatever social imagery theyattach to their automobiles, they do want to appear as women. Perhapsmore worldly women, but women.
Early in 1956, Wallace set about summing up all of hisdepartment’s findings in a report to his superiors in the SpecialProducts Division. Entitled “The Market and PersonalityObjectives of the E-Car” and weighty with facts andstatistics—though generously interspersed¹²⁴ with terse¹²⁵ sections initalics or capitals from which a hard-pressed executive could getthe gist¹²⁶ of the thing in a matter of seconds—the report firstindulged in some airy, skippable philosophizing and then gotdown to conclusions:
What happens when an owner sees his make as a car which a womanmight buy, but is himself a man? Does this apparent inconsistency of carimage and the buyer’s own characteristics affect his trading plans? Theanswer quite definitely is Yes. When there is a conflict between ownercharacteristics and make image, there is greater planning to switch toanother make. In other words, when the buyer is a different kind ofperson from the person he thinks would own his make, he wants tochange to a make in which he, inwardly, will be more comfortable.
It should be noted¹²⁷ that “conflict,” as used here, can be of two kinds.
Should a make have a strong and well-defined image, it is obvious that anowner with strong opposing characteristics would be in conflict. But conflictalso can occur when the make image is diffuse¹²⁸ or weakly defined. In thiscase, the owner is in an equally frustrating¹²⁹ position of not being able toget a satisfactory identification from his make.
The question, then, was how to steer⁷⁹ between the Scylla of atoo definite car personality and the Charybdis of a too weakpersonality. To this the report replied, “Capitalize on imageryweakness of competition,” and went on to urge that in thematter of age the E-Car should take an imagery positionneither too young nor too old but right alongside that of themiddling Olds-mobile; that in the matter of social class, not tomince matters, “the E-Car might well take a status position justbelow Buick and Oldsmobile”; and that in the delicate matter ofsex it should try to straddle the fence, again along with theprotean Olds. In sum (and in Wallace typography):
The most advantageous¹³⁰ personality for the E-Car might well be THESMART CAR FOR THE YOUNGER EXECUTIVE OR PROFESSIONALFAMILY ON ITS WAY UP.
Smart car: recognition by others of the owner’s good style and taste.
Younger: appealing to spirited but responsible adventurers.
Executive or professional: millions pretend to this status, whether they canattain it or not.
Family: not exclusively masculine; a wholesome¹³¹ “good” role.
On Its Way Up: “The E-Car has faith in you, son; we’ll help you makeit!”
Before spirited but responsible adventurers could have faith inthe E-Car, however, it had to have a name. Very early in itshistory, Krafve had suggested to members of the Ford familythat the new car be named for Edsel Ford, who was the onlyson of old Henry; the president of the Ford Motor Companyfrom 1918 until his death, in 1943; and the father of the newgeneration of Fords—Henry II, Benson, and William Clay. Thethree brothers had let Krafve know that their father might nothave cared to have his name spinning on a million hubcaps,and they had consequently suggested that the Special ProductsDivision start looking around for a substitute. This it did, with azeal no less emphatic¹³³ than it displayed in the personalitycrusade. In the late summer and early fall of 1955, Wallacehired the services of several research outfits¹³⁴, which sentinterviewers, armed with a list of two thousand possible names,to canvass¹³⁵ sidewalk crowds in New York, Chicago, Willow¹³⁶ Run,and Ann Arbor. The interviewers did not ask simply what therespondent thought of some such name as Mars, Jupiter,Rover, Ariel, Arrow, Dart¹³⁷, or Ovation¹³⁸. They asked what freeassociations each name brought to mind, and having got ananswer to this one, they asked what word or words wasconsidered the opposite of each name, on the theory that,subliminally speaking, the opposite is as much a part of aname as the tail is of a penny. The results of all this, theSpecial Products Division eventually decided, were inconclusive.
Meanwhile, Krafve and his men held repeated sessions in adarkened room, staring, with the aid of a spotlight¹³⁹, at a seriesof cardboard signs, each bearing a name, as, one after another,they were flipped¹⁴⁰ over for their consideration. One of the menthus engaged spoke¹⁴¹ up for the name Phoenix¹⁴², because of itsconnotations of ascendancy¹⁴³, and another favored Altair, on theground that it would lead practically all alphabetical¹⁴⁴ lists of carsand thus enjoy an advantage analogous¹⁴⁵ to that enjoyed in theanimal kingdom by the aardvark. At a certain drowsy¹⁴⁶ point inone session, somebody suddenly called a halt to thecard-flipping and asked, in an incredulous tone, “Didn’t I see‘Buick’ go by two or three cards back?” Everybody looked atWallace, the impresario¹⁴⁷ of the sessions. He puffed¹⁴⁸ on his pipe,smiled an academic smile, and nodded.
THE card-flipping sessions proved to be as fruitless as thesidewalk interviews, and it was at this stage of the game thatWallace, resolving to try and wring¹⁴⁹ from genius what thecommon mind had failed to yield, entered into the celebratedcar-naming correspondence with the poet Marianne Moore,which was later published in The New Yorker and still later, inbook form, by the Morgan Library. “We should like this name… to convey, through association or other conjuration, somevisceral feeling of elegance¹⁵⁰, fleetness, advanced features anddesign,” Wallace wrote to Miss Moore, achieving a certainfeeling of elegance himself. If it is asked who among the godsof Dearborn had the inspired and inspiriting idea of enlistingMiss Moore’s services in this cause, the answer, according toWallace, is that it was no god but the wife of one of his juniorassistants—a young lady who had recently graduated fromMount Holyoke, where she had heard Miss Moore lecture. Hadher husband’s superiors gone a step further and actuallyadopted one of Miss Moore’s many suggestions—IntelligentBullet, for instance, or Utopian Turtletop, or Bullet Cloisonné, orPastelogram, or Mongoose Civique, or Andante con¹ Moto(“Description of a good motor?” Miss Moore queried¹⁵¹ in regardto this last)—there is no telling to what heights the E-Car mighthave risen, but the fact is that they didn’t. Dissatisfied withboth the poet’s ideas and their own, the executives in theSpecial Products Division next called in Foote, Cone¹⁵² & Belding,the advertising agency that had lately been signed up to handlethe E-Car account. With characteristic Madison Avenue vigor,Foote, Cone & Belding organized a competition among theemployees of its New York, London, and Chicago offices,offering nothing less than one of the brand-new cars as a prizeto whoever thought up an acceptable name. In no time at all,Foote, Cone & Belding had eighteen thousand names in hand,including Zoom¹⁵³, Zip, Benson, Henry, and Drof (if in doubt,spell it backward). Suspecting that the bosses of the SpecialProducts Division might regard this list as a trifle unwieldy, theagency got to work and cut it down to six thousand names,which it presented to them in executive session. “There youare,” a Foote, Cone man said triumphantly¹⁵⁴, flopping¹⁵⁵ a sheaf ofpapers on the table. “Six thousand names, all alphabetized andcross-referenced.”
A gasp¹⁵⁶ escaped Krafve. “But we don’t want six thousandnames,” he said. “We only want one.”
The situation was critical, because the making of dies for thenew car was about to begin and some of them would have tobear its name. On a Thursday, Foote, Cone & Belding canceledall leaves and instituted what is called a crash program,instructing its New York and Chicago offices to set aboutindependently cutting down the list of six thousand names toten and to have the job done by the end of the weekend.
Before the weekend was over, the two Foote, Cone officespresented their separate lists of ten to the Special ProductsDivision, and by an almost incredible coincidence, which allhands insist was a coincidence, four of the names on the twolists were the same; Corsair, Citation¹⁵⁷, Pacer, and Ranger¹⁵⁸ hadmiraculously survived the dual¹⁵⁹ scrutiny. “Corsair seemed to behead and shoulders above everything else,” Wallace says. “Alongwith other factors in its favor, it had done splendidly in thesidewalk interviews. The free associations with Corsair wererather romantic—‘pirate,’ ‘swashbuckler,’ things like that. For itsopposite, we got ‘princess,’ or something else attractive on thatorder. Just what we wanted.”
Corsair or no Corsair, the E-Car was named the Edsel in theearly spring of 1956, though the public was not informed untilthe following autumn. The epochal decision was reached at ameeting of the Ford executive committee held at a time when,as it happened, all three Ford brothers were away. In PresidentFord’s absence, the meeting was conducted by Breech, whohad become chairman of the board in 1955, and his mood thatday was brusque, and not one to linger long overswashbucklers and princesses. After hearing the final choices, hesaid, “I don’t like any of them. Let’s take another look at someof the others.” So they took another look at the favoredrejects, among them the name Edsel, which, in spite of thethree Ford brothers’ expressed interpretation¹⁶⁰ of their father’sprobable wishes, had been retained as a sort of anchor towindward. Breech led his associates in a patient scrutiny of thelist until they came to “Edsel.” “Let’s call it that,” Breech saidwith calm finality. There were to be four main models of theE-Car, with variations on each one, and Breech soothed¹⁶¹ someof his colleagues by adding that the magic four—Corsair,Citation, Pacer, and Ranger—might be used, if anybody felt soinclined, as the subnames for the models. A telephone call wasput through to Henry II, who was vacationing in Nassau. Hesaid that if Edsel was the choice of the executive committee, hewould abide¹⁶² by its decision, provided he could get the approvalof the rest of his family. Within a few days, he got it.
As Wallace wrote to Miss Moore a while later: “We havechosen a name.… It fails somewhat of the resonance¹⁶³, gaiety,and zest¹⁶⁵ we were seeking. But it has a personal dignity andmeaning to many of us here. Our name, dear Miss Moore,is—Edsel. I hope you will understand.”
IT may be assumed that word of the naming of the E-Carspread a certain amount of despair among the Foote, Cone &Belding backers of more metaphorical¹⁶⁶ names, none of whomwon a free car—a despair heightened by the fact that thename “Edsel” had been ruled out of the competition from thefirst. But their sense of disappointment was as nothingcompared to the gloom that enveloped¹⁶⁷ many employees of theSpecial Products Division. Some felt that the name of a formerpresident of the company, who had sired its current president,bore dynastic connotations that were alien to the Americantemper; others, who, with Wallace, had put their trust in thequirks of the mass unconscious, believed that “Edsel” was adisastrously unfortunate combination of syllables¹⁶⁸. What were itsfree associations? Pretzel, diesel¹⁶⁹, hard sell. What was itsopposite? It didn’t seem to have any. Still, the matter wassettled, and there was nothing to do but put the best possibleface on it. Besides, the anguish¹⁷⁰ in the Special Products Divisionwas by no means unanimous, and Krafve himself, of course,was among those who had no objection to the name. He stillhas none, declining to go along with those who contend thatthe decline and fall of the Edsel may be dated from themoment of its christening.
Krafve, in fact, was so well pleased with the way matters hadturned out that when, at eleven o’clock on the morning ofNovember 19, 1956, after a long summer of thoughtful silence,the Ford Company released to the world the glad tidings thatthe E-Car had been named the Edsel, he accompanied theannouncement with a few dramatic flourishes of his own. Onthe very stroke of that hour on that day, the telephoneoperators in Krafve’s domain¹⁷¹ began greeting callers with “EdselDivision” instead of “Special Products Division”; all stationerybearing the obsolete¹⁷² letterhead of the division vanished and wasreplaced by sheaves of paper headed “Edsel Division”; andoutside the building a huge stainless-steel sign reading “EDSELDIVISION” rose ceremoniously to the rooftop. Krafve himselfmanaged to remain earthbound, though he had his ownreasons for feeling buoyant; in recognition of his leadership ofthe E-Car project up to that point, he was given the augusttitle of Vice-President of the Ford Motor Company and GeneralManager, Edsel Division.
From the administrative point of view, thisoff-with-the-old-on-with-the-new effect was merely harmlesswindow dressing¹⁷⁴. In the strict secrecy of the Dearborn testtrack, vibrant¹⁷⁵, almost full-fledged Edsels, with their name gravenon their superstructures, were already being road-tested; Brownand his fellow stylists were already well along with their designsfor the next year’s Edsel; recruits were already being signed upfor an entirely new organization of retail dealers to sell theEdsel to the public; and Foote, Cone & Belding, having beenrelieved of the burden of staging crash programs to collectnames and crash programs to get rid of them again, wasalready deep in schemes for advertising the Edsel, under thepersonal direction of a no less substantial pillar of his tradethan Fairfax M. Cone, the agency’s head man. In planning hiscampaign, Cone relied heavily on what had come to be calledthe “Wallace prescription¹⁷⁶”; that is, the formula for the Edsel’spersonality as set forth by Wallace back in the days before thebig naming bee—“The smart car for the younger executive orprofessional family on its way up.” So enthusiastic was Coneabout the prescription that he accepted it with only onerevision—the substitution of “middle-income” family for “youngerexecutive,” his hunch³⁰ being that there were more middle-incomefamilies around than young executives, or even people whothought they were young executives. In an expansive mood,possibly induced by his having landed an account that wasexpected to bring billings of well over ten million dollars a year,Cone described to reporters on several occasions the kind ofcampaign he was plotting for the Edsel—quiet, self-assured, andavoiding as much as possible the use of the adjective “new,”
which, though it had an obvious application to the product, heconsidered rather lacking in cachet. Above all, the campaignwas to be classic in its calmness. “We think it would be awfulfor the advertising to compete with the car,” Cone told thepress. “We hope that no one will ever ask, ‘Say, did you seethat Edsel ad?’ in any newspaper or magazine or on television,but, instead, that hundreds of thousands of people will say, andsay again, ‘Man, did you read about that Edsel?’ or ‘Did yousee that car?’ This is the difference between advertising andselling.” Evidently enough, Cone felt confident about thecampaign and the Edsel. Like a chess master who has nodoubt that he will win, he could afford to explicate the brillianceof his moves even as he made them.
Automobile men still talk, with admiration¹⁷⁷ for the virtuositydisplayed and a shudder¹⁷⁸ at the ultimate outcome, of the EdselDivision’s drive to round up retail dealers. Ordinarily, anestablished manufacturer launches a new car through dealerswho are already handling his other makes and who, to beginwith, take on the upstart as a sort of sideline. Not so in thecase of the Edsel; Krafve received authorization¹⁷⁹ from on highto go all out and build up a retail-dealer¹⁹ organization bymaking raids on dealers who had contracts with othermanufacturers, or even with the other Ford Companydivisions—Ford and Lincoln-Mercury. (Although the Ford dealersthus corralled were not obliged to cancel their old contracts, allthe emphasis was on signing up retail outlets¹⁸⁰ exclusivelydedicated to the selling of Edsels.) The goal set for IntroductionDay—which, after a great deal of soul-searching, was finallyestablished as September 4, 1957—was twelve hundred Edseldealers from coast to coast. They were not to be just anydealers, either; Krafve made it clear that Edsel was interested insigning up only dealers whose records showed that they had amarked ability to sell cars without resorting to the high-pressuretricks of borderline legality that had lately been giving theautomobile business a bad name. “We simply have to havequality dealers with quality service facilities,” Krafve said. “Acustomer who gets poor service on an established brandblames the dealer. On an Edsel, he will blame the car.” Thegoal of twelve hundred was a high one, for no dealer, qualityor not, can afford to switch makes lightly. The average dealerhas at least a hundred thousand dollars tied up in his agency,and in large cities the investment is much higher. He must hiresalesmen, mechanics, and office help; buy his own tools,technical literature, and signs, the latter costing as much as fivethousand dollars a set; and pay the factory spot cash for thecars he receives from it.
