Washington as Anti-climax
I came to Washington full of expectations and curiosities. Here, I felt, so far as it could exist visibly and palpably anywhere, was the head and mind of this colossal1 America over which my observant curiosities had wandered. In this place I should find, among other things, perhaps as many as ten thousand men who would not be concerned in trade. There would be all the Senators and representatives, their secretaries and officials, and four thousand and more scientific and literary men of Washington's institutions and libraries, the diplomatic corps2, the educational centres, the civil service, the writers and thinking men who must inevitably3 be drawn4 to this predestined centre. I promised myself arduous5 intercourse6 with a teeming7 intellectual life. Here I should find questions answered, discover missing clues, get hold of the last connections in my inquiry8. I should complete at Washington my vision of America; my forecast would follow.
[Pg 237]
I don't precisely9 remember how this vision departed. I know only that after a day or so in Washington an entirely10 different conception was established, a conception of Washington as architecture and avenues, as a place of picture post-cards and excursions, with sightseers instead of thoughts going to and fro. I had imagined that in Washington I should find such mentally vigorous discussion-centres as the New York X Club on a quite magnificent scale. Instead, I found the chief scientific gathering-place has, like so many messes in the British army before the Boer war, a rule against talking "shop." In all Washington there is no clearing-house of thought at all; Washington has no literary journals, no magazines, no publications other than those of the official specialist—there does not seem to be a living for a single firm of publishers in this magnificent empty city.
I went about the place in a state of ridiculous and deepening concern. I went through the splendid Botanical Gardens, through the spacious12 and beautiful Capitol, and so to the magnificently equipped Library of Congress. There in an upper chamber13 that commands an altogether beautiful view of long vistas14 of avenue and garden to that stupendous unmeaning obelisk16 (the work of the women of America) that dominates all Washington, I found at last a little group of men who could talk. It was like a small raft upon a limitless empty sea. I lunched with them at their Round Table, and afterwards Mr.[Pg 238] Putnam showed me the Rotunda17, quite the most gracious reading-room dome18 the world possesses, and explained the wonderful mechanical organization that brings almost every volume in that immense collection within a minute of one's hand. "With all this," I asked him, "why doesn't the place think?" He seemed, discreetly19, to consider it did.
library
IN THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY
It was in the vein20 of Washington's detached deadness that I should find Professor Langley (whose flying experiments I have followed for some years with close interest) was dead, and I went through the long galleries of arch?ological specimens21 and stuffed animals in the Smithsonian Institution to inflict22 my questions upon his temporary successor, Dr. Cyrus Adler. He had no adequate excuses. He found a kind of explanation in the want of enterprise of American publishers, so that none of them come to Washington to tap its latent resources of knowledge and intellectual capacity; but that does not account for the absence of any traffic in ideas. It is perhaps near the truth to say that this dearth23 of any general and comprehensive intellectual activity is due to intellectual specialization. The four thousand scientific men in Washington are all too energetically busy with ethnographic details, electrical computations, or herbaria to talk about common and universal things. They ought not to be so busy, and a science so specialized24 sinks half-way down the scale of sciences. Science is one of those things that cannot hustle25; if it does, it loses its con[Pg 239]nections. In Washington some men, I gathered, hustle, others play bridge, and general questions are left, a little contemptuously, as being of the nature of "gas," to the newspapers and magazines. Philosophy, which correlates the sciences and keeps them subservient26 to the universals of life, has no seat there. My anticipated synthesis of ten thousand minds refused, under examination, to synthesize at all; it remained disintegrated27, a mob, individually active and collectively futile28, of specialists and politicians.
II
The City of Conversation
But that is only one side of Washington life, the side east and south of the White House. Northwestward I found, I confess, the most agreeable social atmosphere in America. It is a region of large fine houses, of dignified29 and ample-minded people, people not given over to "smartness" nor redolent of dollars, unhurried and reflective, not altogether lost to the wider aspects of life. In Washington I met again that peculiarly aristocratic quality I had found in Harvard—in the person of President Eliot, for example—an aristocratic quality that is all the finer for the absence of rank, that has integral in it—books, thought, and responsibility. And yet I could have wished these fine people more alive to[Pg 240] present and future things, a little less established upon completed and mellowing31 foundations, a little less final in their admirable finish....
There was, I found, a little breeze of satisfaction fluttering the Washington atmosphere in this region. Mr. Henry James came through the States last year distributing epithets33 among their cities with the justest aptitude34. Washington was the "City of Conversation"; and she was pleasantly conscious that she merited this friendly coronation.
