The explosive noise of the railway trucks seemed to augment11 Decoud’s irritation12. He muttered something to himself, then began to talk aloud in curt13, angry phrases thrown at the silence of the two women. They did not look at him at all; while Don Jose, with his semi-translucent, waxy14 complexion15, overshadowed by the soft grey hat, swayed a little to the jolts16 of the carriage by the side of Mrs. Gould.
“This sound puts a new edge on a very old truth.”
Decoud spoke17 in French, perhaps because of Ignacio on the box above him; the old coachman, with his broad back filling a short, silver-braided jacket, had a big pair of ears, whose thick rims18 stood well away from his cropped head.
“Yes, the noise outside the city wall is new, but the principle is old.”
He ruminated19 his discontent for a while, then began afresh with a sidelong glance at Antonia —
“No, but just imagine our forefathers20 in morions and corselets drawn21 up outside this gate, and a band of adventurers just landed from their ships in the harbour there. Thieves, of course. Speculators, too. Their expeditions, each one, were the speculations23 of grave and reverend persons in England. That is history, as that absurd sailor Mitchell is always saying.”
“Mitchell’s arrangements for the embarkation24 of the troops were excellent!” exclaimed Don Jose.
“That! — that! oh, that’s really the work of that Genoese seaman25! But to return to my noises; there used to be in the old days the sound of trumpets26 outside that gate. War trumpets! I’m sure they were trumpets. I have read somewhere that Drake, who was the greatest of these men, used to dine alone in his cabin on board ship to the sound of trumpets. In those days this town was full of wealth. Those men came to take it. Now the whole land is like a treasure-house, and all these people are breaking into it, whilst we are cutting each other’s throats. The only thing that keeps them out is mutual28 jealousy29. But they’ll come to an agreement some day — and by the time we’ve settled our quarrels and become decent and honourable30, there’ll be nothing left for us. It has always been the same. We are a wonderful people, but it has always been our fate to be”— he did not say “robbed,” but added, after a pause —“exploited!”
Mrs. Gould said, “Oh, this is unjust!” And Antonia interjected, “Don’t answer him, Emilia. He is attacking me.”
“You surely do not think I was attacking Don Carlos!” Decoud answered.
And then the carriage stopped before the door of the Casa Gould. The young man offered his hand to the ladies. They went in first together; Don Jose walked by the side of Decoud, and the gouty old porter tottered31 after them with some light wraps on his arm.
Don Jose slipped his hand under the arm of the journalist of Sulaco.
“The Porvenir must have a long and confident article upon Barrios and the irresistibleness of his army of Cayta! The moral effect should be kept up in the country. We must cable encouraging extracts to Europe and the United States to maintain a favourable32 impression abroad.”
Decoud muttered, “Oh, yes, we must comfort our friends, the speculators.”
The long open gallery was in shadow, with its screen of plants in vases along the balustrade, holding out motionless blossoms, and all the glass doors of the reception-rooms thrown open. A jingle33 of spurs died out at the further end.
Basilio, standing34 aside against the wall, said in a soft tone to the passing ladies, “The Senor Administrador is just back from the mountain.”
In the great sala, with its groups of ancient Spanish and modern European furniture making as if different centres under the high white spread of the ceiling, the silver and porcelain35 of the tea-service gleamed among a cluster of dwarf36 chairs, like a bit of a lady’s boudoir, putting in a note of feminine and intimate delicacy37.
Don Jose in his rocking-chair placed his hat on his lap, and Decoud walked up and down the whole length of the room, passing between tables loaded with knick-knacks and almost disappearing behind the high backs of leathern sofas. He was thinking of the angry face of Antonia; he was confident that he would make his peace with her. He had not stayed in Sulaco to quarrel with Antonia.
Martin Decoud was angry with himself. All he saw and heard going on around him exasperated38 the preconceived views of his European civilization. To contemplate2 revolutions from the distance of the Parisian Boulevards was quite another matter. Here on the spot it was not possible to dismiss their tragic39 comedy with the expression, “Quelle farce40!”
The reality of the political action, such as it was, seemed closer, and acquired poignancy41 by Antonia’s belief in the cause. Its crudeness hurt his feelings. He was surprised at his own sensitiveness.
“I suppose I am more of a Costaguanero than I would have believed possible,” he thought to himself.
His disdain42 grew like a reaction of his scepticism against the action into which he was forced by his infatuation for Antonia. He soothed43 himself by saying he was not a patriot44, but a lover.
The ladies came in bareheaded, and Mrs. Gould sank low before the little tea-table. Antonia took up her usual place at the reception hour — the corner of a leathern couch, with a rigid45 grace in her pose and a fan in her hand. Decoud, swerving46 from the straight line of his march, came to lean over the high back of her seat.
For a long time he talked into her ear from behind, softly, with a half smile and an air of apologetic familiarity. Her fan lay half grasped on her knees. She never looked at him. His rapid utterance47 grew more and more insistent48 and caressing49. At last he ventured a slight laugh.
“No, really. You must forgive me. One must be serious sometimes.” He paused. She turned her head a little; her blue eyes glided50 slowly towards him, slightly upwards51, mollified and questioning.
“You can’t think I am serious when I call Montero a gran’ bestia every second day in the Porvenir? That is not a serious occupation. No occupation is serious, not even when a bullet through the heart is the penalty of failure!”
Her hand closed firmly on her fan.
“Some reason, you understand, I mean some sense, may creep into thinking; some glimpse of truth. I mean some effective truth, for which there is no room in politics or journalism53. I happen to have said what I thought. And you are angry! If you do me the kindness to think a little you will see that I spoke like a patriot.”
She opened her red lips for the first time, not unkindly.
“Yes, but you never see the aim. Men must be used as they are. I suppose nobody is really disinterested55, unless, perhaps, you, Don Martin.”
“God forbid! It’s the last thing I should like you to believe of me.” He spoke lightly, and paused.
She began to fan herself with a slow movement without raising her hand. After a time he whispered passionately56 —
“Antonia!”
She smiled, and extended her hand after the English manner towards Charles Gould, who was bowing before her; while Decoud, with his elbows spread on the back of the sofa, dropped his eyes and murmured, “Bonjour.”
The Senor Administrador of the San Tome mine bent58 over his wife for a moment. They exchanged a few words, of which only the phrase, “The greatest enthusiasm,” pronounced by Mrs. Gould, could be heard.
“Yes,” Decoud began in a murmur57. “Even he!”
“This is sheer calumny,” said Antonia, not very severely59.
“You just ask him to throw his mine into the melting-pot for the great cause,” Decoud whispered.
Don Jose had raised his voice. He rubbed his hands cheerily. The excellent aspect of the troops and the great quantity of new deadly rifles on the shoulders of those brave men seemed to fill him with an ecstatic confidence.
Charles Gould, very tall and thin before his chair, listened, but nothing could be discovered in his face except a kind and deferential60 attention.
