LESSON 156 A DYED-IN-THE-WOOL NONCONFORMIST
Alastair Greaves was a man of highly nontraditional and nonconformist views. He did not even pay nominal regard to society’s norms. What was normal to others most of the time was nothing but bother to him. Frankly, he considered himself to be a notch above the rest, and he was notable, if not to say notorious, for his aloofness, to say the very least. Even when he was sick, he would disdain his doctor’s advice, preferring instead of rely on some nostrum his grandmother had told him about, which he considered both healthful and nourishing.
Nonetheless, there were people who liked him, perhaps because they admired his sense of freedom. A group of them got together one day and decide to nominate him for some high civic office. When they approached him and requested him to be their nominee, he curtly rejected their offer: “I have no intention of ever becoming some kind of notable, and notably not in this city.
At that time, Alastair had already decided to get away from it all and lead a nomadic life. He was filled motto. He was sure he would find plenty of nourishment in the fields and forests, nourish himself on the goodness of berries and wild honey, in other words. He was fond of notating himself as a latter-day Jean-Jacques Rousseau, preferring to live in Mother Nature’s arms, working on a new notation of an oratorio he had written, to dwelling in a civilized place with hot and cold running water.
WORDS:
nomadic adj. 游牧的，流浪的
nominal adj. 名义上的，有名无实的
nominate vt. 提名；任命
nominee n. 被提名的人，被任命者
nonconformist adj. 不遵照传统生活的人
nonetheless adv. 虽然如此，但是
nontraditional adv. 不遵照传统生活的，反传统的
norm n. 标准
normal adj. 正常的；标准的
nostalgia n. 思家的，怀旧
nostrum n.秘方药，万灵丹
notable adj. 著名的，显要的
notably adv. 显著地，特别地
notate vt. 以符号表示，把…写成记号
notation n.符号
notch n. 刻痕；水平；等级
nourish vt. 养育，滋养
nourishing adj. 有营养的，滋养的
nourishment n. 营养品 |