IT was a morning of artistic1 creation. Fifteen minutes after the purple prose of Babbitt’s form-letter, Chester Kirby Laylock, the resident salesman at Glen Oriole, came in to report a sale and submit an advertisement. Babbitt disapproved2 of Laylock, who sang in choirs3 and was merry at home over games of Hearts and Old Maid. He had a tenor4 voice, wavy5 chestnut6 hair, and a mustache like a camel’s-hair brush. Babbitt considered it excusable in a family-man to growl7, “Seen this new picture of the kid — husky little devil, eh?” but Laylock’s domestic confidences were as bubbling as a girl’s.
“Say, I think I got a peach of an ad for the Glen, Mr. Babbitt. Why don’t we try something in poetry? Honest, it’d have wonderful pulling-power. Listen:
‘Mid pleasures and palaces,
Wherever you may roam,
You just provide the little bride
And we’ll provide the home.
Do you get it? See — like ‘Home Sweet Home.’ Don’t you —”
“Yes, yes, yes, hell yes, of course I get it. But — Oh, I think we’d better use something more dignified8 and forceful, like ‘We lead, others follow,’ or ‘Eventually, why not now?’ Course I believe in using poetry and humor and all that junk when it turns the trick, but with a high-class restricted development like the Glen we better stick to the more dignified approach, see how I mean? Well, I guess that’s all, this morning, Chet.”
II
By a tragedy familiar to the world of art, the April enthusiasm of Chet Laylock served only to stimulate11 the talent of the older craftsman12, George F. Babbitt. He grumbled13 to Stanley Graff, “That tan-colored voice of Chet’s gets on my nerves,” yet he was aroused and in one swoop14 he wrote:
DO YOU RESPECT YOUR LOVED ONES?
When the last sad rites15 of bereavement16 are over, do you know for certain that you have done your best for the Departed? You haven’t unless they lie in the Cemetery17 Beautiful
LINDEN LANE
the only strictly18 up-to-date burial place in or near Zenith, where exquisitely19 gardened plots look from daisy-dotted hill-slopes across the smiling fields of Dorchester.
Sole agents
BABBITT-THOMPSON REALTY COMPANY
Reeves Building
He rejoiced, “I guess that’ll show Chan Mott and his weedy old Wildwood Cemetery something about modern merchandizing!”
III
He sent Mat Penniman to the recorder’s office to dig out the names of the owners of houses which were displaying For Rent signs of other brokers21; he talked to a man who desired to lease a store-building for a pool-room; he ran over the list of home-leases which were about to expire; he sent Thomas Bywaters, a street-car conductor who played at real estate in spare time, to call on side-street “prospects” who were unworthy the strategies of Stanley Graff. But he had spent his credulous22 excitement of creation, and these routine details annoyed him. One moment of heroism23 he had, in discovering a new way of stopping smoking.
He stopped smoking at least once a month. He went through with it like the solid citizen he was: admitted the evils of tobacco, courageously24 made resolves, laid out plans to check the vice25, tapered26 off his allowance of cigars, and expounded27 the pleasures of virtuousness29 to every one he met. He did everything, in fact, except stop smoking.
Two months before, by ruling out a schedule, noting down the hour and minute of each smoke, and ecstatically increasing the intervals30 between smokes, he had brought himself down to three cigars a day. Then he had lost the schedule.
A week ago he had invented a system of leaving his cigar-case and cigarette-box in an unused drawer at the bottom of the correspondence-file, in the outer office. “I’ll just naturally be ashamed to go poking31 in there all day long, making a fool of myself before my own employees!” he reasoned. By the end of three days he was trained to leave his desk, walk to the file, take out and light a cigar, without knowing that he was doing it.
