词汇修辞 2.2.5-2.2.7选文附词语解释.doc

(1) We see that in many things that life is very great. It is incomparably great in its material aspects, in its body of wealth, in the diversity and sweep of its energy, in the industries which have been conceived and built up by the genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise of groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force1. Diversity: it contains many different elements2. Sweep: a wide scope3. Enterprise: a purposeful or industrial undertaking, esp. one that need bold or effort. But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable waste. We have squandered a great deal of what we might have used, and have not stopped to conserve the exceeding bounty of nature,We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost (Woodrow Wilson: “First Inaugural Address at Mobile,” Mar.4, 1913)Corrode: become destroyed by water, air, or acid.Inexcusable: /n.kskju.z.b/. Too bad to be accepted. Squander: to spend or use money or supplies in a wasteful way.Conserve: to keep sth from damage, change or waste.Bounty: the property of copious abundanceHitherto: until now or until a particular time.(2) This tendency toward irresponsibility persists in many of us today; our rivers are poisoned by reckless dumping of sewage and toxic industrial wastes, the air of our cities is filthy and dangerous to breathe from the belching of uncontrolled products from combustion of coal, coke, oil and gasoline. Our towns are girdled with wreckage and the debris of our toys-our automobiles and our packaged pleasure. Through uninhibited spraying against one enemy we have destroyed the natural balances our survival requires. All these evils can and must be overcome if America and the Americans are to survive; but many of us still conduct ourselves as our ancestors did, stealing from the future for clear and present profit.(John Steinbeck: American and the Americans)Sewage: waste matter carried by sewers or drains.Toxic: poisonous.Filthy: thick, unpleasant dirtBelch: expel gasCoke: carbon fuel produce by distillation of coal.Girdle: Surround, encircleDebris: the remains of sth. that has been destroyed or broken up. (3) We trotted on, we crept up Constitution Hill, we rattled down into Lamas street, and the tailor still rang his bell and a dog ran, squealing, in front of his wheels. As we clip-clopped over the cobbles that led down to the Towy Bridge, I remembered Grandpas nightly noisy journeys that rocked the bed and shook the walls, and I saw his gay waistcoat in a vision and his patchwork head tufted and smiling in the candlelight. The tailor before us turned round on his saddle, his bicycle wobbled and skidded. “I see Dai Thomas,” he cried.(Dylan Thomas: The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog) (3) We trotted on, we crept up Constitution Hill, we rattled down into Lamas street, and the tailor still rang his bell and a dog ran, squealing, in front of his wheels. As we clip-clopped over the cobbles that led down to the Towy Bridge, I remembered Grandpas nightly noisy journeys that rocked the bed and shook the walls, and I saw his gay waistcoat in a vision and his patchwork head tufted and smiling in the candlelight. The tailor before us turned round on his saddle, his bicycle wobbled and skidded. “I see Dai Thomas,” he cried.(Dylan Thomas: The Portrait of the the Artist as a Young Dog)trot: run at a moderately swift pacecreep: 1. move slowly; in the case of people or animals with the body near the ground; 2. to go stealthily or furtivelyrattle: run very fast. squealing: having or making a high-pitched sound such as that made by a mouse or a rusty hingeclip-clop: sound (like that) of horses hoofs on a hard surface.cobbles: rectangular paving stone with curved top; once used to make roads.rock: to (cause someone or something to) move backwards and forwards or from side to side in a regular way.shake: move with or as if with a tremorpatchwork: cloth which is made by sewing together a lot of smaller usually square pieces of cloth with different patterns and colours.tuft: to form or be formed into tuftswobble: move sideways or in an unsteady wayskidded: apply a brake or skid to.