mindmap root((不育)) sterile implies inability to reproduce or to bear fruit through or as if through an organic defect: a ~ imagination. （sterile主要有2个含义 1、贫瘠，不促进生长not able to support growth，如sterile soil/fields贫瘠的土壤/田地 2、不育、无生育能力not able to produce children or young animals, etc，如sterile offspring不育子代，a sterile egg未受精卵，如sterile mind/imagination/debate/subject贫乏的思维/想象力/索然无味的辩论/主题，sterile needles无菌针头，表示clean and free of bacteria and germs清洁无细菌病菌；to sterilize绝育，如sterilize your cat/dog使你的狗/猫绝育） sterile和fertile几乎完全对应，这段注释是从fertile拷贝改写的 barren basically applicable to a female or a marriage that does not produce offspring, may imply a lack of normal or expected return or profit: a ~ victory. impotent applies to the male and implies inability to copulate or reproduce: an operation that made him temporarily ~. unfruitful may replace barren in any of its applications with the emphasis on not bearing fruit: un ~ enterprise. infertile is often interchanged with sterile: an ~ egg; but it may imply deficiency rather than absence of fertility: an ~ strain of beef cattle.