This morning it was revealed to him that it had been too easy to open the file. Lock it, that was the thing! Inspired, he rushed out and locked up his cigars, his cigarettes, and even his box of safety matches; and the key to the file drawer he hid in his desk. But the crusading passion of it made him so tobacco-hungry that he immediately recovered the key, walked with forbidding dignity to the file, took out a cigar and a match —“but only one match; if ole cigar goes out, it’ll by golly have to stay out!” Later, when the cigar did go out, he took one more match from the file, and when a buyer and a seller came in for a conference at eleven-thirty, naturally he had to offer them cigars. His conscience protested, “Why, you’re smoking with them!” but he bullied32 it, “Oh, shut up! I’m busy now. Of course by-and-by —” There was no by-and-by, yet his belief that he had crushed the unclean habit made him feel noble and very happy. When he called up Paul Riesling he was, in his moral splendor33, unusually eager.
He was fonder of Paul Riesling than of any one on earth except himself and his daughter Tinka. They had been classmates, roommates, in the State University, but always he thought of Paul Riesling, with his dark slimness, his precisely34 parted hair, his nose-glasses, his hesitant speech, his moodiness35, his love of music, as a younger brother, to be petted and protected. Paul had gone into his father’s business, after graduation; he was now a wholesaler36 and small manufacturer of prepared-paper roofing. But Babbitt strenuously37 believed and lengthily38 announced to the world of Good Fellows that Paul could have been a great violinist or painter or writer. “Why say, the letters that boy sent me on his trip to the Canadian Rockies, they just absolutely make you see the place as if you were standing39 there. Believe me, he could have given any of these bloomin’ authors a whale of a run for their money!”
Yet on the telephone they said only:
“South 343. No, no, no! I said SOUTH— South 343. Say, operator, what the dickens is the trouble? Can’t you get me South 343? Why certainly they’ll answer. Oh, Hello, 343? Wanta speak Mist’ Riesling, Mist’ Babbitt talking. . . ‘Lo, Paul?”
“Yuh.”
“‘S George speaking.”
“Yuh.”
“How’s old socks?”
“Fair to middlin’. How ‘re you?”
“Fine, Paulibus. Well, what do you know?”
“Oh, nothing much.”
“Where you been keepin’ yourself?”
“Oh, just stickin’ round. What’s up, Georgie?”
“How ‘bout lil lunch ‘s noon?”
“Be all right with me, I guess. Club?’
“Yuh. Meet you there twelve-thirty.”
“A’ right. Twelve-thirty. S’ long, Georgie.”
IV
His morning was not sharply marked into divisions. Interwoven with correspondence and advertisement-writing were a thousand nervous details: calls from clerks who were incessantly40 and hopefully seeking five furnished rooms and bath at sixty dollars a month; advice to Mat Penniman on getting money out of tenants42 who had no money.
Babbitt’s virtues44 as a real-estate broker20 — as the servant of society in the department of finding homes for families and shops for distributors of food — were steadiness and diligence. He was conventionally honest, he kept his records of buyers and sellers complete, he had experience with leases and titles and an excellent memory for prices. His shoulders were broad enough, his voice deep enough, his relish45 of hearty46 humor strong enough, to establish him as one of the ruling caste of Good Fellows. Yet his eventual9 importance to mankind was perhaps lessened47 by his large and complacent48 ignorance of all architecture save the types of houses turned out by speculative49 builders; all landscape gardening save the use of curving roads, grass, and six ordinary shrubs50; and all the commonest axioms of economics. He serenely51 believed that the one purpose of the real-estate business was to make money for George F. Babbitt. True, it was a good advertisement at Boosters’ Club lunches, and all the varieties of Annual Banquets to which Good Fellows were invited, to speak sonorously52 of Unselfish Public Service, the Broker’s Obligation to Keep Inviolate53 the Trust of His Clients, and a thing called Ethics54, whose nature was confusing but if you had it you were a High-class Realtor and if you hadn’t you were a shyster, a piker, and a fly-by-night. These virtues awakened55 Confidence, and enabled you to handle Bigger Propositions. But they didn’t imply that you were to be impractical56 and refuse to take twice the value of a house if a buyer was such an idiot that he didn’t jew you down on the asking-price.