Meantime, Antonia had risen, and, crossing the room, stood looking out of one of the three long windows giving on the street. Decoud followed her. The window was thrown open, and he leaned against the thickness of the wall. The long folds of the damask curtain, falling straight from the broad brass61 cornice, hid him partly from the room. He folded his arms on his breast, and looked steadily62 at Antonia’s profile.
The people returning from the harbour filled the pavements; the shuffle63 of sandals and a low murmur of voices ascended64 to the window. Now and then a coach rolled slowly along the disjointed roadway of the Calle de la Constitucion. There were not many private carriages in Sulaco; at the most crowded hour on the Alameda they could be counted with one glance of the eye. The great family arks swayed on high leathern springs, full of pretty powdered faces in which the eyes looked intensely alive and black. And first Don Juste Lopez, the President of the Provincial65 Assembly, passed with his three lovely daughters, solemn in a black frock-coat and stiff white tie, as when directing a debate from a high tribune. Though they all raised their eyes, Antonia did not make the usual greeting gesture of a fluttered hand, and they affected66 not to see the two young people, Costaguaneros with European manners, whose eccentricities67 were discussed behind the barred windows of the first families in Sulaco. And then the widowed Senora Gavilaso de Valdes rolled by, handsome and dignified68, in a great machine in which she used to travel to and from her country house, surrounded by an armed retinue69 in leather suits and big sombreros, with carbines at the bows of their saddles. She was a woman of most distinguished70 family, proud, rich, and kind-hearted. Her second son, Jaime, had just gone off on the Staff of Barrios. The eldest71, a worthless fellow of a moody72 disposition73, filled Sulaco with the noise of his dissipations, and gambled heavily at the club. The two youngest boys, with yellow Ribierist cockades in their caps, sat on the front seat. She, too, affected not to see the Senor Decoud talking publicly with Antonia in defiance74 of every convention. And he not even her novio as far as the world knew! Though, even in that case, it would have been scandal enough. But the dignified old lady, respected and admired by the first families, would have been still more shocked if she could have heard the words they were exchanging.
“Did you say I lost sight of the aim? I have only one aim in the world.”
She made an almost imperceptible negative movement of her head, still staring across the street at the Avellanos’s house, grey, marked with decay, and with iron bars like a prison.
“And it would be so easy of attainment,” he continued, “this aim which, whether knowingly or not, I have always had in my heart — ever since the day when you snubbed me so horribly once in Paris, you remember.”
A slight smile seemed to move the corner of the lip that was on his side.
“You know you were a very terrible person, a sort of Charlotte Corday in a schoolgirl’s dress; a ferocious75 patriot. I suppose you would have stuck a knife into Guzman Bento?”
She interrupted him. “You do me too much honour.”
“At any rate,” he said, changing suddenly to a tone of bitter levity76, “you would have sent me to stab him without compunction.”
“Ah, par1 exemple!” she murmured in a shocked tone.
“Well,” he argued, mockingly, “you do keep me here writing deadly nonsense. Deadly to me! It has already killed my self-respect. And you may imagine,” he continued, his tone passing into light banter77, “that Montero, should he be successful, would get even with me in the only way such a brute78 can get even with a man of intelligence who condescends79 to call him a gran’ bestia three times a week. It’s a sort of intellectual death; but there is the other one in the background for a journalist of my ability.”
“If he is successful!” said Antonia, thoughtfully.
“You seem satisfied to see my life hang on a thread,” Decoud replied, with a broad smile. “And the other Montero, the ‘my trusted brother’ of the proclamations, the guerrillero — haven’t I written that he was taking the guests’ overcoats and changing plates in Paris at our Legation in the intervals80 of spying on our refugees there, in the time of Rojas? He will wash out that sacred truth in blood. In my blood! Why do you look annoyed? This is simply a bit of the biography of one of our great men. What do you think he will do to me? There is a certain convent wall round the corner of the Plaza81, opposite the door of the Bull Ring. You know? Opposite the door with the inscription82, Intrada de la Sombra.’ Appropriate, perhaps! That’s where the uncle of our host gave up his Anglo-South-American soul. And, note, he might have run away. A man who has fought with weapons may run away. You might have let me go with Barrios if you had cared for me. I would have carried one of those rifles, in which Don Jose believes, with the greatest satisfaction, in the ranks of poor peons and Indios, that know nothing either of reason or politics. The most forlorn hope in the most forlorn army on earth would have been safer than that for which you made me stay here. When you make war you may retreat, but not when you spend your time in inciting83 poor ignorant fools to kill and to die.”
His tone remained light, and as if unaware84 of his presence she stood motionless, her hands clasped lightly, the fan hanging down from her interlaced fingers. He waited for a while, and then —
“I shall go to the wall,” he said, with a sort of jocular desperation.
Even that declaration did not make her look at him. Her head remained still, her eyes fixed85 upon the house of the Avellanos, whose chipped pilasters, broken cornices, the whole degradation86 of dignity was hidden now by the gathering87 dusk of the street. In her whole figure her lips alone moved, forming the words —
“Martin, you will make me cry.”
He remained silent for a minute, startled, as if overwhelmed by a sort of awed88 happiness, with the lines of the mocking smile still stiffened89 about his mouth, and incredulous surprise in his eyes. The value of a sentence is in the personality which utters it, for nothing new can be said by man or woman; and those were the last words, it seemed to him, that could ever have been spoken by Antonia. He had never made it up with her so completely in all their intercourse90 of small encounters; but even before she had time to turn towards him, which she did slowly with a rigid grace, he had begun to plead —
“My sister is only waiting to embrace you. My father is transported with joy. I won’t say anything of my mother! Our mothers were like sisters. There is the mail-boat for the south next week — let us go. That Moraga is a fool! A man like Montero is bribed91. It’s the practice of the country. It’s tradition — it’s politics. Read ‘Fifty Years of Misrule.’”
“Leave poor papa alone, Don Martin. He believes —”
“I have the greatest tenderness for your father,” he began, hurriedly. “But I love you, Antonia! And Moraga has miserably92 mismanaged this business. Perhaps your father did, too; I don’t know. Montero was bribeable. Why, I suppose he only wanted his share of this famous loan for national development. Why didn’t the stupid Sta. Marta people give him a mission to Europe, or something? He would have taken five years’ salary in advance, and gone on loafing in Paris, this stupid, ferocious Indio!”
“The man,” she said, thoughtfully, and very calm before this outburst, “was intoxicated93 with vanity. We had all the information, not from Moraga only; from others, too. There was his brother intriguing94, too.”
“Oh, yes!” he said. “Of course you know. You know everything. You read all the correspondence, you write all the papers — all those State papers that are inspired here, in this room, in blind deference95 to a theory of political purity. Hadn’t you Charles Gould before your eyes? Rey de Sulaco! He and his mine are the practical demonstration96 of what could have been done. Do you think he succeeded by his fidelity97 to a theory of virtue98? And all those railway people, with their honest work! Of course, their work is honest! But what if you cannot work honestly till the thieves are satisfied? Could he not, a gentleman, have told this Sir John what’s-his-name that Montero had to be bought off — he and all his Negro Liberals hanging on to his gold-laced sleeve? He ought to have been bought off with his own stupid weight of gold — his weight of gold, I tell you, boots, sabre, spurs, cocked hat, and all.”
