If you cannot bring yourself to do something, you cannot do it because you find it too upsetting, embarrassing, or disgusting. ---柯林斯词典
原句:
It is a testimony to Roth’s ________ that he could not quite bring himself to write a book as dull and flat as his original conception for his novel Everyman seemed to demand.
可改写为:
That Roth could not quite bring himself to write a book as dull
and flat as his original conception for his novel Everyman seemed to demand a testimony to his TALENT/GENIUS.
Roth没有在写EVERYMAN的时候按照最初设想的那样写的平淡无奇, 似乎是想要证明他的天份。
就可以理解ETS给的IRONY,就是R在写的时候,写的比原来想的好一点,想证明他的天分。如果选“deterioration” and “decline”,意思就很不通,现在比过去想的写的好,怎么能是下降或者退化呢。
that整体后面是主语从句,it是形式主语。
quite的意思是wholly,completelely,
everyman的意思是: the typical or ordinary person,所以everyman有两个含义,第一个是小说everyman,另外一个意思就是有everyman本身的意思“flat“ ordinary等等
整个意思就是,罗斯未能够写出一篇《everyman》字面上那样dull and flat的小说,这本身就证明了他的才华。
玩的是,一语双关,用中文的一语双关,就是你把everyman替换成中文的黄色,as dull and flat替换成pornographic。。。也是一个道理。