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聪明的消遣:毛姆谈英国文学

简·奥斯汀与《傲慢与偏见》 4|Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice 4

属类: 双语小说 【分类】其他读物 -[作者: 毛姆] 阅读:[14157]
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奥斯汀的小说纯属娱乐性小说。如果你碰巧相信娱乐应该是小说家的主要任务,那你必须把她放到一个单独的类别。比她的小说伟大的作品也有,比如《战争与和平》和《卡拉马佐夫兄弟》,但你读这些作品时必须头脑清楚警醒才能获益。可是哪怕你再疲乏沮丧,读简·奥斯汀的小说都可以让你入迷。

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她写作的时代认为女人写作不像话。芒克·刘易斯说:“我对所有女性涂鸦者都有一种讨厌、怜悯和鄙视。她们应该拿的工具不是笔,而是针。针才是她们唯一能熟练操作的工具。”小说这种文学形式并不被尊重,令简·奥斯汀相当震惊的是,诗人司各特爵士竟然也写小说。她“小心地不让她做的事被仆人、客人或除家人以外的任何人怀疑到。她在很小的纸上写,为的是小纸容易收走,或容易用吸墨纸盖上。她家前门和书房之间有扇推拉门,开门时会发出吱嘎声,但她不让人修理这点小毛病,为的就是如果有人来了,这声音会提示她赶快把东西收起来”。她大哥詹姆斯甚至从来都没有告诉他当时还在学校读书的儿子,他读得津津有味的那些书是简姑姑写的。她另外一个哥哥亨利也在《回忆录》中说:“假如她还活着,任何名望的累加都不会诱使她把名字附加到出自她笔下的任何一部作品上。”因此她出版的第一本小说《理智与情感》的扉页上仅仅注明作者是“一位女士”。

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《理智与情感》并非简·奥斯汀的处女作,她的处女作叫《第一印象》。她父亲曾写信给一个出版商,问能否出版“一部手稿,是本小说,分三卷,长度类似伯尼小姐的《埃弗莱娜》”,还说出版费用作者可以自付,或采用其他形式。但回信拒绝了这一提议。《第一印象》的写作开始于一七九六年冬,完成于一七九七年八月。一般认为,这本书基本上就是十六年后出版的《傲慢与偏见》。之后,简·奥斯汀又很快连续写了《理智与情感》和《诺桑觉寺》,但运气不好,直到五年后一个名叫理查德·克罗斯比的人才花十镑买了当时叫《苏珊》的《诺桑觉寺》。书他一直未出版,最后又用原价卖给了奥斯汀家。因为简·奥斯汀的小说都是匿名出版,因此他不知道他为了这么一点钱就卖掉的那本书的作者其实和《傲慢与偏见》的作者是同一个人,是那位极受大众欢迎的成功作家。从一七九八年写完《诺桑觉寺》到一八〇九年,简·奥斯汀似乎写得很少,只写了一个名叫《沃森家》的片段。对一个如此富有创造力的作家来说,这段沉默实在太久,原因据说是有一桩恋情占据了她的注意力,使她无暇他顾。据说,当时她和母亲、姐姐在德文郡的一个海边度假地休养,“她认识了一名绅士,那人的相貌、头脑和教养都很出众,卡桑德拉觉得他配得上她妹妹,也有可能赢得她妹妹的爱。他们告别时,他表达了希望能很快再见的愿望,卡桑德拉觉得他的动机很明显,但他们再也没能相见。很快,她们就听说他突然死了。”这段相识时间很短,《回忆录》的作者说他无法判断“她的感情是否已经达到了某种程度,以致影响到了她的幸福”。我并不认为有影响。我也不认为奥斯汀能很深地爱上谁。如果她能,她就会给她的女主人公们以更温暖的情感,但事实并非如此。她们的爱里没有激情,她们的意愿都被谨慎调和,被常识控制,而真爱是与这些可估量的品质无关的。以《劝导》为例,简·奥斯汀说安妮·艾略特和温特沃思二人彼此深爱,可我却觉得她骗了自己,也骗了读者。对温特沃思而言,那无疑是司汤达所说的“激情之爱”,但在安妮这一方,却是司汤达说的“得体之爱”。他们先是订婚,然后安妮允许自己听信那个爱管闲事的势利眼罗素夫人的劝告,认为嫁给一个穷人,一个有可能死于战争的海军军官,是不谨慎的。假如她是真的深爱温特沃思,她当然就会愿意去冒险。而且这也不是多大的险,因为她一结婚就会获得她母亲留给她的那份遗产,足足有三千多镑,等于今天的一万两千多镑。所以无论如何她都不会不名一文。她还可以像本威克上校和哈格雷夫斯小姐那对儿一样,先跟温特沃思订婚,等他有了指挥权能娶她的时候再结婚。可安妮却解除了婚约,因为她听了罗素夫人的劝,认为如果再等等的话,她还能找到更合适的人。直到没有一个追求者是她想嫁的人时,她才发现自己原来深爱着温特沃思。我们可以相当肯定,简·奥斯汀认为安妮的行为是自然而合理的。

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关于简·奥斯汀长时间的沉默,最合理的解释是她找不着出版商,因此感到受挫。家人听她朗读自己的作品,都认为她的小说很好,但她这个人非常谦虚,而且很明智,她很可能认为他们之所以喜欢她的作品,只是因为他们喜欢她这个人,他们还很可能精明地知道她人物的原型是谁。《回忆录》的作者坚决否认她的人物有原型,查普曼博士似乎赞成这种看法。老实说,他们在为简·奥斯汀争取一种令人难以置信的创造力。所有的伟大作家——司汤达和巴尔扎克,托尔斯泰和屠格涅夫,狄更斯和萨克雷——都有人物所本的原型。简·奥斯汀确实说过:“我太骄傲于我的绅士们,我不愿承认他们只不过是A先生和B上校。”这里的关键词是“只不过”。和所有小说家一样,尽管某个真人给了她创作人物的灵感,但只要她的想象力已经在这个人物身上发挥了作用,那他就无论如何都成了她的创造,但这不等于说这个人物不是从A先生或B上校那里进化来的。