She shook her head slightly. “It was impossible,” she murmured.
“He wanted the whole lot? What?”
She was facing him now in the deep recess99 of the window, very close and motionless. Her lips moved rapidly. Decoud, leaning his back against the wall, listened with crossed arms and lowered eyelids100. He drank the tones of her even voice, and watched the agitated101 life of her throat, as if waves of emotion had run from her heart to pass out into the air in her reasonable words. He also had his aspirations102, he aspired104 to carry her away out of these deadly futilities of pronunciamientos and reforms. All this was wrong — utterly105 wrong; but she fascinated him, and sometimes the sheer sagacity of a phrase would break the charm, replace the fascination106 by a sudden unwilling107 thrill of interest. Some women hovered108, as it were, on the threshold of genius, he reflected. They did not want to know, or think, or understand. Passion stood for all that, and he was ready to believe that some startlingly profound remark, some appreciation109 of character, or a judgment110 upon an event, bordered on the miraculous111. In the mature Antonia he could see with an extraordinary vividness the austere112 schoolgirl of the earlier days. She seduced113 his attention; sometimes he could not restrain a murmur of assent114; now and then he advanced an objection quite seriously. Gradually they began to argue; the curtain half hid them from the people in the sala.
Outside it had grown dark. From the deep trench115 of shadow between the houses, lit up vaguely116 by the glimmer117 of street lamps, ascended the evening silence of Sulaco; the silence of a town with few carriages, of unshod horses, and a softly sandalled population. The windows of the Casa Gould flung their shining parallelograms upon the house of the Avellanos. Now and then a shuffle of feet passed below with the pulsating118 red glow of a cigarette at the foot of the walls; and the night air, as if cooled by the snows of Higuerota, refreshed their faces.
“We Occidentals,” said Martin Decoud, using the usual term the provincials119 of Sulaco applied120 to themselves, “have been always distinct and separated. As long as we hold Cayta nothing can reach us. In all our troubles no army has marched over those mountains. A revolution in the central provinces isolates121 us at once. Look how complete it is now! The news of Barrios’ movement will be cabled to the United States, and only in that way will it reach Sta. Marta by the cable from the other seaboard. We have the greatest riches, the greatest fertility, the purest blood in our great families, the most laborious122 population. The Occidental Province should stand alone. The early Federalism was not bad for us. Then came this union which Don Henrique Gould resisted. It opened the road to tyranny; and, ever since, the rest of Costaguana hangs like a millstone round our necks. The Occidental territory is large enough to make any man’s country. Look at the mountains! Nature itself seems to cry to us, ‘Separate!’”
She made an energetic gesture of negation123. A silence fell.
“Oh, yes, I know it’s contrary to the doctrine124 laid down in the ‘History of Fifty Years’ Misrule.’ I am only trying to be sensible. But my sense seems always to give you cause for offence. Have I startled you very much with this perfectly125 reasonable aspiration103?”
She shook her head. No, she was not startled, but the idea shocked her early convictions. Her patriotism126 was larger. She had never considered that possibility.
“It may yet be the means of saving some of your convictions,” he said, prophetically.
She did not answer. She seemed tired. They leaned side by side on the rail of the little balcony, very friendly, having exhausted127 politics, giving themselves up to the silent feeling of their nearness, in one of those profound pauses that fall upon the rhythm of passion. Towards the plaza end of the street the glowing coals in the brazeros of the market women cooking their evening meal gleamed red along the edge of the pavement. A man appeared without a sound in the light of a street lamp, showing the coloured inverted128 triangle of his bordered poncho129, square on his shoulders, hanging to a point below his knees. From the harbour end of the Calle a horseman walked his soft-stepping mount, gleaming silver-grey abreast130 each lamp under the dark shape of the rider.
“Behold the illustrious Capataz de Cargadores,” said Decoud, gently, “coming in all his splendour after his work is done. The next great man of Sulaco after Don Carlos Gould. But he is good-natured, and let me make friends with him.”
“Ah, indeed!” said Antonia. “How did you make friends?”
“A journalist ought to have his finger on the popular pulse, and this man is one of the leaders of the populace. A journalist ought to know remarkable131 men — and this man is remarkable in his way.”
“Ah, yes!” said Antonia, thoughtfully. “It is known that this Italian has a great influence.”
The horseman had passed below them, with a gleam of dim light on the shining broad quarters of the grey mare132, on a bright heavy stirrup, on a long silver spur; but the short flick133 of yellowish flame in the dusk was powerless against the muffled-up mysteriousness of the dark figure with an invisible face concealed134 by a great sombrero.
Decoud and Antonia remained leaning over the balcony, side by side, touching135 elbows, with their heads overhanging the darkness of the street, and the brilliantly lighted sala at their backs. This was a tete-a-tete of extreme impropriety; something of which in the whole extent of the Republic only the extraordinary Antonia could be capable — the poor, motherless girl, never accompanied, with a careless father, who had thought only of making her learned. Even Decoud himself seemed to feel that this was as much as he could expect of having her to himself till — till the revolution was over and he could carry her off to Europe, away from the endlessness of civil strife136, whose folly137 seemed even harder to bear than its ignominy. After one Montero there would be another, the lawlessness of a populace of all colours and races, barbarism, irremediable tyranny. As the great Liberator138 Bolivar had said in the bitterness of his spirit, “America is ungovernable. Those who worked for her independence have ploughed the sea.” He did not care, he declared boldly; he seized every opportunity to tell her that though she had managed to make a Blanco journalist of him, he was no patriot. First of all, the word had no sense for cultured minds, to whom the narrowness of every belief is odious139; and secondly140, in connection with the everlasting141 troubles of this unhappy country it was hopelessly besmirched142; it had been the cry of dark barbarism, the cloak of lawlessness, of crimes, of rapacity143, of simple thieving.
He was surprised at the warmth of his own utterance. He had no need to drop his voice; it had been low all the time, a mere144 murmur in the silence of dark houses with their shutters145 closed early against the night air, as is the custom of Sulaco. Only the sala of the Casa Gould flung out defiantly146 the blaze of its four windows, the bright appeal of light in the whole dumb obscurity of the street. And the murmur on the little balcony went on after a short pause.
“But we are labouring to change all that,” Antonia protested. “It is exactly what we desire. It is our object. It is the great cause. And the word you despise has stood also for sacrifice, for courage, for constancy, for suffering. Papa, who —”
“Ploughing the sea,” interrupted Decoud, looking down.
There was below the sound of hasty and ponderous147 footsteps.