The man charged with mobilizing an Edsel sales force alongthese exacting¹⁸¹ lines was J. C. (Larry) Doyle, who, as generalsales-and-marketing¹⁸² manager of the division, ranked second toKrafve himself. A veteran of forty years with the FordCompany, who had started with it as an office boy in KansasCity and had spent the intervening time mainly selling, Doylewas a maverick¹⁸³ in his field. On the one hand, he had an airof kindness and consideration that made him the very antithesisof the glib¹⁸⁴, brash denizens¹⁸⁵ of a thousand automobile rowsacross the continent, and, on the other, he did not trouble toconceal an old-time salesman’s skepticism about such things asanalyzing the sex and status of automobiles, a pursuit hecharacterized by saying, “When I play pool, I like to keep onefoot on the floor.” Still, he knew how to sell cars, and that waswhat the Edsel Division needed. Recalling how he and his salesstaff brought off the unlikely trick of persuading substantial andreputable men who had already achieved success in one of thetoughest of all businesses to tear up profitable franchises¹⁸⁷ infavor of a risky¹⁸⁸ new one, Doyle said not long ago, “As soon asthe first few new Edsels came through, early in 1957, we put acouple of them in each of our five regional sales offices.
Needless to say, we kept those offices locked and the blindsdrawn. Dealers in every make for miles around wanted to seethe¹⁸⁹ car, if only out of curiosity, and that gave us the leveragewe needed. We let it be known that we would show the caronly to dealers who were really interested in coming with us,and then we sent our regional field managers out tosurrounding towns to try to line up the No. 1 dealer in eachto see the cars. If we couldn’t get No. 1, we’d try for No. 2.
Anyway, we set things up so that no one got in to see theEdsel without listening to a complete one-hour pitch on thewhole situation by a member of our sales force. It worked verywell.” It worked so well that by midsummer, 1957, it was clearthat Edsel was going to have a lot of quality dealers onIntroduction Day. (In fact, it missed the goal of twelve hundredby a couple of dozen.) Indeed, some dealers in other makeswere apparently¹⁹⁰ so confident of the Edsel’s success, or sobemused by the Doyle staff’s pitch, that they were entirelywilling to sign up after hardly more than a glance at the Edselitself. Doyle’s people urged them to study the car closely, andkept reciting the litany of its virtues¹⁹¹, but the prospective¹⁹² Edseldealers would wave such protestations aside and demand acontract without further ado. In retrospect¹⁹³, it would seem thatDoyle could have given lessons to the Pied Piper.
Now that the Edsel was no longer the exclusive concern ofDearborn, the Ford Company was irrevocably committed togoing ahead. “Until Doyle went into action, the whole programcould have been quietly dropped at any time at a word fromtop management, but once the dealers had been signed up,there was the matter of honoring your contract to put out acar,” Krafve has explained. The matter was attended to withdispatch. Early in June, 1957, the company announced that ofthe $250 million it had set aside to defray the advance costs ofthe Edsel, $150 million was being spent on basic facilities,including the conversion¹⁹⁴ of various Ford and Mercury plants tothe needs of producing the new cars; $50 million on specialEdsel tooling; and $50 million on initial advertising andpromotion. In June, too, an Edsel destined¹⁹⁵ to be the star of atelevision commercial for future release was stealthily transportedin a closed van to Hollywood, where, on a locked sound stagepatrolled by security guards, it was exposed to the cameras inthe admiring presence of a few carefully chosen actors whohad sworn that their lips would be sealed from then untilIntroduction Day. For this delicate photographic operation theEdsel Division cannily¹⁹⁶ enlisted¹⁹⁷ the services of Cascade¹⁹⁸ Pictures,which also worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, and, asfar as is known, there were no unintentional leaks. “We tookall the same precautions we take for our A.E.C. films,” a grimCascade official has since said.
Within a few weeks, the Edsel Division had eighteen hundredsalaried employees and was rapidly filling some fifteen thousandfactory jobs in the newly converted plants. On July 15th, Edselsbegan rolling off assembly lines at Somerville, Massachusetts;Mahwah, New Jersey¹⁹⁹; Louisville, Kentucky; and San Jose,California. The same day, Doyle scored an important coup¹⁰⁹ bysigning up Charles Kreisler, a Manhattan dealer regarded asone of the country’s foremost practitioners²⁰⁰ in his field, who hadrepresented Oldsmobile—one of Edsel’s self-designatedrivals—before heeding²⁰¹ the siren song from Dearborn. On July22nd, the first advertisement for the Edsel appeared—in Life. Atwo-page spread in plain black-and-white, it was impeccablyclassic and calm, showing a car whooshing²⁰² down a countryhighway at such high speed that it was an indistinguishableblur. “Lately, some mysterious automobiles have been seen onthe roads,” the accompanying text was headed. It went on tosay that the blur²⁰³ was an Edsel being road-tested, andconcluded with the assurance “The Edsel is on its way.” Twoweeks later, a second ad appeared in Life, this one showing aghostly-looking car, covered with a white sheet, standing at theentrance to the Ford styling center. This time the headline read,“A man in your town recently made a decision that will changehis life.” The decision, it was explained, was to become anEdsel dealer. Whoever wrote the ad cannot have known howtruly he spoke.
DURING the tense summer of 1957, the man of the hour atEdsel was C. Gayle Warnock, director of public relations, whoseduty was not so much to generate public interest in theforthcoming product, there being an abundance of that, as tokeep the interest at white heat, and readily convertible²⁰⁴ into adesire to buy one of the new cars on or after IntroductionDay—or, as the company came to call it, Edsel Day. Warnock,a dapper, affable man with a tiny mustache, is a native ofConverse, Indiana, who, long before Krafve drafted him fromthe Ford office in Chicago, did a spot of publicity⁶⁶ work forcounty fairs—a background that has enabled him to spice thehoneyed smoothness of the modern public-relations man with atouch of the old carnival²⁰⁵ pitchman’s uninhibited spirit. Recallinghis summons to Dearborn, Warnock says, “When Dick Krafvehired me, back in the fall of 1955, he told me, ‘I want you toprogram the E-Car publicity from now to Introduction Day.’ Isaid, ‘Frankly, Dick, what do you mean by “program”?’ He saidhe meant to sort of space it out, starting at the end andworking backward. This was something new to me—I was usedto taking what breaks I could get when I could get them—butI soon found out how right Dick was. It was almost too easyto get publicity for the Edsel. Early in 1956, when it was stillcalled the E-Car, Krafve gave a little talk about it out inPortland, Oregon. We didn’t try for anything more than a playin the local press, but the wire services picked the story upand it went out all over the country. Clippings came in by thebushel. Right then I realized the trouble we might be headedfor. The public was getting to be hysterical²⁰⁶ to see our car,figuring it was going to be some kind of dream car—likenothing they’d ever seen. I said to Krafve, ‘When they find outit’s got four wheels and one engine, just like the next car,they’re liable to be disappointed.’”
It was agreed that the safest way to tread the tightropebetween overplaying and underplaying the Edsel would be tosay nothing about the car as a whole but to reveal itsindividual charms a little at a time—a sort of automotive striptease (a phrase that Warnock couldn’t with proper dignity usehimself but was happy to see the New York Times use forhim). The policy was later violated now and then, purposely orinadvertently. For one thing, as the pre-Edsel Day summerwore on, reporters prevailed upon Krafve to authorize²⁰⁷ Warnockto show the Edsel to them, one at a time, on what Warnockcalled a “peekaboo,” or “you’ve-seen-it-now-forget-it,” basis. And,for another, Edsels loaded on vans for delivery to dealers wereappearing on the highways in ever-increasing numbers, coveredfore and aft with canvas flaps that, as if to whet⁹⁰ the desire ofthe motoring public, were forever blowing loose. That summer,too, was a time of speechmaking by an Edsel foursomeconsisting of Krafve, Doyle, J. Emmet Judge, who was Edsel’sdirector of merchandise and product planning, and Robert F.
G. Copeland, its assistant general sales manager for advertising,sales promotion⁸⁸, and training. Ranging separately up and downand across the nation, the four orators²⁰⁸ moved around so fastand so tirelessly that Warnock, lest he lose track of them, tookto indicating their whereabouts with colored pins on a map inhis office. “Let’s see, Krafve goes from Atlanta to New Orleans,Doyle from Council Bluffs²⁰⁹ to Salt Lake City,” Warnock wouldmuse of a morning in Dearborn, sipping²¹⁰ his second cup ofcoffee and then getting up to yank the pins out and jab themin again.
Although most of Krafve’s audiences consisted of bankers andrepresentatives of finance companies who it was hoped wouldlend money to Edsel dealers, his speeches that summer, farfrom echoing the general hoopla, were almost statesmanlike intheir cautious—even somber—references to the new car’sprospects. And well they might have been, for developments inthe general economic outlook of the nation were making moresanguine men than Krafve look puzzled. In July, 1957, thestock market went into a nose dive, marking the beginning ofwhat is recalled as the recession of 1958. Then, early inAugust, a decline in the sales of medium-priced 1957 cars of allmakes set in, and the general situation worsened so rapidlythat, before the month was out, Automotive News reportedthat dealers in all makes were ending their season with thesecond-largest number of unsold new cars in history. If Krafve,on his lonely rounds, ever considered retreating to Dearbornfor consolation²¹², he was forced to put that notion out of hismind when, also in August, Mercury, Edsel’s own stablemate,served notice that it was going to make things as tough aspossible for the newcomer by undertaking¹⁰¹ a million-dollar,thirty-day advertising drive aimed especially at “price-consciousbuyers”—a clear reference to the fact that the 1957 Mercury,which was then being sold at a discount by most dealers, costless than the new Edsel was expected to. Meanwhile, sales ofthe Rambler, which was the only American-made small car thenin production, were beginning to rise ominously²¹⁴. In the face ofall these evil portents²¹⁵, Krafve fell into the habit of ending hisspeeches with a rather downbeat anecdote²¹⁶ about the boardchairman of an unsuccessful dog-food company who said to hisfellow directors, “Gentlemen, let’s face facts—dogs don’t like ourproduct.” “As far as we’re concerned,” Krafve added on atleast one occasion, driving home the moral with admirableclarity, “a lot will depend on whether people like our car ornot.”
But most of the other Edsel men were unimpressed byKrafve’s misgivings²¹⁷. Perhaps the least impressed of all wasJudge, who, while doing his bit as an itinerant²¹⁸ speaker,specialized in community and civic²¹⁹ groups. Undismayed by thelimitations of the strip-tease policy, Judge brightened up hislectures by showing such a bewildering array of animatedgraphs, cartoons, charts, and pictures of parts of the car—allflashed on a CinemaScope screen—that his listeners usually gothalfway home before they realized that he hadn’t shown theman Edsel. He wandered restlessly around the auditorium²²⁰ as hespoke, shifting the kaleidoscopic²²¹ images on the screen at willwith the aid of an automatic slide changer—a trick madepossible by a crew of electricians who laced the place inadvance with a maze²²² of wires linking the device to dozens offloor switches, which, scattered²²³ about the hall, responded whenhe kicked them. Each of the “Judge spectaculars,” as theseperformances came to be known, cost the Edsel Division fivethousand dollars—a sum that included the pay and expenses ofthe technical crew, who would arrive on the scene a day or soahead of time to set up the electrical rig. At the last moment,Judge would descend²²⁴ melodramatically on the town by plane,hasten to the hall, and go into his act. “One of the greatestaspects of this whole Edsel program is the philosophy ofproduct and merchandising behind it,” Judge might start off,with a desultory²²⁵ kick at a switch here, a switch there. “All ofus who have been a part of it are real proud of thisbackground and we are anxiously awaiting its success when thecar is introduced this fall.… Never again will we be associatedwith anything as gigantic and full of meaning as this particularprogram.… Here is a glimpse of the car which will be beforethe American public on September 4, 1957 [at this point, Judgewould show a provocative²²⁶ slide of a hubcap or section offender].… It is a different car in every respect, yet it has anelement of conservatism which will give it maximum appeal.…The distinctiveness²²⁷ of the frontal styling integrates with thesculptured patterns of the side treatment.…” And on and onJudge would rhapsodize, rolling out such awesome²²⁸ phrases as“sculptured sheet metal,” “highlight character,” and “graceful,flowing lines.” At last would come the ringing peroration²²⁹. “Weare proud of the Edsel!” he would cry, kicking switches rightand left. “When it is introduced this fall, it will take its place onthe streets and highways of America, bringing new greatness tothe Ford Motor Company. This is the Edsel story.”
THE drum-roll climax²³⁰ of the strip tease was a three-day presspreview of the Edsel, undraped from pinched-in snout to flaringrear, that was held in Detroit and Dearborn on August 26th,27th, and 28th, with 250 reporters from all over the country inattendance. It differed from previous automotive jamborees ofits kind in that the journalists were invited to bring their wivesalong—and many of them did. Before it was over, it had costthe Ford Company ninety thousand dollars. Grand as it was,the conventionality of its setting was a disappointment toWarnock, who had proposed, and seen rejected, three localesthat he thought would provide a more offbeat²³¹ ambiance—asteamer on the Detroit River (“wrong symbolism”); Edsel,Kentucky (“inaccessible by road”); and Haiti (“just turned downflat”). Thus hobbled, Warnock could do no better for thereporters and their wives when they converged²³² on the Detroitscene on Sunday evening, August 25th, than to put them upat the discouragingly named Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel and toarrange for them to spend Monday afternoon hearing andreading about the long-awaited details of the entire crop ofEdsels—eighteen varieties available, in four main lines (Corsair,Citation, Pacer, and Ranger), differing mainly in their size,power, and trim. The next morning, specimens²³³ of the modelsthemselves were revealed to the reporters in the styling center’srotunda, and Henry II offered a few words of tribute to hisfather. “The wives were not asked to the unveiling,” a Foote,Cone man who helped plan the affair recalls. “It was toosolemn and businesslike an event for that. It went over fine.
There was excitement even among the hardenednewspapermen.” (The import of the stories that most of theexcited newspapermen filed was that the Edsel seemed to be agood car, though not so radical²³⁴ as its billing had suggested.)In the afternoon, the reporters were whisked out to the testtrack to see a team of stunt²³⁵ drivers put the Edsel through itspaces. This event, calculated to be thrilling, turned out to behair-raising, and even, for some, a little unstringing. Enjoinednot to talk too much about speed and horsepower, since onlya few months previously²³⁶ the whole automobile industry hadnobly resolved to concentrate on making cars instead ofdelayed-action bombs, Warnock had decided to emphasize theEdsel’s liveliness through deeds rather than words, and toaccomplish this he had hired a team of stunt drivers. Edselsran over two-foot ramps²³⁷ on two wheels, bounced from higherramps on all four wheels, were driven in crisscross patterns,grazing each other, at sixty or seventy miles per hour, andskidded into complete turns at fifty. For comic relief, there wasa clown driver parodying²³⁸ the daredevil stuff. All the while, thevoice of Neil L. Blume, Edsel’s engineering chief, could be heardon a loudspeaker, purring about “the capabilities²³⁹, the safety, theruggedness, the maneuverability and performance of these newcars,” and skirting the words “speed” and “horsepower” asdelicately as a sandpiper skirts a wave. At one point, when anEdsel leaping a high ramp¹⁰⁴ just missed turning over, Krafve’sface took on a ghastly pallor; he later reported that he hadnot known the daredevil stunts²⁴⁰ were going to be so extreme,and was concerned both for the good name of the Edsel andthe lives of the drivers. Warnock, noticing his boss’s distress,went over and asked Krafve if he was enjoying the show.