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不管怎样,一八〇九年简·奥斯汀同母亲和姐姐定居于安静的查顿,开始着手修改旧手稿,一八一一年《理智与情感》终于出版了。此时女人写作已经不再是件见不得人的事。司布真教授在皇家文学院所做的关于简·奥斯汀的讲座中,引用了伊莱莎·菲所作的《印度来信》的序言。这位女士一七八二年曾被督促出版这部通信集,但因舆论反感“女性写作”,她只得拒绝。但在一八一六年她写道:“从那以后,公众的情绪及其发展已经逐渐起了相当大的变化,现在我们不仅像以前一样有不少为巾帼增光的女性文学人物,我们也有了一些毫不做作的女性。她们勇敢驾驶小船,到那浩瀚大海上扬帆远航去了,不惧那曾经伴随远航而来的批评的风浪,娱乐或教诲就是在这样的航行中被传达给了阅读公众。”

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《傲慢与偏见》出版于一八一三年,简·奥斯汀把这本书的版权卖了一百一十镑。

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除了上文提到的三部小说,简·奥斯汀还写了另外三部小说:《曼斯菲尔德庄园》、《爱玛》和《劝导》。她的文名虽然建立在这仅有的几本书上,但坚实稳固。她虽然等了很久小说才得以出版,但一经出版,她迷人的才华就立刻得到了认可,之后连最显赫的人物也都开始一致赞美她。我只引用沃尔特·司各特爵士的话,他的慷慨措辞很具代表性:“那位年轻女士在描绘日常生活中的纠葛、感情和人物方面,极具才能,是我所遇到的人中最突出的。粗糙的模仿我也会,谁都会,但是那种因为描写和情感的真实,使得寻常人、事都变得有趣的精妙笔法,却是我做不到的。”

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奇怪的是,这位年轻女士最宝贵的一项才能司各特爵士却没说。她的观察确实透彻,她的情感也非常丰沛,但是让她的观察显得中肯,给了她的情感以活力的,是她的幽默。她的作品题材狭窄,所有作品写的其实都是同一类型的故事。她作品中的人物类型也不算丰富,基本都大同小异,只是变换了观察角度而已。她极有自知之明,没有人比她更清楚自己的局限所在。她的生活经历仅限于乡村社会的一个小圈子,她很满足于处理这样的题材,她只写她熟悉的东西。正如查普曼博士最初指出的那样,她从不曾试图再现男人们单独相处时的对话,因为就事实而言,她是不可能听到这些对话的。

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有一点已经被大家注意到,就是她虽然经历了世界历史上最激动人心的一些大事,如法国革命、恐怖统治、拿破仑的崛起与败落,她在小说中却对此只字不提。为此她受到指责,说她过分冷漠。但是应该记住,在她那个时代,女人过分关注政治是没教养的表现,政治是男人该管的事,女人甚至都很少读报。不过我们没理由假设:因为她不写这些事,她就不受政治的影响。她很爱她的家人。她有一兄一弟都在海军,经常身处危险之中,她的信件表明她很关心他们。她不写这些事难道不正说明她明智吗?她很谦虚,不觉得她死后还会有人读她的小说。假如这真是她的目的,那她不写这些事就太明智了,因为从文学的角度看,这些事的吸引力不会持久。早几年写“二战”的那些小说现在不是早就过时了吗?这些小说就像日复一日告诉我们当天发生了什么事的报纸一样昙花一现。

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大多数小说家写东西都是有好有坏。简·奥斯汀是我知道的唯一例外,她证明了一个道理,即只有平庸之辈才始终维持在同一水准——平庸的水准,而她却从来都不会太偏离自己的最高水准。即使《理智与情感》与《诺桑觉寺》中有许多可指摘之处,但还是让人喜欢的地方多。简·奥斯汀其他的小说也都有热烈的甚至狂热的崇拜者。麦考利(13)认为《曼斯菲尔德庄园》是简·奥斯汀最好的作品;另一些同样著名的读者喜欢《爱玛》;狄士累利(14)读过十七遍《傲慢与偏见》;今天则有人认为《劝导》是简·奥斯汀最精妙的小说。我想绝大多数读者会认为《傲慢与偏见》是她最杰出的作品,在这种情况下,我认为不如接受他们的判断。一本书是否能成为经典,不在于评论家的赞美、教授的解读和学校的研究,而是一代接一代、数量众多的读者能否从中获得乐趣和精神的益处。

