Chapter 2 - the following sentence spans pages 18 and 19
deportment, prospect, Holier Than Thou, effective
"That the man who is making the approach has had the same difficulty, that he obviously knows what he is talking about, that his whole
deportment shouts at the new prospect that he is a man with a real answer, that he has no attitude of Holier Than Thou,
nothing whatever except the sincere desire to be helpful; that there are no fees to pay, no axes to grind, no people to please, no lectures
to be endured-- are the conditions we have found most effective."
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Big Book - There Is A Solution - spans pages 18 - 19
In this sentence the words deportment, prospect and functions as a noun. The word effective functions as an adjective. While "holier-than-thou" is typically an adjective used to describe a self-righteous person, it functions here as a noun representing a specific state of mind or behavior. 2
Deportment describes the way someone behaves.
A new prospect in this context is a person or candidate that is regarded as likely to succeed.
The phrase 'Holier Than Thou' comes from the King James Bible, specifically Isaiah 65:5. Today, people use it to describe someone who behaves as if they believe they are morally better than others.
Bill found that the most successful way to work with an alcoholic was to approach the person with a genuine desire to help, without imposing any hidden requirements or expectations.
Definitions from Webster's 1930 edition. 3
Chapter 2 - page 19
take up their beds and walk
"After such an approach many take up their beds and walk again."
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Big Book - There Is A Solution - page 19
The phrase "take up their beds and walk" comes from the New Testament. It appears in the fifth chapter of John and again in the second chapter of Mark. In the story, Jesus meets a paralyzed man lying on a mat near the Pool of Bethesda in East Jerusalem. After healing him, Jesus tells the man to stand up and walk. This phrase has come to symbolize moving forward and living life fully.
Colored aquatint by L. Mayer, 1804 - Creative Commons CC0 License
oblivion
"Those of us who live in large cities are overcome by the reflection that close by hundreds are dropping into oblivion every day."
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Big Book - There Is A Solution - page 19
In this sentence oblivion functions as a noun. 2
In large cities we are overcome when we think about the hundreds that are forgotten every day.
Definitions from Webster's 1930 edition. 3
Chapter 2 - this sentence spans pages 19 - 20
"tolerance"
"Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people's shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions
are attitudes which make us more useful to others."
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Big Book - Bill's Story - spans pages 19 - 20
In the sentence "tolerance" functions as a noun. 2
A synonym, a word with a similar meaning, for tolerate is to allow. From the last chapter we learned the word prejudice is to pre-judge someone or something. This would be the opposite of tolerate or allow. To respect another enough to not pre-judge their views, makes us more useful to others.
Definitions from Webster's 1930 edition. 3
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Footnotes for page 17;
1Quotes from the Big Book on listed on this page are from the public domain version, in the United States, of the 2nd edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. Accessible at 12step.org
2Sentence diagramming, to determine the word usage within the sentence, was performed by CoreNLP at corenlp.run.
3Definitions used are from the Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language 1930 Edition.