高級(jí)英語 Advanced English(張漢熙) 第二冊(cè) 7.The Libido for the Ugly

The Libido for the Ugly

H. L. Mencken

1 On a Winter day some years ago, coming out of Pittsburgh on one of the expresses of the Pennsylvania Railroad, I rolled eastward for an hour through the coal and steel towns of Westmoreland county. It was familiar ground; boy and man, I had been through it often before. But somehow I had never quite sensed its appalling desolation. Here was the very heart of industrial America, the center of its most lucrative and characteristic activity, the boast and pride of the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth--and here was a scene so dreadfully hideous , so intolerably bleak and forlorn that it reduced the whole aspiration of man to a macabre and depressing joke . Here was wealth beyond computation, almost beyond imagination--and here were human habitations so abominable that they would have disgraced a race of alley cats.

2 I am not speaking of mere filth. One expects steel towns to be dirty. What I allude to is the unbroken and agonizing ugliness, the sheer revolting monstrousness, of every house in sight. From East Liberty to Greensburg, a distance of twenty-five miles, there was not one in sight from the train that did not insult and lacerate the eye. Some were so bad, and they were among the most pretentious --churches, stores, warehouses, and the like--that they were down-right startling; one blinked before them as one blinks before a man with his face shot away. A few linger in memory, horrible even there: a crazy little church just west of Jeannette, set like a dormer-window on the side of a bare leprous hill; the headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars at another forlorn town, a steel stadium like a huge rattrap somewhere further down the line. But most of all I recall the general effect--of hideousness without a break. There was not a single decent house within eyerange from the Pittsburgh to the Greensburg yards. There was not one that was not misshapen, and there was not one that was not shabby.

3 The country itself is not uncomely, despite the grime of the endless mills. It is, in form, a narrow river valley, with deep gullies running up into the hills. It is thickly settled, but not: noticeably overcrowded. There is still plenty of room for building, even in the larger towns, and there are very few solid blocks. Nearly every house, big and little, has space on all four sides. Obviously,

if there were architects of any professional sense or dignity in the region, they would have perfected a chalet to hug the hillsides--a chalet with a high-pitched roof, to throw off the heavy Winter snows, but still essentially a low and clinging building, wider than it was tall. But what have they done? They have taken as their model a brick set on end. This they have converted into a thing of dingy clapboards with a narrow, low-pitched roof. And the whole they have set upon thin, preposterous brick piers . By the hundreds and thousands these abominable houses cover the bare hillsides, like gravestones in some gigantic and decaying cemetery. On their deep sides they are three, four and even five stories high; on their low sides they bury themselves swinishly in the mud. Not a fifth of them are perpendicular . They lean this way and that, hanging on to their bases precariously . And one and all they are streaked in grime, with dead and eczematous patches of paint peeping through the streaks.

4 Now and then there is a house of brick. But what brick! When it is new it is the color of a fried egg. When it has taken on the patina of the mills it is the color of an egg long past all hope or caring. Was it necessary to adopt that shocking color? No more than it was necessary to set all of the houses on end. Red brick, even in a steel town, ages with some dignity. Let it become downright black, and it is still sightly , especially if its trimmings are of white stone, with soot in the depths and the high spots washed by the rain. But in Westmoreland they prefer that uremic yellow, and so they have the most loathsome towns and villages ever seen by mortal eye.

5 I award this championship only after laborious research and incessant prayer. I have seen, I believe, all of the most unlovely towns of the world; they are all to be found in the United States. I have seen the mill towns of decomposing New England and the desert towns of Utah, Arizona and Texas. I am familiar with the back streets of Newark, Brooklyn and Chicago, and have made scientific explorations to Camden, N. J. and Newport News, Va. Safe in a Pullman , I have whirled through the g1oomy, Godforsaken villages of Iowa and Kansas, and the malarious tidewater hamlets of Georgia. I have been to Bridgeport, Conn., and to Los Angeles. But nowhere on this earth, at home or abroad, have I seen anything to compare to the villages that huddle aloha the line of the Pennsylvania from the Pittsburgh yards to Greensburg. They are incomparable in color, and they are incomparable in design. It is as if some titanic and aberrant genius , uncompromisingly inimical to man, had devoted all the ingenuity of Hell to the making of them. They show grotesqueries of ugliness that, in retrospect ,become almost diabolical .One cannot imagine mere human beings concocting such dreadful things, and one can scarcely imagine human beings bearing life in them.