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我个人认为《傲慢与偏见》是简·奥斯汀所有小说里最令人满意的一本。开篇的第一句话就让人感到痛快:“有一个真理举世皆知,那就是一个有钱的单身汉一定缺个太太。”这话为全书定了调,它所引起的好心情会一直陪伴你读到最后一页,然后你会遗憾这本书居然就这么完了。《爱玛》是简·奥斯汀的小说里唯一让我觉得太过冗长的一部。我对弗兰克·丘吉尔和简·费尔法克斯的恋爱实在不感兴趣。贝茨小姐是好玩,可也未免写得太多了。女主人公是个势利眼,她对那些她认为社会地位低于她的人的那种居高临下的态度真令人作呕。但是我们千万不能指责简·奥斯汀,我们必须记住我们今天读的和她当日的读者读的不是同一本书。风俗和教养的改变使得我们的世界观发生了巨大转变。在某些事上我们比祖先更狭隘,在某些事上更自由。一百年前还很普遍的一种态度,今天却会让我们感到不安。我们通过先入之见和我们自己的行为标准来判断我们所读的书,这不公平,却也不可避免。《曼斯菲尔德庄园》的男女主人公,埃德蒙和范妮,都是令人难以忍受的道学先生,我全部的同情心反而都给了寡廉鲜耻、活泼迷人的亨利和玛丽·克劳福德。我不明白为什么托马斯·伯特伦爵士从海外归来看见家人排戏自娱会勃然大怒。因为奥斯汀本人是非常喜欢家庭演剧的,因此我们不明白她为什么会觉得伯特伦的愤怒是合理的。《劝导》有种罕见的魅力,虽然我们可能希望安妮能少讲求点实际,多点无私,多点冲动,也就是能不那么像老处女似的古板拘谨。要不是因为莱姆里吉斯港口科布码头上的那档子事,我简直都要认为《劝导》是简·奥斯汀六本书中最完美的一本了。简·奥斯汀本就不善于虚构特殊事件,因此这事在我看是个异常笨拙的设计。路易莎·马斯格罗夫跑上几级很陡的台阶,想要跳下来给她的爱慕者温特沃思上校接住。他没接住,她撞到头,昏了过去。我们被告知他是习惯这样接她的,而假如他真要伸手接她,那么即使那时的码头比现在高一倍,也顶多是离地六英尺,她既然是跳下去的,就不可能磕到头。无论如何,她只会跳到这个魁梧的海军军官身上,虽然有可能震一下,吓一跳,但是不可能受伤。可是,她竟然昏迷了,而接下来的慌乱更令人难以置信。打过仗、因赏金发了财的温特沃思上校居然吓瘫了,所有相关人等的反应也都如此白痴,我简直难以相信一向以冷静和坚强对待亲朋好友的疾病与死亡的简·奥斯汀,居然不觉得这个场面极其不合理。

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博学机智的评论家加罗德教授说简·奥斯汀不会写故事,“故事”的意思是说一系列发生的事,或者浪漫,或者不寻常。但这不是简·奥斯汀的才能所在,也不是她想做的事。她太理智,她的幽默太活泼,以至于她无法浪漫。而且她感兴趣的不是“不寻常”,而是“寻常”,只不过她用她敏锐的观察、嘲讽和活泼的机智使得寻常也不寻常起来。说到故事,我们大多数人的意思都是指一个前后连贯、首尾相接的叙述,有开头、中间和结尾。《傲慢与偏见》的头开得恰到好处:两个年轻人上场了,他们对伊丽莎白·班尼特和她姐姐简的爱给小说提供了情节,结尾也结得恰到好处:他们结婚了。这是传统的大团圆结局。这种结尾常常受到那些久经世故的人嘲弄。的确,很多婚姻,也许是大多数婚姻,并不幸福。结婚并不能成为任何事的结局,它只不过开启了另一种经验。于是很多作家写小说都从结婚写起,写婚姻的结果,这是他们的权利。但是简单的人把婚姻看成小说的一种满意的结局也还是有其原因的,因为他们有种直觉,认为男女通过婚配满足了生物功能。他们自然会对达到这一圆满的中间过程感兴趣,比如最初如何爱上,后来如何出现障碍、误解,再后来如何山盟海誓。圆满之后,大家的兴趣又转向结果,即男女结合的产物,也就是即将接续他们的后代。对自然而言,每对夫妇都只是这链条上的一环,他们唯一的重要性就在于可以给这链条再添一环。小说家写大团圆结局的理由就在于此。在《傲慢与偏见》里,读者如果知道新郎收入丰厚,将要带领新娘入住豪宅,而豪宅周围有庄园围绕,内部则到处摆满昂贵优雅的家具,那么读者的满意度会有相当程度的提升。

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《傲慢与偏见》是一本情节结构精良的书。事情一件接一件地自然发生,无一处让人觉得不合理。不过有一点令人感到奇怪,即伊丽莎白和简的教养、举止良好,可她们的妈妈和三个妹妹却如纳奇布尔夫人说的那样,“远远低于上流社会及其方式的标准”。但是事情必须这样安排,这对故事至关重要。我允许自己好奇:为什么简·奥斯汀不避开这块绊脚石,把伊丽莎白和简写成是班尼特先生第一次婚姻所生,把现在的班尼特太太和三个小女儿写成是二婚的妻女?简·奥斯汀在她所有的女主角里最喜欢伊丽莎白。她说:“我必须承认,我认为,有史以来所有出版的书里的人物有多么令人愉快,伊丽莎白就有多么令人愉快。”假如像某些人以为的那样,她自己就是伊丽莎白的原型,那她就把自己的快活、神采、勇气、机智、敏捷、良好的判断力以及正确的情感都给了伊丽莎白,同时也就不难判断那个安静、和善、美丽的简就是她姐姐卡桑德拉了。达西通常被看作一个可怕的下流坯,他的第一宗罪是他和一群人一起去了一个公共舞会,他却不愿和他不认识也不想认识的人跳舞。这倒也不是多大的罪。伊丽莎白不幸听到了他对宾利说的贬低她的话,但是达西不知道伊丽莎白在听,他可以为自己脱罪,谁让他的朋友非让他做他不想做的事呢。他向伊丽莎白求婚时的确带有一种不可原谅的傲慢,但他这人的性格主要就是骄傲,对自身出身和地位的骄傲,没有了这点,故事也就无从谈起了。而且,他的求婚态度也给了简·奥斯汀机会,展现了全书最充满戏剧性的一幕。可以想象,若是有了后来积累的写作经验,简·奥斯汀将会更恰当地描写达西的态度——非常自然、容易理解的态度,既能引起伊丽莎白的反感,又不用让达西说出那么无礼的话而招致读者的震惊。对凯瑟琳夫人和柯林斯先生的描写可能有些夸张,但在我看来也没有超出喜剧的范围。喜剧看到的生活比日常生活更闪亮,也更冷淡。带点夸张的笔触,也就是闹剧的笔触,通常也不是什么坏事。小心地混杂点闹剧,正如在草莓上撒点糖一样,说不定可以使喜剧性更加“浓郁”。至于凯瑟琳夫人,我们不妨记住,在简·奥斯汀的时代,贵族头衔使其拥有者在面对社会地位低下之人时心生一种极大的优越感。他们不光期待后者对他们抱以最大的尊敬,而且他们也的确得到了后者这样的尊敬。我年轻时认识的某些贵妇,她们那种自以为是的劲儿虽然不至于像凯瑟琳夫人一样露骨,却也相差不远。至于柯林斯,哪怕是今天,谁还不认识几个这样既谄媚逢迎又自高自大的人呢?他们现在学会了装出一副亲切的面孔掩饰这一点,这只能令其更加可憎。