Krafve replied tersely²⁴¹ that he would answer when it was overand all hands safe. But everyone else seemed to be having agrand time. The Foote, Cone man said, “You looked over thisgreen Michigan hill, and there were those glorious Edsels,performing gloriously in unison²⁴². It was beautiful. It was like theRockettes. It was exciting. Morale²⁴³ was high.”
Warnock’s high spirits had carried him to even wilderextremes of fancy. The stunt driving, like the unveiling, wasconsidered too rich for the blood of the wives, but theresourceful Warnock was ready for them with a fashion showthat he hoped they would find at least equally diverting. Heneed not have worried. The star of the show, who wasintroduced by Brown, the Edsel stylist, as a Paris couturière,both beautiful and talented, turned out at the final curtain tobe a female impersonator—a fact of which Warnock, toheighten the verisimilitude of the act, had given Brown noadvance warning. Things were never again quite the same sincebetween Brown and Warnock, but the wives were able to givetheir husbands an extra paragraph or two for their stories.
That evening, there was a big gala for one and all at thestyling center, which was itself styled as a night club for theoccasion, complete with a fountain that danced in time with themusic of Ray McKinley’s band, whose emblem²⁴⁴, the letters“GM”—a holdover from the days of its founder²⁴⁵, the late GlennMiller—was emblazoned, as usual, on the music stand of eachmusician, very nearly ruining the evening for Warnock. Thenext morning, at a windup press conference held by Fordofficials. Breech declared of the Edsel, “It’s a husky youngster,and, like most other new parents, we’re proud enough to popour buttons.” Then seventy-one of the reporters took thewheels of as many Edsels and set out for home—not to drivethe cars into their garages but to deliver them to theshowrooms of their local Edsel dealers. Let Warnock describethe highlights of this final flourish: “There were severalunfortunate occurrences. One guy simply miscalculated andcracked up his car running into something. No fault of theEdsel there. One car lost its oil pan, so naturally the motorfroze. It can happen to the best of cars. Fortunately, at thetime of this malfunction²⁴⁶ the driver was going through abeautiful-sounding town—Paradise, Kansas, I think it was—andthat gave the news reports about it a nice little positive touch.
The nearest dealer gave the reporter a new Edsel, and hedrove on home, climbing Pikes Peak on the way. Then one carcrashed through a tollgate when the brakes failed. That wasbad. It’s funny, but the thing we were most worriedabout—other drivers being so eager to get a look at the Edselsthat they’d crowd our cars off the road—happened only once.
That was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. One of our reporterswas tooling along—no problems—when a Plymouth driver pulledup alongside to rubberneck, and edged so close that the Edselgot sideswiped. Minor damage.”
LATE in 1959, immediately after the demise²⁴⁷ of the Edsel,Business Week stated that at the big press preview a Fordexecutive had said to a reporter, “If the company weren’t in sodeep, we never would have brought it out now.” However,since Business Week neglected to publish this patentlysensational statement for over two years, and since to this dayall the former ranking Edsel executives (Krafve included,notwithstanding his preoccupation with the luckless dog-foodcompany) firmly maintained that right up to Edsel Day andeven for a short time thereafter they expected the Edsel tosucceed, it would seem that the quotation²⁴⁸ should be regardedas a highly suspect archaeological find. Indeed, during theperiod between the press preview and Edsel Day the spirit ofeverybody associated with the venture seems to have been oneof wild optimism. “Oldsmobile, Goodbye!” ran the headline onan ad, in the Detroit Free Press, for an agency that wasswitching from Olds to Edsel. A dealer in Portland, Oregon,reported that he had already sold two Edsels, sight unseen.
Warnock dug up a fireworks company in Japan willing tomake him, at nine dollars apiece, five thousand rockets that,exploding in mid-air, would release nine-foot scale-model Edselsmade of rice paper that would inflate²⁴⁹ and descend likeparachutes; his head reeling with visions of filling America’sskies as well as its highways with Edsels on Edsel Day,Warnock was about to dash off an order when Krafve, lookingsomething more than puzzled, shook his head.
On September 3rd—E Day-minus-one—the prices of thevarious Edsel models were announced; for cars delivered toNew York they ran from just under $2,800 to just over$4,100. On E Day, the Edsel arrived. In Cambridge, a band leda gleaming motorcade of the new cars up MassachusettsAvenue; flying out of Richmond, California, a helicopter hired byone of the most jubilant of the dealers lassoed by Doyle spreada giant Edsel sign above San Francisco Bay; and all over thenation, from the Louisiana bayous to the peak of MountRainier to the Maine woods, one needed only a radio or atelevision set to know that the very air, despite Warnock’ssetback on the rockets, was quivering with the presence of theEdsel. The tone for Edsel Day’s blizzard²⁵⁰ of publicity was set byan ad, published in newspapers all over the country, in whichthe Edsel shared the spotlight with the Ford Company’sPresident Ford and Chairman Breech. In the ad, Ford lookedlike a dignified²⁵¹ young father, Breech like a dignified gentlemanholding a full house against a possible straight, the Edsel justlooked like an Edsel. The accompanying text declared that thedecision to produce the car had been “based on what weknew, guessed, felt, believed, suspected—about you,” and added,“YOU are the reason behind the Edsel.” The tone was calmand confident. There did not seem to be much room for doubtabout the reality of that full house.
Before sundown, it was estimated, 2,850,000 people had seenthe new car in dealers’ showrooms. Three days later, in NorthPhiladelphia, an Edsel was stolen. It can reasonably be arguedthat the crime marked the high-water mark of publicacceptance of the Edsel; only a few months later, any but theleast fastidious of car thieves might not have bothered.
DECLINE AND FALLTHE most striking physical characteristic of the Edsel was, ofcourse, its radiator grille. This, in contrast to the wide andhorizontal grilles of all nineteen other American makes of thetime, was slender and vertical⁷³. Of chromium-plated steel, andshaped something like an egg, it sat in the middle of the car’sfront end, and was embellished²⁵² by the word “EDSEL” inaluminum letters running down its length. It was intended tosuggest the front end of practically any car of twenty or thirtyyears ago and of most contemporary European cars, and thusto look at once seasoned and sophisticated. The trouble wasthat whereas the front ends of the antiques and the Europeancars were themselves high and narrow—consisting, indeed, oflittle more than the radiator grilles—the front end of the Edselwas broad and low, just like the front ends of all its Americancompetitors. Consequently, there were wide areas on either sideof the grille that had to be filled in with something, and filledin they were—with twin panels of entirely conventional horizontalchrome grillwork. The effect was that of an Oldsmobile with theprow of a Pierce-Arrow implanted in its front end, or, moremetaphorically, of the charwoman trying on the duchess’
necklace. The attempt at sophistication was so transparent²⁵³ as tobe endearing.
But if the grille of the Edsel appealed through guilelessness,the rear end was another matter. Here, too, there was amarked departure from the conventional design of the day.
Instead of the notorious tail fin³⁵, the car had what looked to itsfanciers like wings and to others, less ethereal-minded, likeeyebrows. The lines of the trunk lid and the rear fenders,swooping upward and outward, did somewhat resemble thewings of a gull²⁵⁴ in flight, but the resemblance was marred²⁵⁵ bytwo long, narrow tail lights, set partly in the trunk lid andpartly in the fenders, which followed those lines and created thestartling illusion, especially at night, of a slant-eyed grin. Fromthe front, the Edsel seemed, above all, anxious to please, evenat the cost of being clownish; from the rear it looked crafty,Oriental, smug, one-up—maybe a little cynical²⁵⁶ andcontemptuous, too. It was as if, somewhere between grille andrear fenders, a sinister²⁵⁷ personality change had taken place.
In other respects, the exterior²⁵⁸ styling of the Edsel was not farout of the ordinary. Its sides were festooned with a bit lessthan the average amount of chrome, and distinguished²⁵⁹ by agouged-out bullet-shaped groove²⁶⁰ extending forward from therear fender for about half the length of the car. Midway alongthis groove, the word “EDSEL” was displayed in chrome letters,and just below the rear window was a small grille-likedecoration, on which was spelled out—of all things—“EDSEL.”
(After all, hadn’t Stylist Brown declared his intention to create avehicle that would be “readily recognizable”?) In its interior, theEdsel strove mightily²¹ to live up to the prediction of GeneralManager Krafve that the car would be “the epitome of thepush-button era.” The push-button era in medium-priced carsbeing what it was, Krafve’s had been a rash prophecy indeed,but the Edsel rose to it with a devilish assemblage of gadgetssuch as had seldom, if ever, been seen before. On or near theEdsel’s dashboard were a push button that popped the trunklid open; a lever that popped the hood¹¹⁰ open; a lever thatreleased the parking brake; a speedometer that glowed redwhen the driver exceeded his chosen maximum speed; asingle-dial control for both heating and cooling; a tachometer, inthe best racing-car style; buttons to operate or regulate thelights, the height of the radio antenna²⁶¹, the heater-blower, thewindshield wiper, and the cigarette lighter²⁶²; and a row of eightred lights to wink²⁶³ warnings that the engine was too hot, that itwasn’t hot enough, that the generator²⁶⁴ was on the blink, thatthe parking brake was on, that a door was open, that the oilpressure was low, that the oil level was low, and that thegasoline level was low, the last of which the skeptical²⁶⁵ drivercould confirm by consulting the gas gauge²⁶⁶, mounted a fewinches away. Epitomizing this epitome, theautomatic-transmission control box—arrestingly situated on top ofthe steering post, in the center of the wheel—sprouted a galaxyof five push buttons so light to the touch that, as Edsel mencould hardly be restrained from demonstrating, they could bedepressed with a toothpick.
Of the four lines of Edsels, both of the two larger and moreexpensive ones—the Corsair and the Citation—were 219 incheslong, or two inches longer than the biggest of the Oldsmobiles;both were eighty inches wide, or about as wide as passengercars ever get; and the height of both was only fifty-seveninches, as low as any other medium-priced car. The Rangerand the Pacer, the smaller Edsels, were six inches shorter, aninch narrower, and an inch lower than the Corsair and theCitation. The Corsair and the Citation were equipped with345-horsepower engines, making them more powerful than anyother American car at the time of their debut²⁶⁷, and the Rangerand the Pacer were good for 303 horsepower, near the top intheir class. At the touch of a toothpick to the “Drive” button,an idling Corsair or Citation sedan (more than two tons of car,in either case) could, if properly skippered, take off with suchabruptness that in ten and three-tenths seconds it would bedoing a mile a minute, and in seventeen and a half seconds itwould be a quarter of a mile down the road. If anything oranybody happened to be in the way when the toothpicktouched the push button, so much the worse.
WHEN the wraps were taken off the Edsel, it received what isknown in the theatrical²⁶⁸ business as a mixed press. Theautomotive editors of the daily newspapers stuck mostly tostraight descriptions of the car, with only here and there aphrase or two of appraisal²⁶⁹, some of it ambiguous (“Thedifference in style is spectacular,” noted Joseph C. Ingraham inthe New York Times) and some of it openly favorable (“Ahandsome and hard-punching newcomer,” said Fred Olmstead,in the Detroit Free Press). Magazine criticism was generallymore exhaustive and occasionally more severe. Motor Trend,the largest monthly devoted²⁷⁰ to ordinary automobiles, as distinctfrom hot rods, devoted eight pages of its October, 1957, issueto an analysis and critique of the Edsel by Joe H. Wherry, itsDetroit editor. Wherry liked the car’s appearance, its interiorcomfort, and its gadgets, although he did not always make itclear just why; in paying his respects to the transmissionbuttons on the steering post, he wrote, “You need not takeyour eyes off the road for an instant.” He conceded that therewere “untold opportunities for more … unique approaches,” buthe summed up his opinion in a sentence that fairly pepperedthe Edsel with honorific adverbs: “The Edsel performs fine,rides well, and handles good.” Tom McCahill, of MechanixIllustrated, generally admired the “bolt bag,” as heaffectionately called the Edsel, but he had some reservations,which, incidentally, throw some interesting light on anautomobile critic’s equivalent of an aisle²⁷² seat. “On ribbedconcrete,” he reported, “every time I shot the throttle²⁷³ to thefloor quickly, the wheels spun²⁷⁴ like a gone-wild WaringBlendor.… At high speeds, especially through rough corners, Ifound the suspension a little too horsebacky.… I couldn’t helpbut wonder what this salami would really do if it had enoughroad adhesion.”
By far the most downright—and very likely the mostdamaging—panning that the Edsel got during its first monthsappeared in the January, 1958, issue of the Consumers unionmonthly, Consumer Reports, whose 800,000 subscribersprobably included more potential Edsel buyers than have everturned the pages of Motor Trend or Mechanix Illustrated²⁷¹.
After having put a Corsair through a series of road tests,Consumer Reports declared:
The Edsel has no important basic advantages over other brands. The caris almost entirely conventional in construction.… The amount of shakepresent in this Corsair body on rough roads—which wasn’t long in makingitself heard as squeaks²⁷⁶ and rattles—went well beyond any acceptable limit.…The Corsair’s handling qualities—sluggish, over-slow steering, sway and leanon turns, and a general detached-from-the-road feel—are, to put it mildly,without distinction. As a matter of, simple fact, combined with the car’stendency to shake like jelly, Edsel handling represents retrogression ratherthan progress.… Stepping on the gas in traffic, or in passing cars, or justto feel the pleasurable surge of power, will cause those big cylinders²⁷⁸ reallyto lap up fuel.… The center of the steering wheel is not, in CU’s opinion,a good pushbutton location.… To look at the Edsel buttons pulls thedriver’s eyes clear down off the road. [Pace Mr. Wherry.] The“luxury-loaded” Edsel—as one magazine cover described it—will certainlyplease anyone who confuses gadgetry²⁷⁹ with true luxury.
Three months later, in a roundup of all the 1958-model cars,Consumer Reports went at the Edsel again, calling it “moreuselessly overpowered … more gadget¹² bedecked, more hungwith expensive accessories than any car in its price class,” andgiving the Corsair and the Citation the bottom position in itscompetitive ratings. Like Krafve, Consumer Reports consideredthe Edsel an epitome; unlike Krafve, the magazine concludedthat the car seemed to “epitomize the many excesses” withwhich Detroit manufacturers were “repulsing more and morepotential car buyers.”
AND yet, in a way, the Edsel wasn’t so bad. It embodied²⁸⁰ muchof the spirit of its time—or at least of the time when it wasdesigned, early in 1955. It was clumsy, powerful, dowdy²⁸¹, gauche,well-meaning—a de Kooning woman. Few people, apart fromemployees of Foote, Cone & Belding, who were paid to do so,have adequately hymned its ability, at its best, to coax²⁸² and jollythe harried²⁸³ owner into a sense of well-being²⁸⁴. Furthermore, thedesigners of several rival makes, including Chevrolet, Buick, andFord, Edsel’s own stablemate, later flattered Brown’s styling byimitating at least one feature of the car’s much reviledlines—the rear-end wing theme. The Edsel was obviously jinxed,but to say that it was jinxed by its design alone would be anoversimplification, as it would be to say that it was jinxed byan excess of motivational research. The fact is that in the short,unhappy life of the Edsel a number of other factors contributedto its commercial downfall. One of these was the scarcelybelievable circumstance that many of the very first Edsels—thoseobviously destined for the most glaring public limelight—weredramatically imperfect. By its preliminary program of promotionand advertising, the Ford Company had built up anoverwhelming head of public interest in the Edsel, causing itsarrival to be anticipated and the car itself to be gawked at withmore eagerness than had ever greeted any automobile beforeit. After all that, it seemed, the car didn’t quite work. Within afew weeks after the Edsel was introduced, its pratfalls were thetalk of the land. Edsels were delivered with oil leaks, stickinghoods, trunks that wouldn’t open, and push buttons that, farfrom yielding to a toothpick, couldn’t be budged²⁸⁵ with ahammer. An obviously distraught man staggered into a bar upthe Hudson River, demanding a double shot without delay andexclaiming that the dashboard of his new Edsel had just burstinto flame. Automotive News reported that in general theearliest Edsels suffered from poor paint, inferior sheet metal,and faulty accessories, and quoted the lament²⁸⁶ of a dealer aboutone of the first Edsel convertibles²⁸⁷ he received: “The top wasbadly set, doors cockeyed, the header bar trimmed at thewrong angle, and the front springs sagged²⁸⁸.” The FordCompany had the particular bad luck to sell to Consumersunion—which buys its test cars in the open market, as aprecaution against being favored with specially²¹³ doctoredsamples—an Edsel in which the axle ratio was wrong, anexpansion plug in the cooling system blew out, thepower-steering pump leaked, the rear-axle gears were noisy,and the heater emitted blasts of hot air when it was turnedoff. A former executive of the Edsel Division has estimated thatonly about half of the first Edsels really performed properly.
