本文摘選自英國作家奧爾德斯·赫胥黎的Selected Snobberies，討論世上種種勢利現象。作者最為世人所知的代表作是《美麗新世界》。
奧爾德斯·赫胥黎
All men are snobs about something. One is almost tempted to add : There is nothing about which men cannot feel snobbish.
1. snob n.勢利小人，勢利眼
相關信息：舊時在英國大學的學生名冊中，貴族學生姓名後面標有NOB字樣，是nobility（貴族）的簡略形式；出身平民的普通學生姓名後標以s.nob.，是拉丁語sine nobilitate（非高貴出身）的縮略，這可能是snob的詞源；如此snob的含義與“高貴”相反，從而是低賤的“勢利小人”。
同根詞
snob n.勢利小人，勢利眼（指人）
snobbery n. 勢利，諂上欺下；擺紳士架子；勢利的行為或語言（指行為）
snobbish adj. 勢利眼的, 諂上傲下的, 恃才傲物的（相當於snobby)
snobbishness n.勢利
snobbism n.勢利
2. 這裡的about相當於on，表示“對於，關於”
3. 整句翻譯：人人都有勢利之處。人們幾乎很想加一句：任何東西都可引起人們的勢利感。
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（麻風病勢利者）.
4. exaggeration n. 誇張；誇大之詞；誇張的手法
同根詞
exaggerate vt. 使擴大；使增大 vi. 誇大；誇張
exaggerated adj. 誇大的,言過其實的,誇張的
exaggeratedly adv.誇張地
5. disfigure vt. 使變醜；損毀…的外形；使大為減色
6. mortal adj. 凡人的；致命的；終有一死的；不共戴天的
此處意為“致命的”，意同deadly，fatal，lethal
deadly 指能致命或實際已致命的事物，也可指企圖致死他人的人。
fatal 正式用詞，強調死亡的不可避免性，多用於指傷或疾病等。
mortal 語氣強，指導致死亡的直接原因。
lethal 指由於某物本身具有致命的性能。
7. 整句翻譯：不過這一點無疑會是一種誇張。也許對某些毀容或致命的疾病從來沒有使人感到勢利，例如我無法想像會有麻風病勢利者。
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. 獨特的；生動的；別緻的；圖畫般的
9. 主語①More picturesque diseases, even when they （指more picturesque diseases) are dangerous, and 主語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. 並列主語①②
10. 整句翻譯：一些縱使有危險但較為別緻的疾病，以及不太危險的病，特別是富人愛得的病，能夠並常常是使人感到勢利、自以為了不起的根源。
I have met several adolescent consumption-snobs（肺結核勢利者）, 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（結核勢利者） seem to imagine.
11. adolescent adj. 青春期的；未成熟的 n. 青少年
同根詞
adolescence n.青春期
adolesce vi.進入青春期；如青春期少年般行事
senescent adj. 衰老的；變老的；老化的
senescence n. 衰老
12. Ingenuous adj. 天真的；坦白的；正直的；樸實的
disingenuous adj. 虛偽的；不誠實的；不老實的；狡猾的
13. a good deal此處相當於much,作為副詞形容less romantic。
14. 整句翻譯：我遇見過好幾位因患肺結核而有勢利感的年輕人，他們覺得很像濟慈或瑪麗•巴什基爾採夫那樣在青春妙齡時死去是很浪漫的一件事。哎呀，結核病晚期通常遠遠不像這些天真的年輕結核勢利者想像得那麼浪漫。
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. 自滿的；得意的；滿足的
16. poeticize vt. 賦予詩意 （e發音/e/）
poet n. 詩人 （e發音/i/）
poetic adj. 詩的，詩歌的；詩意的；詩人的 n. 詩學，詩論 （e發音/e/）
poetry n. 詩；詩意，詩情；詩歌藝術 （e發音/i/）
17. exasperate vt. 惡化；使惱怒；激怒
exasperation n. 惱怒；惡化；惹人惱怒的事
18. pathetic adj. 可憐的，悲哀的；感傷的；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. 整句翻譯：對任何一個親眼目睹過晚期狀態的人，這些少年的自我滿足的浪漫詩情必定會顯得既令人惱怒又深覺可憐。至於那些較常見疾病的勢利者，由於得的是有錢人易得的病而自稱與眾不同，對他便沒有多少同情來減少惱怒了。
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. 浪費的；豐富的；大方的
24. solicitude n. 焦慮；渴望；擔心
25. problematical adj. 有疑問的；成問題的
26. 整句翻譯：擁有充足的閒暇，充足的財富，更別說充足的健康的人們從一個礦泉療養地旅行到又一個礦泉療養地，從一個醫生那裡到又一個時髦的醫生處去尋求對那些很難說是否存在的疾病的治療（如果真有什麼病的話，可能病因是吃得太多了），他們不可能指望我們會對他們慷慨地表示關懷和同情。
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