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简·奥斯汀不是个伟大的文体学家,但她写得平实不做作,我想约翰逊博士对她的影响可以在她的句子结构中体现出来。她喜欢用拉丁词,不喜欢用平凡的英语词汇。这让她的措辞稍稍带上了一点正式感,但这绝不会令人不愉快,因为它经常会给一句诙谐的话语增添了深意,或给一句恶毒的话语增添了庄重的味道。她笔下的对话可能就像那个时代真正的对话那样自然,虽然在我们看来,可能会觉得这种对话未免僵硬。简·班尼特在说到她恋人的姐妹时,这样说:“她们当然并不支持我与他结交,对此我并不吃惊,因为他本可以在很多方面做出更为有利的选择。”这当然有可能就是她实际会说的话,但我还是觉得那样说话太难以想像了。很明显,现代小说家不会再如此遣词造句了。一字不差地把真实对话笔录下来是很沉闷的,做点改编反而是合理的。相比而言,只是在近些年,小说家们为了追求效果逼真,才开始努力把对话写得尽量口语化。我怀疑让受过教育的人说话时运用排比和对称,语法还要准确,这只是过去的做法,实际上这些人不可能掌握得了这些技巧,我猜读者们已经把这个当成自然而然的事了。

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如此一来,虽然简·奥斯汀小说中的对话总有点像书面语,我们必须承认她总是能令她书中的人物说出与本人个性相符的话来。我只记得她出过一次错:“安妮微笑了一下,说:‘我心目中的好伙伴,艾略特先生,是那些聪明多知、谈话丰富之人,我管这样的人叫好伙伴。’‘你错了,’他温和地说,‘这不是好伙伴,这是最好的伙伴。’”

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艾略特先生的性格是有缺陷的。但他能如此绝妙地回答安妮,他就一定有一些奥斯汀认为不适合让读者知道的品质。就我个人而言,我非常为这一回答所喜,我宁愿让安妮嫁给他,也不愿让她嫁给那位沉闷无趣的温特沃思。艾略特确实曾为钱跟一个“身份卑微”的女人结了婚,婚后又怠慢了她,他对史密斯太太的态度也很不厚道,但我们毕竟只有女方的一面之词,我们如果有机会知道他的解释,说不定会觉得他的行为是可以原谅的。

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简·奥斯汀有一个优点,我几乎都忘了提,那就是她非常好读,比某些更伟大、更有名的小说家都好读。正如司各特所说,她写的是寻常事,是“日常生活中的纠葛、感情和人物”;因此她的书里几乎无事发生,但是当你读完一页的时候,你会急着翻到下一页,想知道下边发生了什么,还是没发生什么,你还是会急切地翻到下一页。能做到这一点的小说家已经具备了小说家所能拥有的最宝贵的天赋了。

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(1) “克雷”的英文原文是Clay,意思是泥土,似乎暗示律师身份的卑微。

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(2) 这是旧时英国贵族和乡绅阶层的教子习惯,年轻人到了二十一岁的法定成年年纪后,会到欧陆各地游学一番,算是一场教育上的成人礼。

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(3) 纪德(1869—1951),法国作家,代表作有《窄门》《人间食粮》《背德者》。克洛岱尔(1868—1955),法国诗人、剧作家、外交家,曾因外交工作清末时在上海和福州逗留过十四年。

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(4) 指燕尾服的尾巴。

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(5) 伊莱莎(1761—1813),奥斯汀的姑表姐,生于印度,人生经历丰富。第一次结婚嫁给了一名法国军官,成了伯爵夫人。法国大革命期间,其夫命丧断头台。第二次结婚,伊莱莎嫁给了小她十岁的表弟,即奥斯汀的哥哥亨利。伊莱莎和奥斯汀关系亲密,启发了奥斯汀以她为原型创作了很多人物形象。

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(6) “艾尔蒙格”英文原文是Iremonger,ire是“怒火”之意,monger意思是“制造者、贩卖者、兜售者”。

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(7) “布兰特”英文原文是Blunt,意思是“迟钝、呆笨、生硬、直率”。这两个人的名字出现在“美人”这句的上下文里越显讽刺。

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(8) 原文是“斜体”,因斜体在中文行文中看不清楚,因此此处改为画线。

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(9) 奥斯汀的侄女。

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(10) 奥斯汀的侄子。

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(11) 一种小孩游戏,在西班牙语国家最为盛行,十九世纪早期也一度在英国流行。游戏用具是木柄上有一到两个杯子,木柄上连线,线上系一个球。玩游戏时参与者需手握木柄,用臂力奋力把球抛起,再立刻用杯去接球。文中所谓简单的杯球,应该是指木柄只带一个杯子与球。

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(12) 简·奥斯汀小说《曼斯菲尔德庄园》的女主人公。

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Jane Austen’s novels are pure entertainment. If you happen to believe that to entertain should be the novelist’s main endeavour, you must put her in a class by herself. Greater novels than hers have been written, War and Peace, for example, and The Brothers Karamazov; but you must be fresh and alert to read them with profit. No matter if you are tired and dispirited, Jane Austen’s enchant.

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At the time she wrote, it was thought far from ladylike for a woman to do so. Monk Lewis observed: “I have an aversion, a pity and contempt for all female scribblers. The needle, not the pen, is the instrument they should handle, and the only one they ever use dexterously.”The novel was a form held in scant esteem, and Miss Austen was herself not a little perturbed that Sir Walter Scott, a poet, should write fiction. She was“careful that her occupation should not be suspected by servants, or visitors, or any person beyond her family party. She wrote upon small sheets of paper which could easily be put away, or covered with a piece of blotting paper. There was between the front door and the offices, a swing door which creaked when it was opened; but she objected to having this little inconvenience remedied, because it gave her notice when anyone was coming.”Her eldest brother, James never even told his son, then a boy at school, that the books he read with delight were by his Aunt Jane; and her brother Henry in his Memoir states: “No accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen, ”So her first book to be published, Sense and Sensibility was described on the title pages as“by a Lady.”