Babbitt spoke57 well — and often — at these orgies of commercial righteousness about the “realtor’s function as a seer of the future development of the community, and as a prophetic engineer clearing the pathway for inevitable58 changes”— which meant that a real-estate broker could make money by guessing which way the town would grow. This guessing he called Vision
In an address at the Boosters’ Club he had admitted, “It is at once the duty and the privilege of the realtor to know everything about his own city and its environs. Where a surgeon is a specialist on every vein59 and mysterious cell of the human body, and the engineer upon electricity in all its phases, or every bolt of some great bridge majestically60 arching o’er a mighty61 flood, the realtor must know his city, inch by inch, and all its faults and virtues.”
Though he did know the market-price, inch by inch, of certain districts of Zenith, he did not know whether the police force was too large or too small, or whether it was in alliance with gambling62 and prostitution. He knew the means of fire-proofing buildings and the relation of insurance-rates to fire-proofing, but he did not know how many firemen there were in the city, how they were trained and paid, or how complete their apparatus63. He sang eloquently64 the advantages of proximity65 of school-buildings to rentable homes, but he did not know — he did not know that it was worth while to know — whether the city schoolrooms were properly heated, lighted, ventilated, furnished; he did not know how the teachers were chosen; and though he chanted “One of the boasts of Zenith is that we pay our teachers adequately,” that was because he had read the statement in the Advocate–Times. Himself, he could not have given the average salary of teachers in Zenith or anywhere else.
He had heard it said that “conditions” in the County Jail and the Zenith City Prison were not very “scientific;” he had, with indignation at the criticism of Zenith, skimmed through a report in which the notorious pessimist66 Seneca Doane, the radical67 lawyer, asserted that to throw boys and young girls into a bull-pen crammed68 with men suffering from syphilis, delirium69 tremens, and insanity70 was not the perfect way of educating them. He had controverted71 the report by growling72, “Folks that think a jail ought to be a bloomin’ Hotel Thornleigh make me sick. If people don’t like a jail, let ’em behave ‘emselves and keep out of it. Besides, these reform cranks always exaggerate.” That was the beginning and quite completely the end of his investigations73 into Zenith’s charities and corrections; and as to the “vice districts” he brightly expressed it, “Those are things that no decent man monkeys with. Besides, smatter fact, I’ll tell you confidentially74: it’s a protection to our daughters and to decent women to have a district where tough nuts can raise cain. Keeps ’em away from our own homes.”
As to industrial conditions, however, Babbitt had thought a great deal, and his opinions may be coordinated75 as follows:
“A good labor76 union is of value because it keeps out radical unions, which would destroy property. No one ought to be forced to belong to a union, however. All labor agitators77 who try to force men to join a union should be hanged. In fact, just between ourselves, there oughtn’t to be any unions allowed at all; and as it’s the best way of fighting the unions, every business man ought to belong to an employers’-association and to the Chamber78 of Commerce. In union there is strength. So any selfish hog79 who doesn’t join the Chamber of Commerce ought to be forced to.”
In nothing — as the expert on whose advice families moved to new neighborhoods to live there for a generation — was Babbitt more splendidly innocent than in the science of sanitation80. He did not know a malaria-bearing mosquito from a bat; he knew nothing about tests of drinking water; and in the matters of plumbing81 and sewage he was as unlearned as he was voluble. He often referred to the excellence82 of the bathrooms in the houses he sold. He was fond of explaining why it was that no European ever bathed. Some one had told him, when he was twenty-two, that all cesspools were unhealthy, and he still denounced them. If a client impertinently wanted him to sell a house which had a cesspool, Babbitt always spoke about it — before accepting the house and selling it.
When he laid out the Glen Oriole acreage development, when he ironed woodland and dipping meadow into a glenless, orioleless, sunburnt flat prickly with small boards displaying the names of imaginary streets, he righteously put in a complete sewage-system. It made him feel superior; it enabled him to sneer83 privily84 at the Martin Lumsen development, Avonlea, which had a cesspool; and it provided a chorus for the full-page advertisements in which he announced the beauty, convenience, cheapness, and supererogatory healthfulness of Glen Oriole. The only flaw was that the Glen Oriole sewers85 had insufficient86 outlet87, so that waste remained in them, not very agreeably, while the Avonlea cesspool was a Waring septic tank.