A layman²⁸⁹ cannot help wondering how the Ford Company, inall its power and glory, could have been guilty of such a MackSennett routine of buildup and anticlimax²⁹⁰. The wan,hard-working Krafve explains gamely that when a companybrings out a new model of any make—even an old and testedone—the first cars often have bugs²⁹¹ in them. A more startlingtheory—though only a theory—is that there may have beensabotage in some of the four plants that assembled the Edsel,all but one of which had previously been, and currently alsowere, assembling Fords or Mercurys. In marketing the Edsel,the Ford Company took a leaf out of the book of GeneralMotors, which for years had successfully been permitting, andeven encouraging, the makers and sellers of its Oldsmobiles,Buicks, Pontiacs, and the higher-priced models of its Chevroletto fight for customers with no quarter given; faced with thesame sort of intramural competition, some members of theFord and Lincoln-Mercury Divisions of the Ford Companyopenly hoped from the start for the Edsel’s downfall. (Krafve,realizing what might happen, had asked that the Edsel beassembled in plants of its own, but his superiors turned himdown.) However, Doyle, speaking with the authority of aveteran of the automobile business as well as with that ofKrafve’s second-in-command, pooh-poohs the notion that theEdsel was the victim of dirty work at the plants. “Of course theFord and Lincoln-Mercury Divisions didn’t want to see anotherFord Company car in the field,” he says, “but as far as Iknow, anything they did at the executive and plant levels wasin competitive good taste. On the other hand, at the distributionand dealer level, you got some rough infighting in terms ofwhispering and propaganda. If I’d been in one of the otherdivisions, I’d have done the same thing.” No proud defeatedgeneral of the old school ever spoke more nobly.
It is a tribute of sorts to the men who gave the Edsel its bigbuildup that although cars tending to rattle²⁷⁷, balk²⁹², and fall apartinto shiny heaps of junk kept coming off the assembly lines,things didn’t go badly at first. Doyle says that on Edsel Daymore than 6,500 Edsels were either ordered by or actuallydelivered to customers. That was a good showing, but therewere isolated²⁹³ signs of resistance. For instance, a New Englanddealer selling Edsels in one showroom and Buicks in anotherreported that two prospects²¹¹ walked into the Edsel showroom,took a look at the Edsel, and placed orders for Buicks on thespot.
In the next few days, sales dropped sharply, but that was tobe expected once the bloom was off. Automobile deliveries todealers—one of the important indicators²⁹⁴ in the trade—arecustomarily measured in ten-day periods, and during the firstten days of September, on only six of which the Edsel was onsale, it racked up 4,095; this was lower than Doyle’s first-dayfigure because many of the initial purchases were of modelsand color combinations not in stock, which had to befactory-assembled to order. The delivery total for the secondten-day period was off slightly, and that for the third wasdown to just under 3,600. For the first ten days of October,nine of which were business days, there were only 2,751deliveries—an average of just over three hundred cars a day.
In order to sell the 200,000 cars per year that would makethe Edsel operation profitable the Ford Company would have tomove an average of between six and seven hundred eachbusiness day—a good many more than three hundred a day.
On the night of Sunday, October 13th, Ford put on amammoth television spectacular for Edsel, pre-empting the timeordinarily allotted²⁹⁵ to the Ed Sullivan show, but though theprogram cost $400,000 and starred Bing Crosby and FrankSinatra, it failed to cause any sharp spurt²⁹⁶ in sales. Now it wasobvious that things were not going at all well.
Among the former executives of the Edsel Division, opinionsdiffer as to the exact moment when the portents of doombecame unmistakable. Krafve feels that the moment did notarrive until sometime late in October. Wallace, in his capacity asEdsel’s pipe-smoking semi-Brain Truster, goes a step further bypinning the start of the disaster to a specific date—October 4th,the day the first Soviet²⁹⁷ sputnik went into orbit, shattering themyth of American technical pre-eminence and precipitating²⁹⁸ apublic revulsion against Detroit’s fancier baubles²⁹⁹. Public RelationsDirector Warnock maintains that his barometric³⁰⁰ sensitivity to thepublic temper enabled him to call the turn as early asmid-September; contrariwise, Doyle says he maintained hisoptimism until mid-November, by which time he was about theonly man in the division who had not concluded it would takea miracle to save the Edsel. “In November,” says Wallace,sociologically, “there was panic, and its concomitant—mobaction.” The mob action took the form of a concerted tendencyto blame the design of the car for the whole debacle; Edselmen who had previously had nothing but lavish¹¹ praise for theradiator grille and rear end now went around muttering thatany fool could see they were ludicrous. The obvious sacrificialvictim was Brown, whose stock had gone through the roof atthe time of the regally accoladed debut of his design, in August,1955. Now, without having done anything further, for eitherbetter or worse, the poor fellow became the companyscapegoat. “Beginning in November, nobody talked to Roy,”
Wallace says. On November 27th, as if things weren’t badenough, Charles Kreisler, who as the only Edsel dealer inManhattan provided its prize showcase, announced that he wasturning in his franchise¹⁸⁶ because of poor sales, and it wasrumored that he added, “The Ford Motor Company has laidan egg.” He thereupon signed up with American Motors to sellits Rambler, which, as the only domestic small car then on themarket, was already the possessor of a zooming³⁰¹ sales curve.
Doyle grimly commented that the Edsel Division was “notconcerned” about Kreisler’s defection.
By December, the panic at Edsel had abated³⁰² to the pointwhere its sponsors could pull themselves together and begincasting about for ways to get sales moving again. Henry FordII, manifesting himself to Edsel dealers on closed-circuittelevision, urged them to remain calm, promised that thecompany would back them to the limit, and said flatly, “TheEdsel is here to stay.” A million and a half letters went outover Krafve’s signature to owners of medium-priced cars, askingthem to drop around at their local dealers and test-ride theEdsel; everyone doing so, Krafve promised, would be given aneight-inch plastic scale model of the car, whether he bought afull-size one or not. The Edsel Division picked up the check forthe scale models—a symptom of desperation indeed, for undernormal circumstances no automobile manufacturer would makeeven a move to outfumble its dealers for such a tab. (Up tothat time, the dealers had paid for everything, as is customary.)The division also began offering its dealers what it called “salesbonuses,” which meant that the dealers could knock anythingfrom one hundred to three hundred dollars off the price ofeach car without reducing their profit margin³⁰³. Krafve told areporter that sales up to then were about what he hadexpected them to be, although not what he had hoped theywould be; in his zeal¹³² not to seem unpleasantly surprised, heappeared to be saying that he had expected the Edsel to fail.
The Edsel’s advertising campaign, which had started withstudied dignity, began to sound a note of stridency. “Everyonewho has seen it knows—with us—that the Edsel is a success,”
a magazine ad declared, and in a later ad this phrase wastwice repeated, like an incantation: “The Edsel is a success. Itis a new idea—a YOU idea—on the American Road.… The Edselis a success.” Soon the even less high-toned but moredependable advertising themes of price and social status beganto intrude³⁰⁴, in such sentences as “They’ll know you’ve arrivedwhen you drive up in an Edsel” and “The one that’s reallynew is the lowest-priced, too!” In the more rarefied sectors³⁰⁵ ofMadison Avenue, a resort to rhymed slogans is usuallyregarded as an indication of artistic³⁰⁶ depravity induced bycommercial necessity.
From the frantic⁶ and costly¹⁷ measures the Edsel Division tookin December, it garnered³⁰⁷ one tiny crumb³⁰⁸: for the first ten-dayperiod of 1958, it was able to report, sales were up 18.6percent over those of the last ten days of 1957. The catch, asthe Wall Street Journal alertly noted, was that the latterperiod embraced one more selling day than the earlier one, so,for practical purposes, there had scarcely been a gain at all. Inany case, that early-January word of meretricious³⁰⁹ cheer turnedout to be the Edsel Division’s last gesture. On January 14,1958, the Ford Motor Company announced that it wasconsolidating the Edsel Division with the Lincoln-MercuryDivision to form a Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division, under themanagement of James J. Nance¹⁶⁴, who had been runningLincoln-Mercury. It was the first time that one of the majorautomobile companies had lumped three divisions into one sinceGeneral Motors’ merger³¹⁰ of Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac backin the depression, and to the people of the expunged³¹¹ EdselDivision the meaning of the administrative move was all tooclear. “With that much competition in a division, the Edselwasn’t going anywhere,” Doyle says. “It became a stepchild.”
FOR the last year and ten months of its existence, the Edselwas very much a stepchild—generally neglected, little advertised,and kept alive only to avoid publicizing a boner any more thannecessary and in the forlorn hope that it might go somewhereafter all. What advertising it did get strove quixotically to assurethe automobile trade that everything was dandy; inmid-February an ad in Automotive News had Nance saying,Since the formation of the new M-E-L Division at Ford Motor Company,we have analyzed³¹² with keen interest the sales progress of the Edsel. Wethink it is quite significant that during the five months since the Edsel wasintroduced, Edsel sales have been greater than the first five months’ salesfor any other new make of car ever introduced on the American Road.…Edsel’s steady progress can be a source of satisfaction and a greatincentive to all of us.
Nance’s comparison, however, was almost meaningless, no newmake ever having been introduced anything like so grandiosely,and the note of confidence could not help ringing hollow.
It is quite possible that Nance’s attention was never called toan article by S. I. Hayakawa, the semanticist, that waspublished in the spring of 1958 in ETC: A Review of GeneralSemantics, a quarterly magazine, under the title, “Why theEdsel Laid an Egg.” Hayakawa, who was both the founder andthe editor of ETC, explained in an introductory note that heconsidered the subject within the purview³¹⁴ of general semanticsbecause automobiles, like words, are “important … symbols inAmerican culture,” and went on to argue that the Edsel’s flopcould be attributed to Ford Company executives who had been“listening too long to the motivation-research people” and who,in their efforts to turn out a car that would satisfy customers’
sexual fantasies and the like, had failed to supply reasonableand practical transportation, thereby³¹⁵ neglecting “the realityprinciple.” “What the motivation researchers failed to tell theirclients … is that only the psychotic and the gravely neuroticact out their irrationalities and their compensatory fantasies,”
Hayakawa admonished³¹⁶ Detroit briskly, and added, “The troublewith selling symbolic³⁴ gratification via such expensive items as …the Edsel Hermaphrodite … is the competition offered by muchcheaper forms of symbolic gratification, such as Playboy (fiftycents a copy), Astounding³¹⁷ Science Fiction (thirty-five cents acopy), and television (free).”
Notwithstanding the competition from Playboy, or possiblybecause the symbol-motivated public included people who couldafford both, the Edsel kept rolling—but just barely. The carmoved, as salesmen say, though hardly at the touch of atoothpick. In fact, as a stepchild it sold about as well as it hadsold as a favorite son, suggesting that all the hoopla, whetherabout symbolic gratification or mere¹⁷³ horsepower, had had littleeffect one way or the other. The new Edsels that wereregistered with the motor-vehicle bureaus of the various statesduring 1958 numbered 34,481—considerably fewer than newcars of any competing make, and less than one-fifth of the200,000 a year necessary if the Edsel was to show a profit,but still representing an investment by motorists of over ahundred million dollars. The picture actually brightened inNovember, 1958, with the advent⁵¹ of the Edsel’s second-yearmodels. Shorter by up to eight inches, lighter by up to fivehundred pounds, and with engines less potent²⁷⁵ by as much as158 horsepower, they had a price range running from fivehundred to eight hundred dollars less than that of theirpredecessors. The vertical grille and the slant-eyed rear endwere still there, but the modest power and proportionspersuaded Consumer Reports to relent and say, “The FordMotor Company, after giving last year’s initial Edsel model ablack eye, has made a respectable and even likable automobileof it.” Quite a number of motorists seemed to agree; about twothousand more Edsels were sold in the first half of 1959 thanhad been sold in the first half of 1958, and by the earlysummer of 1959 the car was moving at the rate of aroundfour thousand a month. Here, at last, was progress; sales wereat almost a quarter of the minimum profitable rate, instead of amere fifth.
On July 1, 1959, there were 83,849 Edsels on the country’sroads. The largest number (8,344) were in California, which isperennially beset³¹⁸ with far and away the largest number of carsof practically all makes, and the smallest number were inAlaska, Vermont, and Hawaii (122, 119, and 110, respectively).
All in all, the Edsel seemed to have found a niche³¹⁹ for itself asan amusingly eccentric curiosity. Although the Ford Company,with its stockholders’ money still disappearing week after weekinto the Edsel, and with small cars now clearly the order of theday, could scarcely affect a sentimental³²⁰ approach to the subject,it nonetheless took an outside chance and, in mid-October of1959, brought out a third series of annual models. The 1960Edsel appeared a little more than a month after the Falcon,Ford’s first—and instantly successful—venture into the small-carfield, and was scarcely an Edsel at all; gone were both thevertical grille and the horizontal rear end, and what remainedlooked like a cross between a Ford Fairlane and a Pontiac. Itsinitial sales were abysmal³²¹; by the middle of November only oneplant—in Louisville, Kentucky—was still turning out Edsels, and itwas turning out only about twenty a day. On November 19th,the Ford Foundation, which was planning to sell a block of itsvast holdings of stock in the Ford Motor Company, issued theprospectus that is required by law under such circumstances,and stated therein, in a footnote to a section describing thecompany’s products, that the Edsel had been “introduced inSeptember 1957 and discontinued in November 1959.” Thesame day, this mumbled³²² admission was confirmed and amplifiedby a Ford Company spokesman, who did some mumbling³²³ ofhis own. “If we knew the reason people aren’t buying theEdsel, we’d probably have done something about it,” he said.
The final quantitative³²⁴ box score shows that from the beginningright up to November 19th, 110,810 Edsels were produced and109,466 were sold. (The remaining 1,344, almost all of them1960 models, were disposed of in short order with the help ofdrastic price cuts.) All told, only 2,846 of the 1960 Edsels wereever produced, making models of that year a potentialcollector’s item. To be sure, it will be generations before 1960Edsels are as scarce as the Type 41 Bugatti, of which no morethan eleven specimens were made, back in the late twenties, tobe sold only to bona-fide kings, and the 1960 Edsel’s reasonsfor being a rarity are not exactly as acceptable, socially orcommercially, as the Type 41 Bugatti’s. Still, a 1960-EdselOwners’ Club may yet appear.