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It was not the first she completed. That was a novel called First Impressions. Her father wrote to a publisher offering for publication, at the author’s expense or otherwise, a“manuscript novel, comprising three volumes; about the length of Miss Burney’s Evelina.”The offer was refused by return of post. First Impressions was begun during the winter of 1796 and finished in August 1797; it is generally supposed to have been substantially the same book as sixteen years later was issued as Pride and Prejudice. Then, in quick succession she wrote Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey, but had no better luck with them, though after five years a Mr. Richard Crosby bought the latter, then called Susan, for ten pounds. He never published it, and eventually sold it back for what he had paid: since Miss Austen’s novels were published anonymously, he had no notion that the book, with which he had parted for so small a sum, was by the successful and popular author of Pride and Prejudice. She seems to have written little but a fragment, The Watsons, between 1798, when she finished Northanger Abbey, and 1809. It is a long time for a writer of such creative power to remain silent, and it has been suggested that the cause was a love affair that occupied her to the exclusion of other interests. We are told that, when staying with her mother and sister at a seaside resort in Devonshire, “she became acquainted with a gentleman, whose charm of person, mind and manners was such that Cassandra thought him worthy to possess and likely to win her sister’s love. When they parted he expressed his intention of soon seeing them again; and Cassandra felt no doubt as to his motives. But they never again met. Within a short time, they heard of his sudden death.”The acquaintance was short, and the author of the Memoir adds that he is unable to say“whether her feelings were of such a nature as to affect her happiness.”I do not for my part think they were. I do not believe that Miss Austen was capable of being very much in love. If she had been, she would surely have attributed to her heroines a greater warmth of emotion than in fact she did. There is no passion in their love. Their inclinations are tempered with prudence and controlled by common sense. Real love has no truck with these estimable qualities. Take Persuasion: Jane states that Anne Elliot and Wentworth fell deeply in love with one another. There, I think, she deceived herself and deceives her readers. On Wentworth’s side it was certainly what Stendhal called amour passion, but on Anne’s no more than what he called amour go?t. They became engaged. Anne allows herself to be persuaded by that interfering snob, Lady Russell, that it would be imprudent to marry a poor man, a naval officer, who might be killed in the war. If she had been deeply in love with Wentworth, she would surely have taken the risk. It was not a very great one, for on her marriage she was to receive her share of her mother’s fortune; this share amounted to rather more than three thousand pounds, equivalent now to over twelve thousand; so in any case she would not have been penniless. She might very well, like Captain Benwick and Miss Hargreaves, have remained engaged to Wentworth till he got his command and so was able to marry her. Anne Elliot broke off her engagement because Lady Russell persuaded her that she might make a better match if she waited, and it was not till no suitor, whom she was prepared to marry, presented himself that she discovered how much she loved Wentworth. We may be pretty sure that Jane Austen thought her behaviour natural and reasonable.

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The most plausible explanation of her long silence is that she was discouraged by her inability to find a publisher. Her close relations, to whom she read her novels, were charmed by them, but she was as sensible as she was modest, and she may well have decided that their appeal was only to persons who were fond of her, and had, perhaps, a shrewd idea who the models of her characters were. The author of the Memoir rejects emphatically that she had such models, and Dr. Chapman seems to agree with him. They are claiming for Jane Austen a power of invention which is frankly incredible. All the greatest novelists, Stendhal and Balzac, Tolstoy and Turgenev, Dickens and Thackeray, have had models from whom they created their characters. It is true that Jane said: “I am too proud of my gentlemen to admit that they were only Mr. A, or Colonel B.”There the significant word is only. As with every other novelist, by the time her imagination had worked on the person who had suggested the character, he was to all intents and purposes her own creation; but that is not to say that he was not evolved from an original Mr. A. or Colonel B.

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Be that as it may, in 1809, in which year Jane settled with her mother and sister in the quiet of Chawton, she set about revising her old manuscripts, and in 1811 Sense and Sensibility at last appeared. By then it was no longer outrageous for a woman to write. Professor Spurgeon, in a lecture on Jane Austen delivered to the Royal Society of Literature, quotes a preface to Original Letters from India by Eliza Fay. This lady had been urged to publish them in 1782, but public opinion was so averse“to female authorship”that she declined. But writing in 1816, she said: “Since then a considerable change has gradually taken place in public sentiment, and its development; we have now not only as in former days a number of women who do honour to their sex as literary characters, but many unpretending females, who fearless of the critical perils that once attended the voyage, venture to launch their little barks on the vast ocean through which amusement or instruction is conveyed to a reading public.”

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Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813. Jane Austen sold the copyright for one hundred and ten pounds.

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Besides the three novels already mentioned, she wrote three more, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. On these few books her fame rests, and her fame is secure. She had to wait a long time to get a book published, but she no sooner did than her charming gifts were recognized. Since then, the most eminent persons have agreed to praise her. I will only quote what Sir Walter Scott had to say; it is characteristically generous: “That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with. The big bow-wow I can do myself like anyone going; but the exquisite touch which renders commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me.”

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It is odd that Sir Walter should have omitted to make mention of the young lady’s most precious talent: her observation was searching and her sentiment edifying, but it was her humour that gave point to her observation and a prim liveliness to her sentiment. Her range was narrow. She wrote very much the same sort of story in all her books, and there is no great variety in her characters. They are very much the same persons, seen from a somewhat different point of view. She had common sense in a high degree, and no one knew better than she her limitations. Her experience of life was confined to a small circle of provincial society, and that is what she was content to deal with. She wrote only of what she knew. As was first pointed out by Dr. Chapman, she never attempted to reproduce a conversation of men when by themselves, which in the nature of things she could never have heard.