The whole of the Glen Oriole project was a suggestion that Babbitt, though he really did hate men recognized as swindlers, was not too unreasonably88 honest. Operators and buyers prefer that brokers should not be in competition with them as operators and buyers themselves, but attend to their clients’ interests only. It was supposed that the Babbitt–Thompson Company were merely agents for Glen Oriole, serving the real owner, Jake Offutt, but the fact was that Babbitt and Thompson owned sixty-two per cent. of the Glen, the president and purchasing agent of the Zenith Street Traction89 Company owned twenty-eight per cent., and Jake Offutt (a gang-politician, a small manufacturer, a tobacco-chewing old farceur who enjoyed dirty politics, business diplomacy90, and cheating at poker) had only ten per cent., which Babbitt and the Traction officials had given to him for “fixing” health inspectors91 and fire inspectors and a member of the State Transportation Commission.
But Babbitt was virtuous28. He advocated, though he did not practise, the prohibition92 of alcohol; he praised, though he did not obey, the laws against motor-speeding; he paid his debts; he contributed to the church, the Red Cross, and the Y. M. C. A.; he followed the custom of his clan93 and cheated only as it was sanctified by precedent94; and he never descended95 to trickery — though, as he explained to Paul Riesling:
“Course I don’t mean to say that every ad I write is literally96 true or that I always believe everything I say when I give some buyer a good strong selling-spiel. You see — you see it’s like this: In the first place, maybe the owner of the property exaggerated when he put it into my hands, and it certainly isn’t my place to go proving my principal a liar10! And then most folks are so darn crooked97 themselves that they expect a fellow to do a little lying, so if I was fool enough to never whoop98 the ante I’d get the credit for lying anyway! In self-defense I got to toot my own horn, like a lawyer defending a client — his bounden duty, ain’t it, to bring out the poor dub’s good points? Why, the Judge himself would bawl99 out a lawyer that didn’t, even if they both knew the guy was guilty! But even so, I don’t pad out the truth like Cecil Rountree or Thayer or the rest of these realtors. Fact, I think a fellow that’s willing to deliberately100 up and profit by lying ought to be shot!”
Babbitt’s value to his clients was rarely better shown than this morning, in the conference at eleven-thirty between himself, Conrad Lyte, and Archibald Purdy.
V
Conrad Lyte was a real-estate speculator. He was a nervous speculator. Before he gambled he consulted bankers, lawyers, architects, contracting builders, and all of their clerks and stenographers who were willing to be cornered and give him advice. He was a bold entrepreneur, and he desired nothing more than complete safety in his investments, freedom from attention to details, and the thirty or forty per cent. profit which, according to all authorities, a pioneer deserves for his risks and foresight101. He was a stubby man with a cap-like mass of short gray curls and clothes which, no matter how well cut, seemed shaggy. Below his eyes were semicircular hollows, as though silver dollars had been pressed against them and had left an imprint102.
Particularly and always Lyte consulted Babbitt, and trusted in his slow cautiousness.
Six months ago Babbitt had learned that one Archibald Purdy, a grocer in the indecisive residential103 district known as Linton, was talking of opening a butcher shop beside his grocery. Looking up the ownership of adjoining parcels of land, Babbitt found that Purdy owned his present shop but did not own the one available lot adjoining. He advised Conrad Lyte to purchase this lot, for eleven thousand dollars, though an appraisal104 on a basis of rents did not indicate its value as above nine thousand. The rents, declared Babbitt, were too low; and by waiting they could make Purdy come to their price. (This was Vision.) He had to bully105 Lyte into buying. His first act as agent for Lyte was to increase the rent of the battered106 store-building on the lot. The tenant41 said a number of rude things, but he paid.
Now, Purdy seemed ready to buy, and his delay was going to cost him ten thousand extra dollars — the reward paid by the community to Mr. Conrad Lyte for the virtue43 of employing a broker who had Vision and who understood Talking Points, Strategic Values, Key Situations, Underappraisals, and the Psychology108 of Salesmanship.