6 Are they so frightful because the valley is full of foreigners--dull, insensate brutes, with no love of beauty in them? Then why didn't these foreigners set up similar abominations in the countries that they came from? You will, in fact, find nothing of the sort in Europe--save perhaps in the more putrid parts of England. There is scarcely an ugly village on the whole Continent. The peasants, however poor, somehow manage to make themselves graceful and charming habitations, even in Spain. But in the American village and small town the pull is always toward ugliness, and in that Westmoreland valley it has been yielded to with an eagerness bordering upon passion. It is incredible that mere ignorance should have achieved such masterpieces of horror.

7 On certain levels of the American race, indeed, there seems to be a positive libido for the ugly, as on other and less Christian levels there is a libido for the beautiful. It is impossible to put down the wallpaper that defaces the average American home of the lower middle class to mere inadvertence ,, or to the, , ob, sc, en, e hu, mor of the, manufacturers. Such ghastly designs, it must be obvious, give a genuine delight to a certain type of mind. They meet, in some unfathomable way, its obscure and unintelligible demands. The taste for them is as enigmatical and yet as common as the taste for dogmatic theology and the poetry of Edgar A Guest.

8 Thus I suspect (though confessedly without knowing) that the vast majority of the honest folk of Westmoreland county, and especially the 100% Americans among them, actually admire the houses they live in, and are proud of them. For the same money they could get vastly better ones, but they prefer what they have got. Certainly there was no pressure upon the Veterans of Foreign Wars to choose the dreadful edifice that bears their banner, for there are plenty of vacant buildings along the trackside, and some of them are appreciably better. They might, in- deed, have built a better one of their own. But they chose that clapboarded horror with their eyes open, and having chosen it, they let it mellow into its present shocking depravity. They like it as it is: beside it, the Parthenon would no doubt offend them. In precisely the same way the authors of the rat-trap stadium that I have mentioned made a deliberate choice: After painfully designing and erecting it, they made it perfect in their own sight by putting a completely impossible penthouse painted a staring yellow, on top of it. The effect is that of a fat woman with a black eye. It is that of a Presbyterian grinning. But they like it.

9 Here is something that the psychologists have so far neglected: the love of ugliness for its own sake, the lust to make the world intolerable. Its habitat is the United States. Out of the melting pot emerges a race which hates beauty as it hates truth. The etiology of this madness deserves a great deal more study than it has got. There must be causes behind it; it arises and flourishes in obedience to biological laws, and not as a mere act of God. What, precisely, are the terms of those laws? And why do they run stronger in America than elsewhere? Let some honest Privat Dozent in pathological sociology apply himself to the problem.

(from Reading for Rhetoric by Caroline Shrodes,Clifford A, Josephson, James R. Wilson )

第七課愛丑之欲

HL門肯

幾年前的一個(gè)冬日，我乘坐賓夕法尼亞鐵路公司的一班快車離開匹茲堡，向東行駛一小時(shí)，穿越了威斯特摩蘭縣的煤城和鋼都。這是我熟悉的地方，無論是童年時(shí)期還是成年時(shí)期，我常常經(jīng)過這一帶。但以前我從來沒有感到這地方荒涼得這么可怕。這兒正是工業(yè)化美國的心臟，是其最賺錢、最典型活動(dòng)的中心，世界上最富裕、最偉大的國家的自豪和驕傲--然而這兒的景象卻又丑陋得這樣可怕，凄涼悲慘得這么令人無法忍受，以致人的抱負(fù)和壯志在這兒成了令人毛骨悚然的、令人沮喪的笑料。這兒的財(cái)富多得無法計(jì)算，簡(jiǎn)直都無法想象--也是在這兒，人們的居住條件又是如此之糟，連那些流浪街頭的野貓也為之害羞。