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It has been noticed that though she lived through some of the most stirring events of the world’s history, the French Revolution, the Terror, the rise and fall of Napoleon, she made no reference to them in her novels. She has on this account been blamed for an undue detachment. It should be remembered that in her day it was not polite for women to occupy themselves with politics, that was a matter for men to deal with; few women even read the newspapers; but there is no reason to suppose that, because she did not write about these events, she was not affected by them. She was fond of her family, two of her brothers were in the Navy, often enough in danger, and her letters show that they were much on her mind. But did she not display her good sense in not writing about such matters? She was too modest to suppose that her novels would be read long after her death; but if that had been her aim, she could not have acted more wisely than she did in avoiding to deal with affairs which from the literary standpoint were of passing interest. Already, the novels concerned with the Second World War, that have been written in the last few years, are as dead as mutton. They were as ephemeral as the newspapers that day by day told us what was happening.

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Most novelists have their ups and downs. Miss Austen is the only exception I know to prove the rule that only the mediocre maintain an equal level, a level of mediocrity. She is never more than a little below her best. Even in Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey, in which there is much to cavil at, there is more to delight. Each of the others has its devoted, and even fanatic, admirers. Macaulay thought Mansfield Park her greatest achievement; other readers, equally illustrious, have preferred Emma; Disraeli read Pride and Prejudice seventeen times; to-day, many look upon Persuasion as her most finished work. The great mass of readers, I believe, has accepted Pride and Prejudice as her masterpiece, and in such a case I think it well to accept their judgment. What makes a classic is not that it is praised by critics, expounded by professors and studied in schools, but that large numbers of readers, generation after generation, have found pleasure and spiritual profit in reading it.

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I myself think that Pride and Prejudice is on the whole the most satisfactory of all the novels. Its first sentence puts you in good humour: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”It sets the note, and the good humour it induces remains with you till, with regret, you have reached the last page. Emma is the only one of Miss Austen’s novels that I find long-winded. I can take no great interest in the love affair of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax; and, though Miss Bates is immensely amusing, don’t we get a little too much of her? The heroine is a snob, and the way she patronizes those whom she looks upon as her social inferiors is repulsive. But we must not blame Miss Austen for that: we must remember that we of to-day do not read the same novel that was read by the readers of her day. Changes in manners and customs have wrought changes in our outlook; in some ways we are narrower than our forebears, in others more liberal; an attitude, which even a hundred years ago was general, now affects us with malaise. We judge the books we read by our own prepossessions and our own standards of behaviour. That is unfair, but inevitable. In Mansfield Park the hero and heroine, Fanny and Edmund, are intolerable prigs; and all my sympathies go out to the unscrupulous, sprightly and charming Henry and Mary Crawford. I cannot understand why Sir Thomas Bertram should have been enraged when, on his return from overseas, he found his family amusing themselves with private theatricals. Since Jane herself thoroughly enjoyed them, one cannot see why she found his anger justifiable. Persuasion has a rare charm, and though one may wish that Anne were a little less matter-of-fact, a little more disinterested, a little more impulsive—in fact a little less old-maidish—except for the incident on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, I should be forced to look upon it as the most perfect of the six. Jane Austen had no particular gift for inventing incident of an unusual character, and this one seems to me a very clumsy contrivance. Louisa Musgrove runs up some steep steps, and is“jumped down”by her admirer, Captain Wentworth. He misses her, she falls on her head and is stunned. If he were going to give her his hands, as we are told he had been in the habit of doing in“jumping her off”a stile, even if the Cobb then were twice as high as it is now, she could not have been more than six feet from the ground and, as she was jumping down, it is impossible that she should have fallen on her head. In any case, she would have fallen against the stalwart sailor and, though perhaps shaken and frightened, could hardly have hurt herself. Anyhow, she was unconscious, and the fuss that ensued is unbelievable. Captain Wentworth, who has seen action and made a fortune from prize-money, is paralyzed with horror. The immediately subsequent behaviour of all concerned is so idiotic that I find it hard to believe that Miss Austen, who was able to take the illnesses and death of her friends and relations with quiet fortitude, did not look upon it as uncommonly foolish.

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Professor Garrod, a learned and witty critic, has said that Jane Austen was incapable of writing a story, by which, he explains, he means a sequence of happenings, either romantic or uncommon. But that is not what Jane Austen had a talent for, and not what she tried to do. She had too much sense, and too sprightly a humour, to be romantic, and she was interested not in the uncommon, but in the common. She made it uncommon by the keenness of her observation, her irony and her playful wit. By a story most of us mean a connected and coherent narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end. Pride and Prejudice begins in the right place, with the arrival on the scene of the two young men whose love for Elizabeth Bennet and her sister Jane provide the novel with its plot, and it ends in the right place with their marriage. It is the traditional happy ending. This kind of ending has excited the scorn of the sophisticated, and of course it is true that many, perhaps most, marriages are not happy, and further, that marriage concludes nothing; it is merely an introduction to another order of experience. Many authors have in consequence started their novels with marriage and dealt with its outcome. It is their right. But there is something to be said for the simple people who look upon marriage as a satisfactory conclusion to a work of fiction. They do so because they have an instinctive feeling that, by mating, a man and a woman have fulfilled their biological function; the interest which it is natural to feel in the steps that have led to this consummation, the birth of love, the obstacles, the misunderstandings, the avowals, now yields to its result, their issue, which is the generation that will succeed them. To nature, each couple is but a link in a chain, and the only importance of the link is that another link may be added to it. This is the novelist’s justification for the happy ending. In Pride and Prejudice, the reader’s satisfaction is considerably enhanced by the knowledge that the bridegroom has a substantial income and will take his bride to a fine house, surrounded by a park, and furnished throughout with expensive and elegant furniture.

