Masses
Masses 是 mass 的复数形式，但在特定语境下有专门含义：
- 民众: 特指普通老百姓，通常指社会中没有权力和财富的绝大多数人（如 the uneducated masses）。
- 复数形式: 多个质量或团块。
- “The political leader promised to improve the lives of the masses.” (这位政治领导人承诺要改善民众的生活。)
- “Newspapers are often accused of trying to control the minds of the masses.” (报纸经常被指责试图控制大众的思想。)
- “There were masses of people waiting outside the stadium.” (体育场外有大批的人在等待。)
- mass: 源自拉丁语 massa，意为“团、块”。
无明显前缀。
“The masses” 这个词在政治讨论中经常带有阶级色彩，在马克思主义和社会主义理论中是一个核心术语。有时它带有某种精英主义的贬义，暗示普通民众是缺乏独立思考能力的群体。
- 单数形式: mass (除了“质量”，也可以指“弥撒”)
记住 Mass（大块）。The masses 就是社会中那“一大块”最基础的部分——普通人。
The elite living in their glass towers looked down at the masses in the streets below. To them, the masses were just a sea of gray faces. But one day, the masses stopped working. They stopped the trains and the factories. The elite quickly learned that without the strength of the masses, their glass towers were just empty shells.