我說的不僅僅是臟。鋼鐵城鎮(zhèn)的臟是人們意料之中的事。我指的是所看到的房子沒有一幢不是丑陋得令人難受，畸形古怪得讓人作嘔的。從東自由鎮(zhèn)到格林斯堡，在這全長(zhǎng)25英里的路上，從火車上看去，沒有一幢房子不讓人看了感到眼睛不舒服和難受。有的房子糟得嚇人，而這些房子競(jìng)還是一些最重要的建筑--教堂、商店、倉庫等等。人們驚愕地看著這些房子，就像是看見一個(gè)臉給子彈崩掉的人一樣。有的留在記憶里，甚至回憶起來也是可怕的：珍尼特西面的一所樣子稀奇古怪的小教堂，就像一扇老虎窗貼在一面光禿禿的、似有麻風(fēng)散鱗的山坡上;參加過國外戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的退伍軍人總部，設(shè)在珍尼特過去不遠(yuǎn)的另一個(gè)凄涼的小鎮(zhèn)上。沿鐵路線向東不遠(yuǎn)處的一座鋼架，就像一個(gè)巨大的捕鼠器。但我回憶里出現(xiàn)的 三要還是一個(gè)總的印象--連綿不斷的丑陋。從匹茲堡到格林斯 堡火車調(diào)車場(chǎng)，放眼望去，沒有一幢像樣的房子。沒有一幢不是歪歪扭扭的，沒有一幢不是破破爛爛的。

盡管到處是林立的工廠，遍地彌漫著煙塵，這一地區(qū)的自然 霉仟并不差。就地形而論，這兒是一條狹窄的河谷，其中流淌著一道道發(fā)源自山間的深溪。這兒的人口雖然稠密，但并無過分擁擠的 跡象，即使在一些較大的城鎮(zhèn)中，建筑方面也還大有發(fā)展的余地。 這兒很少見到有高密度排列的建筑樓群，幾乎每一幢房屋，無論 大小，其四周都還有剩余的空地。顯然，如果這一地區(qū)有幾個(gè)稍有職業(yè)責(zé)任感或榮譽(yù)感的建筑師的話，他們準(zhǔn)會(huì)緊依山坡建造一些美觀雅致的瑞士式山地小木屋--一種有著便于冬季排除積雪的陡坡屋頂，寬度大于高度，依山而建的低矮的小木屋。可是，他們實(shí)際上是怎么做的呢?他們把直立的磚塊作為造房的模式，造出了一種用骯臟的護(hù)墻板圍成的不倫不類的房屋，屋頂又窄又平，而且整個(gè)地安放在一些單薄的、奇形怪狀的磚垛上。這種丑陋不堪的房屋成百上千地遍布于一個(gè)個(gè)光禿禿的山坡上，就像是一些墓碑豎立在廣闊荒涼的墳場(chǎng)上。這些房屋高的一側(cè)約有三四層，甚至五層樓高，而低的一側(cè)看去卻像一群埋在爛泥潭里的豬玀。垂直式的房屋不到五分之一，大部分房屋都是那樣?xùn)|倒西歪，搖搖欲墜地固定在地基上。每幢房屋上都積有一道道的塵垢印痕，而那一道道 垢痕的間隙中，還隱隱約約露出一些像濕疹痂一樣的油漆斑痕。