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Pride and Prejudice is a very well-constructed book. The incidents follow one another naturally, and one’s sense of probability is nowhere outraged. It is perhaps odd that Elizabeth and Jane should be well-bred and well-behaved, whereas their mother and their three younger sisters should be, as Lady Knatchbull put it, “very much below par as to good society and its ways”; but that this should be so was essential to the story. I have allowed myself to wonder that Miss Austen did not avoid this stumbling-block by making Elizabeth and Jane the daughters of a first marriage of Mr. Bennet and making the Mrs. Bennet of the novel his second wife and the mother of the three younger daughters. She liked Elizabeth best of all her heroines.“I must confess, ”she wrote, “that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.”If, as some have thought, she was herself the original for her portrait of Elizabeth; and she has certainly given her her own gaiety, high spirit and courage, wit and readiness, good sense and right feeling; it is perhaps not rash to suppose that when she drew the placid, kindly and beautiful Jane Bennet she had in mind her sister Cassandra. Darcy has been generally regarded as a fearful cad. His first offence was his disinclination to dance with people he didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, at a public ball to which he had gone with a party. Not a very heinous one. It was unfortunate that Elizabeth should overhear the derogatory terms in which he spoke of her to Bingley, but he could not know that she was listening, and his excuse might have been that his friend was badgering him to do what he had no wish to. It is true that when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth it is with an unpardonable insolence, but pride, pride of birth and position, was the predominant trait of his character, and without it there would have been no story to tell. The manner of his proposal, moreover, gave Jane Austen opportunity for the most dramatic scene in the book; it is conceivable that, with the experience she gained later, she might have been able to indicate Darcy’s feelings, very natural and comprehensible feelings, in such a way as to antagonize Elizabeth, without putting into his mouth speeches so outrageous as to shock the reader. There is, perhaps, some exaggeration in the drawing of Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins, but to my mind little more than comedy allows. Comedy sees life in a light more sparkling, but colder, than that of common day, and a touch of exaggeration, that is of farce, is often no disadvantage. A discreet admixture of farce, like a sprinkle of sugar on strawberries, may well make comedy more palatable. With regard to Lady Catherine, one must remember that in Miss Austen’s day rank gave its possessors a sense of immense superiority over persons of inferior station; and they not only expected to be treated by them with the utmost deference, but were. In my own youth I knew great ladies whose sense of importance, though not quite so blatant, was not far removed from Lady Catherine’s. And as for Mr. Collins, who has not known, even to-day, men with that combination of obsequiousness and pomposity? That they have learnt to screen it with a front of geniality only makes it more odious.

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Jane Austen was not a great stylist, but she wrote plainly and without affection. I think the influence of Dr. Johnson may be discerned in the structure of her sentences. She is apt to use the word of Latin origin, rather than the homely English one. It gives her phrase a slight formality which is far from unpleasant; indeed, it often adds point to a witty remark, and a demure savour to a malicious one. Her dialogue is probably as natural as dialogue could then be. To us it may seem somewhat stilted. Jane Bennet, speaking of her lover’s sisters, says: “They were certainly no friends to his acquaintance with me, which I cannot wonder at, since he might have chosen so much more advantageously in many respects.”It may, of course, be that these were the very words she uttered; I think it unlikely. It is obviously not how a modern novelist would phrase the same remark. To set down on paper speech exactly as it is spoken is very tedious, and some arrangement of it is certainly necessary. It is only of late years, comparatively, that novelists, striving for verisimilitude, have been at pains to make their dialogue as colloquial as possible: I suspect that it was a convention of the past to cause persons of education to express themselves with a balance, and with a grammatical correctness, which cannot commonly have been at their command, and I presume readers accepted it as natural.

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Allowing, then, for the slight formality of Miss Austen’s dialogue, we must admit that she invariably made the person of her stories speak in character. I have only noticed one occasion upon which she slipped up: “Anne smiled and said, ‘My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.’‘You are mistaken, ’ said he gently, ‘that is not good company that is the best.’”

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Mr. Elliot had faults of character; but if he was capable of making so admirable a reply to Anne’s remark, he must have had qualities with which his creator did not see fit to acquaint us. For my part, I am so charmed with it that I would have been content to see her marry him rather than the stodgy Captain Wentworth. It is true that Mr. Elliot had married a woman“of inferior station”for her money, and neglected her; and his treatment of Mrs. Smith was ungenerous; but, after all, we only have her side of the story, and it may be that, had we been given a chance to hear his, we should have found his conduct pardonable.

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There is one merit which Miss Austen has, and which I have almost omitted to mention. She is wonderfully readable—more readable than some greater and more famous novelists. She deals, as Walter Scott said, with commonplace things, “the involvements, feelings and characters of ordinary life”; nothing very much happens in her books and yet, when you come to the bottom of a page, you eagerly turn it to learn what will happen next. Nothing very much does and again you eagerly turn the page. The novelist who has the power to achieve this has the most precious gift a novelist can possess.

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序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

entertain

[ˌentə’teɪn]

v.娱乐;使有兴趣;招待;考虑;抱有;容纳

endeavor

[ɪn’devə]

n.尽力;努力

Monk

[mʌŋk]

n.僧侣;修道士

Lewis

[’lʊɪs]

路易斯(人名)

contempt

[kən’tempt]

n.轻视;轻蔑

dexterous

[’dekstrəs]

adj.灵巧的;机灵的;惯用右手的

esteem

[ɪ’stiːm]

n.尊敬

blot

[blɒt]

n. (墨水的)污点;墨迹;

creak

[kriːk]

n.辗轧声;嘎吱声

Sensibility

[ˌsensə’bɪləti]

n.感情;感受能力;感性;敏感

manuscript

[’mænjuskrɪpt]

n.手稿;原稿

succession

[sək’seʃn]

n.连续;继承权;继位

Abbey

[’æbi]

n.修道院;修道院教堂

Richard

[’ritʃəd]

n.理查德(男子名)

Susan

[’suːzn]

n.苏珊(女子名)