The final fiscal³²⁵ box score on the Edsel fiasco will probablynever be known, because the Ford Motor Company’s publicreports do not include breakdowns³²⁶ of gains and losses withinthe individual divisions. Financial buffs estimate, however, thatthe company lost something like $200 million on the Edselafter it appeared; add to this the officially announcedexpenditure of $250 million before it appeared, subtract about ahundred million invested in plant and equipment that weresalvageable for other uses, and the net loss is $350 million. Ifthese estimates are right, every Edsel the companymanufactured cost it in lost money about $3,200, or about theprice of another one. In other, harsher words, the companywould have saved itself money if, back in 1955, it had decidednot to produce the Edsel at all but simply to give away 110,810specimens of its comparably priced car, the Mercury.
THE end of the Edsel set off an orgy of hindsight in the press.
Time declared, “The Edsel was a classic case of the wrong carfor the wrong market at the wrong time. It was also a primeexample of the limitations of market research, with its ‘depthinterviews’ and ‘motivational’ mumbo-jumbo.” Business Week,which shortly before the Edsel made its bow had described itwith patent solemnity and apparent approval, now pronouncedit “a nightmare” and appended a few pointedly³²⁷ critical remarksabout Wallace’s research, which was rapidly achieving ascapegoat status equal to that of Brown’s design. (Jumping upand down on motivational research was, and is, splendid sport,but, of course, the implication that it dictated³²⁸, or eveninfluenced, the Edsel’s design is entirely false, since the research,being intended only to provide a theme for advertising andpromotion, was not undertaken until after Brown hadcompleted his design.) The Wall Street Journal’s obituary³²⁹ ofthe Edsel made a point that was probably sounder, andcertainly more original.
Large corporations are often accused of rigging markets, administeringprices, and otherwise dictating³³⁰ to the consumer [it observed]. And yesterdayFord Motor Company announced its two-year experiment with themedium-priced Edsel has come to an end … for want of buyers. All this isquite a ways from auto³ makers being able to rig markets or forceconsumers to take what they want them to take.… And the reason, simply,is that there is no accounting³³¹ for tastes.… When it comes to dictating, theconsumer is the dictator without peer.
The tone of the piece was friendly and sympathetic; the FordCompany, it seemed, had endeared itself to the Journal byplaying the great American situation-comedy role of Daddy theBungler.
As for the post-mortem explanations of the debacle that havebeen offered by former Edsel executives, they are notable fortheir reflective tone—something like that of a knocked-out prizefighter opening his eyes to find an announcer’s microphonepushed into his face. In fact, Krafve, like many a flattenedpugilist, blames his own bad timing³³²; he contends that if he hadbeen able to thwart³³³ the apparently immutable³³⁴ mechanics andeconomics of Detroit, and had somehow been able to bring outthe Edsel in 1955, or even 1956, when the stock market andthe medium-priced-car market were riding high, the car wouldhave done well and would still be doing well. That is to say, ifhe had seen the punch coming, he would have ducked. Krafverefuses to go along with a sizable group of laymen³³⁵ who tendto attribute the collapse³³⁶ to the company’s decision to call thecar the Edsel instead of giving it a brisker, more singablename, reducible to a nickname other than “Ed” or “Eddie,” andnot freighted with dynastic connotations. As far as he can see,Krafve still says, the Edsel’s name did not affect its fortunesone way or the other.
Brown agrees with Krafve that bad timing was the chiefmistake. “I frankly feel that the styling of the automobile hadvery little, if anything, to do with its failure,” he said later, andhis frankness may pretty safely be left unchallenged. “The Edselprogram, like any other project planned for future markets, wasbased on the best information available at the time in whichdecisions were made. The road to Hell is paved with goodintentions!”
Doyle, with the born salesman’s intensely personal feelingabout his customers, talks like a man betrayed by a friend—theAmerican public. “It was a buyers’ strike,” he says. “Peopleweren’t in the mood for the Edsel. Why not is a mystery tome. What they’d been buying for several years encouraged theindustry to build exactly this kind of car. We gave it to them,and they wouldn’t take it. Well, they shouldn’t have acted likethat. You can’t just wake up somebody one day and say,‘That’s enough, you’ve been running in the wrong direction.’
Anyway, why did they do it? Golly, how the industry workedand worked over the years—getting rid of gear-shifting,providing interior comfort, providing plus performance for usein emergencies! And now the public wants these little beetles³³⁷. Idon’t get it!”
Wallace’s sputnik theory provides an answer to Doyle’squestion about why people weren’t in the mood, and,furthermore, it is sufficiently cosmic to befit a semi-BrainTruster. It also leaves Wallace free to defend the validity of hismotivational-research studies as of the time when they wereconducted. “I don’t think we yet know the depths of thepsychological effect that that first orbiting had on us all,” hesays. “Somebody had beaten us to an important gain intechnology, and immediately people started writing articles abouthow crummy Detroit products were, particularly the heavilyornamented and status-symbolic medium-priced cars. In 1958,when none of the small cars were out except the Rambler,Chevy almost ran away with the market, because it had thesimplest car. The American people had put themselves on aself-imposed austerity program. Not buying Edsels was theirhair shirt.”
TO any relics³³⁸ of the sink-or-swim nineteenth-century days ofAmerican industry, it must seem strange that Wallace canafford to puff⁹¹ on his pipe and analyze³¹³ the holocaust³³⁹ soamiably. The obvious point of the Edsel’s story is the defeat ofa giant motor company, but what is just as surprising is thatthe giant did not come apart, or even get seriously hurt in thefall, and neither did the majority of the people who went downwith him. Owing largely to the success of four of its othercars—the Ford, the Thunderbird, and, later on the small Falconand Comet and then the Mustang—the Ford Company, as aninvestment, survived gloriously. True, it had a bad time of it in1958, when, partly because of the Edsel, net income per shareof its stock fell from $5.40 to $2.12, dividends³⁴⁰ per share from$2.40 to $2.00, and the market price of its stock from a 1957high of about $60 to a 1958 low of under $40. But all theselosses were more than recouped in 1959, when net income pershare was $8.24, dividends per share were $2.80, and theprice of the stock reached a high of around $90. In 1960 and1961, things went even better. So the 280,000 Fordstockholders listed on the books in 1957 had had little tocomplain about unless they had sold at the height of the panic.
On the other hand, six thousand white-collar workers weresqueezed out of their jobs as a result of theMercury-Edsel-Lincoln consolidation³⁴¹, and the average number ofFord employees fell from 191,759 in 1957 to 142,076 thefollowing year, climbing back to only 159,541 in 1959. And, ofcourse, dealers who gave up profitable franchises in othermakes and then went broke trying to sell Edsels weren’t likelyto be very cheerful about the experience. Under the terms ofthe consolidation of the Lincoln-Mercury and Edsel Divisions,most of the agencies for the three makes were consolidated,too. In the consolidation, some Edsel dealers were squeezedout, and it can have been small comfort to those of them whowent bankrupt to learn later that when the Ford Companyfinally discontinued making the car, it agreed to pay those oftheir former colleagues who had weathered the crisis one-halfof the original cost of their Edsel signs, and was granting themsubstantial rebates³⁴² on all Edsels in stock at the time ofdiscontinuance. Still, automobile dealers, some of whom work oncredit margins³⁴³ as slim as those of Miami hotel operators,occasionally go broke with even the most popular cars. Andamong those who earn their living in the rough-and-tumbleworld of automobile salesrooms, where Detroit is not alwaysspoken of with affection, many will concede that the FordCompany, once it had found itself stuck with a lemon, did asmuch as it reasonably could to bolster³⁴⁴ dealers who had casttheir lot with Edsel. A spokesman for the National AutomobileDealers Association has since stated, “So far as we know, theEdsel dealers were generally satisfied with the way they weretreated.”
Foote, Cone & Belding also ended up losing money on theEdsel account, since its advertising commissions did not entirelycompensate for the extraordinary expense it had gone to ofhiring sixty new people and opening up a posh office inDetroit. But its losses were hardly irreparable; the minute therewere no more Edsels to advertise, it was hired to advertiseLincolns, and although that arrangement did not last very long,the firm has happily survived to sing the praises of such clientsas General Foods, Lever Brothers, and Trans World Airways³⁴⁵. Arather touching³⁴⁶ symbol of the loyalty³⁴⁷ that the agency’semployees have for its former client is the fact that for severalyears after 1959, on every workday its private parking lot inChicago was still dotted with Edsels. These faithful drivers,incidentally, are not unique. If Edsel owners have not found themeans to a dream fulfillment, and if some of them for a whilehad to put up with harrowing mechanical disorders³⁴⁸, many ofthem more than a decade later cherish their cars as if theywere Confederate bills, and on Used Car Row the Edsel is ahigh-premium item, with few cars being offered.
By and large, the former Edsel executives did not just landon their feet, they landed in clover. Certainly no one canaccuse the Ford Company of giving vent⁴⁷ to its chagrin³⁴⁹ in theold-fashioned way, by vulgarly causing heads to roll. Krafve wasassigned to assist Robert S. McNamara, at that time a Forddivisional vice-president (and later, of course, Secretary ofDefense), for a couple of months, and then he moved to astaff job in company headquarters, stayed there for about ayear, and left to become a vice-president of the RaytheonCompany, of Waltham, Massachusetts, a leading electronics firm.
In April, 1960, he was made its president. In the middle sixtieshe left to become a high-priced management consultant on theWest Coast. Doyle, too, was offered a staff job with Ford, butafter taking a trip abroad to think it over he decided to retire.
“It was a question of my relationship to my dealers,” heexplains. “I had assured them that the company was fullybehind the Edsel for keeps, and I didn’t feel that I was thefellow to tell them now that it wasn’t.” After his retirement,Doyle remained about as busy as ever, keeping an eye onvarious businesses in which he has set up various friends andrelatives, and conducting a consulting business of his own inDetroit. About a month before Edsel’s consolidation withMercury and Lincoln, Warnock, the publicity man, left thedivision to become director of news services for theInternational Telephone & Telegraph Corp., in New York—aposition he left in June, 1960, to become vice-president ofCommunications Counselors³⁵⁰, the public-relations arm ofMcCann-Erickson. From there he went back to Ford, asEastern promotion chief for Lincoln-Mercury—a case of a headthat had not rolled but had instead been anointed. Brown, theembattled stylist, stayed on in Detroit for a while as chief stylistof Ford commercial vehicles and then went with the FordMotor Company, Ltd., of England, where, again as chief stylist,he was assigned to direct the design of Consuls³⁵¹, Anglias, trucks,and tractors. He insisted that this post didn’t represent theFord version of Siberia. “I have found it to be a mostsatisfying experience, and one of the best steps I have evertaken in my … career,” he stated firmly in a letter fromEngland. “We are building a styling office and a styling teamsecond to none in Europe.” Wallace, the semi-Brain Truster,was asked to continue semi-Brain Trusting for Ford, and, sincehe still didn’t like living in Detroit, or near it, was permitted tomove to New York and to spend only two days a week atheadquarters. (“They didn’t seem to care any more where Ioperated from,” he says modestly.) At the end of 1958, he leftFord, and he has since finally achieved his heart’s desire—tobecome a full-time³⁵² scholar and teacher. He set about getting adoctorate in sociology at Columbia, writing his thesis on socialchange in Westport, Connecticut, which he investigated by busilyquizzing its inhabitants; meanwhile, he taught a course on “TheDynamics of Social Behavior” at the New School for SocialResearch, in Greenwich Village. “I’m through with industry,” hewas heard to declare one day, with evident satisfaction, as heboarded a train for Westport, a bundle of questionnaires underhis arm. Early in 1962, he became Dr. Wallace.
The subsequent euphoria of these former Edsel men did notstem entirely from the fact of their economic survival; theyappear to have been enriched spiritually. They are inclined tospeak of their Edsel experience—except for those still with Ford,who are inclined to speak of it as little as possible—with theverve and garrulity³⁵³ of old comrades-in-arms hashing over theirmost thrilling campaign. Doyle is perhaps the most passionatereminiscer in the group. “It was more fun than I’ve ever hadbefore or since,” he told a caller in 1960. “I suppose that’sbecause I worked the hardest ever. We all did. It was a goodcrew. The people who came with Edsel knew they were takinga chance, and I like people who’ll take chances. Yes, it was awonderful experience, in spite of the unfortunate thing thathappened. And we were on the right track, too! When I wentto Europe just before retiring, I saw how it is there—nothingbut compact cars, yet they’ve still got traffic jams over there,they’ve still got parking problems, they’ve still got accidents. Justtry getting in and out of those low taxicabs without hitting yourhead, or try not to get clipped while you’re walking around theArc de Triomphe. This small-car thing won’t last forever. I can’tsee American drivers being satisfied for long with manualgear-shifting and limited performance. The pendulum³⁵⁴ will swingback.”
Warnock, like many a public-relations man before him, claimsthat his job gave him an ulcer—his second. “But I got over it,”
he says. “That great Edsel team—I’d just like to see what itcould have done if it had had the right product at the righttime. It could have made millions, that’s what! The whole thingwas two years out of my life that I’ll never forget. It washistory in the making. Doesn’t it all tell you something aboutAmerica in the fifties—high hopes, and less than completefulfillment of them?”
Krafve, the boss of the great team manqué, is entirelyprepared to testify that there is more to his formersubordinates’ talk than just the romantic vaporings of oldsoldiers. “It was a wonderful group to work with,” he said notlong ago. “They really put their hearts and guts³⁵⁵ into the job.
I’m interested in a crew that’s strongly motivated, and that onewas. When things went bad, the Edsel boys could have criedabout how they’d given up wonderful opportunities to comewith us, but if anybody did, I never heard about it. I’m notsurprised that they’ve mostly come out all right. In industry,you take a bump now and then, but you bounce back as longas you don’t get defeated inside. I like to get together withsomebody once in a while—Gayle Warnock or one of theothers—and go over the humorous incidents, the tragicincidents.…”
Whether the nostalgia³⁵⁷ of the Edsel boys for the Edsel runs tothe humorous or to the tragic³⁵⁶, it is a thought-provokingphenomenon. Maybe it means merely that they miss thelimelight they first basked³⁵⁸ in and later squirmed in, or maybe itmeans that a time has come when—as in Elizabethan dramabut seldom before in American business—failure can have acertain grandeur³⁵⁹ that success never knows.
* The word “styling” is a weed deeply embedded³⁶⁰ in the garden ofautomobilia. In its preferred sense, the verb “to style” means to name; thusthe Special Products Division’s epic³⁶¹ efforts to choose a name for the E-Car,which will be chronicled presently, were really the styling program, andwhat Brown and his associates were up to was something else again. In itssecond sense, says Webster, “to style” means “to fashion in … the acceptedstyle”; this was just what Brown, who hoped to achieve originality³⁶², wastrying not to do, so Brown’s must have been the antistyling program.
* For details on this product of the national creativity, see Chapter 3.