Washington, indeed, converses35 well, without awkwardness, without chatterings, kindly36, watchful37, agreeably witty38. She lulled39 and tamed my purpose to ask about primary things, to discuss large questions. Only once, and that was in an after-dinner duologue, did I get at all into a question in Washington. For the rest, Washington remarked and alluded40 and made her point and got away.
III
Mount Vernon
And Washington, with a remarkable41 unanimity42 and in the most charming manner, assured me that if I came to see and understand America I must on no account miss Mount Vernon. To have passed indifferently by Concord43 was bad enough, I was told, but to ignore the home of the first president, to turn my back upon that ripe monument of colonial simplicity44, would be[Pg 241] quite criminal neglect. To me it was a revelation how sincerely insistent45 they were upon this. It reminded me of an effect I had already appreciated very keenly in Boston—and even before Boston, when Mr. Z took me across Spuyten Duyvil into the country of Sleepy Hollow, and spoke46 of Cornwallis as though he had died yesterday—and that is the longer historical perspectives of America. America is an older country than any European one, for she has not rejuvenesced for a hundred and thirty years. In endless ways America fails to be contemporary. In many respects, no doubt, she is decades in front of Europe, in mechanism47, for example, and productive organization, but in very many other and more fundamental ones she is decades behind. Go but a little way back and you will find the European's perspectives close up; they close at '71, at '48, down a vista15 of reform bills, at Waterloo and the treaty of Paris, at the Irish union, at the coming of Victor Emanuel; Great Britain, for example, in the last hundred years has reconstructed politically and socially, created half her present peerage, evolved the Empire of India, developed Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, fought fifty considerable wars. Mount Vernon, on the other hand, goes back with unbroken continuity, a broad band of mellow32 tradition, to the War of Independence.
Well, I got all that in conversation at Washington, and so I didn't need to go to Mount Vernon, after all. I got all that about 1777, and I failed altogether to[Pg 242] get anything of any value whatever about 1977—which is the year of greater interest to me. About the direction and destinies of that great American process that echoes so remotely through Washington's cool gracefulness48 of architecture and her umbrageous49 parks, this cultivated society seemed to me to be terribly incurious and indifferent. It was alive to political personalities50, no doubt, its sons and husbands were Senators, judges, ambassadors, and the like; it was concerned with their speeches and prospects51, but as to the trend of the whole thing Washington does not picture it, does not want to picture it. I found myself presently excusing myself for Mount Vernon on the ground that I was not a retrospective American, but a go-ahead Englishman, and so apologizing for my want of reverence52 for venerable things. "We are a young people," I maintained. "We are a new generation."
IV
In the Senate-House
I went to see the Senate debating the railway-rate bill, and from the Senatorial gallery I had pointed53 out to me Tillman and Platt, Foraker and Lodge54, and all the varied55 personalities of the assembly. The chamber is a circular one, with enormously capacious galleries. The members speak from their desks, other members write letters, read (and rustle) newspapers, sit[Pg 243] among accumulations of torn paper, or stand round the apartment in audibly conversational56 groups. A number of messenger-boys—they wear no uniform—share the floor of the House with the representatives, and are called by clapping the hands. They go to and fro, or sit at the feet of the Vice-President. Behind and above the Vice-President the newspaper men sit in a state of partial attention, occasionally making notes for the vivid descriptions that have long since superseded57 verbatim reports in America. The public galleries contain hundreds of intermittently58 talkative spectators. For the most part these did not seem to me to represent, as the little strangers' gallery in the House of Commons represents, interests affected59. They were rather spectators seeing Washington, taking the Senate en route for the obelisk top and Mount Vernon. They made little attempt to hear the speeches.
In a large distinguished60 emptiness among these galleries is the space devoted61 to diplomatic representatives, and there I saw, sitting in a meritorious62 solitude63, the British charge d'affaires and his wife following the debate below. I found it altogether too submerged for me to follow. The countless64 spectators, the Senators, the boy messengers, the comings and goings kept up a perpetual confusing babblement65. One saw men walking carelessly between the Speaker and the Vice-President, and at one time two gentlemen with their backs to the member in possession of the House engaged the Vice-President[Pg 244] in an earnest conversation. The messengers circulated at a brisk trot66, or sat on the edge of the dais exchanging subdued67 badinage68. I have never seen a more distracted Legislature.
