詞匯輔導：通過閱讀學習英語六級詞匯(二十九)
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英語六級詞匯
Unit twenty-nine
On Custom
Custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great moment. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behaviour at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions, no matter how aberrant. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief, and the very great varieties it any manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behaviour of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of this mother tongue over against those words of this own baby talk that taken up into the vernacular of this family. When one seriously studies the social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behaviour. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. Every child that is born into his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. There is no social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of the role of custom. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.
commonplace a.普通的,平庸的 n.尋常的事物,平庸的東西
[聯想詞]
commonwealth n. 1.英聯邦 2.聯邦,聯合體
customary a.習慣上的,合乎習俗的
aberrant a.偏離正路的,偏離常規的
trivial a.瑣碎的,不重要的
[聯想詞]
trifle n.瑣事,小事,無價值的東西 vi.嘲笑,輕視
petty a.1.小的,瑣碎的,不重要的 2.氣量小的,心狹窄的
predominant a.占主導地位的,顯著的
manifest a.明顯的,顯然的,明了的 vt. 1.顯示,表明,證明 2.使顯現,使顯露
pristine a.1.太古的,原始的 2.本來的,原來的
[聯想詞]
virginal a.1.處女的, 忠貞的 2.純潔的,沒有被玷污的
virgin n.處女,未婚女子 a.1.處女的,貞潔的 2.純潔的,未玷污的 3.未開發的,未經使用的
probe v.1.探索,查究,調查 2.用探針(或控測器)探查,探測 n.1.探針,探測器 2.探索,調查
[聯想詞]
grope vi. 1.暗中摸,摸索 2.探索,搜尋 vt.摸索(道路等)
query n.問題,疑問,詢問 v.1.對…表示疑問 2.問,詢問
quest n.尋求,搜索,追求
stereotype n.陳規,老套,固定的模式(或形象) vt.對…形成固定的看法
stereo a.立體聲的 n.立體聲,立體聲裝置
vernacular n.1.本國語 2.本國語詞匯,方言詞匯
foremost a.首要的,最佳的
[聯想詞]
cardinal n.1.紅衣主教 2.基數詞 a.最重要的,基本的
accommodate vt. 1.容納 2.向…提供住處(或膳宿) 3.使適應,順應
accommodation n. 1.住處,膳宿 2.適應,順應
autonomous a.1.自治的 2.獨立自主的
autonomy n.1.自治,自治權 2.人身自由,自主權
incumbent a.1.有責任的, 有義務的 2.現任的,在職的
intelligible a.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的
[聯想詞]
coherent a.1.條理清楚的,連貫的 2.一致的,協調的
On Custom
Custom has not been commonly regarded as a subject of any great moment. The inner workings of our own brains we feel to be uniquely worthy of investigation, but custom, we have a way of thinking, is behaviour at its most commonplace. As a matter of fact, it is the other way around. Traditional custom, taken the world over, is a mass of detailed behaviour more astonishing than what any one person can ever evolve in individual actions, no matter how aberrant. Yet that is a rather trivial aspect of the matter. The fact of first-rate importance is the predominant role that custom plays in experience and in belief, and the very great varieties it any manifest.
No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and the false will still have reference to his particular traditional customs. John Dewey has said in all seriousness that the part played by custom in shaping the behaviour of the individual as over against any way in which he can affect traditional custom, is as the proportion of the total vocabulary of this mother tongue over against those words of this own baby talk that taken up into the vernacular of this family. When one seriously studies the social orders that have had the opportunity to develop autonomously, the figure becomes no more than an exact and matter-of-fact observation. The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behaviour. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities. Every child that is born into his group will share them with him, and no child born into one on the opposite side of the globe can ever achieve the thousandth part. There is no social problem it is more incumbent upon us to understand than this of the role of custom. Until we are intelligent as to its laws and varieties, the main complicating facts of human life must remain unintelligible.
commonplace a.普通的,平庸的 n.尋常的事物,平庸的東西
[聯想詞]
commonwealth n. 1.英聯邦 2.聯邦,聯合體
customary a.習慣上的,合乎習俗的
aberrant a.偏離正路的,偏離常規的
trivial a.瑣碎的,不重要的
[聯想詞]
trifle n.瑣事,小事,無價值的東西 vi.嘲笑,輕視
petty a.1.小的,瑣碎的,不重要的 2.氣量小的,心狹窄的
predominant a.占主導地位的,顯著的
manifest a.明顯的,顯然的,明了的 vt. 1.顯示,表明,證明 2.使顯現,使顯露
pristine a.1.太古的,原始的 2.本來的,原來的
[聯想詞]
virginal a.1.處女的, 忠貞的 2.純潔的,沒有被玷污的
virgin n.處女,未婚女子 a.1.處女的,貞潔的 2.純潔的,未玷污的 3.未開發的,未經使用的
probe v.1.探索,查究,調查 2.用探針(或控測器)探查,探測 n.1.探針,探測器 2.探索,調查
[聯想詞]
grope vi. 1.暗中摸,摸索 2.探索,搜尋 vt.摸索(道路等)
query n.問題,疑問,詢問 v.1.對…表示疑問 2.問,詢問
quest n.尋求,搜索,追求
stereotype n.陳規,老套,固定的模式(或形象) vt.對…形成固定的看法
stereo a.立體聲的 n.立體聲,立體聲裝置
vernacular n.1.本國語 2.本國語詞匯,方言詞匯
foremost a.首要的,最佳的
[聯想詞]
cardinal n.1.紅衣主教 2.基數詞 a.最重要的,基本的
accommodate vt. 1.容納 2.向…提供住處(或膳宿) 3.使適應,順應
accommodation n. 1.住處,膳宿 2.適應,順應
autonomous a.1.自治的 2.獨立自主的
autonomy n.1.自治,自治權 2.人身自由,自主權
incumbent a.1.有責任的, 有義務的 2.現任的,在職的
intelligible a.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的
[聯想詞]
coherent a.1.條理清楚的,連貫的 2.一致的,協調的