Lyte came to the conference exultantly109. He was fond of Babbitt, this morning, and called him “old hoss.” Purdy, the grocer. a long-nosed man and solemn, seemed to care less for Babbitt and for Vision, but Babbitt met him at the street door of the office and guided him toward the private room with affectionate little cries of “This way, Brother Purdy!” He took from the correspondence-file the entire box of cigars and forced them on his guests. He pushed their chairs two inches forward and three inches back, which gave an hospitable110 note, then leaned back in his desk-chair and looked plump and jolly. But he spoke to the weakling grocer with firmness.
“Well, Brother Purdy, we been having some pretty tempting111 offers from butchers and a slew112 of other folks for that lot next to your store, but I persuaded Brother Lyte that we ought to give you a shot at the property first. I said to Lyte, ‘It’d be a rotten shame,’ I said, ‘if somebody went and opened a combination grocery and meat market right next door and ruined Purdy’s nice little business.’ Especially —” Babbitt leaned forward, and his voice was harsh, “— it would be hard luck if one of these cash-and-carry chain-stores got in there and started cutting prices below cost till they got rid of competition and forced you to the wall!”
Purdy snatched his thin hands from his pockets, pulled up his trousers, thrust his hands back into his pockets, tilted113 in the heavy oak chair, and tried to look amused, as he struggled:
“Yes, they’re bad competition. But I guess you don’t realize the Pulling Power that Personality has in a neighborhood business.”
The great Babbitt smiled. “That’s so. Just as you feel, old man. We thought we’d give you first chance. All right then —”
“Now look here!” Purdy wailed114. “I know f’r a fact that a piece of property ‘bout same size, right near, sold for less ‘n eighty-five hundred, ‘twa’n’t two years ago, and here you fellows are asking me twenty-four thousand dollars! Why, I’d have to mortgage — I wouldn’t mind so much paying twelve thousand but — Why good God, Mr. Babbitt, you’re asking more ‘n twice its value! And threatening to ruin me if I don’t take it!”
“Purdy, I don’t like your way of talking! I don’t like it one little bit! Supposing Lyte and I were stinking115 enough to want to ruin any fellow human, don’t you suppose we know it’s to our own selfish interest to have everybody in Zenith prosperous? But all this is beside the point. Tell you what we’ll do: We’ll come down to twenty-three thousand-five thousand down and the rest on mortgage — and if you want to wreck116 the old shack117 and rebuild, I guess I can get Lyte here to loosen up for a building-mortgage on good liberal terms. Heavens, man, we’d be glad to oblige you! We don’t like these foreign grocery trusts any better ‘n you do! But it isn’t reasonable to expect us to sacrifice eleven thousand or more just for neighborliness, IS it! How about it, Lyte? You willing to come down?”
By warmly taking Purdy’s part, Babbitt persuaded the benevolent118 Mr. Lyte to reduce his price to twenty-one thousand dollars. At the right moment Babbitt snatched from a drawer the agreement he had had Miss McGoun type out a week ago and thrust it into Purdy’s hands. He genially119 shook his fountain pen to make certain that it was flowing, handed it to Purdy, and approvingly watched him sign.
The work of the world was being done. Lyte had made something over nine thousand dollars, Babbitt had made a four-hundred-and-fifty dollar commission, Purdy had, by the sensitive mechanism120 of modern finance, been provided with a business-building, and soon the happy inhabitants of Linton would have meat lavished121 upon them at prices only a little higher than those down-town.
It had been a manly122 battle, but after it Babbitt drooped123. This was the only really amusing contest he had been planning. There was nothing ahead save details of leases, appraisals107, mortgages.