(1) Pericles said that Athens stood for freedom and for thought and for beauty, but in the Greek way, within limits, without exaggeration. The Athenians nn loved beauty, he said, but with simplicity; they did not like the extravagancies ikstrvignsi of luxury lkr. They loved the things of the mind, but they did not shrink from hardship. Thought did not cause them to hesitate, it clarified the road to action. If they had riches they did not make a show of them, and no one was ashamed of being poor if he was useful. They were free because of willing obedience to law, not only the written, but still more the unwritten, kindness and compassion and unselfishness and the many qualities which cannot be enforced, which depend on a mans free choice, but without which men cannot live together. (Edith Hamilton: “Lessons of the Past”)Notes: 1. Pericles （伯里克利） prikli:z was a leader of Athens inz who was responsible for rebuilding Athens following the Persian Wars. He was also leader of Athens during the Peloponnesian plpni:n War, but he died of the plague that ravaged the city. He was so important that the era in which he lived (during the 5th Century B.C.) is known as the Age of Pericles.2. Compassion: a deep awareness of and sympathy for anothers suffering3. Extravagancy: the quality of exceeding the appropriate limits of decorum or probability or truth(2). As the corpse went past, the flies left the restaurant in a cloud and rushed after it, but they came back a few minutes later. The little crowd of mournersall men and boys, no womenthreaded their way across the marketplace between the piles of pomegranates and the taxis and the camels, wailing a short chant over and over again. What really appeals to the flies is that the corpses here are never put into coffins; they are merely wrapped in a piece of rag and carried on a rough wooden bier on the shoulders of four friends. When the friends get to the burying-ground they hack an oblong hole a foot or two deep, dump the body in it and fling over it a little of the dried-up, lumpy earth, which is like broken brick. No gravestone, no name, no identifying mark of any kind. The burying-ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth, like a derelict building-lot. After a month or two no one can even be certain where his own relatives are buried.(George Orwell: “Marrakech”)Marrakech mrk mrk.n. a city in W central Morocco: several times capital of Morocco; tourist centre.corpse: a dead body, usually of a person (corps). mourner: a personal at a funeral.thread: to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular coursepomegranate: pmgrnt N. shrub or small tree native to southwestern Asia having large red many-seeded fruit. wail: make a long, high cry, usually because of pain or sadnesscoffin: a long box in which a dead person is buried or burntrag: a small piece of cloth.roughrf: uneven or not smooth, often because of being in bad condition.bier: frame on which a coffin or a dead body is carried or placed before burialhack: cut with a hacking tooloblong: An oblong is a shape which has two long sides and two short sides and in which all the angles are right anglesfling: throw with force or recklessnesslumpy: covered or filled with lumphummocky: a rounded knoll or hillock derelict: describes buildings or places that are not cared for and are in bad conditionlot: an area of land(3). AT Ts VideoPhone 2500 is a home phone with a visible difference: it offers eye contact, with slow-action moving images, in color, of the person at each end of conversation. The ScreenThe LCD screen, the kind used in tiny TVs, measures 3.3 inches diagonally. The sharpness of the color images is roughly half that of a full-sized TV. (U. S. NewsWorld Report, Jun. 22, 1992) Notes: 1. eye contact: a meeting of the eyes between two people that expresses meaningful nonverbal communication2. diagonally: in a diagonal manner/ diagonal: A diagonal line is straight and sloping, not horizontal or vertical, for example joining two opposite corners of a square or other four-sided flat shape3. sharpness: the quality of being sharp and clear(1). On land and sea the stream of life poured on. New forms evolved; some old ones declined and disappeared. On land the mosses and the ferns and the seed plants developed. The reptiles for a time dominated the earth, gigantic, grotesque, and terrifying. Birds learned to live and move in the ocean of air. The first small mammals lurked inconspicuously in hidden crannies of the earth as though in fear of the reptiles.(Rachael Carson: The Sea Around Us)crannies: a small narrow hole in a wall or rock.pour: flow quickly an in large numberdeclined: to gradually become less, worse, or lower. fern: a green plant with long stems, feathery leaves, and no flowers.seed plant: plant that reproduces by means of seeds not spores.reptile: an animal which produces eggs and uses the heat of the sun to keep its bloom warm.dominate: to have control over a place or a person, or to be the most important person or thing.gigantic: so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth.grotesque: strange or unpleasant esp. in a ridiculous or slightly frightening way.mammal: any animal of which the female gives birth to babies, not eggs, and feeds them on milk from her own body.lurked: to exist though it is not always noticeable.inconspicuously: in an inconspicuous way; not easily or quickly noticed or seen, not attracting attention.(2). But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in hi