“Your uncle, the grand-vicar of the cathedral, has just turned under the gate,” observed Decoud. “He said Mass for the troops in the Plaza this morning. They had built for him an altar of drums, you know. And they brought outside all the painted blocks to take the air. All the wooden saints stood militarily in a row at the top of the great flight of steps. They looked like a gorgeous escort attending the Vicar-General. I saw the great function from the windows of the Porvenir. He is amazing, your uncle, the last of the Corbelans. He glittered exceedingly in his vestments with a great crimson149 velvet150 cross down his back. And all the time our saviour151 Barrios sat in the Amarilla Club drinking punch at an open window. Esprit fort — our Barrios. I expected every moment your uncle to launch an excommunication there and then at the black eye-patch in the window across the Plaza. But not at all. Ultimately the troops marched off. Later Barrios came down with some of the officers, and stood with his uniform all unbuttoned, discoursing152 at the edge of the pavement. Suddenly your uncle appeared, no longer glittering, but all black, at the cathedral door with that threatening aspect he has — you know, like a sort of avenging153 spirit. He gives one look, strides over straight at the group of uniforms, and leads away the general by the elbow. He walked him for a quarter of an hour in the shade of a wall. Never let go his elbow for a moment, talking all the time with exaltation, and gesticulating with a long black arm. It was a curious scene. The officers seemed struck with astonishment154. Remarkable man, your missionary155 uncle. He hates an infidel much less than a heretic, and prefers a heathen many times to an infidel. He condescends graciously to call me a heathen, sometimes, you know.”
Antonia listened with her hands over the balustrade, opening and shutting the fan gently; and Decoud talked a little nervously156, as if afraid that she would leave him at the first pause. Their comparative isolation157, the precious sense of intimacy158, the slight contact of their arms, affected him softly; for now and then a tender inflection crept into the flow of his ironic159 murmurs160.
“Any slight sign of favour from a relative of yours is welcome, Antonia. And perhaps he understands me, after all! But I know him, too, our Padre Corbelan. The idea of political honour, justice, and honesty for him consists in the restitution161 of the confiscated162 Church property. Nothing else could have drawn that fierce converter of savage163 Indians out of the wilds to work for the Ribierist cause! Nothing else but that wild hope! He would make a pronunciamiento himself for such an object against any Government if he could only get followers164! What does Don Carlos Gould think of that? But, of course, with his English impenetrability, nobody can tell what he thinks. Probably he thinks of nothing apart from his mine; of his ‘Imperium in Imperio.’ As to Mrs. Gould, she thinks of her schools, of her hospitals, of the mothers with the young babies, of every sick old man in the three villages. If you were to turn your head now you would see her extracting a report from that sinister165 doctor in a check shirt — what’s his name? Monygham — or else catechising Don Pepe or perhaps listening to Padre Roman. They are all down here to-day — all her ministers of state. Well, she is a sensible woman, and perhaps Don Carlos is a sensible man. It’s a part of solid English sense not to think too much; to see only what may be of practical use at the moment. These people are not like ourselves. We have no political reason; we have political passions — sometimes. What is a conviction? A particular view of our personal advantage either practical or emotional. No one is a patriot for nothing. The word serves us well. But I am clear-sighted, and I shall not use that word to you, Antonia! I have no patriotic166 illusions. I have only the supreme167 illusion of a lover.”
He paused, then muttered almost inaudibly, “That can lead one very far, though.”
Behind their backs the political tide that once in every twenty-four hours set with a strong flood through the Gould drawing-room could be heard, rising higher in a hum of voices. Men had been dropping in singly, or in twos and threes: the higher officials of the province, engineers of the railway, sunburnt and in tweeds, with the frosted head of their chief smiling with slow, humorous indulgence amongst the young eager faces. Scarfe, the lover of fandangos, had already slipped out in search of some dance, no matter where, on the outskirts168 of the town. Don Juste Lopez, after taking his daughters home, had entered solemnly, in a black creased169 coat buttoned up under his spreading brown beard. The few members of the Provincial Assembly present clustered at once around their President to discuss the news of the war and the last proclamation of the rebel Montero, the miserable170 Montero, calling in the name of “a justly incensed171 democracy” upon all the Provincial Assemblies of the Republic to suspend their sittings till his sword had made peace and the will of the people could be consulted. It was practically an invitation to dissolve: an unheard-of audacity172 of that evil madman.
The indignation ran high in the knot of deputies behind Jose Avellanos. Don Jose, lifting up his voice, cried out to them over the high back of his chair, “Sulaco has answered by sending to-day an army upon his flank. If all the other provinces show only half as much patriotism as we Occidentals —”
A great outburst of acclamations covered the vibrating treble of the life and soul of the party. Yes! Yes! This was true! A great truth! Sulaco was in the forefront, as ever! It was a boastful tumult174, the hopefulness inspired by the event of the day breaking out amongst those caballeros of the Campo thinking of their herds175, of their lands, of the safety of their families. Everything was at stake. . . . No! It was impossible that Montero should succeed! This criminal, this shameless Indio! The clamour continued for some time, everybody else in the room looking towards the group where Don Juste had put on his air of impartial176 solemnity as if presiding at a sitting of the Provincial Assembly. Decoud had turned round at the noise, and, leaning his back on the balustrade, shouted into the room with all the strength of his lungs, “Gran’ bestia!”
This unexpected cry had the effect of stilling the noise. All the eyes were directed to the window with an approving expectation; but Decoud had already turned his back upon the room, and was again leaning out over the quiet street.
“This is the quintessence of my journalism; that is the supreme argument,” he said to Antonia. “I have invented this definition, this last word on a great question. But I am no patriot. I am no more of a patriot than the Capataz of the Sulaco Cargadores, this Genoese who has done such great things for this harbour — this active usher-in of the material implements177 for our progress. You have heard Captain Mitchell confess over and over again that till he got this man he could never tell how long it would take to unload a ship. That is bad for progress. You have seen him pass by after his labours on his famous horse to dazzle the girls in some ballroom178 with an earthen floor. He is a fortunate fellow! His work is an exercise of personal powers; his leisure is spent in receiving the marks of extraordinary adulation. And he likes it, too. Can anybody be more fortunate? To be feared and admired is —”
“And are these your highest aspirations, Don Martin?” interrupted Antonia.
“I was speaking of a man of that sort,” said Decoud, curtly179. “The heroes of the world have been feared and admired. What more could he want?”
Decoud had often felt his familiar habit of ironic thought fall shattered against Antonia’s gravity. She irritated him as if she, too, had suffered from that inexplicable180 feminine obtuseness181 which stands so often between a man and a woman of the more ordinary sort. But he overcame his vexation at once. He was very far from thinking Antonia ordinary, whatever verdict his scepticism might have pronounced upon himself. With a touch of penetrating182 tenderness in his voice he assured her that his only aspiration was to a felicity so high that it seemed almost unrealizable on this earth.
