mean: suggests having repellent characteristics such as small-mindedness, ill temper, or cupidity, or it may stress inferiority and suggest poverty or penury: a ~, rundown neighborhood.     如mean ambition庸俗野心，追求名利, 如don't be mean to me不要对我这么刻薄    Cupid丘比特，cupidity贪婪=greed    （penury贫穷贫困指压抑难忍的缺少钱财资源suggests a cramping and oppressive lack of resources, especially of money，如given the penury of their lifestyle, few suspected their wealth他们生活方式显得很贫困，没人想到他们会很富有）


ignoble: suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit: ~ collectors who view artworks merely as investments.        （characteristic和quality都是特征，不过characteristic是中性，可以是优点如socialism with Chinese characteristics中国特色社会主义，也可以是缺点，如上一词条repellent characteristics让人厌恶的特征，而quality只用于优点，还表示质量）   （essential本质的必不可少的implies what belongs to the nature of a thing and cannot be removed without destroying the thing，如conflict is an essential element in drama矛盾是戏剧不可缺少的元素）


abject: may imply degradation, debasement, or servility: the ~ poverty of her youth.  （DE词根表示down向下，所以degrade和debase都表示降低，degrade用于身份，debase用于货币价值,参见2017-10-25 降格abase-humiliate）  （servility地位低，逢迎顺从implies low status and mean or fawning submissiveness，如a political boss and his entourage of servile hangers-on政治老板和他那一群谄媚的附庸）


sordid: is stronger than all of these in stressing dirtiness and physical or spiritual degradation or abjectness: a ~ story of murder and revenge.

mean低劣贫穷: 表示有让人厌恶的特征，如心眼小脾气差贪婪，或表示劣质贫穷，ignoble不高尚: 思想品格缺乏必要的高尚，abject低贱: 表示地位卑微或态度谄媚，sordid肮脏: 语气最重，强调物质或精神的肮脏低劣


记忆方法: 1）首字母MIAS想成死马take一个错误<==低劣        词根MIS表示错误不好wrong or bad，mistake错误,misfortune厄运


         2）低劣的意思是体面尊严不如一般人mean below the normal standards of human decency and dignity.