Napoleon was a large，rather fierce【adj. 凶猛的；猛烈的；暴躁的】-looking Berkshire boar，the only Berkshire on the farm，not much of a talker，but with a reputation【n. 名声，名誉；声望】 for getting his own way. Snowball was a more vivacious【】adj. 活泼的；快活的；有生气的】 pig than Napoleon，quicker in speech and more inventive，but was not considered to have the same depth of character. All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers.
The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer，with very round cheeks，twinkling eyes，nimble movements，and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker，and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of speaking from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive【adj. 有说服力的；劝诱的，劝说的】. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.
These three had elaborated【adj. 精心制作的；详尽的；煞费苦心的】 old Major’s teachings into a complete system of thought，to which they gave the name of Animalism. Several nights a week，after Mr. Jones was asleep，they held secret meetings in the barn and expounded the principles of Animalism to the others. At the beginning they met with much stupidity and apathy. Some of the animals talked of the duty of the loyalty to Mr. Jones，whom they referred to as “master，” or made elementary remarks such as “Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone， we should starve to death.”
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