昨天的答案：

1. b   2. f   3. d   4. c   5. g   6. h   7. a   8. e

今天学习MOR/MORT和TROPH两个词根。

MOR/MORT comes from Latin words meaning "to die" and "death." A mortuary is a place where dead bodies are kept until burial, and a postmortem examination is one conducted on a recently death body. The Latin phrase "Memento mori" means "Remember that you must die"; so a memento mori is the name we give to a reminder of death; the skulls you can find carved on gravestones in old cemeteries are examples.

mortality. (1) The quality or state of being alive and therefore certain to die. (2) The number of deaths that occur in a particular time or place.

例句：Mortality rates were highest among those who those who lived closest to the plant.

住在距离植物最近的那些人的死亡率最高。

Young people tend to assume they will never die; but a person's sense of his or her mortality generally increases year by year, and often increases greatly after a serious accident or illness. Still, many people refuse to change behaviors that would improve their chances of living into old age. Mortality rates are calculated by government agencies, insurance companies, and medical researchers. Infant mortality rates provide a good indicator of a country's overall health; in recent years, the rates in countries like Iceland, Singapore, and Japan have been much better than in the U.S.

moribund. (1) In the process of dying or approaching death. (2) Inactive or becoming outmoded.

例句：Church attendance in Britain has fallen in recent years, but no one would say the Anglican church is moribund.

近年来，英国的教堂出席率下降，但没人会说英国国教教堂已经奄奄一息。

Moribund is still sometimes used in its original literal sense of "approaching death," but it's much more often used to describe things. When the economy goes bad, we hear about moribund mills and factories and towns; the economy itself may even be called moribund. Critics may speak of the moribund state of poetry, or lament the moribund record or newspaper industry.

amortize. To pay off (something such as a mortgage) by making small payments over a period of time.

例句：For tax purposes, they close to amortize most of the business's start-up costs over a three-year period.

出于税收目的，他们接近于在三年内分期偿还大部分企业的启动成本。

Amortize is most common as a legal term, and many of us first come across it when we take out a mortgage or start a business. Financial officers and tax lawyers can choose how to legally amortize various types of business expenses, some of which may seem much better than others. In mortgage amortization, much of what you pay month by month is actually interest on the mortgage debt, especially at the beginning. So what does amortizing have to do with death? Basically, to amortize a debt means to "kill" it slowly over time.

mortify. (1) To subdue or deaden (the body) especially by self-discipline or self-inflicted pain. (2) To embarrass greatly.

例句：Our 14-year-old is mortified whenever he sees us dancing, especially if any of his friends is around.

我们14岁的时候，每当他看到我们跳舞时都会感到尴尬，特别是任何他的朋友在身边时。

Mortify once actually meant "put to death," but no longer. Its "deaden" sense is most familiar to us in the phrase "mortifying the flesh," which refers to a custom once followed by devout Christians, who would starve themselves, deprive themselves of every comfort, and even whip themselves in order to subdue their bodily desires and punish themselves for their sins. But the most common use of mortify today is the "humiliate" sense; its connection with death is still apparent when we speak of "dying of embarrassment."

TROPH comes from the Greek trophe, meaning "nourishment." This particular troph- root doesn't show up in many everyday English word (the troph- in words like trophy, apostrophe, and catastrophe has a different meaning), but instead tends to appear in scientific terms.

atrophy. (1) Gradual loss of muscle or flesh, usually because of disease or lack of use. (2) A decline or degeneration.

例句：After a month in a hospital bed, my father required a round of physical therapy to deal with his muscular atrophy.

在医院躺了一个月后，我父亲需要一轮物理治疗来对付他的肌肉萎缩症。

From its literal Greek roots, atrophy would mean basically "lack of nourishment." Although the English word doesn't usually imply any lack of food, it always refers to a wasting away. Those who have been bedridden for a period of time will notice that their muscles have atrophied. And muscular atrophy is a frequent result of such disease as cancer and AIDS. We also use atrophy in a much more general sense. After being out of work a few years, you may find your word skills have atrophied; someone who's been living an isolated life may discover the same thing about his or her social skills; and a democracy can atrophy when its citizens cease to pay attention to how they're being governed.

hypertrophy. (1) Excessive development of an organ or part. (2) Exaggerated growth or complexity.

例句：Opponents claimed that the Defense Department, after years of being given too much money by the Congress, was now suffering from hypertrophy.

反对者声称，国防部多年来被国会拨款太多，现在遭受“肥大症”的痛苦。

When the prefix hyper-, "above, beyond", is joined to -trophy, we get the opposite of atrophy. An organ or part becomes hypertrophic when it grows so extremely that its function is affected. Muscle hypertrophy is common in men who do strength training, and is often harmless; but extreme muscle hypertrophy generally involves taking steroids, which can do great damage to the body. Hypertrophy of the heart sounds as if it might be healthy, but instead it's usually a bad sign. As the example sentence shows, hypertrophy, like atrophy, can be used in nonmedical ways as well.

dystrophy. Any of several disorders involving the nerves and muscles, especially muscular dystrophy.

例句：The most common of the muscular dystrophies affects only males, who rarely live to the age 40.

最常见的肌营养不良症只影响到男性，那种很少活到40岁的男性。

Since the prefix dys- means "bad" or "difficult", dystrophy is always a negative term. Originally it meant "a condition caused by improper nutrition," but today the term is instead used for a variety of other conditions, particularly conditions that noticeably affect the muscles. Of the many types of muscular dystrophy, the best known is Duchenne's, a terrible disease that strikes about one in 3,300 males and produces severe wasting of the muscles. However, the muscular dystrophies generally affect many other organs and systems as well. And the other dystrophies, which tend to involve the eyes or hands, don't much resemble the muscular dystrophies.

eutrophication. The process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients.

例句：Local naturalists are getting worried about the increasing eutrophication they've been noticing in the lake.

当地的博物学家越来越担心他们注意到的湖中日益增加的富营养化现象。

Eutrophication, which comes from the Greek eutrophos, "well-nourished", has become a major environmental problem. Nitrates and phosphates, especially from lawn fertilizers, run off the land into rivers and lakes, promoting the growth of algae(水藻) and other plant life, which take oxygen from the water, causing the death of fish and mollusks(软体动物). Cow manure(粪肥), agricultural fertilizer, detergents, and human waste are often to blame as well. In the 1960s and '70s, the eutrophication of Lake Erie advanced so extremely that it became known as the "dead lake." And many areas of the oceans worldwide--some more than 20,000 square miles in extent--have become "dead zones," where almost no life of any kind exists.

Quiz:

Fill in each blank with the correct letter:

a. eutrophication   b. atrophy   c. hypertrophy   d. dystrophy   e. moribund   f. mortify   g. mortality   h. amortize

1. By the 1960s, most of the textile industry had moved south, and mill town seemed ________.

2. In muscular ______, the wasting begins in the legs and advances to the arms.

3. Most people don't spend much time thinking about their ________ until they're in their thirties and forties.

4. They should be able to _______ their mortgage completely by the time they retire.

5. Muscular _________ as extreme as that is only possible with steroids.

6. Some religious sects still engage in acts designed to _______ the flesh.

7. By then the pond had almost entirely filled in with plant life, a result of the _______ caused by the factory's discharges.

8. In the four weeks before he has the cast taken off, his muscles will _____ quite a lot.