很容易使人厌倦；而tedious还含有太长、太多、太慢的意思，指一个人讲话或写文章冗长而使人讨厌，例如：Weeding a garden is tedious work(在花园中除草是件令人厌倦的工作)。His sermons are tedious(他的说教冗长而令人生厌)。 7. mania (para. 3) n. 癖好；狂热 e.g. He has a mania for (possessing) rare books. 他有收集善本书的癖好。

8. harangue (para. 3) n. 长篇大论的讲话(或文章)；言辞激烈的讲话；慷慨激昂的演说 e.g. The coach delivered his regular half-time harangue to the team. 教练在中场休息时，像往常一样慷慨激昂地向队员作指导。

9. volubility (para. 3) n. 健谈；滔滔不绝 e.g. With such exhausting volubility, he went on a harangue on the corrupt politics. 他滔滔不绝、慷慨激昂地抨击政治的腐败，令人精疲力竭。 voluble adj. 健谈的；滔滔不绝的 10. innocent of (para. 6) 没有；缺乏 e.g. Her face was innocent of make-up. 她的脸不施粉黛。 11. groveling (para. 6) adj. 卑躬屈膝的 e.g. John made a groveling apology to his wife for his long-standing infidelity with his colleague. 约翰长期与其同事保持婚外情关系，为此他低声下气地向他的妻子道歉。 grovel vi. 匍匐；趴；卑躬屈膝 12. benefactor (para. 6) n. 捐助人，赞助人 e.g. The wealthy benefactor who paid for the child's operation prefers to remain anonymous. 为孩子的手术支付费用的富有的捐助人希望隐去姓名。 13. mortally (para. 6) adv. 极度地；非常 e.g. The lieutenant fell to the ground, mortally wounded. 中尉受了致命重伤倒在地上。

14. recipient (para. 6) n. 接受者 e.g. The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the newspaper. 获奖者的名字登在报纸上。 辨析 recipient和receiver 指人(即“接受者”)应该用recipient，而receiver一般仅指物，例如：电话听筒(telephone receiver)、卫星接收器(satellite receiver)等。 15. pressing (para. 7) adj. 紧迫的；迫切的 e.g. The conference did not seem of pressing importance. 这次会议似无非开不可的迫切性。 16. unscrupulous (para. 8) adj. 肆无忌惮的；无道德原则的；无耻的 e.g. The man was murdered for learning too much about the unscrupulous practices of a large pharmaceutical company. 这个男子因为知道太多关于一家大型制药公司的无耻行径而被谋杀。 辨析 unscrupulous和unprincipled 这两个词均指无道德心的，或不关心道德的。unscrupulous用以形容人，或其言行，指其所为不顾是否合乎道义或正义，非良心谴责或荣誉感等所能加以制止者，例如：He would stoop to any unscrupulous trick to evade the draft(他不择手段地逃避兵役)。

unprincipled指无德行的，缺乏德性的，或不讲道义的，例如：Only an unprincipled lawyer would defend that criminal(只有不讲道德的律师才肯替那个罪犯辩护)。 scrupulous adj. 有道德原则的 17. infidelity (para. 8) n. 不忠 e.g. He made no secret of his many infidelities. 他并未隐藏他的许多不忠行为。 fidelity n. 忠诚，忠贞 18. inquire (para. 8) vt. 打听；询问 e.g. I am writing to inquire whether you have any positions available. 我写信来询问你们是否有空缺的职位。 1) inquire后面不能跟指人的词，例如：不能说I have inquired him about the matter，而应该在inquired后面加上of。这句话中的inquire是不及物动词。下面两句话中的inquire是及物动词： I have inquired of him the address of his brother. I have inquired of him whether he could help me. 2) 在inquire his name，inquire the time / way / address / price / reason, etc.等表达方式中inquire是及物动词。请注意下列两句话的差异： We must inquire the reason. (我们必须问清理由。) We must inquire into the reason. (我们必须调查这个理由[看它是否能成立]。)

19. pull wires (para. 9) 利用私人关系(走后门) e.g. Jack pulled wires and got us a room at the crowded hotel. 杰克通过私人关系走了后门才帮我们在客满的宾馆里弄到了一间房间。 pull wires(或strings)源自提线木偶戏。这种木偶通过位于上方的演员之手的错综复杂的线来控制肢体活动，能做出各种各样的动作。而操纵木偶的演员在幕后，不与观众见面。因此人们借此喻指“在暗中操纵；走后门”。 20. uncalled(-)for (para. 9) adj. 不必要的，多此一举的 e.g. I consider your remarks quite uncalled for. 我觉得你的话纯粹多此一举。 call for 需要；要求 21. caricature (para. 9) n. 漫画 e.g. Caricatures of celebrities appear daily in the newspapers. 讽刺名流的漫画天天在报纸上出现。 22. burlesque (para. 9) vt. (嘲弄地)模仿，(通过模仿)取笑 e.g. The caricatures he drew always emphasized a personal weakness of the people he burlesqued. 他的漫画一向强调他所嘲弄的人的弱点。 23. libretto (para. 9) n. (歌剧、音乐剧等的)歌词 e.g. The composer's work was heavily influenced by Wagner's libretto for his opera \这位作曲家的作品深受瓦格纳的歌剧《罗恩格林》歌词的影响。

24. on record (para. 10) 记录在案；在历史记录中 e.g. This is the coldest winter on record. 这是有气象记录以来最冷的冬天。

25. stupendous (para. 11)

adj. 惊人的，了不起的；令人惊叹的 e.g. Niagara Falls is a stupendous sight. 尼亚加拉大瀑布是一个壮丽的景观。 26. utter (para. 11) vt. 说，讲 e.g. The patient uttered a cry of pain. 病人发出一声痛苦的叫声。 utterance n. 发声；言语 27. unquestionably (para. 12) adv. 无可争议地；无可置疑地 e.g. Sakow is unquestionably the most remarkable woman writing today. 毫无疑问，萨卡是当今文坛最杰出的女性。 28. compromise (para. 13) vi. 妥协；作可耻的让步 e.g. He is too honorable to compromise with his principles. 他为人刚正不阿，绝不违背原则。 29. conceive (para. 13) vt. 构想出；设想 e.g. Such a badly conceived scheme is sure to fail. 构思如此拙劣的计划必然要失败。 conception n. 想法；构想 30. downright (para. 13) adv. 真正地；相当；完全地 e.g. He was downright rude to me. 他对我实在太粗鲁了。 31. torment (para. 13) n. 折磨；痛苦 e.g. Just living in the same house with him was a torment. 和他生活在同一个屋子里是一种折磨。