Apes, not angels

Related Words:

1. consumerist 消費(fèi)主義者
2. status signal 身份符號 e.g. If we want to change our consumerist society, we need greener status signals that appeal to our animal instincts.
3. conspicuous-consuming culture 炫耀性消費(fèi)文化
4. obessed adj 癡迷的，celebrity-obsessed 明星粉 e.g. The boy is obessed with video games.
5. ostentatious = too obviously showing your money, possessions, or power, in an attempt to make other people notice.
6. tempting 吸引人的，誘人的
7. untangle 解開
8. semiotics 符號學(xué)
9. convetable adj 令人羨慕的

Vocabulary:

1. censure = strong?criticism?or?disapproval e.g. His?dishonest?behaviour?came under?severe?censure.
2. acclaim = praise v&n 贊揚(yáng)，稱贊 e.g. Despite the?critical?acclaim, the?novel?did not?sell?well.
3. infamous = notorious 臭名昭著的 e.g. The?list?included?the infamous George Drake, a?double?murderer.
4. excess adj/n 過量的，超過 e.g1. An excess of enthusiasm is not always a good thing. e.g.2 The company's losses are in excess of(more than) 5 million.
5. preoccupation n 專注，令人全神貫注 e.g. Lately, his preoccupation?with?football?had?caused?his?marks?at?school?to?slip.
6. snag = hurdle = obstacle = disadvantage e.g. The?drug?is very?effective?- the?only?snag is that it cannot be?produced?in?large?quantities.
7. exhort = to?strongly?encourage?or?try?to?persuade?someone to do something eg. These armed groups started exhorting refugees to stay in their camps.
8. have it both ways 兼得 e.g. You cannot have it both ways-you either work longer and get paid more, or have more leisure time and get paid less.
9. unclaimed 無人認(rèn)領(lǐng)的，無主的 e.g. unclaimed?prizes
10. decouple 分離，脫鉤 e.g. Some?people?hope?to decouple?migration?policy?from?party?politics.

Nice words:

1. This is a tempting idea, but it has one major snag: when environmentalists exhort us to be careless about buying cars and clothes, and instead base our lifestyle choices on the planet's limited resources, they ignore an elmental part of our homind nature: preoccupation with status.
2. Rather than try to conquer our evolved desire for status, we must switch the symbols used to display it. Luckily, status semiotics are malleable.
3. It is virtual worlds where status symbols have the greatest potential to radically cut material consumption. Your online status and virtual possessions could become more important than anything you own in the real world.