1. The Libido for the Ugly --H.L.Mencken
Unit 7
The Libido for the Ugly
--H.L.Mencken

2. Aims To know the author, Henry L. Mencken To understand the text
To learn the writing technique
To appreciate the language features

3. Teaching Contents I. Henry Louis Mencken II. Writing type
III. Detailed study of the text
IV. Organizational pattern
V. Language features

4. I. Henry Louis Mencken
His life
His views
His works
His style

7. H.L.Mencken -- his life 1880- 1956 American educator, author, critic
born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland
the son of German immigrant parents.
graduated from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at 16

8. H.L.Mencken -- his life became a reporter
then a drama critic and editor
central figure in American intellectual life during the 1920's
invented the word"booboisie", combining the two words "bourgeoisie" and "booby" (an awkward, foolish person).

9. H.L.Mencken -- his views hated narrow-minded religion.
believed strongly in intellectual freedom
hated commercialism.
not supported democracy because he considered the masses too ignorant and greedy to exercise it wisely.

10. H.L.Mencken – his works
Mencken's essays were received with delight or horror, depending on the reader's point of view, he was also highly respected for his literary criticism and he exerted a powerful influence on American literature.

11. H.L.Mencken – his works 1.The American Language 1918
2. Prejudices (6 vols)
3. Happy days
4. Newspaper Days autobiography
5. Heathen Days
6.25 Books and thousands of articles

12. The American Language
He was a leading scholar in the field of language. His monumental book "The American Language" is considered an outstanding work of philology.

13. The American Language
a) It examined the development of the English language in America,
b) It contrasted English and American expressions and usage.

14. The American Language
c) It explained the origin of many American idioms,
d) It traced the influence of immigrant languages on American English.

15. The American Language
He made a large contribution to the study of language and particularly encouraged scholarly study of the American branch of English.

16. H.L.Mencken -- his style
He is well-known for his bombastic style and acid tongue

17. He wrote with verve(strong feeling), gusto (eager enjoyment) and exaggeration. His exuberant and extravagant use of the language was so amusing and startling that even his most violently critical essays became acceptable to his readers.

18. He employed a huge vocabulary and liked to insert unusual or unexpected words, for surprise or comic effect, into otherwise normal sentences. Although his style is occasionally difficult to read, Mencken is still considered as one of the best and liveliest essayists of this century.

19. Bombastic style and acid language
exaggeration
hyperbole
over rhetorical pompousness
Language--- biting \sharp

20. II. Writing type It is typical of description
Description is painting a picture in words of a person, place, object and scene.

21. Description
It conveys the sensations, emotions and impressions that affect a writer experiencing a person, place, object or idea. The writer describes what he sees, hears, smells, feels or tastes, and it often includes his emotional reactions to the physical sensation of the experience.

22. The soul of description:
minute details, specific concrete words to appeal to the reader's sense of sight
smell
taste
hearing
touch

23. How to develop description?
By space order
Things can be described from a moving position through space
a fixed position in space

24. A. The description of a person
1) a person's appearance
2) what the person does, says, how he behaves to others to reveal the person's character

25. B. The description of a place
1) for its own sake, for the purpose of describing it, such as on a visit to famous scenic places
2) for the purpose of revealing the personality and character of a person
(A clean tidy room shows the occupant is an orderly person)

26. 3) for the purpose of creating a feeling or mood
The howling of a chilly wind
The falling of autumn leaves help to build up a sombre mood and increase the feeling of depression.

27. C. The description of an object We have to depend on our senses.
1) You need to mention:
size color shape taste
texture smell
---- create a clear visual image

28. 2) You need to tell how it is used if it is useful
What part it plays in a person's life if it is in some way related to him
But emphasis should be placed on only one aspect of the object, such as its most important characteristics.

29. D. The description of a scene
When describing a scene, the writer should try to create a dominant impression. So before he begins to write, he must make up his mind as to what effect he wants the description to achieve.