She coloured invisibly, with a warmth against which the breeze from the sierra seemed to have lost its cooling power in the sudden melting of the snows. His whisper could not have carried so far, though there was enough ardour in his tone to melt a heart of ice. Antonia turned away abruptly183, as if to carry his whispered assurance into the room behind, full of light, noisy with voices.
The tide of political speculation22 was beating high within the four walls of the great sala, as if driven beyond the marks by a great gust184 of hope. Don Juste’s fan-shaped beard was still the centre of loud and animated185 discussions. There was a self-confident ring in all the voices. Even the few Europeans around Charles Gould — a Dane, a couple of Frenchmen, a discreet186 fat German, smiling, with down-cast eyes, the representatives of those material interests that had got a footing in Sulaco under the protecting might of the San Tome mine — had infused a lot of good humour into their deference. Charles Gould, to whom they were paying their court, was the visible sign of the stability that could be achieved on the shifting ground of revolutions. They felt hopeful about their various undertakings187. One of the two Frenchmen, small, black, with glittering eyes lost in an immense growth of bushy beard, waved his tiny brown hands and delicate wrists. He had been travelling in the interior of the province for a syndicate of European capitalists. His forcible “Monsieur l’ Administrateur” returning every minute shrilled188 above the steady hum of conversations. He was relating his discoveries. He was ecstatic. Charles Gould glanced down at him courteously189.
At a given moment of these necessary receptions it was Mrs. Gould’s habit to withdraw quietly into a little drawing-room, especially her own, next to the great sala. She had risen, and, waiting for Antonia, listened with a slightly worried graciousness to the engineer-in-chief of the railway, who stooped over her, relating slowly, without the slightest gesture, something apparently190 amusing, for his eyes had a humorous twinkle. Antonia, before she advanced into the room to join Mrs. Gould, turned her head over her shoulder towards Decoud, only for a moment.
“Why should any one of us think his aspirations unrealizable?” she said, rapidly.
“I am going to cling to mine to the end, Antonia,” he answered, through clenched191 teeth, then bowed very low, a little distantly.
The engineer-in-chief had not finished telling his amusing story. The humours of railway building in South America appealed to his keen appreciation of the absurd, and he told his instances of ignorant prejudice and as ignorant cunning very well. Now, Mrs. Gould gave him all her attention as he walked by her side escorting the ladies out of the room. Finally all three passed unnoticed through the glass doors in the gallery. Only a tall priest stalking silently in the noise of the sala checked himself to look after them. Father Corbelan, whom Decoud had seen from the balcony turning into the gateway192 of the Casa Gould, had addressed no one since coming in. The long, skimpy soutane accentuated193 the tallness of his stature194; he carried his powerful torso thrown forward; and the straight, black bar of his joined eyebrows195, the pugnacious196 outline of the bony face, the white spot of a scar on the bluish shaven cheeks (a testimonial to his apostolic zeal197 from a party of unconverted Indians), suggested something unlawful behind his priesthood, the idea of a chaplain of bandits.
He separated his bony, knotted hands clasped behind his back, to shake his finger at Martin.
Decoud had stepped into the room after Antonia. But he did not go far. He had remained just within, against the curtain, with an expression of not quite genuine gravity, like a grown-up person taking part in a game of children. He gazed quietly at the threatening finger.
“I have watched your reverence198 converting General Barrios by a special sermon on the Plaza,” he said, without making the slightest movement.
“What miserable nonsense!” Father Corbelan’s deep voice resounded199 all over the room, making all the heads turn on the shoulders. “The man is a drunkard. Senores, the God of your General is a bottle!”
His contemptuous, arbitrary voice caused an uneasy suspension of every sound, as if the self-confidence of the gathering had been staggered by a blow. But nobody took up Father Corbelan’s declaration.
It was known that Father Corbelan had come out of the wilds to advocate the sacred rights of the Church with the same fanatical fearlessness with which he had gone preaching to bloodthirsty savages200, devoid201 of human compassion202 or worship of any kind. Rumours203 of legendary204 proportions told of his successes as a missionary beyond the eye of Christian205 men. He had baptized whole nations of Indians, living with them like a savage himself. It was related that the padre used to ride with his Indians for days, half naked, carrying a bullock-hide shield, and, no doubt, a long lance, too — who knows? That he had wandered clothed in skins, seeking for proselytes somewhere near the snow line of the Cordillera. Of these exploits Padre Corbelan himself was never known to talk. But he made no secret of his opinion that the politicians of Sta. Marta had harder hearts and more corrupt206 minds than the heathen to whom he had carried the word of God. His injudicious zeal for the temporal welfare of the Church was damaging the Ribierist cause. It was common knowledge that he had refused to be made titular207 bishop208 of the Occidental diocese till justice was done to a despoiled209 Church. The political Gefe of Sulaco (the same dignitary whom Captain Mitchell saved from the mob afterwards) hinted with naive210 cynicism that doubtless their Excellencies the Ministers sent the padre over the mountains to Sulaco in the worst season of the year in the hope that he would be frozen to death by the icy blasts of the high paramos. Every year a few hardy211 muleteers — men inured212 to exposure — were known to perish in that way. But what would you have? Their Excellencies possibly had not realized what a tough priest he was. Meantime, the ignorant were beginning to murmur that the Ribierist reforms meant simply the taking away of the land from the people. Some of it was to be given to foreigners who made the railway; the greater part was to go to the padres.
These were the results of the Grand Vicar’s zeal. Even from the short allocution to the troops on the Plaza (which only the first ranks could have heard) he had not been able to keep out his fixed idea of an outraged213 Church waiting for reparation from a penitent214 country. The political Gefe had been exasperated. But he could not very well throw the brother-in-law of Don Jose into the prison of the Cabildo. The chief magistrate215, an easy-going and popular official, visited the Casa Gould, walking over after sunset from the Intendencia, unattended, acknowledging with dignified courtesy the salutations of high and low alike. That evening he had walked up straight to Charles Gould and had hissed216 out to him that he would have liked to deport217 the Grand Vicar out of Sulaco, anywhere, to some desert island, to the Isabels, for instance. “The one without water preferably — eh, Don Carlos?” he had added in a tone between jest and earnest. This uncontrollable priest, who had rejected his offer of the episcopal palace for a residence and preferred to hang his shabby hammock amongst the rubble218 and spiders of the sequestrated Dominican Convent, had taken into his head to advocate an unconditional219 pardon for Hernandez the Robber! And this was not enough; he seemed to have entered into communication with the most audacious criminal the country had known for years. The Sulaco police knew, of course, what was going on. Padre Corbelan had got hold of that reckless Italian, the Capataz de Cargadores, the only man fit for such an errand, and had sent a message through him. Father Corbelan had studied in Rome, and could speak Italian. The Capataz was known to visit the old Dominican Convent at night. An old woman who served the Grand Vicar had heard the name of Hernandez pronounced; and only last Saturday afternoon the Capataz had been observed galloping220 out of town. He did not return for two days. The police would have laid the Italian by the heels if it had not been for fear of the Cargadores, a turbulent body of men, quite apt to raise a tumult. Nowadays it was not so easy to govern Sulaco. Bad characters flocked into it, attracted by the money in the pockets of the railway workmen. The populace was made restless by Father Corbelan’s discourses221. And the first magistrate explained to Charles Gould that now the province was stripped of troops any outbreak of lawlessness would find the authorities with their boots off, as it were.
Then he went away moodily to sit in an armchair, smoking a long, thin cigar, not very far from Don Jose, with whom, bending over sideways, he exchanged a few words from time to time. He ignored the entrance of the priest, and whenever Father Corbelan’s voice was raised behind him, he shrugged222 his shoulders impatiently.
Father Corbelan had remained quite motionless for a time with that something vengeful in his immobility which seemed to characterize all his attitudes. A lurid223 glow of strong convictions gave its peculiar224 aspect to the black figure. But its fierceness became softened225 as the padre, fixing his eyes upon Decoud, raised his long, black arm slowly, impressively —
“And you — you are a perfect heathen,” he said, in a subdued226, deep voice.
He made a step nearer, pointing a forefinger227 at the young man’s breast. Decoud, very calm, felt the wall behind the curtain with the back of his head. Then, with his chin tilted228 well up, he smiled.
“Very well,” he agreed with the slightly weary nonchalance229 of a man well used to these passages. “But is it perhaps that you have not discovered yet what is the God of my worship? It was an easier task with our Barrios.”
The priest suppressed a gesture of discouragement. “You believe neither in stick nor stone,” he said.
“Nor bottle,” added Decoud without stirring. “Neither does the other of your reverence’s confidants. I mean the Capataz of the Cargadores. He does not drink. Your reading of my character does honour to your perspicacity230. But why call me a heathen?”
“True,” retorted the priest. “You are ten times worse. A miracle could not convert you.”
“I certainly do not believe in miracles,” said Decoud, quietly. Father Corbelan shrugged his high, broad shoulders doubtfully.
“A sort of Frenchman — godless — a materialist,” he pronounced slowly, as if weighing the terms of a careful analysis. “Neither the son of his own country nor of any other,” he continued, thoughtfully.
“Scarcely human, in fact,” Decoud commented under his breath, his head at rest against the wall, his eyes gazing up at the ceiling.
“The victim of this faithless age,” Father Corbelan resumed in a deep but subdued voice.
“But of some use as a journalist.” Decoud changed his pose and spoke in a more animated tone. “Has your worship neglected to read the last number of the Porvenir? I assure you it is just like the others. On the general policy it continues to call Montero a gran’ bestia, and stigmatize231 his brother, the guerrillero, for a combination of lackey232 and spy. What could be more effective? In local affairs it urges the Provincial Government to enlist233 bodily into the national army the band of Hernandez the Robber — who is apparently the protege of the Church — or at least of the Grand Vicar. Nothing could be more sound.”
The priest nodded and turned on the heels of his square-toed shoes with big steel buckles234. Again, with his hands clasped behind his back, he paced to and fro, planting his feet firmly. When he swung about, the skirt of his soutane was inflated235 slightly by the brusqueness of his movements.
The great sala had been emptying itself slowly. When the Gefe Politico rose to go, most of those still remaining stood up suddenly in sign of respect, and Don Jose Avellanos stopped the rocking of his chair. But the good-natured First Official made a deprecatory gesture, waved his hand to Charles Gould, and went out discreetly236.
In the comparative peace of the room the screaming “Monsieur l’Administrateur” of the frail237, hairy Frenchman seemed to acquire a preternatural shrillness238. The explorer of the Capitalist syndicate was still enthusiastic. “Ten million dollars’ worth of copper239 practically in sight, Monsieur l’Administrateur. Ten millions in sight! And a railway coming — a railway! They will never believe my report. C’est trop beau.” He fell a prey240 to a screaming ecstasy241, in the midst of sagely242 nodding heads, before Charles Gould’s imperturbable243 calm.
And only the priest continued his pacing, flinging round the skirt of his soutane at each end of his beat. Decoud murmured to him ironically: “Those gentlemen talk about their gods.”
Father Corbelan stopped short, looked at the journalist of Sulaco fixedly244 for a moment, shrugged his shoulders slightly, and resumed his plodding245 walk of an obstinate246 traveller.
And now the Europeans were dropping off from the group around Charles Gould till the Administrador of the Great Silver Mine could be seen in his whole lank173 length, from head to foot, left stranded247 by the ebbing248 tide of his guests on the great square of carpet, as it were a multi-coloured shoal of flowers and arabesques249 under his brown boots. Father Corbelan approached the rocking-chair of Don Jose Avellanos.
“Come, brother,” he said, with kindly54 brusqueness and a touch of relieved impatience250 a man may feel at the end of a perfectly useless ceremony. “A la Casa! A la Casa! This has been all talk. Let us now go and think and pray for guidance from Heaven.”
He rolled his black eyes upwards. By the side of the frail diplomatist — the life and soul of the party — he seemed gigantic, with a gleam of fanaticism251 in the glance. But the voice of the party, or, rather, its mouthpiece, the “son Decoud” from Paris, turned journalist for the sake of Antonia’s eyes, knew very well that it was not so, that he was only a strenuous252 priest with one idea, feared by the women and execrated253 by the men of the people. Martin Decoud, the dilettante254 in life, imagined himself to derive255 an artistic256 pleasure from watching the picturesque257 extreme of wrongheadedness into which an honest, almost sacred, conviction may drive a man. “It is like madness. It must be — because it’s self-destructive,” Decoud had said to himself often. It seemed to him that every conviction, as soon as it became effective, turned into that form of dementia the gods send upon those they wish to destroy. But he enjoyed the bitter flavour of that example with the zest258 of a connoisseur259 in the art of his choice. Those two men got on well together, as if each had felt respectively that a masterful conviction, as well as utter scepticism, may lead a man very far on the by-paths of political action.
Don Jose obeyed the touch of the big hairy hand. Decoud followed out the brothers-in-law. And there remained only one visitor in the vast empty sala, bluishly hazy260 with tobacco smoke, a heavy-eyed, round-cheeked man, with a drooping261 moustache, a hide merchant from Esmeralda, who had come overland to Sulaco, riding with a few peons across the coast range. He was very full of his journey, undertaken mostly for the purpose of seeing the Senor Administrador of San Tome in relation to some assistance he required in his hide-exporting business. He hoped to enlarge it greatly now that the country was going to be settled. It was going to be settled, he repeated several times, degrading by a strange, anxious whine262 the sonority263 of the Spanish language, which he pattered rapidly, like some sort of cringing264 jargon265. A plain man could carry on his little business now in the country, and even think of enlarging it — with safety. Was it not so? He seemed to beg Charles Gould for a confirmatory word, a grunt266 of assent, a simple nod even.
He could get nothing. His alarm increased, and in the pauses he would dart267 his eyes here and there; then, loth to give up, he would branch off into feeling allusion268 to the dangers of his journey. The audacious Hernandez, leaving his usual haunts, had crossed the Campo of Sulaco, and was known to be lurking269 in the ravines of the coast range. Yesterday, when distant only a few hours from Sulaco, the hide merchant and his servants had seen three men on the road arrested suspiciously, with their horses’ heads together. Two of these rode off at once and disappeared in a shallow quebrada to the left. “We stopped,” continued the man from Esmeralda, “and I tried to hide behind a small bush. But none of my mozos would go forward to find out what it meant, and the third horseman seemed to be waiting for us to come up. It was no use. We had been seen. So we rode slowly on, trembling. He let us pass — a man on a grey horse with his hat down on his eyes — without a word of greeting; but by-and-by we heard him galloping after us. We faced about, but that did not seem to intimidate270 him. He rode up at speed, and touching my foot with the toe of his boot, asked me for a cigar, with a blood-curdling laugh. He did not seem armed, but when he put his hand back to reach for the matches I saw an enormous revolver strapped271 to his waist. I shuddered273. He had very fierce whiskers, Don Carlos, and as he did not offer to go on we dared not move. At last, blowing the smoke of my cigar into the air through his nostrils274, he said, ‘Senor, it would be perhaps better for you if I rode behind your party. You are not very far from Sulaco now. Go you with God.’ What would you? We went on. There was no resisting him. He might have been Hernandez himself; though my servant, who has been many times to Sulaco by sea, assured me that he had recognized him very well for the Capataz of the Steamship275 Company’s Cargadores. Later, that same evening, I saw that very man at the corner of the Plaza talking to a girl, a Morenita, who stood by the stirrup with her hand on the grey horse’s mane.”
“I assure you, Senor Hirsch,” murmured Charles Gould, “that you ran no risk on this occasion.”
“That may be, senor, though I tremble yet. A most fierce man — to look at. And what does it mean? A person employed by the Steamship Company talking with salteadores — no less, senor; the other horsemen were salteadores — in a lonely place, and behaving like a robber himself! A cigar is nothing, but what was there to prevent him asking me for my purse?”
“No, no, Senor Hirsch,” Charles Gould murmured, letting his glance stray away a little vacantly from the round face, with its hooked beak276 upturned towards him in an almost childlike appeal. “If it was the Capataz de Cargadores you met — and there is no doubt, is there? — you were perfectly safe.”
“Thank you. You are very good. A very fierce-looking man, Don Carlos. He asked me for a cigar in a most familiar manner. What would have happened if I had not had a cigar? I shudder272 yet. What business had he to be talking with robbers in a lonely place?”
But Charles Gould, openly preoccupied277 now, gave not a sign, made no sound. The impenetrability of the embodied278 Gould Concession279 had its surface shades. To be dumb is merely a fatal affliction; but the King of Sulaco had words enough to give him all the mysterious weight of a taciturn force. His silences, backed by the power of speech, had as many shades of significance as uttered words in the way of assent, of doubt, of negation — even of simple comment. Some seemed to say plainly, “Think it over”; others meant clearly, “Go ahead”; a simple, low “I see,” with an affirmative nod, at the end of a patient listening half-hour was the equivalent of a verbal contract, which men had learned to trust implicitly280, since behind it all there was the great San Tome mine, the head and front of the material interests, so strong that it depended on no man’s goodwill281 in the whole length and breadth of the Occidental Province — that is, on no goodwill which it could not buy ten times over. But to the little hook-nosed man from Esmeralda, anxious about the export of hides, the silence of Charles Gould portended282 a failure. Evidently this was no time for extending a modest man’s business. He enveloped283 in a swift mental malediction284 the whole country, with all its inhabitants, partisans285 of Ribiera and Montero alike; and there were incipient286 tears in his mute anger at the thought of the innumerable ox-hides going to waste upon the dreamy expanse of the Campo, with its single palms rising like ships at sea within the perfect circle of the horizon, its clumps287 of heavy timber motionless like solid islands of leaves above the running waves of grass. There were hides there, rotting, with no profit to anybody — rotting where they had been dropped by men called away to attend the urgent necessities of political revolutions. The practical, mercantile soul of Senor Hirsch rebelled against all that foolishness, while he was taking a respectful but disconcerted leave of the might and majesty288 of the San Tome mine in the person of Charles Gould. He could not restrain a heart-broken murmur, wrung289 out of his very aching heart, as it were.
“It is a great, great foolishness, Don Carlos, all this. The price of hides in Hamburg is gone up — up. Of course the Ribierist Government will do away with all that — when it gets established firmly. Meantime —”
He sighed.
“Yes, meantime,” repeated Charles Gould, inscrutably.
The other shrugged his shoulders. But he was not ready to go yet. There was a little matter he would like to mention very much if permitted. It appeared he had some good friends in Hamburg (he murmured the name of the firm) who were very anxious to do business, in dynamite290, he explained. A contract for dynamite with the San Tome mine, and then, perhaps, later on, other mines, which were sure to — The little man from Esmeralda was ready to enlarge, but Charles interrupted him. It seemed as though the patience of the Senor Administrador was giving way at last.
“Senor Hirsch,” he said, “I have enough dynamite stored up at the mountain to send it down crashing into the valley”— his voice rose a little —“to send half Sulaco into the air if I liked.”
Charles Gould smiled at the round, startled eyes of the dealer291 in hides, who was murmuring hastily, “Just so. Just so.” And now he was going. It was impossible to do business in explosives with an Administrador so well provided and so discouraging. He had suffered agonies in the saddle and had exposed himself to the atrocities292 of the bandit Hernandez for nothing at all. Neither hides nor dynamite — and the very shoulders of the enterprising Israelite expressed dejection. At the door he bowed low to the engineer-in-chief. But at the bottom of the stairs in the patio52 he stopped short, with his podgy hand over his lips in an attitude of meditative293 astonishment.
“What does he want to keep so much dynamite for?” he muttered. “And why does he talk like this to me?”
The engineer-in-chief, looking in at the door of the empty sala, whence the political tide had ebbed294 out to the last insignificant295 drop, nodded familiarly to the master of the house, standing motionless like a tall beacon296 amongst the deserted297 shoals of furniture.
“Good-night, I am going. Got my bike downstairs. The railway will know where to go for dynamite should we get short at any time. We have done cutting and chopping for a while now. We shall begin soon to blast our way through.”
“Don’t come to me,” said Charles Gould, with perfect serenity298. “I shan’t have an ounce to spare for anybody. Not an ounce. Not for my own brother, if I had a brother, and he were the engineer-in-chief of the most promising299 railway in the world.”
“What’s that?” asked the engineer-in-chief, with equanimity300. “Unkindness?”
“No,” said Charles Gould, stolidly301. “Policy.”
“Radical, I should think,” the engineer-in-chief observed from the doorway302.