Devon

[ˈdevn]

n.(英国)德文郡

acquaint

[ə’kweɪnt]

vt.使了解;使熟知;告知

heroine

[’herəʊɪn]

n.女英雄;女主角

inclination

[ˌɪnklɪ’neɪʃn]

n.倾向;意愿;趋势;斜坡;倾斜度

behaviour

[bɪˈheɪvɪə]

n.行为

inability

[ˌɪnə’bɪləti]

n.无能;无力

appeal

[ə’piːl]

①[U][C]呼吁,要求;

Chapman

[’tʃæpmən]

n.叫卖小贩;商人

novelist

[’nɒvəlɪst]

n.小说家

Colonel

[’kɜːnl]

n.上校

revise

[rɪ’vaɪz]

n.校订;修正;再校稿

preface

[’prefəs]

n. 序文; 绪言; 前言

authorship

[’ɔːθəʃɪp]

n.著述;来源;作家职业

gradual

[’ɡrædʒuəl]

adj.逐渐的;逐步的;平缓的

honour

[ˈɒnə]

n.光荣;

fearless

[’fɪələs]

adj.无畏的;大胆的;勇敢的

peril

[’perəl]

n.危险;冒险

bark

[bɑːk]

v.(狗)吠;咆哮

amusement

[ə’mjuːzmənt]

n.乐趣,娱乐;消遣

sooner

[’suːnə]

adv. soon的比较级

eminent

[’emɪnənt]

adj.著名的;卓越的

exquisite

[ɪk’skwɪzɪt]

adj.精挑细选的;精致的;细腻的;强烈的

provincial

[prə’vɪnʃl]

adj.省的;地方的;偏狭的

conversation

[ˌkɒnvə’seɪʃn]

n.谈话;会话

undue

[ˌʌn’djuː]

adj.过分的;不适当的

detachment

[dɪ’tætʃmənt]

n.冷漠;公正;分遣队;脱离

politic

[’pɒlətɪk]

adj.精明的;圆滑的;慎重的

expound

[ɪk’spaʊnd]

v.详细说明;阐述;解释

Frank

[fræŋk]

a. 坦白;率直;

bate

[beɪt]

v.减少;抑制;使软化

inferior

[ɪn’fɪəriə(r)]

adj.下级的

customs

[’kʌstəmz]

n.海关

forebear

[’fɔːbeə(r)]

n.祖先;祖宗.

theatrical

[θi’ætrɪkl]

adj.剧场的;夸张的

thorough

[’θʌrə]

adj.彻底的;完全的;详尽的;细致深入的

impulsive

[ɪm’pʌlsɪv]

adj.冲动的;任性的

clumsy

[’klʌmzi]

adj.笨拙的;不得体的;笨重的

stun

[stʌn]

vt.使震惊;使目瞪口呆;使昏迷

grind

[ɡraɪnd]

v.磨;压迫;碾碎;磨得吱吱响;逐渐停顿

sailor

[’seɪlə(r)]

n.海员;水手;扁平的硬边草帽

fuss

[fʌs]

n.(神经质的)兴奋,激动;紧张;急躁;

ensue

[ɪn’sjuː]

v.跟着发生;继起;因而产生

uncommon

[ʌn’kɒmən]

adj.不寻常的;不常见的;极度的

incapable

[ɪn’keɪpəbl]

adj.无能力的;不胜任的

playful

[’pleɪfl]

adj.爱玩耍的;嬉戏的;开玩笑的

excite

[ɪk’saɪt]

vt.使兴奋;使激动;刺激;激起

instinctive

[ɪn’stɪŋktɪv]

adj.本能的;天性的;直觉的

misunderstanding

[ˌmɪsʌndə’stændɪŋ]

n.误会;误解,

avowal

[ə’vaʊəl]

n.公开宣称;公开承认;坦白承认

probability

[ˌprɒbə’bɪləti]

n.可能性

outrage

[’aʊtreɪdʒ]

n.暴行;愤怒;义愤

whereas

[ˌweər’æz]

conj.然而;鉴于

readiness

[’redinəs]

n.准备就绪;预备;欣然;敏捷

rash

[ræʃ]

n.疹子;大量

kindly

[’kaɪndli]

adj.和蔼的;温和的;爽快的

fearful

[’fɪəfl]

adj.担心的;可怕的;非常的

badger

[’bædʒə(r)]

n. 【U】獾皮(毛);

admixture

[əd’mɪkstʃə(r)]

n.混合;混合物

strawberry

[’strɔːbəri]

n.草莓

possessor

[pə’zesə(r)]

n.持有人;所有人

superiority

[suːˌpɪəri’ɒrəti]

n.优越性;优势

utmost

[’ʌtməʊst]

adj.极度的;最大限度的

Johnson

[ˈʤɒnsən]

n.约翰逊(人名)

discern

[dɪ’sɜːn]

v.辨别;看出;察觉

homely

[’həʊmli]

adj.家常的;平凡的;相貌平庸的;简单且好的

unpleasant

[ʌn’pleznt]

adj.使人不愉快的;讨厌的;不合意的;不友好的,粗鲁的

malicious

[mə’lɪʃəs]

adj.怀恶意的;恶毒的

stilt

[stɪlt]

n.高跷;桩子;支柱

advantageous

[ˌædvən’teɪdʒəs]

adj.有利的;有助的;有益的

utter

[’ʌtə(r)]

adj.完全的;全然的;绝对的

comparative

[kəm’pærətɪv]

adj.比较的;相当的

past

[pɑːst]

a. 过去的;

grammatical

[ɡrə’mætɪkl]

adj.语法的;合乎文法的

invariably

[ɪn’veəriəbli]

adv.不变地;总是;一贯地

creator

[kri’eɪtə(r)]

n.创造者;【计】创建者

pardonable

[’pɑːdnəbl]

adj.可原谅的;可宽恕的

readable

[’riːdəbl]

adj.可读的;易读的;值得一读的

commonplace

[’kɒmənpleɪs]

adj.平凡的;陈腐的

简典