偶爾也可以看到一幢磚房，可那叫什么磚啊!新建的時(shí)候，它的顏色像油煎雞蛋，然而一經(jīng)工廠排放出來的煙塵熏染，蒙上一層綠銹時(shí)，它的顏色便像那早已無人問津的臭蛋一樣了。難道一定得采用這種糟糕的顏色嗎?這就與把房屋都建成直立式一樣沒看攀要。若是用紅磚造房，便可以越古老陳舊越氣派，即使在鋼鐵城鎮(zhèn)中也是如此。紅磚就算被染得漆黑，看起來還是能夠使人悅目，尤其是如果用白石鑲邊，經(jīng)雨水一洗刷，凹處煙垢殘存，凸處本色外露，紅黑映襯，更覺美觀。可是在威斯特摩蘭縣，人們卻偏偏喜歡用那血尿般的黃色，因此便有了這種世界上最丑陋不堪、最令人惡心的城鎮(zhèn)和鄉(xiāng)村。

我是在經(jīng)過一番苦心探究和不斷祈禱后才將這頂丑陋之最的桂冠封贈(zèng)于威斯特摩蘭縣的。我自信我已見到過世界上所有的丑陋之極的城鎮(zhèn)，它們?nèi)荚诿绹Ｎ夷慷昧巳遮吽ヂ涞男掠⒏裉m地區(qū)的工業(yè)城鎮(zhèn)，也目睹了猶他州、亞利桑那州和得克薩斯州的荒漠城市。我熟悉紐瓦克、布魯克林和芝加哥的偏街僻巷，并曾對(duì)新澤西州的卡姆登和弗吉尼亞州的紐波特紐斯作過科學(xué)的考察。我曾安安穩(wěn)穩(wěn)地坐著普爾曼臥車，周游了衣阿華州和堪薩斯州那些昏暗凄涼的村鎮(zhèn)以及佐治亞州那些烏煙瘴氣的沿海漁村。我到過康涅狄格州的布里奇港，還去過洛杉磯市。然而，在世界上的任何一個(gè)地方，無論國內(nèi)國外，我從未見到過任何東西可以與那些擁擠在賓夕法尼亞鐵路從匹茲堡調(diào)車場(chǎng)到格林斯堡路段沿線的村莊相比。它們無論在色彩上還是在樣式上都是無與倫比的。仿佛有什么與人類不共戴天的、能力超常的鬼才，費(fèi)盡心機(jī)，動(dòng)員魔鬼王國里的鬼斧神工，才造出這些丑陋無比的房屋來。這些房屋不僅丑陋而且奇形怪狀，使人回頭一看，頓覺它們已變成一個(gè)個(gè)青面獠牙的惡魔。人們無法想象單憑人的力量如何能造出如此可怕的東西來，也很難想象居然還有人類棲居其中并在那里生兒育女，繁殖人類。

這些房屋如此丑陋，難道是因?yàn)樵摵庸鹊貐^(qū)住滿了一些愚蠢遲鈍、麻木不仁、毫無愛美之心的外國蠻子嗎?若果然如此，為什么那些外國蠻子卻并沒有在自己的故土上造出這樣丑惡的東西來呢?事實(shí)上，在歐洲絕對(duì)找不到這種丑惡的東西--英國的某些破敗的地區(qū)也許例外。整個(gè)歐洲大陸很難找到一個(gè)丑陋的村落。歐洲那兒的農(nóng)民，不論怎么窮，都會(huì)想方設(shè)法將自己的居室修造得美觀雅致，即使在西班牙也是如此。而在美國的鄉(xiāng)村和小城鎮(zhèn)里，人們千方百計(jì)地追求的目標(biāo)是丑陋，尤其在那個(gè)威斯特摩蘭河谷地區(qū)，人們對(duì)丑的追求已達(dá)到狂熱的程度。如果說單憑愚昧無知就能造就這樣令人毛骨悚然的杰作，那是無法讓人信服的。

