胡敏讀故事記托福詞匯068：新來的學生 The New Student
“She’s very stylish and she can speak several Latin dialects,” Jane commented. “Did you see her wearing that elegant diaphanous jacket today? The sheer material diffuses the light like a diamond. I heard that she is major in dietetics.”
“她很時髦，還能說幾種拉丁方言。”簡評論道。“今天你看見她穿的夾克衫了嗎?雅致又透明，那透明的料子散發(fā)出光來，像鉆石一樣亮。我聽說她是學營養(yǎng)學的。”
“She’s as pretty as a dictator’s wife,” replied Mary. “However, I’m more impressed with her dialectic method of thinking in philosophy class. She’s very clever. Yesterday, she explained the dichotomy between the active principle of yang and the passive principle of yin. I have no doubt she would make a good dietitian. She’s so slim. She must be on a special low-fat diet.”
“她和獨裁者的妻子一樣漂亮。”瑪麗回答，“但給我留下更深印象的是哲學課上她辯證的思維方式。她很聰明。昨天她解釋了‘陽’的主動原則與‘陰’的被動原則之間的本質對立。毫無疑問她會成為優(yōu)秀的營養(yǎng)學家。她很苗條，一定在吃一種特別的低脂肪食物。”
“I think she’s as ugly as a frog,” said Sally. “Maybe she can speak several dialects but she probably has very poor diction. If I had the dictatorial power in a dictatorship, I would dictate that she be kept in detention for appearing too pretentious. Besides, I’ve seen her eat a lot of junk food that is bad for digestion. My guess is that she doesn’t digest it. She probably does a lot of vomiting. Her digestive system must be in terrible shape.”
“我看她丑得像只青蛙。”莎莉說，“也許她能講幾種方言，但可能用詞不當。我如果擁有獨裁政治的專斷權，我會命令把她關起來，罪名是外表炫耀做作。此外，我還見她吃很多不利于消化的垃圾食品。我想她消化不了，可能會大量嘔吐。她的消化系統(tǒng)肯定出于紊亂狀態(tài)。”
“Sally, that was an unwarranted diatribe against her!” Jane said with a laugh. “You’re just jealous because the diameter of your stomach is probably twice that of her stomach. Remember the dictum our professor taught us, ‘diffidence leads to envy which gives rise to spite.’”
“莎莉，你諷刺她是無正當理由的。”簡大笑著說，“你只是嫉妒罷了，因為你肚子的直徑可能是她肚子的兩倍。記住教授告訴我們的名言：‘缺乏自信會導致嫉妒，進而產生怨恨。’”
Sally rolled her eyes. “I hate her because all the men I like are attracted to her. I’d be less diffident if the men wouldn’t differentiate between us all the time.”
莎莉眼珠子一轉，說：“我討厭她是因為所有我喜歡的男人都被她吸引去了。如果男人們一向區(qū)分不出我們兩，我就不會那么缺乏自信了。”
Words:
dialect n. 方言，土話
dialectic n. 辯證法;adj. 辯證的
diameter n. 直徑
diaphanous adj. 透明的，精致的
diatribe n. (口頭或書面猛烈的)譴責，諷刺
dichotomy n. 一分為二，本質對立
dictate vt. 命令，規(guī)定;決定，確定
dictator n. 獨裁者
dictatorial adj. 獨裁的，專斷的
dictatorship n. 獨裁政治，專政
diction n. 措辭，用語
dictum n. 聲明，名言
diet n. 飲食，食物;保健菜單;vi. 節(jié)食，忌食
dietitian n. 營養(yǎng)學家
dietetics n. 營養(yǎng)學
differentiate v. 區(qū)分，區(qū)別
diffidence n. 缺乏自信
diffident adj. 羞怯的，缺乏自信的
diffuse v. 擴散;散播; adj. 散開的，彌漫的
digest vt. 消化
digestion n. 消化
digestive adj. 消化的;助消化的