30. 1) objective \ impersonal
2 kinds of description:
1) objective \ impersonal
realistic
When topic is viewed from an objective point of view, the writer paints a verbal picture of the realistic world, like a camera.
factual words

31. 2) subjective \ personal
impressionistic \ emotional
The writer wants to share with the readers a kind of dominant impression. The dominant impression may be a sense impression or an emotion

32. III. Detailed study of the text
Writing type of this text
Main idea of the text
Language characteristic
Title of the text
Orgnizational pattern
Detailed study of each part

33. Writing type of this text
1. writing type: subjective, impressionistic or emotional description
The dominant impression --- ugliness
Westmoreland is the ugliest place not only in the US but also in the world.

34. Main idea of the text 2. Main idea:
Mencken doesn’t just berate and revile the ugliness of Westmoreland. He attacks the whole American race --- a race that loves ugliness for its own sake, that lusts to make the world intolerable; a race which hates beauty as it hates truth.

35. Language characteristic
3. language characteristics:
(1) abusive words
(2) over-rhetorical

36. Title of the text 4. the title:
libido: a specific word used in psycho-analysis,
a technical term in psychology. (Freudian)

37. Title of the text Libido: psychic energy generally
specifically that comprising the positive loving instincts
the sexual urge
strong desire, great passion, great lust

38. Title of the text Why does the writer choose this term?
-- in order to give his subject scientific coloring.

39. Title of the text
He wants to demonstrate that what he describes has psychological and scientific foundation. Usually, people love things beautiful, but a group of people in the US love things ugly for its own sake (because they are ugly) Why? There must be some scientific and psychological reasons.

40. Organizational pattern
Part 1 (para1~2)
the general impression of Westmoreland rich and ugly
Part 2 (para3~5)
the description of the design and color of the houses

41. Organizational pattern
Part 3 (para 6~8)
the reason and cause why the people in Westmoreland love such ugly houses
Part 4 (para 9): Conclusion
--Mencken is being very critical of the American race and the American society, which hates beauty as well it hates truth

42. Part 1 Para 1: Language points:
On a Winter day some years ago, coming out of…Westmoreland county.
1) Pittsburgh
2) Westmoreland

43. Paragraph 1 1). Pittsburgh:
A city in southwest Pennsylvania , It is one of the most important industrial cities of America, and a center of rail and river transportation. Termed the “Steel City” of “Smoky City”, it is the center of rich bituminous-coal region, producing also natural gas, oil and limestone, a large part of US steel and iron is produced here.

44. Paragraph 1
2) Westmoreland county: a county in Southwest Pennsylvnia. It is a mining and manufacturing region. Its county seat is Greensburg
3) the meaning of the sentence: One day in a winter some years ago, I started out from Pittsburgh and travelled through the coal and steel towns of Westmoreland county in a fast railway train,

45. Paragraph 1 2. I had never sensed its appalling desolation
1) appalling : causing fear, shocking, terrible, dreadful
Something that is appalling is so bad or unpleasant that it makes you feel disgust or dismay
Some of these people live in appalling conditions.

46. Paragraph 1 2) desolation – bleakness
A quality of a place which makes it seem empty and frightening
Empty of people
Lacking in comfort

47. Paragraph 1 3. Here was the very heart… 1) metaphor:
heart --- center of industrial America
2) hyperbole :
richest, grandest nation on earth
3) antithetical contrast

48. Paragraph 1
Here was the very heart of industrial America, the center of the most lucrative and characteristic activity.
---- The rigion around Pittsburgh was one of the most important industrial centers of America. Here was the center of the most profitable and characteristic American activity– industrial activity.(manufacture and produstion of goods as distinguished from agriculture)

49. Paragraph 1
the boast and pride of the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth.
---- The United States, the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth, both boasts about and feels proud of this center of industrial activity.

50. Paragraph 1
And here was a scene so dreadfully hideous, so intolerably bleak and …depressing joke.
---- The scene that met the eye was terribly ugly and the whole region was so miserable and gloomy that it was unbearable. This dreadful scene (in a region which produces through its industry the wealth to make America the richest amd grandest nation) makes all human endeavors to advance and improve their fortune appear as a terribly saddening joke.