美國某些階層的人們當(dāng)中似乎的的確確存在著一種愛丑之欲，如同在另一些不那么虔信基督教的階層當(dāng)中存在著一種愛美之心一樣。那些把一般美國中下層家庭的住宅打扮得像丑八怪的糊墻紙決不能歸咎于選購者的疏忽大意，也不能歸咎于制造商的鄙俗的幽默感。那些糊墻紙上的丑陋圖案顯然真正能使具有某種心理的人覺得賞心悅目。它們以某種莫名其妙的方式滿足了這種人的某種晦澀難解的心理需要。人們對(duì)這類丑陋圖案的欣賞，就同某些人對(duì)教條主義神學(xué)和埃德加·A格斯特的詩歌的迷戀一樣，既不可思議，又讓人習(xí)以為常。

因此，我相信(盡管坦白地說，我不敢絕對(duì)肯定)，威斯特摩蘭縣絕大多數(shù)正直誠實(shí)的人，尤其是其中的那些百分之百的美國人，確實(shí)很欣賞他們居住的房屋并為之感到自豪。雖然他們可以用同樣多的建筑成本造出好得多的房屋，他們卻寧愿要他們現(xiàn)有的那種丑陋不堪的房屋?？梢钥隙ǖ卣f，海外戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)退伍軍人組織總部將自己的旗幟插在那樣一幢丑陋的大樓上絕對(duì)不是出于無奈，因?yàn)殍F路沿線多的是閑置未用的建筑，而且許多建筑都比他們那幢大樓要好得多。他們?nèi)绻敢獾脑挘餐耆梢宰约航ㄔ煲淮毕駱右恍┑拇髽?。然而，他們卻眼睜睜地選擇了那幢用護(hù)墻板造起來的丑陋的大樓，而且選定之后，還要讓它發(fā)展演變成現(xiàn)在這副破爛相。他們喜歡的就是這種丑怪樣子，如果有人在那附近豎起一座像希臘巴特農(nóng)神殿那樣的漂亮建筑，他們一定會(huì)感到惱火。前面提到的那個(gè)形如捕鼠器的鋼架運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)的設(shè)計(jì)建造者們也是這樣有意地作了一個(gè)深思熟慮的選擇。在費(fèi)盡心血，辛辛苦苦地設(shè)計(jì)并建成那個(gè)運(yùn)動(dòng)場(chǎng)之后，又想進(jìn)一步美化完善它，于是便在建筑平項(xiàng)上加造一間極不協(xié)調(diào)的小棚屋，并涂上鮮艷奪目的黃色油漆。這樣造成的效果是使該建筑看起來就像一個(gè)肥胖的女人面上帶著一只被打腫發(fā)青的眼圈，也可以說像一位長(zhǎng)老會(huì)牧師面上突然露出勉強(qiáng)的笑容的模樣。但他們喜歡的就是這種模樣。

這里涉及到一個(gè)心理學(xué)家迄今未加重視的問題，即為了丑本身的價(jià)值而愛丑(非因其他利益驅(qū)動(dòng)而愛丑)，急欲將世界打扮得丑不可耐的變態(tài)心理。這種心理的孳生地就是美國。從美國這個(gè)大熔爐中產(chǎn)生出了一個(gè)新的種族，他們像仇視真理一樣地仇視美。這種變態(tài)心理的產(chǎn)生根源值得進(jìn)行更多的研究，它的背后一定隱藏著某些原因，其產(chǎn)生和發(fā)展肯定受到某些生物學(xué)規(guī)律的制約，而不能簡(jiǎn)單地看成是出于上帝的安排。那么，這些規(guī)律的具體內(nèi)容究竟是什么呢?為什么它們?cè)诿绹仍谄渌魏蔚胤礁鼮槭⑿?這個(gè)問題還是讓某位像德國大學(xué)的無薪教師那樣正直的社會(huì)病理學(xué) 家去研究吧。

(摘自卡羅琳什羅迪斯，克里福德A約瑟夫遜，詹姆斯R威爾遜編《修辭讀物》)