He muttered, “Makes me sick to think of Lyte carrying off most of the profit when I did all the work, the old skinflint! And — What else have I got to do to-day? . . Like to take a good long vacation. Motor trip. Something.” He sprang up, rekindled by the thought of lunching with Paul Riesling
收听单词发音 |
1
artistic
|
|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
disapproved
|
|
| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
choirs
|
|
| n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 )；唱诗队；公开表演的合唱团；（教堂）唱经楼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
tenor
|
|
| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
wavy
|
|
| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
chestnut
|
|
| n.栗树，栗子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
growl
|
|
| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
eventual
|
|
| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
liar
|
|
| n.说谎的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
stimulate
|
|
| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
craftsman
|
|
| n.技工，精于一门工艺的匠人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
grumbled
|
|
| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
swoop
|
|
| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
rites
|
|
| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
bereavement
|
|
| n.亲人丧亡，丧失亲人，丧亲之痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
cemetery
|
|
| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
strictly
|
|
| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
exquisitely
|
|
| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
broker
|
|
| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
brokers
|
|
| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
credulous
|
|
| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
heroism
|
|
| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
courageously
|
|
| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
vice
|
|
| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
tapered
|
|
| adj. 锥形的，尖削的，楔形的，渐缩的，斜的 动词taper的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
expounded
|
|
| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
virtuous
|
|
| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
virtuousness
|
|
| 贞德，高洁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
30
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
poking
|
|
| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
bullied
|
|
| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
splendor
|
|
| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
moodiness
|
|
| n.喜怒无常；喜怒无常，闷闷不乐；情绪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
wholesaler
|
|
| n.批发商 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
strenuously
|
|
| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
lengthily
|
|
| adv.长，冗长地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
incessantly
|
|
| ad.不停地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
tenant
|
|
| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
tenants
|
|
| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
relish
|
|
| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
hearty
|
|
| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
lessened
|
|
| 减少的，减弱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
complacent
|
|
| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
speculative
|
|
| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
shrubs
|
|
| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
serenely
|
|
| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
sonorously
|
|
| adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；堂皇地；朗朗地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
inviolate
|
|
| adj.未亵渎的，未受侵犯的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
ethics
|
|
| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
awakened
|
|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
impractical
|
|
| adj.不现实的，不实用的，不切实际的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
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： |
|
|
|
|
58
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
vein
|
|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
majestically
|
|
| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
apparatus
|
|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
eloquently
|
|
| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
proximity
|
|
| n.接近，邻近 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
pessimist
|
|
| n.悲观者；悲观主义者；厌世 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
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： |
|
|
|
|
68
crammed
|
|
| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
delirium
|
|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
insanity
|
|
| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
controverted
|
|
| v.争论，反驳，否定( controvert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
72
growling
|
|
| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
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： |
|
|
|
|
74
confidentially
|
|
| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
coordinated
|
|
| adj.协调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
agitators
|
|
| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
hog
|
|
| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
sanitation
|
|
| n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
plumbing
|
|
| n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
excellence
|
|
| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
sneer
|
|
| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
privily
|
|
| adv.暗中，秘密地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
sewers
|
|
| n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
insufficient
|
|
| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
outlet
|
|
| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
unreasonably
|
|
| adv. 不合理地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
traction
|
|
| n.牵引；附着摩擦力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
diplomacy
|
|
| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
inspectors
|
|
| n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
prohibition
|
|
| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
clan
|
|
| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
precedent
|
|
| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
crooked
|
|
| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
whoop
|
|
| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
bawl
|
|
| v.大喊大叫，大声地喊，咆哮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
foresight
|
|
| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
imprint
|
|
| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
residential
|
|
| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
appraisal
|
|
| n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
bully
|
|
| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
battered
|
|
| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
appraisals
|
|
| 估计，估量，评价( appraisal的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
psychology
|
|
| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
exultantly
|
|
| adv.狂欢地，欢欣鼓舞地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
hospitable
|
|
| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
tempting
|
|
| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
slew
|
|
| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
tilted
|
|
| v. 倾斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
wailed
|
|
| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
stinking
|
|
| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
shack
|
|
| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
benevolent
|
|
| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
genially
|
|
| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
mechanism
|
|
| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
lavished
|
|
| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
manly
|
|
| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
drooped
|
|
| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |