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• hustler: a person who tries to earn money or
gain an advantage from any situation they are in, often by using dishonest or illegal method. Now in the U. S. the word means a prostitute, or streetwalker[美俚]妓女
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• keen: • a. sharp • b. (with the 5 senses, the mind) good,
strong, quick at understanding – My hearing is not as keen as it used
to be. – He has a keen brain.
Mark Twain
---Mirror of America
---
1
Para5
• Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers, gamblers, and thugs as well.
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• pห้องสมุดไป่ตู้rception: natural understanding .n
• perceive: realize, notice, see or hear sth. esp. when it is not obvious to other people.v He now perceived his error.
催促；硬挤
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• A gambler is someone who gambles regularly, for example in card games or horse racing.可数名词 赌徒；赌棍
• gamble 赌博；投机
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• thug: a person who is very violent and rough, esp. a violent criminal, hooligan, villain, or murderous ruffian恶棍；暴徒；强盗
• In later life Twain acknowledged that the river
had acquainted him with every possible type of
human nature
2
• . Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his
• hustle: push (sb) roughly and hurriedly;
jostle; shove The police hustled the thief out of the house and into their van. I was hustled into (making) a hasty decision.
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• keen perception: intense insight, understanding or knowledge gained by perceiving (observing)
writing, but he never wrote better than when he wrote of the people a-long the great stream.
3
Detailed study of the text
• teem with: to be full of. to
• From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are.
• His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it.
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• main current of pioneering humanity: (metaphor) people with pioneering spirit who forms the majority; the main part of them were people with devotion/dedication to open up new areas and prepare ways for others
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• PARA: Steamboat decks were filled with people of pioneering spirit and also lawless people or social outcasts such as hustlers, gamblers and thugs.
• ，gangster，robber，
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• “Flotsam” • ----the wreckage of a ship or its cargo
found floating on the sea. • hustlers (streetwalkers), gamblers and
thugs (criminals) -----social outcasts. • metaphorically used.
pour in torrent大量地出现，聚集
The water teems with fish
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• “the main current” • --- the main stream • the majority of the passengers board the
steamboat. • pioneers or people with