詞匯(Vocabulary)

libido (n.) : psychic energy generally;specifically，a basic form of psychic energy，comprising the positive。loving instincts manifested variously at different stages of personality development欲望

lucrative (adj.) : producing wealth or profit;profitable;remunerative有利可圖的;賺錢的

hideous (adj.) : horrible to see,hear,etc.;very ugly or revolting;dreadful駭人聽聞的;非常丑陋的;可怕的

forlorn (adj.) : in pitiful condition;wretched;miserable可憐的;悲慘的;不幸的

macabre (adj.) : gruesome;grim and horrible;ghastly可怕的;令人毛骨悚然的;恐怖的

computation (n.) : the act of computing;calculation 計(jì)算

abominable (adj.) : nasty and disgusting;vile;loathsome討厭的，可惡的

alley (n.) : a narrow street or walk;specifically，a lane behind a row of buildings or between two rows of buildings that face on adjacent streets胡同;小巷;小街

filth (n.) : disgustingly offensive dirt，garbage，etc.污穢，污物;垃圾

allude (v.) : refer in a casual or indirect way(隨便或間接)提到，涉及;暗指

monstrousness (n.) : strange shape奇形怪狀

lacerate (v.) : tear jaggedly;mangle(something soft，as flesh);wound or hurt(one's feelings，etc.)deeply;distress撕裂;割碎(肉等軟組織);傷害(感情等);使…傷心

pretentious (adj.) : making claims，explicit or implicit，to some distinction，importance，dignity，or excellence自負(fù)的;自命不凡的;自大的

linger (v.) : continue to stay，esp.through reluctance to leave逗留(尤指不愿離開)

downright (adv.) : thoroughly;utterly;really徹底地，完全地;真正地

dormer (n.) : a window set upright in a sloping roof屋頂窗

leprous (adj.) : of or like leprosy;having leprosy麻風(fēng)的;似麻風(fēng)的;患麻風(fēng)病的

rat-trap (n.) : a trap for catching rats捕鼠夾(子)

misshapen (adj.) : badly shaped;deformed奇形怪狀的;畸形的

uncomely (adj.) : having unpleasant appearance不美觀的，不好看的

grime (n.) : dirt，esp.sooty dirt，rubbed into or covering a surface，as of the skin(尤指經(jīng)摩擦而深入或覆蓋皮膚等表面的)積垢;污穢

gully (n.) : a channel or hollow worn by running water; small，narrow ravine溝壑，狹溝，沖溝

chalet (n.) : a type of Swiss house，built of wood with balconies and overhanging eaves(瑞士的木造)農(nóng)舍，山上小舍

highpitched (adj.) : steep in slope said of roofs)(屋頂)坡度陡的

dingy (adj.) : dirty-colored;not bright or clean;grimy不干凈的;不明亮的;弄臟的

clapboard (n.) : a thin，narrow board with one edge thicker than the other，used as siding護(hù)墻板，隔板

preposterous (adj.) : so contrary to nature，reason， or common sense as to be laughable;absurd;ridiculous反常的;乖戾的;十分荒謬的;愚蠢的

pier (n.) : a heavy column，usually square. used to support weight，as at the end of an arch角柱;支柱

cemetery (n.) : a place for the burial of the dead;graveyard公墓，墓地;墳場(chǎng)

swinish (adj.) : of or like a swine;beastly;piggish;coarse，etc.豬(似)的;鄙賤的;粗俗的

perpendicular (adj.) : exactly upright;vertical. straight up or down垂直的;矗立的

precarious (adj.) : uncertain;insecure;risky不穩(wěn)定的;不安全的;危險(xiǎn)的

eczematous (adj.) : of itching skin disease濕疹的

patina (n.) : a fine crust or film on bronze or copper.usually green or greenish-blue，formed by natural oxidation and often valued as being ornamental(青銅器上的)綠銹

uremia (n.) : a toxic condition caused by the presence in the blood of waste produts normally eliminated in the urine and resulting from a failure of the kidneys to secrete urine尿毒癥

loathsome (adj.) : causing loathing;disgusting;abhorrent;detestable討厭的;厭惡的;令人作嘔的

laborious (adj.) : involving much hard work;difficult. industrious;hard-working費(fèi)力的;困難的;勤勞的;辛苦的