51. Paragraph 1 4. Here was wealth beyond …of alley cats
alley cat: homeless, mongrel cat
--- people could not imagine or calculate the amount of wealth that was to be found in this region. And in this same region there were such terrible and disgusting houses that even homeless mongrel cats would feel ashamed to live in them.

52. Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1 is developed by contrasting the great wealth of this region to the abominable human habitations seen everywhere. The readers fail to understand why such rich people live in such ugly houses. The contrast , thus helps Mencken to make his point: ugliness is not due to poverty but to something innate in the American character--- a love of ugliness for its own sake, or as the title says, the libido for the ugly.

53. Paragraph 2
What I allude to is the unbroken and agonizing ugliness,…of every house in sight.
1）unbroken ugliness: ugliness that was continuous and uninterrupted. It was ugly no matter where you looked.
2) agonizing ugliness: ugliness that caused great pain (to people who saw it).
3) sheer revolting monstrousness: the absolute disgusting hideousness.
4) hyperbole , an exaggeration that is hard to believe . Not every house could have been that ugly

54. Paragraph 2 2. From East Liberty to …lacerate the eye.
1) lacerate: to hurt; to tear (the flesh, an arm, the face) roughly as with fingernails or broken glass.
2) – Every house a passenger saw when travelling by train from East Liberty to Greensburg, a distance of 25 miles, was so ugly that it offened and hurt his eyes.

55. Paragraph 2 3. … they were among the most pretentious
1) pretentious: self-important,
2) The houses that were specially ugly were also important building, claiming some distinction.
4. One blinked before them as one blinks before a man with his face shot away.
--- The ugliness of these houses was as gruesome as a face that has been shot and mangled.
(simile)

56. Paragraph 2 5. A few linger in memory, horrible even there:
-- Some of the houses remain in one’s memory and later when one pictures them in one’s mind they still appear to be horrible.

57. Paragraph 2 6. A crazy little church… a bare leprous hill.
1) crazy: (colloquial) foolish, wild, fantastic,; not sensible
2) Jeanette: a small city in Westmoreland county, 21 miles southeast of PIttsburgh.
3) dormer-window: a window set upright in a sloping roof
4) leprous: like a leprosy having ulcers and white scaly scabs.
5) -- An insensible little church just west of Jeannette was built like a dormer-window on a hillside that was bare and looked as repulsive as the skin of a leper. (simile)

58. Paragraph 2 7. a steel stadium like a … the line:
1) line: railway line
2) It was a large round oval structure made of steel and looked like a big rat trap.
The headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars was a bit further down the line than the church at Jeanette.
3) simile and ridicule

59. Paragraph 2 8. There was not… Greensburg yards:
1) yard: a railway center where trains are serviced, switched from track to track, etc
2) – when traveling from Pittsburgh to Greensburg, one did not see a single decent house.

60. Paragraph 2 9. There was not one … shabby. 1) double negatives
2) repetition of the same structure
3) to emphesize the two words “misshapen” and “shabby”
4) –Every house was misshapen, and every house was shabby.

61. Paragraph 2 Describe the houses more specifically:
1. What buildings did the writer describe in details?
1) churches, stores, warehouses etc.:
like a man’s face shot away
2) a little church:
like a dormer-window on the side of a bare leprous hill
3) the headquarters of the veterans of Foreign Wars: a steel stadium
like a huge rat-trap

62. Paragraph 2
2. What impression can you get?
shabby;
ugly;
hideous

63. Part 2
Paragraph 3
The country itself is not uncomely, despite the grime of the endless mills.
1) not uncomely:
--- quite comely, pleasant, fair to look at.
undserstatement.
2) --- The country itself is pleasant to look at, despite the sooty dirt spread by the innumerable mills in this region.

64. Paragraph 3:language points
2.It is thickly settled, but not noticeably overcrowded.
-- In this area a great number of people live close together, but it doesn’t give the impression of being overcrowded.
3. There is still plenty of room…solid blocks.
--- Even in the larger towns there are very few solid blocks of houses, and there are still many empty spaces on which new buildings can be set up.

