variety, visage, cri de coeur, Canopus

20世紀80年代，萊辛放下她審視人類心理的顯微鏡，拿起指向遙遠星球和星系的望遠鏡，出版了《阿哥斯的老人星：檔案》(Canopus in Argos: Archives)，那是一系列以外太空為背景的幻想小說，受蘇菲神秘派信仰啟發。雖然這些小說含有一些抒情描寫的段落——這與她一貫的實用主義文風很不一致——但是這些故事幾乎完全沒有她早期作品中對人類學的強烈興趣。有些故事是關於善惡的道德寓言；還有些是喬納森·斯威夫特(Jonathan Swift)式的社會政治諷刺故事。萊辛1999年的小說《瑪莎和丹恩》(Mara and Dann)採用了類似的手法，這個寓言故事以遙遠的未來為背景，講述的是冰河紀毀滅人類文明幾百萬年之後的事。

Until now, experiments to try to determine the biological basis of beauty have been of the please-look-at-these-photographs-and-answer-some-questions variety. Some useful and not necessarily obvious results have emerged. But what makes for a beautiful visage, and why, may have been discovered accidentally on a Russian fur farm http://econ.st/1jiOdUd

The startling visage, called “Silence,” born as a cri de coeur against the censorship of the period after the Cultural Revolution in China, was shown briefly during an artistic spring in Beijing in 1979 and 1980, before being banished.

Adam Dean for The New York Times

A work called “Silence" was supposed to be a star attraction, but the center did not submit it to the authorities for review, believing it would be rejected.

Canopus

Pronunciation: /kəˈnəʊpəs/

Astronomy

• the second-brightest star in the sky, and the brightest in the constellation Carina. It is a supergiant, visible only to observers in the southern hemisphere.

Origin:

Latin, from Greek Kanōpus, the name of the pilot of the fleet of King Menelaus in the Trojan War

cri de cœur

Syllabification: (cri de cœur)

Pronunciation: /ˌkrē də ˈkər/

noun (plural cris de cœur /ˌkrē(z)/)

• a passionate appeal, complaint, or protest.

Origin:

early 20th century: French, literally 'cry from the heart'

visage

Syllabification: (vis·age)

Pronunciation: /ˈvizij/

noun

[usually in singular] literary

• a person’s face, with reference to the form or proportions of the features:an elegant, angular visage
• a person’s facial expression:there was something hidden behind his visage of cheerfulness
• the surface of an object presented to view:the moonlit visage of the port’s whitewashed buildings

Derivatives

visaged

adjective

[in combination]:a stern-visaged old man

Origin:

Middle English: via Old French from Latin visus 'sight', from videre 'to see'

variety

Syllabification: (va·ri·e·ty)

Pronunciation: /vəˈrīətē/

Translate variety | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

noun (plural varieties)

• 1the quality or state of being different or diverse; the absence of uniformity, sameness, or monotony:it’s the variety that makes my job so enjoyable
• (a variety of) a number or range of things of the same general class that are different or distinct in character or quality:the center offers a variety of leisure activities
• a thing that differs in some way from others of the same general class or sort; a type:fifty varieties of fresh and frozen pasta
• a form of television or theater entertainment consisting of a series of different types of acts, such as singing, dancing, and comedy:in 1937 she did another season of variety [as modifier]:a variety show

• 2 Biology a taxonomic category that ranks below subspecies (where present) or species, its members differing from others of the same subspecies or species in minor but permanent or heritable characteristics. Varieties are more often recognized in botany, in which they are designated in the style Apium graveolens variety dulce. Compare with form (sense 3 of the noun) and subspecies.
• a cultivated form of a plant. See cultivar.
• a plant or animal that varies in some trivial respect from its immediate parent or type.

Phrases

variety is the spice of life

proverb new and exciting experiences make life more interesting.

Origin:

late 15th century: from French variété or Latin varietas, from varius (see various)