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CHAPTER XXXIX
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Of course, no personal tale is complete without bringing the narrative1 of the person down to the last moment. But mine is no tale of a reformed drunkard. I was never a drunkard, and I have not reformed.
It chanced, some time ago, that I made a voyage of one hundred and forty-eight days in a windjammer around the Horn. I took no private supply of alcohol along, and, though there was no day of those one hundred and forty-eight days that I could not have got a drink from the captain, I did not take a drink. I did not take a drink because I did not desire a drink. No one else drank on board. The atmosphere for drinking was not present, and in my system there was no organic need for alcohol. My chemistry did not demand alcohol.
So there arose before me a problem, a clear and simple problem: THIS IS SO EASY, WHY NOT KEEP IT UP WHEN YOU GET BACK ON LAND? I weighed this problem carefully. I weighed it for five months, in a state of absolute non-contact with alcohol. And out of the data of past experience, I reached certain conclusions.
In the first place, I am convinced that not one man in ten thousand or in a hundred thousand is a genuine, chemical dipsomaniac. Drinking, as I deem it, is practically entirely2 a habit of mind. It is unlike tobacco, or cocaine3, or morphine, or all the rest of the long list of drugs. The desire for alcohol is quite peculiarly mental in its origin. It is a matter of mental training and growth, and it is cultivated in social soil. Not one drinker in a million began drinking alone. All drinkers begin socially, and this drinking is accompanied by a thousand social connotations such as I have described out of my own experience in the first part of this narrative. These social connotations are the stuff of which the drink habit is largely composed. The part that alcohol itself plays is inconsiderable when compared with the part played by the social atmosphere in which it is drunk. The human is rarely born these days, who, without long training in the social associations of drinking, feels the irresistible4 chemical propulsion of his system toward alcohol. I do assume that such rare individuals are born, but I have never encountered one.
On this long, five-months' voyage, I found that among all my bodily needs not the slightest
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narrative
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n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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2
entirely
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ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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3
cocaine
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n.可卡因,古柯碱(用作局部麻醉剂) | |
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4
irresistible
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adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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shred
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v.撕成碎片,变成碎片;n.碎布条,细片,些少 | |
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thronged
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v.成群,挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plaza
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n.广场,市场 | |
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eyelids
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n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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scotch
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n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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sipping
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v.小口喝,呷,抿( sip的现在分词 ) | |
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congregating
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(使)集合,聚集( congregate的现在分词 ) | |
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genial
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adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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cocktails
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n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 );餐前开胃菜;混合物 | |
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clatter
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v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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resonant
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adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的 | |
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prod
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vt.戳,刺;刺激,激励 | |
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folly
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n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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decided
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adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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temperament
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n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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deliberately
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adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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skilfully
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adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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discreetly
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ad.(言行)审慎地,慎重地 | |
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peripatetic
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adj.漫游的,逍遥派的,巡回的 | |
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conflagration
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n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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invoke
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v.求助于(神、法律);恳求,乞求 | |
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logic
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n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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afflict
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vt.使身体或精神受痛苦,折磨 | |
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forefathers
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n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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banished
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v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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