65. Paragraph 3:language points
4. If there were architects of any professional sense or dignity in the region, they would have perfected a chalet to hug the hillside.
chalet: a type of Swiss house, build of wood with balconies and overhanging eaves(屋檐).

66. Paragraph 3 : Chalet
A chalet’s roof is steep in slope so that heavy snow would slide off them easily.

67. Paragraph 3: chalet

68. Paragraph 3: chalet

69. Paragraph 3:language points
2) Sarcasm (讥讽) : The “if”clause is not a real conditioanl clause. It sarcastically emphasizes the fact that there were no architects worthy its name in this region. There were no architects worthy of the honour or the high standards demanded by its profession.
3) If there had been architects of responsiblilty, they would naturally have built Swiss type houses which would lie low and clinging to the hillsides.

70. Paragraph 3:language points
5. They have taken as their model a brick set on end.
-- The model they follow in building their houses was a brick standing upright. All the houses they built looked like bricks standing upright.
6. This they have converted into … roof.
--- The brick-like houses were made of shabby thin wooden boards and their roofs were narrow and had little slope.

71. Paragraph 3:language points
7. And the whole they have set upon…piers.
1) pier: --- a pillar of stone, wood, metal etc. esp. as used to support a bridge, or the roof of a high building
2) -- And the whole house was set upon /or supported by thin and ridiculous looking brick columns.

72. Paragraph 3:language points
8. on the low sides…mud:
1) the meaning of the sentence:
Since these houses are built on the hillsides and set on brick piers, one side is high and the other is low. The low sides make them look like pigs burying themselves in the mud.
2) metaphor: comparing the houses to pigs wallowing(打滚) in the mud.

73. Paragraph 3:language points
9. And one and all they are streaked in grime, with dead and ecaematous patches of paint peeping through the streaks.
1) one and all : – all the houses, every house
2) streak: if something streaks a surface, it leaves long stripes or marks of a different color on the surface ;
e,g: His face is streaked with dirt.
n. --- line
e,g: Her hair had a very pretty grey streak in it.

74. Paragraph 3:language points
3）eczematous – of Eczema
Eczema is a skin disease which makes your skin itch and become rough and sore.(湿疹)
4）the meaning of the sentence:
All the houses here are covered with dirt, and some paint which is not covered up by the dirt looks like dried-up scales (鳞癣) formed on the skin by eczema.
(每栋房屋都积上一道道尘垢，在尘垢的间隙之间，还可隐约见到象湿疹的鳞癣一样的油漆斑点。)

75. Paragraph 3: questions 1.What is paragraph 3 about?
Paragraph 3 is about how people build the house on the hillside.
2. What is their model of building?
They have taken as their model a brick set on end.
3. How do people build the house on the hillside?
These houses are built on the hillside and set on brick piers, one side is high and the other is low. The low sides make them look like pigs burying themselves in the mud.

76. Paragraph 4: language points
But what brick!
elliptical sentence
But what terrible brick it was!
Such elliptical sentences often express shock, surprise, wonder, etc.

77. Paragraph 4: language points
2. When it has taken on the patina of the mills it is the colour of an egg long past all hope or caring.
1) patina: beautiful green or greenish-blue color. Here Mencken uses it ironically to describe the grime of the mills.
2) the meaning of the sentence:
When the brick is covered with the black soot of the mills, it takes on the color of rotten eggs.
3) ridicule: laughing scornfully at the color of the houses.
metaphor: the color of the house compared to the color of rotten eggs

78. Paragraph 4: language points
3. Red brick, even in a steel town, ages with some dignity.
-- Red brick, even in a steel town, looks quite respectable and dignified with the passing of time. Even in a steel town, old red bricks still look pleasant.
4. Let it become downright black…,it is still sightly.
Even when it becomes absolutely black, old red bricks still appear pleasing to the eye.