The whole effect of Washington is a want of concentration, of something unprehensile and apart. It is on, not in, the American process. The place seems to me to reflect, even in its sounds and physical forms, that dispersal of power, that evasion69 of a simple conclusiveness70, which is the peculiar30 effect of that ancient compromise, the American Constitution. The framers of that treaty were haunted by two terrible bogies, a military dictatorship and what they called "mob rule," they were obsessed71 by the need of safeguards against these dangers, they were controlled by the mutual72 distrust of constituent73 States far more alien to one another than they are now, and they failed to foresee both the enormous assimilation of interests and character presently to be wrought74 by the railways and telegraphs, and the huge possibilities of corruption75, elaborate electrical arrangements offer to clever unscrupulous men. And here in Washington is the result, a Legislature that fails to legislate76, a government that cannot govern, a pseudo-responsible administration that offers enormous scope for corruption, and that is perhaps invincibly77 intrenched behind the two-party system from any insurgence78 of the popular will. The plain fact of the case is that Congress, as it is constituted at present, is the feeblest, least accessible, and most[Pg 245] inefficient79 central government of any civilized80 nation in the worst west of Russia. Congress is entirely inadequate81 to the tasks of the present time.
I came away from Washington with my pre-conception enormously reinforced that the supreme82 need of America, the preliminary thing to any social or economic reconstruction83, is political reform. It seems to me to lie upon the surface that America has to be democratized. It is necessary to make the Senate and the House of Representatives more interdependent, and to abolish the possibilities of deadlocks84 between them, to make election to the Senate direct from the people, and to qualify and weaken the power of the two-party system by the introduction of "second ballots85" and the referendum....
But how such drastic changes are to be achieved constitutionally in America I cannot imagine. Only a great educated, trained, and sustained agitation86 can bring about so fundamental a political revolution, and at present I can find nowhere even the beginnings of a realization87 of this need.
V
President Roosevelt
In the White House, set midway between the Washington of the sightseers and the Washington of brilliant conversation, I met President Roosevelt. I was[Pg 246] mightily88 pleased by the White House; it is dignified and simple—once again am I tempted89 to use the phrase "aristocratic in the best sense" of things American; and an entire absence of uniforms or liveries creates an atmosphere of Republican equality that is reinforced by "Mr. President's" friendly grasp of one's undistinguishable hand. And after lunch I walked about the grounds with him, and so achieved my ambition to get him "placed," as it were, in my vision of America.
In the rare chances I have had of meeting statesmen, there has always been one common effect, an effect of their being smaller, less audible, and less saliently featured than one had expected. A common man builds up his picture of the men prominent in the great game of life very largely out of caricature, out of head-lines, out of posed and "characteristic" portraits. One associates them with actresses and actors, literary poseurs90 and such-like public performers, anticipates the same vivid self-consciousness as these display in common intercourse, keys one's self up for the paint on their faces, and for voices and manners altogether too accentuated91 for the gray-toned lives of common men. I've met politicians who remained at that. But so soon as Mr. Roosevelt entered the room, "Teddy," the Teddy of the slouch hat, the glasses, the teeth, and the sword, that strenuous92 vehement93 Teddy (who had, let me admit, survived a full course of reading in the President's earlier writings) vanished, and[Pg 247] gave place to an entirely negotiable individuality. To-day, at any rate, the "Teddy" legend is untrue. Perhaps it wasn't always quite untrue. There was a time during the world predominance of Mr. Kipling, when I think the caricature must have come close to certain of Mr. Roosevelt's acceptances and attitudes. But that was ten years and more ago, and Mr. Roosevelt to this day goes on thinking and changing and growing....
For me, anyhow, that strenuousness94 has vanished beyond recalling, and there has emerged a figure in gray of a quite reasonable size, with a face far more thoughtful and perplexed95 than strenuous, with a clinched96 hand that does indeed gesticulate, though it is by no means a gigantic fist—and with quick movements, a voice strained indeed, a little forced for oratory97, but not raised or aggressive in any fashion, and friendly screwed-up eyes behind the glasses.
It isn't my purpose at all to report a conversation that went from point to point. I wasn't interviewing the President, and I made no note at the time of the things said. My impression was of a mind—for the situation—quite extraordinarily98 open. That is the value of President Roosevelt for me, and why I can't for the life of my book leave him out. He is the seeking mind of America displayed. The ordinary politician goes through his career like a charging bull, with his eyes shut to any changes in the premises99. He locks up his mind like a powder magazine. But any spark may fire the mind of[Pg 248] President Roosevelt. His range of reading is amazing; he seems to be echoing with all the thought of the time, he has receptivity to the pitch of genius. And he does not merely receive, he digests and reconstructs; he thinks. It is his political misfortune that at times he thinks aloud. His mind is active with projects of solution for the teeming problems around him. Traditions have no hold upon him—nor, his enemies say, have any but quite formal pledges. It is hard to tie him. In all these things he is to a single completeness, to mind and will of contemporary America. And by an unparalleled conspiracy101 of political accidents, as all the world knows, he has got to the White House. He is not a part of the regular American political system at all—he has, it happens, stuck through.
Now my picture of America is, as I have tried to make clear, one of a gigantic process of growth, of economic coming and going, spaced out over vast distances and involving millions of hastening men; I see America as towns and urgency and greatnesses beyond, I suppose, any precedent102 that has ever been in the world. And like a little island of order amid that ocean of enormous opportunity and business turmoil103 and striving individualities, is this District of Columbia, with Washington and its Capitol and obelisk. It is a mere100 pin-point in the unlimited104, on which, in peace times, the national government lies marooned105, twisted up into knots, bound with safeguards, and altogether impotently stranded106. And[Pg 249] peering closely, and looking from the Capitol down the vista of Pennsylvania Avenue, I see the White House, minute and clear, with a fountain playing before it, and behind it a railed garden set with fine trees. The trees are not so thick, nor the railings so high but that the people on the big "seeing Washington" cannot crane to look into it and watch whoever walk about it. And in this garden goes a living speck107, as it were, in gray, talking, swinging a white clinched hand, and trying vigorously and resolutely108 to get a hold upon the significance of the whole vast process in which he and his island of government are set.
Always before him there have been political resultants, irrelevancies and futilities of the White House; and after him, it would seem, they may come again. I do not know anything of the quality of Mr. Bryan, who may perhaps succeed him. He, too, is something of an exception, it seems, and keeps a still developing and inquiring mind. Beyond is a vista of figures of questionable109 value so far as I am concerned. They have this in common that they don't stand for thought. For the present, at any rate, a personality, extraordinarily representative, occupies the White House. And what he chooses to say publicly (and some things he says privately) are, by an exceptional law of acoustics110, heard in San Francisco, in Chicago, in New Orleans, in New York and Boston, in Kansas, and Maine, throughout the whole breadth of the United States of America. He[Pg 250] assimilates contemporary thought, delocalizes and reverberates111 it. He is America for the first time vocal112 to itself.
What is America saying to itself?
I've read most of the President's recent speeches, and they fall in oddly with that quality in his face that so many photographs even convey, a complex mingling113 of will and a critical perplexity. Taken all together they amount to a mass of not always consistent suggestions, that and conflict overlap114. Things crowd upon him, rebate115 scandals, insurance scandals, the meat scandals, this insecurity and that. The conditions of his position press upon him. It is no wonder he gives out no single, simple note....
The plain fact is that in the face of the teeming situations of to-day America does not know what to do. Nobody, except those happily gifted individuals who can see but one aspect of an intricate infinitude, imagines any simple solution. For the rest the time is one of ample, vigorous, and at times impatient inquiry, and of intense disillusionment with old assumptions and methods. And never did a President before so reflect the quality of his time. The trend is altogether away from the anarchistic116 individualism of the nineteenth century, that much is sure, and towards some constructive117 scheme which, if not exactly socialism, as socialism is defined, will be, at any rate, closely analogous118 to socialism. This is the immense change of thought and attitude in which President Roosevelt participates, and to which he[Pg 251] gives a unique expression. Day by day he changes with the big world about him—contradicts himself....
I came away with the clear impression that neither President Roosevelt nor America will ever, as some people prophesy119, "declare for socialism," but my impression is equally clear, that he and all the world of men he stands for, have done forever with the threadbare formul? that have served America such an unconscionable time. We talked of the press and books and of the question of color, and then for a while about the r?le of the universities in the life of the coming time.
Now it is a curious thing that as I talked with President Roosevelt in the garden of the White House there came back to me quite forcibly that undertone of doubt that has haunted me throughout this journey. After all, does this magnificent appearance of beginnings which is America, convey any clear and certain promise of permanence and fulfilment whatever? Much makes for construction, a great wave of reform is going on, but will it drive on to anything more than a breaking impact upon even more gigantic uncertainties120 and dangers. Is America a giant childhood or a gigantic futility121, a mere latest phase of that long succession of experiments which has been and may be for interminable years—may be indeed altogether until the end—man's social history? I can't now recall how our discursive122 talk settled towards that, but it is clear to me that I[Pg 252] struck upon a familiar vein of thought in the President's mind. He hadn't, he said, an effectual disproof of any pessimistic interpretation123 of the future. If one chose to say America must presently lose the impetus124 of her ascent125, that she and all mankind must culminate126 and pass, he could not conclusively127 deny that possibility. Only he chose to live as if this were not so.