1 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 frantically   

ad.发狂地, 发疯地

参考例句：

• He dashed frantically across the road. 他疯狂地跑过马路。
• She bid frantically for the old chair. 她发狂地喊出高价要买那把古老的椅子。

6 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

7 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 quaintly   

adv.古怪离奇地

参考例句：

• "I don't see what that's got to do with it,'said the drummer quaintly. “我看不出这和你的事有什么联系，"杜洛埃说道，他感到莫名其妙。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• He is quaintly dressed, what a strange one he is. 他一身的奇装异服，真是另类！

10 conformity   

n.一致，遵从，顺从

参考例句：

• Was his action in conformity with the law?他的行动是否合法？
• The plan was made in conformity with his views.计划仍按他的意见制定。

11 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

12 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

13 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

14 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

15 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

16 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

17 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

18 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

19 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

20 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

21 mightily   

ad.强烈地；非常地

参考例句：

• He hit the peg mightily on the top with a mallet. 他用木槌猛敲木栓顶。
• This seemed mightily to relieve him. 干完这件事后，他似乎轻松了许多。

22 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

23 reticence   

n.沉默，含蓄

参考例句：

• He breaks out of his normal reticence and tells me the whole story.他打破了平时一贯沈默寡言的习惯，把事情原原本本都告诉了我。
• He always displays a certain reticence in discussing personal matters.他在谈论个人问题时总显得有些保留。

24 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

25 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

26 curtly   

adv.简短地

参考例句：

• He nodded curtly and walked away. 他匆忙点了一下头就走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The request was curtly refused. 这个请求被毫不客气地拒绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 pretense   

n.矫饰，做作，借口

参考例句：

• You can't keep up the pretense any longer.你无法继续伪装下去了。
• Pretense invariably impresses only the pretender.弄虚作假欺骗不了真正的行家。

28 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

29 hunches   

预感，直觉( hunch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A technical sergeant hunches in a cubicle. 一位技术军士在一间小屋里弯腰坐着。
• We often test our hunches on each other. 我们经常互相检验我们的第六感觉。

30 hunch   

n.预感，直觉

参考例句：

• I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉，他并不真正想去。
• I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。

31 sundry   

adj.各式各样的，种种的

参考例句：

• This cream can be used to treat sundry minor injuries.这种药膏可用来治各种轻伤。
• We can see the rich man on sundry occasions.我们能在各种场合见到那个富豪。

32 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

33 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

34 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

35 fin   

n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼

参考例句：

• They swim using a small fin on their back.它们用背上的小鳍游动。
• The aircraft has a long tail fin.那架飞机有一个长长的尾翼。

36 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

37 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

38 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

39 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

40 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

41 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

42 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

43 saturnine   

adj.忧郁的，沉默寡言的，阴沉的，感染铅毒的

参考例句：

• The saturnine faces of the judges.法官们那阴沉的脸色。
• He had a rather forbidding,saturnine manner.他的举止相当乖戾阴郁。

44 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

45 copious   

adj.丰富的，大量的

参考例句：

• She supports her theory with copious evidences.她以大量的例证来充实自己的理论。
• Every star is a copious source of neutrinos.每颗恒星都是丰富的中微子源。

46 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

47 vent   

n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄

参考例句：

• He gave vent to his anger by swearing loudly.他高声咒骂以发泄他的愤怒。
• When the vent became plugged,the engine would stop.当通风口被堵塞时，发动机就会停转。

48 longings   

渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah, those foolish days of noble longings and of noble strivings! 啊，那些充满高贵憧憬和高尚奋斗的傻乎乎的时光！
• I paint you and fashion you ever with my love longings. 我永远用爱恋的渴想来描画你。

49 valediction   

n．告别演说，告别词

参考例句：

• He gave a touching valediction at graduation.他在毕业典礼上发表了动人的告别辞。
• I came here just for a valediction.我来仅仅是向你告别。

50 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

51 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

52 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

53 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

54 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

55 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

56 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

57 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

58 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

59 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

60 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

61 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

参考例句：

• The forecast said there would be sunny intervals and showers. 预报间晴，有阵雨。
• Meetings take place at fortnightly intervals. 每两周开一次会。

62 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

63 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

64 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

65 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

66 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

67 laboriously   

adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地

参考例句：

• She is tracing laboriously now. 她正在费力地写。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She is laboriously copying out an old manuscript. 她正在费劲地抄出一份旧的手稿。 来自辞典例句

68 yoke   

n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶

参考例句：

• An ass and an ox,fastened to the same yoke,were drawing a wagon.驴子和公牛一起套在轭上拉车。
• The defeated army passed under the yoke.败军在轭门下通过。

69 modifications   

n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变

参考例句：

• The engine was pulled apart for modifications and then reassembled. 发动机被拆开改型，然后再组装起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The original plan had undergone fairly extensive modifications. 原计划已经作了相当大的修改。 来自《简明英汉词典》

70 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

71 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

72 radiator   

n.暖气片，散热器

参考例句：

• The two ends of the pipeline are connected with the radiator.管道的两端与暖气片相连接。
• Top up the radiator before making a long journey.在长途旅行前加满散热器。

73 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

74 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

75 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

76 specifying   

v.指定( specify的现在分词 )；详述；提出…的条件；使具有特性

参考例句：

• When we describe what the action will affect, we are specifying the noun of the sentence. 当描述动作会影响到什么时，我们指定组成句子的名词。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Procurement section only lists opportunistic infection drugs without specifying which drugs. 采购部分只说明有治疗机会性感染的药物，但并没有说明是什么药物。 来自互联网

77 fins   

[医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌

参考例句：

• The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关，与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
• Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句

78 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

79 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

80 epitome   

n.典型，梗概

参考例句：

• He is the epitome of goodness.他是善良的典范。
• This handbook is a neat epitome of everyday hygiene.这本手册概括了日常卫生的要点。

81 stratum   

n.地层，社会阶层

参考例句：

• The coal is a coal resource that reserves in old stratum.石煤是贮藏在古老地层中的一种煤炭资源。
• How does Chinese society define the class and stratum?中国社会如何界定阶级与阶层？

82 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。

83 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

84 tinfoil   

n.锡纸，锡箔

参考例句：

• You can wrap it up in tinfoil.你可以用锡箔纸裹住它。
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto tinfoil.Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.用大餐勺把刚刚搅拌好的糊糊盛到锡纸上，烘烤9至11分钟，直到变成金黄色。

85 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

86 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

87 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

88 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

89 oracles   

神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人

参考例句：

• Do all oracles tell the truth? 是否所有的神谕都揭示真理？ 来自哲学部分
• The ancient oracles were often vague and equivocal. 古代的神谕常是意义模糊和模棱两可的。

90 whet   

v.磨快，刺激

参考例句：

• I've read only the fIrst few pages of her book,but It was enough to whet my appetIte.她的书我只看了开头几页，但已经引起我极大的兴趣。
• A really good catalogue can also whet customers' appetites for merchandise.一份真正好的商品目录也可以激起顾客购买的欲望。

91 puff   

n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气

参考例句：

• He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
• They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。

92 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

93 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

94 bluff   

v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗

参考例句：

• His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
• John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。

95 eccentricities   

n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖

参考例句：

• My wife has many eccentricities. 我妻子有很多怪癖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His eccentricities had earned for him the nickname"The Madman". 他的怪癖已使他得到'疯子'的绰号。 来自辞典例句

96 projection   

n.发射，计划，突出部分

参考例句：

• Projection takes place with a minimum of awareness or conscious control.投射在最少的知觉或意识控制下发生。
• The projection of increases in number of house-holds is correct.对户数增加的推算是正确的。

97 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

98 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

99 irrational   

adj.无理性的，失去理性的

参考例句：

• After taking the drug she became completely irrational.她在吸毒后变得完全失去了理性。
• There are also signs of irrational exuberance among some investors.在某些投资者中是存在非理性繁荣的征象的。

100 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

101 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

102 stereotyped   

adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的

参考例句：

• There is a sameness about all these tales. They're so stereotyped -- all about talented scholars and lovely ladies. 这些书就是一套子，左不过是些才子佳人，最没趣儿。
• He is the stereotyped monster of the horror films and the adventure books, and an obvious (though not perhaps strictly scientific) link with our ancestral past. 它们是恐怖电影和惊险小说中的老一套的怪物，并且与我们的祖先有着明显的（虽然可能没有科学的）联系。

103 pretensions   

自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力

参考例句：

• The play mocks the pretensions of the new middle class. 这出戏讽刺了新中产阶级的装模作样。
• The city has unrealistic pretensions to world-class status. 这个城市不切实际地标榜自己为国际都市。

104 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

105 rampantly   

粗暴地，猖獗的

参考例句：

• Weeds grew rampantly around here. 这里周围长满了杂草。

106 felicitous   

adj.恰当的，巧妙的；n.恰当，贴切

参考例句：

• She played him--sometimes delicately,sometimes with a less felicitous touch.她吊着他--有时温柔地，有时手法就不那么巧妙。
• You need to handle the delicate matter in a most felicitous manner.你需要用得体的方式处理这件微妙的事。

107 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

108 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

109 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

110 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

111 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

112 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

113 elicited   

引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Threats to reinstate the tax elicited jeer from the Opposition. 恢复此项征税的威胁引起了反对党的嘲笑。
• The comedian's joke elicited applause and laughter from the audience. 那位滑稽演员的笑话博得观众的掌声和笑声。

114 abstruse   

adj.深奥的，难解的

参考例句：

• Einstein's theory of relativity is very abstruse.爱因斯坦的相对论非常难懂。
• The professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them.该教授的课程太深奥了，学生们纷纷躲避他的课。

115 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

116 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

117 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句

118 repertoire   

n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表

参考例句：

• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。
• He has added considerably to his piano repertoire.他的钢琴演奏曲目大大增加了。

