本文摘选自英国作家奥尔德斯·赫胥黎的Selected Snobberies，讨论世上种种势利现象。作者最为世人所知的代表作是《美丽新世界》。

All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add : There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish.

1. snob n.势利小人，势利眼

相关信息：旧时在英国大学的学生名册中，贵族学生姓名后面标有NOB字样，是nobility（贵族）的简略形式；出身平民的普通学生姓名后标以s.nob.，是拉丁语sine nobilitate（非高贵出身）的缩略，这可能是snob的词源；如此snob的含义与“高贵”相反，从而是低贱的“势利小人”。

同根词

snob n.势利小人，势利眼（指人）

snobbery n. 势利，谄上欺下；摆绅士架子；势利的行为或语言（指行为）

snobbish adj. 势利眼的, 谄上傲下的, 恃才傲物的（相当于snobby)

snobbishness n.势利

snobbism n.势利

2. 这里的about相当于on，表示“对于，关于”

3. 整句翻译：人人都有势利之处。人们几乎很想加一句：任何东西都可引起人们的势利感。

But this would doubtless be an exaggeration. There are certain disfiguring and mortal diseases about which there has probably never been any snobbery. I cannot imagine, for example, that there are any leprosy-snobs（麻风病势利者）.

4. exaggeration n. 夸张；夸大之词；夸张的手法

同根词

exaggerate vt. 使扩大；使增大 vi. 夸大；夸张

exaggerated adj. 夸大的,言过其实的,夸张的

exaggeratedly adv.夸张地

5. disfigure vt. 使变丑；损毁…的外形；使大为减色

6. mortal adj. 凡人的；致命的；终有一死的；不共戴天的

此处意为“致命的”，意同deadly，fatal，lethal

deadly 指能致命或实际已致命的事物，也可指企图致死他人的人。

fatal 正式用词，强调死亡的不可避免性，多用于指伤或疾病等。

mortal 语气强，指导致死亡的直接原因。

lethal 指由于某物本身具有致命的性能。

7. 整句翻译：不过这一点无疑会是一种夸张。也许对某些毁容或致命的疾病从来没有使人感到势利，例如我无法想像会有麻风病势利者。

More picturesque diseases, even when they are dangerous, and less dangerous diseases, particularly when they are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance.

8. picturesque adj. 独特的；生动的；别致的；图画般的

9. 主语①More picturesque diseases, even when they （指more picturesque diseases) are dangerous, and 主语②less dangerous diseases, particularly when they （指less dangerous diseases） are the diseases of the rich, can be and very frequently are a source of snobbish self-importance. 并列主语①②

10. 整句翻译：一些纵使有危险但较为别致的疾病，以及不太危险的病，特别是富人爱得的病，能够并常常是使人感到势利、自以为了不起的根源。

I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs（肺结核势利者）, who thought that it would be romantic to fade away in the flower of youth, like Keats or Marie Bashkirtseff. Alas, the final stages of the consumptive fading are generally a good deal less romantic than these ingenuous young tubercle-snobs（结核势利者） seem to imagine.

11. adolescent adj. 青春期的；未成熟的 n. 青少年

同根词

adolescence n.青春期

adolesce vi.进入青春期；如青春期少年般行事

senescent adj. 衰老的；变老的；老化的

senescence n. 衰老

12. Ingenuous adj. 天真的；坦白的；正直的；朴实的

disingenuous adj. 虚伪的；不诚实的；不老实的；狡猾的

13. a good deal此处相当于much,作为副词形容less romantic。

14. 整句翻译：我遇见过好几位因患肺结核而有势利感的年轻人，他们觉得很像济慈或玛丽•巴什基尔采夫那样在青春妙龄时死去是很浪漫的一件事。哎呀，结核病晚期通常远远不像这些天真的年轻结核势利者想像得那么浪漫。

To anyone who has actually witnessed these final stages, the complacent poeticizings of these adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic. In the case of those commoner disease-snobs, whose claim to distinction is that they suffer from one of the maladies of the rich, exasperation is not tempered by very much sympathy.

15. complacent adj. 自满的；得意的；满足的

16. poeticize vt. 赋予诗意 （e发音/e/）

poet n. 诗人 （e发音/i/）

poetic adj. 诗的，诗歌的；诗意的；诗人的 n. 诗学，诗论 （e发音/e/）

poetry n. 诗；诗意，诗情；诗歌艺术 （e发音/i/）

17. exasperate vt. 恶化；使恼怒；激怒

exasperation n. 恼怒；恶化；惹人恼怒的事

18. pathetic adj. 可怜的，悲哀的；感伤的；乏味的

19.madaly n. 弊病；疾病

20. (the complacent poeticizings of形容these adolescents) these adolescents must seem as exasperating as they are profoundly pathetic.

21. whose claim to distinction is that they suffer from one of the maladies of the rich

22. 整句翻译：对任何一个亲眼目睹过晚期状态的人，这些少年的自我满足的浪漫诗情必定会显得既令人恼怒又深觉可怜。至于那些较常见疾病的势利者，由于得的是有钱人易得的病而自称与众不同，对他便没有多少同情来减少恼怒了。

People who possess sufficient leisure, sufficient wealth, not to mention sufficient health, to go travelling from spa to spa from doctor to fashionable doctor, in search of cures from problematical diseases (which, in so far as they exist at all. probably have their source in overeating) cannot expect us to be very lavish in our solicitude and pity.

23. lavish adj. 浪费的；丰富的；大方的

24. solicitude n. 焦虑；渴望；担心

25. problematical adj. 有疑问的；成问题的

26. 整句翻译：拥有充足的闲暇，充足的财富，更别说充足的健康的人们从一个矿泉疗养地旅行到又一个矿泉疗养地，从一个医生那里到又一个时髦的医生处去寻求对那些很难说是否存在的疾病的治疗（如果真有什么病的话，可能病因是吃得太多了），他们不可能指望我们会对他们慷慨地表示关怀和同情。