That remained in his mind. Presently he reverted128 to it. He made a sort of apology for his life against the doubts and scepticisms that, I fear, must be in the background of the thoughts of every modern man who is intellectually alive. He mentioned a little book of mine, an early book full of the deliberate pessimism129 of youth, in which I drew a picture of a future of decadence130, of a time when constructive effort had fought its fight and failed, when the inevitable131 segregations of an individualistic system had worked themselves out and all the hope and vigor11 of humanity had gone forever. The descendants of the workers had become etiolated, sinister132, and subterranean133 monsters, the property-owners had degenerated134 into a hectic135 and feebly self-indulgent race, living fitfully amid the ruins of the present time. He became gesticulatory, and his straining voice a note higher in denying this as a credible136 interpretation of destiny. With one of those sudden movements of his, he knelt forward in a garden chair—we were standing137 before our parting beneath the colonnade—and addressed me very earnestly over[Pg 253] the back, clutching it, and then thrusting out his familiar gesture, a hand first partly open and then closed.
"Suppose after all," he said, slowly, "that should prove to be right, and it all ends in your butterflies and morlocks. That doesn't matter now. The effort's real. It's worth going on with. It's worth it. It's worth it—even then."...
I can see him now and hear his unmusical voice saying "The effort—the effort's worth it," and see the gesture of his clinched hand and the—how can I describe it? the friendly peering snarl138 of his face, like a man with the sun in his eyes. He sticks in my mind as that, as a very symbol of the creative will in man, in its limitations, its doubtful adequacy, its valiant139 persistence140 amid perplexities and confusions. He kneels out, assertive141 against his setting—and his setting is the White House with a background of all America.
I could almost write, with a background of all the world—for I know of no other a tithe142 so representative of the creative purpose, the good-will in men as he. In his undisciplined hastiness, his limitations, his prejudices, his unfairness, his frequent errors, just as much as in his force, his sustained courage, his integrity, his open intelligence, he stands for his people and his kind.
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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intercourse
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teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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inquiry
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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entirely
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vigor
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spacious
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chamber
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vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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vista
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obelisk
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rotunda
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dome
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discreetly
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vein
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specimens
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inflict
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dearth
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specialized
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hustle
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subservient
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dignified
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peculiar
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mellowing
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epithets
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aptitude
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converses
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kindly
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watchful
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witty
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lulled
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alluded
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remarkable
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unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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43
concord
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| n.和谐；协调 | |
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44
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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45
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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46
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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47
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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48
gracefulness
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49
umbrageous
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| adj.多荫的 | |
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50
personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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51
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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52
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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53
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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54
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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55
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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56
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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57
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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58
intermittently
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| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
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59
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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60
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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61
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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62
meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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63
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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64
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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65
babblement
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| 模糊不清的言语，胡说，潺潺声 | |
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66
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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67
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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68
badinage
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| n.开玩笑，打趣 | |
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69
evasion
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| n.逃避，偷漏(税) | |
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conclusiveness
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| n.最后； 释疑； 确定性； 结论性 | |
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obsessed
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| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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72
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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73
constituent
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| n.选民；成分，组分；adj.组成的，构成的 | |
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74
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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75
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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76
legislate
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| vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法 | |
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77
invincibly
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| adv.难战胜地，无敌地 | |
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78
insurgence
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| n.起义；造反；暴动；叛乱 | |
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inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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81
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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83
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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84
deadlocks
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| 僵局( deadlock的名词复数 ) | |
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85
ballots
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| n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 ) | |
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86
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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87
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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88
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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89
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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poseurs
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| n.装腔作势的人( poseur的名词复数 ) | |
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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92
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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94
strenuousness
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95
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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96
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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97
oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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98
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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99
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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100
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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101
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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102
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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103
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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104
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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105
marooned
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| adj.被围困的；孤立无援的；无法脱身的 | |
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106
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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107
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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108
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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109
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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110
acoustics
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| n.声学，(复)音响效果，音响装置 | |
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111
reverberates
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的第三人称单数 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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112
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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113
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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114
overlap
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| v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠 | |
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115
rebate
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| v./n.折扣，回扣，退款；vt.给...回扣，给...打折扣 | |
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116
anarchistic
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| 无政府主义的 | |
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117
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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118
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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119
prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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120
uncertainties
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| 无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物 | |
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121
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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122
discursive
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| adj.离题的，无层次的 | |
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123
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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124
impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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125
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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126
culminate
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| v.到绝顶，达于极点，达到高潮 | |
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127
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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128
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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129
pessimism
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| n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者 | |
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130
decadence
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| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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131
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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132
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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133
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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134
degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
hectic
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| adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的 | |
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136
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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137
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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138
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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139
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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140
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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141
assertive
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| adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的 | |
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142
tithe
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| n.十分之一税；v.课什一税，缴什一税 | |
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