incessant (adj.) : never ceasing;continuing or being repeated without stopping or in a way that seems endless：constant不停的，連續(xù)的;不間斷的

decompose (v.) : break up or separate into basic components or parts;rot分解;(使)腐爛，(使)腐敗

forsake (v.) : give up;renounce(a habit，idea，etc.);leave;abandon拋棄，放棄(思想、習(xí)慣等);遺棄;背棄

malarious (adj.) : of fever conveyed by mosquitoes瘧疾的;空氣污濁的

hamlet (n.) : a very small village小村莊

incomparable (adj.) : no beyond comparison;unequalled;matchless無與倫比的，舉世無雙的;無敵的，無比的

titanic (adj.) : of great size，strength，or power巨大的;力大無比的;有極大權(quán)力的

aberrant (adj.) : turning away from what is right，true，etc.：deviating from what is normal or typical與正確或真實(shí)情況相背的;偏離常規(guī)的;反常的

uncompromising (adj.) : not compromising or yielding;firm;inflexiable;determined不妥協(xié)的;堅(jiān)定的;不讓步的;堅(jiān)決的

inimical (adj.) : 1ike an enemy;hostile;unfriendly;adverse;unfavorable敵人似的;敵對(duì)的;不友好的;相反的;不利的

ingenuity (n.) : cleverness，originality，skill，etc.機(jī)智;創(chuàng)造力，獨(dú)創(chuàng)性;熟練

grotesquery (n.) : the quality or state of being grotesque奇形怪狀;怪誕

retrospect (n.) : a looking back on or thinking about things past;contemplation or survey of the past回顧，回想;追溯

diabolical (adj.) : of the devil or devils;fiendish惡魔的;殘忍的，兇暴的

concoct (v.) : devise，invent，or plan計(jì)劃，策劃;虛構(gòu)，編造

insensate (adj.) : not feeling，or not capable of feeling，sensation無感覺的，無知覺的

brute (n.) : an animal;a person who is brutal or very stupid，gross，sensual，etc.畜生;笨蛋，粗野的人

abomination (adj.) : great hatred，and disgust;anything hateful and disgusting憎恨，厭惡;令人討厭的東西

putrid (adj.) : decomposing;rotten and foul-smelling腐爛的，腐敗的

deface (v.) : spoil the appearance of;disfigure;mar損壞…的外表;丑化

inadvertence (n.) : the quality of being inadvertent;oversight;mistake掉以輕心，粗心大意;疏漏;錯(cuò)誤

obscene (adj.) : offensive to one's feelings，or to prevailing notions，of modesty of decency;lewd;disgusting猥褻的;誨淫的;可憎的

unfathomable (adj.) : which cannot be understood;which cannot be reached不可理解的;深不可測(cè)的

enigmatical (adj.) : of or like an enigma;perplexing;baffling謎一般的，謎似的;不可思議的，費(fèi)解的

dogmatic (adj.) : of or like dogma;doctrinal教條(主義)的;教義的

edifice (n.) : a building，esp.a large，imposing one建筑物;尤指大型建筑物，大廈

depravity (n.) : a depraved condition;corruption;wickedness墮落，腐化，腐敗

penthouse (n.) : a small structure，esp.one with a sloping roof，attached to a larger building小棚屋，(尤指靠在大樓邊上搭的)披屋

lust (n.) : a desire to gratify the senses;bodily appetite欲望;貪欲

etiology (n.) : the assignment of a cause，or the cause assignment本源，原因(的說明)

pathological (adj.) : of pathology;of or concerned with diseases病理學(xué)的;病理上的

短語 (Expressions)

border upon : to be like;almost be相近，類似

例： His emotion is bordering upon hysteria.他的情緒接近歇斯底里。

put down…to : tbe attribute to歸因于

例： I put Jane's moodiness down to the stress she was under.我認(rèn)為簡(jiǎn)由于所承受的壓力而悶悶不樂。