119 peripheral   

adj.周边的，外围的

参考例句：

• We dealt with the peripheral aspects of a cost reduction program.我们谈到了降低成本计划的一些外围问题。
• The hotel provides the clerk the service and the peripheral traveling consultation.旅舍提供票务服务和周边旅游咨询。

120 pitfall   

n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套

参考例句：

• The wolf was caught in a pitfall.那只狼是利用陷阱捉到的。
• The biggest potential pitfall may not be technical but budgetary.最大的潜在陷阱可能不是技术问题，而是预算。

121 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

122 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。

123 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

124 interspersed   

adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The grass was interspersed with beds of flowers. 草地上点缀着许多花坛。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

125 terse   

adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的

参考例句：

• Her reply about the matter was terse.她对此事的答复简明扼要。
• The president issued a terse statement denying the charges.总统发表了一份简短的声明，否认那些指控。

126 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

127 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

128 diffuse   

v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的

参考例句：

• Direct light is better for reading than diffuse light.直射光比漫射光更有利于阅读。
• His talk was so diffuse that I missed his point.他的谈话漫无边际，我抓不住他的要点。

129 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

130 advantageous   

adj.有利的；有帮助的

参考例句：

• Injections of vitamin C are obviously advantageous.注射维生素C显然是有利的。
• You're in a very advantageous position.你处于非常有利的地位。

131 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。

132 zeal   

n.热心，热情，热忱

参考例句：

• Revolutionary zeal caught them up,and they joined the army.革命热情激励他们，于是他们从军了。
• They worked with great zeal to finish the project.他们热情高涨地工作，以期完成这个项目。

133 emphatic   

adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的

参考例句：

• Their reply was too emphatic for anyone to doubt them.他们的回答很坚决，不容有任何人怀疑。
• He was emphatic about the importance of being punctual.他强调严守时间的重要性。

134 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句

135 canvass   

v.招徕顾客，兜售；游说；详细检查，讨论

参考例句：

• Mr. Airey Neave volunteered to set up an organisation to canvass votes.艾雷·尼夫先生自告奋勇建立了一个拉票组织。
• I will canvass the floors before I start painting the walls.开始粉刷墙壁之前，我会详细检查地板。

136 willow   

n.柳树

参考例句：

• The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
• The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。

137 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

138 ovation   

n.欢呼，热烈欢迎，热烈鼓掌

参考例句：

• The hero received a great ovation from the crowd. 那位英雄受到人群的热烈欢迎。
• The show won a standing ovation. 这场演出赢得全场起立鼓掌。

139 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

140 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

141 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

142 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

143 ascendancy   

n.统治权，支配力量

参考例句：

• We have had ascendancy over the enemy in the battle.在战斗中我们已占有优势。
• The extremists are gaining ascendancy.极端分子正逐渐占据上风。

144 alphabetical   

adj.字母（表）的，依字母顺序的

参考例句：

• Please arrange these books in alphabetical order.请把这些书按字母顺序整理一下。
• There is no need to maintain a strict alphabetical sequence.不必保持严格的字顺。

145 analogous   

adj.相似的；类似的

参考例句：

• The two situations are roughly analogous.两种情況大致相似。
• The company is in a position closely analogous to that of its main rival.该公司与主要竞争对手的处境极为相似。

146 drowsy   

adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的

参考例句：

• Exhaust fumes made him drowsy and brought on a headache.废气把他熏得昏昏沉沉，还引起了头疼。
• I feel drowsy after lunch every day.每天午饭后我就想睡觉。

147 impresario   

n.歌剧团的经理人；乐团指挥

参考例句：

• The impresario will present an expanded series of concerts next season.下个季节将举办一次大型的系列音乐会。
• The impresario had buttoned his astrakhan coat.乐团经理扣好了羔皮外套。

148 puffed   

adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟，狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了，便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

149 wring   

n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭

参考例句：

• My socks were so wet that I had to wring them.我的袜子很湿，我不得不拧干它们。
• I'll wring your neck if you don't behave!你要是不规矩，我就拧断你的脖子。

150 elegance   

n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙

参考例句：

• The furnishings in the room imparted an air of elegance.这个房间的家具带给这房间一种优雅的气氛。
• John has been known for his sartorial elegance.约翰因为衣着讲究而出名。

151 queried   

v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问

参考例句：

• She queried what he said. 她对他说的话表示怀疑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"What does he have to do?\" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事？”琴向觉民问道，她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

152 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

153 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

154 triumphantly   

ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地

参考例句：

• The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
• Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。

155 flopping   

n.贬调v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的现在分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• The fish are still flopping about. 鱼还在扑腾。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• What do you mean by flopping yourself down and praying agin me?' 咚一声跪下地来咒我，你这是什么意思” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

156 gasp   

n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说

参考例句：

• She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。
• The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。

157 citation   

n.引用，引证，引用文；传票

参考例句：

• He had to sign the proposition for the citation.他只好在受奖申请书上签了字。
• The court could issue a citation and fine Ms. Robbins.法庭可能会发传票，对罗宾斯女士处以罚款。

158 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

159 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

160 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

161 soothed   

v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦

参考例句：

• The music soothed her for a while. 音乐让她稍微安静了一会儿。
• The soft modulation of her voice soothed the infant. 她柔和的声调使婴儿安静了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

162 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

163 resonance   

n.洪亮；共鸣；共振

参考例句：

• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
• The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。

164 nance   

n.娘娘腔的男人，男同性恋者

参考例句：

• I think he's an awful nance.我觉得他这个人太娘娘腔了。
• He doesn't like to be called a nance.他不喜欢被叫做娘娘腔。

165 zest   

n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣

参考例句：

• He dived into his new job with great zest.他充满热情地投入了新的工作。
• He wrote his novel about his trip to Asia with zest.他兴趣浓厚的写了一本关于他亚洲之行的小说。

166 metaphorical   

a.隐喻的，比喻的

参考例句：

• Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
• So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。

167 enveloped   

v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was enveloped in a huge white towel. 她裹在一条白色大毛巾里。
• Smoke from the burning house enveloped the whole street. 燃烧着的房子冒出的浓烟笼罩了整条街。 来自《简明英汉词典》

168 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

169 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

170 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。

171 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

172 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

173 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

174 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

175 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

176 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

177 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。

178 shudder   

v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动

参考例句：

• The sight of the coffin sent a shudder through him.看到那副棺材，他浑身一阵战栗。
• We all shudder at the thought of the dreadful dirty place.我们一想到那可怕的肮脏地方就浑身战惊。

179 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

180 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

181 exacting   

adj.苛求的，要求严格的

参考例句：

• He must remember the letters and symbols with exacting precision.他必须以严格的精度记住每个字母和符号。
• The public has been more exacting in its demands as time has passed.随着时间的推移，公众的要求更趋严格。

182 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

183 maverick   

adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者

参考例句：

• He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
• You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人，样样事情都要尝试一下。

184 glib   

adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的

参考例句：

• His glib talk sounds as sweet as a song.他说的比唱的还好听。
• The fellow has a very glib tongue.这家伙嘴油得很。

185 denizens   

n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• polar bears, denizens of the frozen north 北极熊，在冰天雪地的北方生活的动物
• At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn. 到了后来，连这些沼泽国的居民们也不见了。 来自辞典例句

186 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

187 franchises   

n.（尤指选举议员的）选举权( franchise的名词复数 )；参政权；获特许权的商业机构（或服务）；（公司授予的）特许经销权v.给…以特许权，出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ford dealerships operated as independent franchises. 福特汽车公司的代销商都是独立的联营商。 来自辞典例句

188 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

189 seethe   

vi.拥挤，云集；发怒，激动，骚动

参考例句：

• Many Indians continue to seethe and some are calling for military action against their riotous neighbour.很多印度人都处于热血沸腾的状态，很多都呼吁针对印度这个恶邻采取军事行动。
• She seethed with indignation.她由于愤怒而不能平静。

190 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

191 virtues   

美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处

参考例句：

• Doctors often extol the virtues of eating less fat. 医生常常宣扬少吃脂肪的好处。
• She delivered a homily on the virtues of family life. 她进行了一场家庭生活美德方面的说教。

192 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。

193 retrospect   

n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯

参考例句：

• One's school life seems happier in retrospect than in reality.学校生活回忆起来显得比实际上要快乐。
• In retrospect,it's easy to see why we were wrong.回顾过去就很容易明白我们的错处了。

194 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

195 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

196 cannily   

精明地

参考例句：

• Cannily, the government is turning patron. 精明的是，政府正在转变为赞助人。
• All these plentiful and substantial achievement is based on the cannily build and bran-new deploitation. 这一切丰硕成就，基于上海外服23年来的用心营造、全新开拓。

197 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

198 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

199 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

200 practitioners   

n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师）

参考例句：

• one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
• The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的，但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句

201 heeding   

v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This come of heeding people who say one thing and mean another! 有些人嘴里一回事，心里又是一回事，今天这个下场都是听信了这种人的话的结果。 来自辞典例句
• Her dwarfish spouse still smoked his cigar and drank his rum without heeding her. 她那矮老公还在吸他的雪茄，喝他的蔗酒，睬也不睬她。 来自辞典例句

202 whooshing   

v.（使）飞快移动( whoosh的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by. 我喜欢最后期待。我尤其喜欢它们飞驰而过时发出的嗖嗖声。 来自互联网
• The constant whooshing of the wind across the roof wouldn't fade into the background. 不断跑车疾速的风雨整个屋顶不会褪色的背景。 来自互联网

203 blur   

n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚

参考例句：

• The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
• If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了，图像就会变得模糊不清。

204 convertible   

adj.可改变的，可交换，同意义的；n.有活动摺篷的汽车

参考例句：

• The convertible sofa means that the apartment can sleep four.有了这张折叠沙发，公寓里可以睡下4个人。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了。

205 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

206 hysterical   

adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的

参考例句：

• He is hysterical at the sight of the photo.他一看到那张照片就异常激动。
• His hysterical laughter made everybody stunned.他那歇斯底里的笑声使所有的人不知所措。

207 authorize   

v.授权，委任；批准，认可

参考例句：

• He said that he needed to get his supervisor to authorize my refund.他说必须让主管人员批准我的退款。
• Only the President could authorize the use of the atomic bomb.只有总统才能授权使用原子弹。

208 orators   

n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The hired orators continued to pour forth their streams of eloquence. 那些雇来的演说家继续滔滔不绝地施展辩才。 来自辞典例句
• Their ears are too full of bugles and drums and the fine words from stay-at-home orators. 人们的耳朵被军号声和战声以及呆在这的演说家们的漂亮言辞塞得太满了。 来自飘（部分）

209 bluffs   

恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁

参考例句：

• Two steep limestone bluffs rise up each side of the narrow inlet. 两座陡峭的石灰石断崖耸立在狭窄的入口两侧。
• He bluffs his way in, pretending initially to be a dishwasher and then later a chef. 他虚张声势的方式，假装最初是一个洗碗机，然后厨师。

210 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

211 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

212 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

213 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

214 ominously   

adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地

参考例句：

• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mammy shook her head ominously. 嬷嬷不祥地摇着头。 来自飘（部分）

215 portents   

n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物

参考例句：

• But even with this extra support, labour-market portents still look grim. 但是即使采取了额外支持措施，劳动力市场依然阴霾密布。 来自互联网
• So the hiccups are worth noting as portents. 因此这些问题作为不好的征兆而值得关注。 来自互联网

216 anecdote   

n.轶事，趣闻，短故事

参考例句：

• He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事。
• It had never been more than a family anecdote.那不过是个家庭趣谈罢了。

217 misgivings   

n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧

参考例句：

• I had grave misgivings about making the trip. 对于这次旅行我有过极大的顾虑。
• Don't be overtaken by misgivings and fear. Just go full stream ahead! 不要瞻前顾后， 畏首畏尾。甩开膀子干吧！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

218 itinerant   

adj.巡回的；流动的

参考例句：

• He is starting itinerant performance all over the world.他正在世界各地巡回演出。
• There is a general debate nowadays about the problem of itinerant workers.目前，针对流动工人的问题展开了普遍的争论。

219 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

220 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

221 kaleidoscopic   

adj.千变万化的

参考例句：

• London is a kaleidoscopic world.伦敦是个天花筒般的世界。
• The transfer of administrative personnel in that colony was so frequent as to create kaleidoscopic effect.在那个殖民地，官员调动频繁，就象走马灯似的。

222 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

223 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

224 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

225 desultory   

adj.散漫的，无方法的

参考例句：

• Do not let the discussion fragment into a desultory conversation with no clear direction.不要让讨论变得支离破碎，成为没有明确方向的漫谈。
• The constables made a desultory attempt to keep them away from the barn.警察漫不经心地拦着不让他们靠近谷仓。

226 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

227 distinctiveness   

特殊[独特]性

参考例句：

• Q10. How are the newness and distinctiveness of a design assessed? 如何评估一项外观设计的新颖性和独特性？
• We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. 你们的文化将会适应为我们服务。

228 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

229 peroration   

n.（演说等之）结论

参考例句：

• As he worked his way from ethos and logos to the pathos of peroration,he bade us think of the connection between deprivation and belligerence,and to do something about it.当他在演讲中从道义和理念，转到结尾处的感伤时，他请我们考虑贫困与好战的关系，并为此做些什么。
• He summarized his main points in his peroration.他在结束语中总结了他的演讲要点。

230 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

231 offbeat   

adj.不平常的，离奇的

参考例句：

• She adores old,offbeat antiques.她非常喜欢那些稀奇古怪的老古董。
• His style is offbeat but highly creative.他的风格很不寻常但非常有创造力。

232 converged   

v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集

参考例句：

• Thousands of supporters converged on London for the rally. 成千上万的支持者从四面八方汇聚伦敦举行集会。
• People converged on the political meeting from all parts of the city. 人们从城市的四面八方涌向这次政治集会。 来自《简明英汉词典》

233 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

234 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

235 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

236 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

237 ramps   

resources allocation and multiproject scheduling 资源分配和多项目的行程安排

参考例句：

• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。
• He has the upper floor and ramps are fitted everywhere for his convenience. 他住在上面一层，为了他的方便着想，到处设有坡道。

238 parodying   

v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They are called deviant hypertexts parodying zero-degree hypo-texts in the intertextuality theory. 在互文性理论中，它们仿拟的零度原词即是底文，而它们自己则是偏离了的超文。 来自互联网
• Dahua shows the trivialness and absurdness of life through parodying and has deep society connotation. 大话语言通过嬉戏、调侃表现生活的琐碎、荒诞，具有较深刻的社会内涵。 来自互联网

239 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

240 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

241 tersely   

adv. 简捷地, 简要地

参考例句：

• Nixon proceeded to respond, mercifully more tersely than Brezhnev. 尼克松开始作出回答了。幸运的是，他讲的比勃列日涅夫简练。
• Hafiz Issail tersely informed me that Israel force had broken the young cease-fire. 哈菲兹·伊斯梅尔的来电简洁扼要，他说以色列部队破坏了刚刚生效的停火。

242 unison   

n.步调一致，行动一致

参考例句：

• The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
• My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。

243 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

244 emblem   

n.象征，标志；徽章

参考例句：

• Her shirt has the company emblem on it.她的衬衫印有公司的标记。
• The eagle was an emblem of strength and courage.鹰是力量和勇气的象征。

245 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

246 malfunction   

vi.发生功能故障，发生故障，显示机能失常

参考例句：

• There must have been a computer malfunction.一定是出了电脑故障。
• Results have been delayed owing to a malfunction in the computer.由于电脑发生故障，计算结果推迟了。

247 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

248 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

249 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

250 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

251 dignified   

a.可敬的，高贵的

参考例句：

• Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中，他始终沉默以保持尊严。
• He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。

252 embellished   

v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色

参考例句：

• The door of the old church was embellished with decorations. 老教堂的门是用雕饰美化的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The stern was embellished with carvings in red and blue. 船尾饰有红色和蓝色的雕刻图案。 来自辞典例句

253 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

254 gull   

n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈

参考例句：

• The ivory gull often follows polar bears to feed on the remains of seal kills.象牙海鸥经常跟在北极熊的后面吃剩下的海豹尸体。
• You are not supposed to gull your friends.你不应该欺骗你的朋友。

255 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

256 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

257 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

258 exterior   

adj.外部的，外在的；表面的

参考例句：

• The seed has a hard exterior covering.这种子外壳很硬。
• We are painting the exterior wall of the house.我们正在给房子的外墙涂漆。

259 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

260 groove   

n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯

参考例句：

• They're happy to stay in the same old groove.他们乐于墨守成规。
• The cupboard door slides open along the groove.食橱门沿槽移开。

261 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

262 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

263 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

264 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

265 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

266 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

267 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

268 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

269 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。

270 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

271 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

272 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

273 throttle   

n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压

参考例句：

• These government restrictions are going to throttle our trade.这些政府的限制将要扼杀我们的贸易。
• High tariffs throttle trade between countries.高的关税抑制了国与国之间的贸易。

274 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。

275 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

276 squeaks   

n.短促的尖叫声，吱吱声( squeak的名词复数 )v.短促地尖叫( squeak的第三人称单数 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The upper-middle-classes communicate with each other in inaudible squeaks, like bats. 那些上中层社会的人交谈起来象是蚊子在哼哼，你根本听不见。 来自辞典例句
• She always squeaks out her ideas when she is excited. 她一激动总是尖声说出自己的想法。 来自互联网

277 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

278 cylinders   

n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物

参考例句：

• They are working on all cylinders to get the job finished. 他们正在竭尽全力争取把这工作干完。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• That jeep has four cylinders. 那辆吉普车有4个汽缸。 来自《简明英汉词典》

279 gadgetry   

n.小机械，小器具

参考例句：

• His desk is covered with electronic gadgetry. 他的书桌上摆满了各种电子装置。
• Then why not just take back all your fancy gadgetry? 那你怎么不把这堆玩意给我撤了？ 来自电影对白

280 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

281 dowdy   

adj.不整洁的；过旧的

参考例句：

• She was in a dowdy blue frock.她穿了件不大洁净的蓝上衣。
• She looked very plain and dowdy.她长得非常普通，衣也过时。

282 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

283 harried   

v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰

参考例句：

• She has been harried by the press all week. 整个星期她都受到新闻界的不断烦扰。
• The soldiers harried the enemy out of the country. 士兵们不断作骚扰性的攻击直至把敌人赶出国境为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》

284 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

285 budged   

v.（使）稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）改变主意，（使）让步

参考例句：

• Old Bosc had never budged an inch--he was totally indifferent. 老包斯克一直连动也没有动，他全然无所谓。 来自辞典例句
• Nobody budged you an inch. 别人一丁点儿都算计不了你。 来自辞典例句

286 lament   

n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹

参考例句：

• Her face showed lament.她的脸上露出悲伤的样子。
• We lament the dead.我们哀悼死者。

287 convertibles   

n.可改变性，可变化性( convertible的名词复数 )；活动顶篷式汽车

参考例句：

• In Washington, the regulators did make a push to ban the manufacturing of convertibles. 华盛顿的各个管制机构曾经推动禁止敝篷车的制造。 来自辞典例句
• That's why they drive around in half-million-dollar convertibles? 因此他们就不惜花几千万美元来这里居住？ 来自电影对白

288 sagged   

下垂的

参考例句：

• The black reticule sagged under the weight of shapeless objects. 黑色的拎包由于装了各种形状的东西而中间下陷。
• He sagged wearily back in his chair. 他疲倦地瘫坐到椅子上。

289 layman   

n.俗人，门外汉，凡人

参考例句：

• These technical terms are difficult for the layman to understand.这些专门术语是外行人难以理解的。
• He is a layman in politics.他对政治是个门外汉。

290 anticlimax   

n.令人扫兴的结局；突降法

参考例句：

• Travelling in Europe was something of an anticlimax after the years he'd spent in Africa.他在非洲生活了多年，到欧洲旅行真是有点太平淡了。
• It was an anticlimax when they abandoned the game.他们放弃比赛，真是扫兴。

291 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

292 balk   

n.大方木料；v.妨碍；不愿前进或从事某事

参考例句：

• We get strong indications that his agent would balk at that request.我们得到的强烈暗示是他的经纪人会回避那个要求。
• He shored up the wall with a thick balk of wood.他用一根粗大的木头把墙撑住。

293 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

294 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

295 allotted   

分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I completed the test within the time allotted . 我在限定的时间内完成了试验。
• Each passenger slept on the berth allotted to him. 每个旅客都睡在分配给他的铺位上。

296 spurt   

v.喷出；突然进发；突然兴隆

参考例句：

• He put in a spurt at the beginning of the eighth lap.他进入第八圈时便开始冲刺。
• After a silence, Molly let her anger spurt out.沉默了一会儿，莫莉的怒气便迸发了出来。

297 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

298 precipitating   

adj.急落的，猛冲的v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的现在分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀

参考例句：

• Precipitating electrode plate is a key part in electrostatic precipitation equipment. 静电收尘板是静电收尘设备中的关键部件。 来自互联网
• The precipitation bond adopts a sloped tube to enhance the precipitating efficiency. 沉淀池采用斜管，提高了沉降效率。 来自互联网

299 baubles   

n.小玩意( bauble的名词复数 )；华而不实的小件装饰品；无价值的东西；丑角的手杖

参考例句：

• The clothing category also includes jewelry and similar baubles. 服饰大类也包括珠宝与类似的小玩意。 来自互联网
• The shop sells baubles as well. 这家商店也销售廉价珠宝。 来自互联网

300 barometric   

大气压力

参考例句：

• Electricity compensates for barometric pressure as well as system pressure variations. 用电补偿大气压和系统压力的变化。
• A barometric altimeter indicates height above sea level or some other selected elevation. 气压高度表用以指示海平面或另外某个被选定高度以上的高度。

301 zooming   

adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Zooming and panning are navigational tools for exploring 2D and 3D information. 缩放和平移是浏览二维和三维信息的导航工具。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Panning and zooming, especially when paired together, create navigation difficulties for users. 对于用户来说，平移和缩放一起使用时，产生了更多的导航困难。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

302 abated   

减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼）

参考例句：

• The worker's concern about cuts in the welfare funding has not abated. 工人们对削减福利基金的关心并没有减少。
• The heat has abated. 温度降低了。

303 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

304 intrude   

vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰

参考例句：

• I do not want to intrude if you are busy.如果你忙我就不打扰你了。
• I don't want to intrude on your meeting.我不想打扰你们的会议。

305 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

306 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

307 garnered   

v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith gradually garnered a national reputation as a financial expert. 史密斯先生逐渐赢得全国金融专家的声誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals. 他的提议得到了广泛的支持。 来自辞典例句

308 crumb   

n.饼屑，面包屑，小量

参考例句：

• It was the only crumb of comfort he could salvage from the ordeal.这是他从这场磨难里能找到的唯一的少许安慰。
• Ruth nearly choked on the last crumb of her pastry.鲁斯几乎被糕点的最后一块碎屑所噎住。

309 meretricious   

adj.华而不实的，俗艳的

参考例句：

• A wooden building painted to look like marble is meretricious.一座漆得像大理石般的木制建筑物外表是美丽的。
• Her room was painted in meretricious technicolour.她的房间刷着俗艳的颜色。

310 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

311 expunged   

v.擦掉( expunge的过去式和过去分词 )；除去；删去；消除

参考例句：

• Details of his criminal activities were expunged from the file. 他犯罪活动的详细情况已从档案中删去。
• His name is expunged from the list. 他的名字从名单中被除掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

312 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

313 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

314 purview   

n.范围；眼界

参考例句：

• These are questions that lie outside the purview of our inquiry.这些都不是属于我们调查范围的问题。
• That,however,was beyond the purview of the court;it was a diplomatic matter.但是，那已不在法庭权限之内；那是个外交问题。

315 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

316 admonished   

v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责

参考例句：

• She was admonished for chewing gum in class. 她在课堂上嚼口香糖，受到了告诫。
• The teacher admonished the child for coming late to school. 那个孩子迟到，老师批评了他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

317 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

318 beset   

v.镶嵌；困扰，包围

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• The plan was beset with difficulties from the beginning.这项计划自开始就困难重重。

319 niche   

n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等)

参考例句：

• Madeleine placed it carefully in the rocky niche. 玛德琳小心翼翼地把它放在岩石壁龛里。
• The really talented among women would always make their own niche.妇女中真正有才能的人总是各得其所。

320 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

321 abysmal   

adj.无底的，深不可测的，极深的；糟透的，极坏的；完全的

参考例句：

• The film was so abysmal that I fell asleep.电影太糟糕，看得我睡着了。
• There is a historic explanation for the abysmal state of Chinese cuisine in the United States.中餐在美国的糟糕状态可以从历史上找原因。

322 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

323 mumbling   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him mumbling to himself. 我听到他在喃喃自语。
• He was still mumbling something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg. 宴会结束时，他仍在咕哝着医院里的事。说着说着，他在一块冰上滑倒，跌断了左腿。

324 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

325 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

326 breakdowns   

n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析

参考例句：

• Her old car was unreliable, so the trip was plagued by breakdowns. 她的旧车老不听使唤，一路上总是出故障。 来自辞典例句
• How do we prevent these continual breakdowns? 我们如何防止这些一再出现的故障？ 来自辞典例句

327 pointedly   

adv.尖地，明显地

参考例句：

• She yawned and looked pointedly at her watch. 她打了个哈欠，又刻意地看了看手表。
• The demand for an apology was pointedly refused. 让对方道歉的要求遭到了断然拒绝。 来自《简明英汉词典》

328 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

329 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

330 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句

331 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

332 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

333 thwart   

v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的)

参考例句：

• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
• I don't think that will thwart our purposes.我认为那不会使我们的目的受到挫折。

334 immutable   

adj.不可改变的，永恒的

参考例句：

• Nothing in the world is immutable.世界没有一成不变的东西。
• They free our minds from considering our world as fixed and immutable.它们改变着人们将世界看作是永恒不变的观点。

335 laymen   

门外汉，外行人( layman的名词复数 )； 普通教徒（有别于神职人员）

参考例句：

• a book written for professionals and laymen alike 一本内行外行都可以读的书
• Avoid computer jargon when you write for laymen. 写东西给一般人看时，应避免使用电脑术语。

336 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

337 beetles   

n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

338 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

339 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

340 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。

341 consolidation   

n.合并,巩固

参考例句：

• The denser population necessitates closer consolidation both for internal and external action. 住得日益稠密的居民，对内和对外都不得不更紧密地团结起来。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• The state ensures the consolidation and growth of the state economy. 国家保障国营经济的巩固和发展。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法

342 rebates   

n.退还款( rebate的名词复数 )；回扣；返还（退还的部份货价）；折扣

参考例句：

• The VAT system offers advantages, such as rebates on exports. 增值税有其优点，如对出口商品实行回扣。 来自辞典例句
• In more recent years rate rebates have been introduced for households. 近年地方税的减免已适用于家庭。 来自辞典例句

343 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

344 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

345 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

346 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

347 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

348 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

349 chagrin   

n.懊恼；气愤；委屈

参考例句：

• His increasingly visible chagrin sets up a vicious circle.他的明显的不满引起了一种恶性循环。
• Much to his chagrin,he did not win the race.使他大为懊恼的是他赛跑没获胜。

350 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

351 consuls   

领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次）

参考例句：

• American consuls warned that millions more were preparing to leave war-ravaged districts. 美国驻外领事们预告，还有几百万人正在准备离开战争破坏的地区。
• The legionaries, on their victorious return, refused any longer to obey the consuls. 军团士兵在凯旋归国时，不肯服从执政官的命令。

352 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

353 garrulity   

n.饶舌，多嘴

参考例句：

• She said nothing when met you,changing the former days garrulity.见了面她一改往日的喋喋不休，望着你不说话。
• The morning is waning fast amidst my garrulity.我这么一唠叨不要紧，上午的时间快要过去了。

354 pendulum   

n.摆，钟摆

参考例句：

• The pendulum swung slowly to and fro.钟摆在慢慢地来回摆动。
• He accidentally found that the desk clock did not swing its pendulum.他无意中发现座钟不摇摆了。

355 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

356 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

357 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

358 basked   

v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的过去式和过去分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽

参考例句：

• She basked in the reflected glory of her daughter's success. 她尽情地享受她女儿的成功带给她的荣耀。
• She basked in the reflected glory of her daughter's success. 她享受着女儿的成功所带给她的荣耀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

359 grandeur   

n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华

参考例句：

• The grandeur of the Great Wall is unmatched.长城的壮观是独一无二的。
• These ruins sufficiently attest the former grandeur of the place.这些遗迹充分证明此处昔日的宏伟。

360 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

361 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

362 originality   

n.创造力，独创性；新颖

参考例句：

• The name of the game in pop music is originality.流行音乐的本质是独创性。
• He displayed an originality amounting almost to genius.他显示出近乎天才的创造性。