vain是一个雅思常考词汇，这个词的常用解释为a. 徒劳的, 无效果的; 自负的; 不尊敬的，这个词在很多英文原版小说中怎么应用呢，今天小编就带您了解一下。
在查尔斯·狄更斯的《大卫科波菲尔》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- 'It's a mercy that poor dear baby of amother of yours didn't live,' said my aunt, looking at meapprovingly, 'or she'd have been so vain of her boy by this time,that her soft little head would have been completely turned, ifthere was anything of it left to turn.'
-- It was in vain to take refuge in gruffness of speech.
-- You will be pleased with mymother- she is a little vain and prosy about me, but that you can 274forgive her- and she will be pleased with you.'
在简·奥斯汀的《爱玛》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- Many vain solicitudes would be prevented many awkwardnesses smoothed by it.
-- She could not enter the house again, could not be in the same room to which she had with such vain artifice retreated three months ago, to lace up her boot, without recollecting.
-- 'Well, Miss Woodhouse,' said Harriet, when they had quitted the house, and after waiting in vain for her friend to begin; 'Well, Miss Woodhouse, (with a gentle sigh,) what do you think of her? Is not she very charming?'
-- From Harriet's happening not to be at Hartfield, and her father's being pres-ent to engage Mr. Elton, she had a quarter of an hour of the lady's conversation to herself, and could composedly attend to her; and the quarter of an hour quite convinced her that Mrs. Elton was a vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and thinking much of her own importance; that she meant to shine and be very superior, but with manners 328 Emmawhich had been formed in a bad school, pert and familiar; that all her notions were drawn from one set of people, and one style of living; that if not foolish she was ignorant, and that her society would certainly do Mr. Elton no good.
-- It had not been forgotten before, but it had been soon acknowledged vain to attempt to fix a day.
在托马斯·哈代的《远离尘嚣》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- "She's a very vain feymell so 'tis said here and there."
在玛丽·雪莱的《弗兰肯斯坦》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents it-self to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight.
-- You come to us now to share a misery which nothing can alleviate; yet your presence will, I hope, revive our father, who seems sinking under his misfortune; and your persuasions will induce poor Elizabeth to cease her vain and tormenting self-accusations. Poor William!he was our darling and our pride!'
-- Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, hor-ror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.
-- 'Food, however, became scarce, and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger.
-- His power and threats were not omitted in my calculations; a creature who could exist in the ice caves of the glaciers and hide himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices was a being pos-sessing faculties it would be vain to cope with.
在玛格丽特·米切尔的《乱世佳人》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- At sixteen, thanks to Mammy and Ellen, she looked sweet, charming and giddy, but she was, in reality, self-willed, vain and obstinate.
-- She wasas charming a widow as she had been a girl, pleasant when she had her own way, obliging as long as it did notdiscommode her, vain of her looks and her popularity.
-- They were the ones who had waited three years in vain for furloughs andwhile they waited received ill-spelled letters from home: "We air hungry."
在查尔斯·狄更斯的《远大前程》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- It was quite in vain for me to endeavor to make him sensible that he ought to speak to Miss Havisham.
-- I had in vain tried everything producible that began with a T, from tar to toast and tub.
-- I was beginning to be rather vain of my knowledge, for I spent my birthday guineas on it, and set aside the greater part of my pocket-money for similar investment; though I have no doubt, now, that the little I knew was extremely dear at the price.
-- Herbert crossed his feet, looked at the fire with his head on one side, and having looked at it in vain for some time, looked at me because I didn't go on.
-- Chapter XLIIn vain should I attempt to describe the astonishment and disquiet of Herbert, when he and I and Provis sat down before the fire, and I recounted the whole of the secret.
在格林兄弟的《格林童话》里，有这样的句子出现：
-- It was in vain that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her father, for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the chamber door was locked, and she was left alone.
-- But this queen died; and the king soon married anoth-er wife, who became queen, and was very beautiful, but so vain that she could not bear to think that anyone could be handsomer than she was.
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