79. Paragraph 4: language points
5. … especially if its trimming …by the rain.
--- especially if the borders are of white stone, with black soot in the hollow places and the protruding parts washed clean by the rain.
6. But in Westmoreland …uremic yellow.
--- But it seems that people in Westmoreland prefer that yellow color produced by the disease uremia.
uremia: 尿毒症

80. Paragraph 4: language points
7. So they have the most loathsome towns and villages ever seen by mortal eye.
1) mortal eye: human eyes
2) loathsome: disgusting
3) hyperbole, exaggerating the ugliness of the towns and villages in Westmoreland county.

81. Paragraph 4: questions Q1. what is paragraph 4 about?
It is about the color of the houses.
Q2. what does Mencken say about the color of these houses?
According to the writer, the houses have the most loathsome color. The color of a fried egg when new and after some time they take on the color of uremic yellow.

82. Paragraph 5: language points
1.I award this championship only …prayer
1) championship: Mencken uses this word ironically to describe not the best but the worst.
2) prayer: asking God to help him to come to the correct decision.
3) Sarcasm and irony

83. 4) The meaning of the sentence
--- I have given Westmoreland the highest award for ugliness after having done a lot of hard work and research and after continuous praying.
--- I came to the conclusion that Westmoreland had the most loathsome towns and villages only after visiting and comparing many places not only in the United States but also in other countries and after constantly praying to God for guidance.

84. 2. I have seen the mill towns …Texas
－ I have seen the decaying and rotting mill towns of New England and the desert like the towns of Utah, Arizona and Texas. This shows he has travelled throughout the United States from the Northeast state of New England to the states in the Southwest on the border of Mexico, Arizona and Texas and the western state of Utah.

85. 3. I am familiar with the back streets…Newport News, Va.
He mentions some places of the towns he visited.
back streets: small, mean streets; streets in slum areas.
Newark --- in New Jersey
Brooklyn --- in New York
Chicago --- in Illinois
Camden --- New Jersey
Newport News --- Virginia

86. 4. Safe in a Pullman, I have whirled … hamlets of Georgia.
1) Pullman : a railroad car with private compartments or seats that can be made up into berths (a sleeping place) for sleeping. Its is so-called after US inventor, George M. Pullman ( )
2) Malarious:
-- malaria-stricken area , mosquito-infested
malria: a disease of hot countries, caused by a small living thing which enters the blood when the person is bitten by certain types of mosquito.

87. 3) hamlet: a small village
4) tidewater: village near the sea affected by the rise and fall of tides
5) the meaning of the sentence:
Travelling in a pullman car, I passed through the gloomy, desolate villages of Iowa and Kansas, and the malaria infested small seaside villages of Georgia.

88. 5. They are …in color, they are …in design.
1) People can’t find such terrible color and design in any other region.
2) imcomparable: beyond comparison; unequaled; matchless
　This word has the connotative meaning of superb excellence but Mencken uses it ironically to mean that the color and design were so bad that you couldn’t find any that was worse.

89. 6. It is as if some titanic and aberrant
… to the making of them.
aberrant: unusual and not normal, straying away from the right path
aberrant behavior/ideas
2) uncompromising: firm, steadfast , rigid When people are uncompromising , they are determined not to change their opinions or objective in any way
He was an ~ opponent of the war

90. 3) inimical: hostile, unfriendly,in opposition
4) genius :used ironically to mean an evil genius, having great ability to do evil
5) ingenuity: skills, intelligence
6) hell: the powers of evil or darkness
7) Hyperbole
irony

91. 8) The meaning of the sentence:
It is as if some genius of great poewer, who didn’t like to do the right things and who was an inflexible enemy of man, employed all the cleverness and skill of hell to build these ugly houses.
彷佛有什么与人类不共戴天的,能力超常的鬼才,费尽心机,动员魔鬼王国里的鬼斧神工才造出这些丑陋无比的房子.

92. 7.They show grotesqueries of ugliness that, in retrospect, become almost diabolical
1) grotesquery : n, strangeness, ugliness
grotesque:
① strange and unnatural so as to cause fear or be laughable
② very ugly in appearance == hideous
He was rather ~ to look at.

