新概念英语第四册65-04

两个繁文缛节:pen-wiper/ the reading

14. self-satisfied 自我满足的,自鸣得意的；

modernity 时髦,现代性；

15. administration 监护；administer ；

sleeping draught(pill)安眠药水；

administration sth to someone 让某人吃什么；

from which 由于；

I'm tired from standing.(我由于站而特别累.)我累得站不住了.

which 指 draught;

alternative=replacement;替换；

if capital punishment ..be retained.虚拟语气；

Moreover, it was more merciful to launch the condemned man into eternity twenty-four hours after he was sentenced than to keep him shivering on the brink of that dread gulf for nearly three weeks. 14Hanging is an atrociously archaic way of killing a human being and the self-satisfied modernity of the electric chair is just as atrocious. The administration of a strong sleeping draught to the condemned man every night from which one night he does hot awake, seems a more civilized alternative to our present barbarous procedure, if capital punishment through the influence of backward minds be retained.