“Is that the right name?” Charles Gould said, from the middle of the room.
“I mean, going to the roots, you know,” the engineer explained, with an air of enjoyment303.
“Why, yes,” Charles pronounced, slowly. “The Gould Concession has struck such deep roots in this country, in this province, in that gorge148 of the mountains, that nothing but dynamite shall be allowed to dislodge it from there. It’s my choice. It’s my last card to play.”
The engineer-in-chief whistled low. “A pretty game,” he said, with a shade of discretion304. “And have you told Holroyd of that extraordinary trump27 card you hold in your hand?”
“Card only when it’s played; when it falls at the end of the game. Till then you may call it a — a —”
“Weapon,” suggested the railway man.
“No. You may call it rather an argument,” corrected Charles Gould, gently. “And that’s how I’ve presented it to Mr. Holroyd.”
“And what did he say to it?” asked the engineer, with undisguised interest.
“He”— Charles Gould spoke after a slight pause —“he said something about holding on like grim death and putting our trust in God. I should imagine he must have been rather startled. But then”— pursued the Administrador of the San Tome mine —“but then, he is very far away, you know, and, as they say in this country, God is very high above.”
The engineer’s appreciative305 laugh died away down the stairs, where the Madonna with the Child on her arm seemed to look after his shaking broad back from her shallow niche306.
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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4
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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turreted
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| a.(像炮塔般)旋转式的 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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scrolled
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| adj.具有涡卷装饰的v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的过去式和过去分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕 | |
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apex
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| n.顶点，最高点 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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augment
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| vt.(使)增大，增加，增长，扩张 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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waxy
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| adj.苍白的；光滑的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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jolts
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| （使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的名词复数 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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rims
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| n.（圆形物体的）边( rim的名词复数 )；缘；轮辋；轮圈 | |
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ruminated
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| v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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embarkation
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| n. 乘船, 搭机, 开船 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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trump
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| n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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33
jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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34
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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35
porcelain
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| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
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36
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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37
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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38
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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39
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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40
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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41
poignancy
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| n.辛酸事，尖锐 | |
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42
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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43
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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44
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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45
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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46
swerving
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的现在分词 ) | |
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47
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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48
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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49
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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50
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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51
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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52
patio
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| n.庭院，平台 | |
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53
journalism
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| n.新闻工作，报业 | |
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54
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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55
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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56
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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57
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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58
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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59
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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60
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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61
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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62
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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63
shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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64
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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66
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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67
eccentricities
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| n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 )；反常；怪癖 | |
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68
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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69
retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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70
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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71
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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72
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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73
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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74
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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75
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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76
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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77
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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78
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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79
condescends
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的第三人称单数 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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80
intervals
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|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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81
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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82
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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83
inciting
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| 刺激的，煽动的 | |
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84
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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85
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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86
degradation
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|
| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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87
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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88
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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90
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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91
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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92
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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93
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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94
intriguing
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|
| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
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95
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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96
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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97
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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98
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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99
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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100
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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101
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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102
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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103
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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104
aspired
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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106
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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107
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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108
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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109
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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110
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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111
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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112
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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113
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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114
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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115
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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116
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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117
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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118
pulsating
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| adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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119
provincials
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| n.首都以外的人，地区居民( provincial的名词复数 ) | |
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120
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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121
isolates
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| v.使隔离( isolate的第三人称单数 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析 | |
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122
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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123
negation
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| n.否定；否认 | |
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124
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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125
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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126
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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127
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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128
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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129
poncho
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| n.斗篷，雨衣 | |
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130
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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131
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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132
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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133
flick
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| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
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134
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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135
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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136
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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137
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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138
liberator
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| 解放者 | |
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139
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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140
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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141
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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142
besmirched
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| v.弄脏( besmirch的过去式和过去分词 )；玷污；丑化；糟蹋（名誉等） | |
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143
rapacity
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| n.贪婪，贪心，劫掠的欲望 | |
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144
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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145
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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146
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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147
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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148
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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149
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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150
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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151
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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152
discoursing
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| 演说（discourse的现在分词形式） | |
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153
avenging
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|
| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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154
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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155
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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156
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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157
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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158
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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159
ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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160
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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161
restitution
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| n.赔偿；恢复原状 | |
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162
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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163
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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164
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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165
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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166
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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167
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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168
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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169
creased
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的过去式和过去分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 皱皱巴巴 | |
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170
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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171
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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172
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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173
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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174
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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175
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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176
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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177
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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178
ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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179
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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180
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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181
obtuseness
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| 感觉迟钝 | |
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182
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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183
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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184
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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185
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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186
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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187
undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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188
shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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189
courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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190
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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191
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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192
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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193
accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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194
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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195
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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196
pugnacious
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| adj.好斗的 | |
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197
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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198
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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199
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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200
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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201
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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202
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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203
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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204
legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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205
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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206
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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207
titular
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| adj.名义上的，有名无实的；n.只有名义（或头衔）的人 | |
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208
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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209
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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210
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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211
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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212
inured
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| adj.坚强的，习惯的 | |
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213
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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214
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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215
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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216
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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217
deport
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| vt.驱逐出境 | |
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218
rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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219
unconditional
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| adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的 | |
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220
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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221
discourses
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| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
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222
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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223
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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224
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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225
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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226
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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227
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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228
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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229
nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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230
perspicacity
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| n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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231
stigmatize
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| v.污蔑，玷污 | |
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232
lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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233
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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234
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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235
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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236
discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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237
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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238
shrillness
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| 尖锐刺耳 | |
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239
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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240
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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241
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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242
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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243
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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244
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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245
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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246
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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247
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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248
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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249
arabesques
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| n.阿拉伯式花饰( arabesque的名词复数 )；错综图饰；阿拉伯图案；阿拉贝斯克芭蕾舞姿（独脚站立，手前伸，另一脚一手向后伸） | |
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250
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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251
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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252
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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253
execrated
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| v.憎恶( execrate的过去式和过去分词 )；厌恶；诅咒；咒骂 | |
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254
dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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255
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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256
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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257
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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258
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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259
connoisseur
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| n.鉴赏家，行家，内行 | |
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260
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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261
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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262
whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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263
sonority
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| n.响亮，宏亮 | |
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264
cringing
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| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
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265
jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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266
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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267
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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268
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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269
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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270
intimidate
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| vt.恐吓，威胁 | |
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271
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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272
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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273
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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274
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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275
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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276
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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277
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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278
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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279
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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280
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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281
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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282
portended
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| v.预示( portend的过去式和过去分词 )；预兆；给…以警告；预告 | |
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283
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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284
malediction
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| n.诅咒 | |
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285
partisans
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| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
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286
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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287
clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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288
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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289
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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290
dynamite
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| n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破) | |
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291
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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292
atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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293
meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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294
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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295
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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296
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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297
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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298
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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299
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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300
equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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301
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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302
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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303
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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304
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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305
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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306
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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