93. 2) in retrospect : looking back towards the past
His youth was more enjoyable in retrospect than it had actually been when he was going through it.
3) diabolical = diabolic: devilish; dreadful ; extremely unpleasant and annoying
It is used to describe something that people think is caused by or belongs to the devil.

94. 3) The meaning of the sentence:
When one looks back at these houses whose ugliness is so fantastic and bizarre that one feels they must be the work of the devil himself.
这些房屋不仅丑陋而且奇形怪状,使人回头一看,顿觉它们变成了一个个青面獠牙的恶魔.

95. Part 3 Paragraph 6 Are they so frightful …in them?
1) insensate: not feeling, not capable of feeling
2) brute: of or like an animal; having no consciousness or feelings
3) a rhetorical question for effect
4) Are the houses so frightfully ugly because the valley is inhabited by a lot of foreigners who are stupid and unfeeling like animals and who have no love of beauty in them?

96. ,
2. You will, in fact, find nothing of the sort in Europe— save perhaps in the more putrid parts of England.
save: conjunction: except, but
Putrid: decomposing; rotten and foul-smelling
In fact,you won’t find any abominable houses in Europe, except perhaps in some rotten and decaying area in England.

97. Your remarks border upon rudeness, sir!
3. But in American… upon passion.
1) pull: appeal, drawing force/ power
2) yeild: to give up, to surrender
3) border upon: be very much like, almost be
Your remarks border upon rudeness, sir!
先生，你的话简直是无礼。
The proposal borders upon the absurd.
该提议似乎荒唐可笑。

98. 4) But in the American village and small town, the appeal (drawing power/ desire) is always towards ugliness, and in that Westmoreland valley people have given in to this appeal eagerly or almost passionately
5) sarcasm

99. 4. It is incredible that mere ignorance should have achieved such masterpices of horror.
masterpiece :
a thing made or done with masterly skill. (irony)
Mencken uses “masterpiece” ironically to say that the houses were so horrible that no one could build worse ones.
2) It is hard to believe that people built such horrible houses just because they did not know what beautiful houses were like.

100. Paragraph 7 On certain levels … libido for the ugly. antithesis:
libido for the ugly/ libido for the beautiful
2) People in certain strata (social classes) of American society seem definitely to hunger after ugly things, which in other less Christian strata, people seem to long for beautiful things.

101. 3) Mencken mocks at the Christians and attacks their code of behavior
3) Mencken mocks at the Christians and attacks their code of behavior. The Chtristians are supposed to have the qualities of love, kindness, humility,etc, but Mencken thinks that they do not know what is beautiful. Pagans (异教徒, 无宗教信仰者) not Christians know what is beautiful.

102. 2. It is impossible to put down…to the obscene humor of the manufacturers.
state that sth is caused by sth
attribute to 归因于
I put his bad temper down to his recent illness.
His bad temper was put down to his unhappy childhood.

103. damage, spoil the appearance or surface
2) deface:
damage, spoil the appearance or surface
If people deface sth such as a wall or a notice, they deliberately damage it by writing or drawing unpleasant or offensive things on it.

104. -- you do sth unintentionally without thinking or without realizing
3) inadvertence: carelessness, heedlessness
-- you do sth unintentionally without thinking or without realizing
-- paying no attention to
-- by accident
4) obscene : nasty, dirty, lewd

105. 5) it is impossible to attribute the wallpaper that makes the average American home of the lower middle class look so ugly to mere oversight (carelessness) or to the indecent taste of the manufacturers.
(那些把一般美国中下层家庭的住宅打扮得象丑八怪的糊墙纸决不能归咎于选购者的疏忽大意,也不能归咎于制造商的粗俗的幽默感.)

106. 3. Such ghastly, it must be obvious, give a genuine delight to a certain type of mind.
-- It is clear that the horribly ugly designs on the wallpaper give real delight to a certain type of mind.

107. 4. They meet, in some unfathomable way, its obscure and unintelligible demands,
1) unfathomable --- fml 难以理解
if sth. is ~, it is so strange or complicated that it cannot be understood or explained.
2) These ugly things, in some way that people cannot understand, satisfy the hidden and unintelligible demands of this type of mind.
他们以某种莫明其妙的方式满足聊这种人的某种晦涩难懂的心理需要.

108. the love for ugliness of the people in Westmoreland is
5 . The taste for them is as enigmatical and yet as common as the taste for dogmatic thology and the poetry of Edgar A Guest.
1) enigmatic – mysterious, puzzling and difficult to understand 既不可思议，又不足为怪
the love for ugliness of the people in Westmoreland is
① mysterious to many people
② common, natural from their point of view

109. dogmatic --- opinionated, like a dogma(教条的) theology
--- the study of the nature of God; of God’s influence on people and of religion and religious beliefs

110. Paragraph 8
But they chose that clapboarded horror with their eyes open, and having chosen it, they let it mellow into its present shocing depravity.
with eyes open: with full understanding of what is involved.
mellow: to make full, rich, soft, gentle,etc.
Mencken uses this word ironically to mean: to let deteriorate, to let it go from bad to worse.
3) They chose, fully understanding what they were doing, this horrible house made of clapboard and then let it deteriorate to this present shocking, sinful condition.

111. 2. They like it as it is: beside it, the Parthenon would no doubt offend them.
A beautiful doric temple built in honor of the virgin (Parthenon)goddess Athena on the Acropolis in Athena around 5th century B.C.

113. 2) They like things ugly and do not know what is beautiful
2) They like things ugly and do not know what is beautiful. If one were to put a beautiful building like the Pathenon there, they would be offended.
3) sarcasm

114. 3. In precisely the same way the authors of the rat-trap stadium that I have mentioned made a deliberate choice.
Metaphor
The authors of the round oval structure that was like a rat-trap that I mentioned before also made a deliberate choice fully knowing what they were doing.

115. 4. They made it perfect in their own sight…on top of it.
1) ridicule
2) impossible: not capable of being endured, hard to tolerate.
3) They put a pentihouse on top of it, painted in a bright, conspicuous yellow color and thought it looked perfect but they only managed to make it absolutely intolerable.

116. 5. The effect is that of a fat woman with a black eye.
Metaphor, comparing the ugly rat-trap stadium eith an impossible yello pentihouse to a fat woman with a black eye.
black eye: s discoloration of the skin or flesh surrounding an eye, resulting from a sharp blow or contusion.

117. Part 4: conclusion for the purpose of ugliness
1. Here is something that the psychologists have so far neglected: the love of ugliness for its own sake, the lust to make the world intolerable.
for its own sake:because it is ugly
for the purpose of ugliness
2) So far psychologists haven’t paid sufficient attention to the problems of the love of ugliness for its own sake, and the lust to make the world intolerable.

118. 2. Its habitat is the United States.
habitat: the place where a person or thing is ordinarily found.
The place where this psychological attitude is found in the United States.

119. 3. Out of the “melting pot” emerges a race which hates beauty as it hates truth.
Melting pot: a country , place, etc, in which immigrants of various naitonalities and races are assimilated.
From the intermingling of different nationalities and races in the United States, emerges the American race which hates beauty as strongly as it hates truth.

120. 4, it arises and flourishes in obidience to biological laws, and not as a mere act of God.
The birth and development of this madness is governed by the scientific laws of biology and not due to some supernatural act of God.
There must be some biological reason for the existence and growth of this madness. It isn’t something done by God.

121. 5. What precisely are the terms of those laws?
terms: conditions or requirements, specific content
-- According to the terms of the agreements, British ships will be allowed to take a limited amount of fish each year.
根据协议条款的规定，英国船只每年的捕鱼量是有限的。
-- What are your sales terms?(你们的销售条件是什么？)
-- Cash ( 现金支付)
2) What are the conditions or repuirements of those laws?

122. 6. Let some honest …to the problem.
Privat Dozent: in German universities, an unsalaried lecturer paid only by his student’s fees.
Pathological sociology: science dealing with the diseases of human society
apply: to concerntrate one’s facultied on; empoly oneself diligently.
Let some lecturer in pathological sociology work diligently on this problem.