After the second year he no longer passed the summer at his country-house, and his wife was unwilling3 to live there alone. Sometimes he went to walk and did not return till the following day, leaving Madame Claes a prey4 to mortal anxiety during the night. After causing a fruitless search for him through the town, whose gates, like those of other fortified5 places, were closed at night, it was impossible to send into the country, and the unhappy woman could only wait and suffer till morning. Balthazar, who had forgotten the hour at which the gates closed, would come tranquilly6 home next day, quite unmindful of the tortures his absence had inflicted7 on his family; and the happiness of getting him back proved as dangerous an excitement of feeling to his wife as her fears of the preceding night. She kept silence and dared not question him, for when she did so on the occasion of his first absence, he answered with an air of surprise:—
“Well, what of it? Can I not take a walk?”
Passions never deceive. Madame Claes’s anxieties corroborated8 the rumors10 she had taken so much pains to deny. The experience of her youth had taught her to understand the polite pity of the world. Resolved not to undergo it a second time, she withdrew more and more into the privacy of her own house, now deserted11 by society and even by her nearest friends.
Among these many causes of distress12, the negligence13 and disorder14 of Balthazar’s dress, so degrading to a man of his station, was not the least bitter to a woman accustomed to the exquisite15 nicety of Flemish life. At first Josephine endeavored, in concert with Balthazar’s valet, Lemulquinier, to repair the daily devastation16 of his clothing, but even that she was soon forced to give up. The very day when Balthazar, unaware17 of the substitution, put on new clothes in place of those that were stained, torn, or full of holes, he made rags of them.
The poor wife, whose perfect happiness had lasted fifteen years, during which time her jealousy18 had never once been roused, was apparently19 and suddenly nothing in the heart where she had lately reigned20. Spanish by race, the feelings of a Spanish woman rose within her when she discovered her rival in a Science that allured21 her husband from her: torments22 of jealousy preyed23 upon her heart and renewed her love. What could she do against Science? Should she combat that tyrannous, unyielding, growing power? Could she kill an invisible rival? Could a woman, limited by nature, contend with an Idea whose delights are infinite, whose attractions are ever new? How make head against the fascination25 of ideas that spring the fresher and the lovelier out of difficulty, and entice26 a man so far from this world that he forgets even his dearest loves?
At last one day, in spite of Balthazar’s strict orders, Madame Claes resolved to follow him, to shut herself up in the garret where his life was spent, and struggle hand to hand against her rival by sharing her husband’s labors27 during the long hours he gave to that terrible mistress. She determined28 to slip secretly into the mysterious laboratory of seduction, and obtain the right to be there always. Lemulquinier alone had that right, and she meant to share it with him; but to prevent his witnessing the contention29 with her husband which she feared at the outset, she waited for an opportunity when the valet should be out of the way. For a while she studied the goings and comings of the man with angry impatience30; did he not know that which was denied to her — all that her husband hid from her, all that she dared not inquire into? Even a servant was preferred to a wife!
The day came; she approached the place, trembling, yet almost happy. For the first time in her life she encountered Balthazar’s anger. She had hardly opened the door before he sprang upon her, seized her, threw her roughly on the staircase, so that she narrowly escaped rolling to the bottom.
“God be praised! you are still alive!” he cried, raising her.
A glass vessel31 had broken into fragments over Madame Claes, who saw her husband standing32 by her, pale, terrified, and almost livid.
“My dear, I forbade you to come here,” he said, sitting down on the stairs, as though prostrated33. “The saints have saved your life! By what chance was it that my eyes were on the door when you opened it? We have just escaped death.”
“Then I might have been happy!” she exclaimed.
“My experiment has failed,” continued Balthazar. “You alone could I forgive for that terrible disappointment. I was about to decompose34 nitrogen. Go back to your own affairs.”
Balthazar re-entered the laboratory and closed the door.
“Decompose nitrogen!” said the poor woman as she re-entered her chamber35, and burst into tears.
The phrase was unintelligible36 to her. Men, trained by education to have a general conception of everything, have no idea how distressing37 it is for a woman to be unable to comprehend the thought of the man she loves. More forbearing than we, these divine creatures do not let us know when the language of their souls is not understood by us; they shrink from letting us feel the superiority of their feelings, and hide their pain as gladly as they silence their wishes: but, having higher ambitions in love than men, they desire to wed24 not only the heart of a husband, but his mind.
To Madame Claes the sense of knowing nothing of a science which absorbed her husband filled her with a vexation as keen as the beauty of a rival might have caused. The struggle of woman against woman gives to her who loves the most the advantage of loving best; but a mortification38 like this only proved Madame Claes’s powerlessness and humiliated39 the feelings by which she lived. She was ignorant; and she had reached a point where her ignorance parted her from her husband. Worse than all, last and keenest torture, he was risking his life, he was often in danger — near her, yet far away, and she might not share, nor even know, his peril40. Her position became, like hell, a moral prison from which there was no issue, in which there was no hope. Madame Claes resolved to know at least the outward attractions of this fatal science, and she began secretly to study chemistry in the books. From this time the family became, as it were, cloistered41.
Such were the successive changes brought by this dire42 misfortune upon the family of Claes, before it reached the species of atrophy43 in which we find it at the moment when this history begins.
The situation grew daily more complicated. Like all passionate44 women, Madame Claes was disinterested45. Those who truly love know that considerations of money count for little in matters of feeling and are reluctantly associated with them. Nevertheless, Josephine did not hear without distress that her husband had borrowed three hundred thousand francs upon his property. The apparent authenticity46 of the transaction, the rumors and conjectures47 spread through the town, forced Madame Claes, naturally much alarmed, to question her husband’s notary48 and, disregarding her pride, to reveal to him her secret anxieties or let him guess them, and even ask her the humiliating question —
“How is it that Monsieur Claes has not told you of this?”
Happily, the notary was almost a relation — in this wise: The grandfather of Monsieur Claes had married a Pierquin of Antwerp, of the same family as the Pierquins of Douai. Since the marriage the latter, though strangers to the Claes, claimed them as cousins. Monsieur Pierquin, a young man twenty-six years of age, who had just succeeded to his father’s practice, was the only person who now had access to the House of Claes.
Madame Balthazar had lived for several months in such complete solitude49 that the notary was obliged not only to confirm the rumor9 of the disasters, but to give her further particulars, which were now well known throughout the town. He told her that it was probably that her husband owed considerable sums of money to the house which furnished him with chemicals. That house, after making inquiries50 as to the fortune and credit of Monsieur Claes, accepted all his orders and sent the supplies without hesitation51, notwithstanding the heavy sums of money which became due. Madame Claes requested Pierquin to obtain the bill for all the chemicals that had been furnished to her husband.
Two months later, Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, manufacturers of chemical products, sent in a schedule of accounts rendered, which amounted to over one hundred thousand francs. Madame Claes and Pierquin studied the document with an ever-increasing surprise. Though some articles, entered in commercial and scientific terms, were unintelligible to them, they were frightened to see entries of precious metals and diamonds of all kinds, though in small quantities. The large sum total of the debt was explained by the multiplicity of the articles, by the precautions needed in transporting some of them, more especially valuable machinery52, by the exorbitant53 price of certain rare chemicals, and finally by the cost of instruments made to order after the designs of Monsieur Claes himself.
The notary had made inquiries, in his client’s interest, as to Messieurs Protez and Chiffreville, and found that their known integrity was sufficient guarantee as to the honesty of their operations with Monsieur Claes, to whom, moreover, they frequently sent information of results obtained by chemists in Paris, for the purpose of sparing him expense. Madame Claes begged the notary to keep the nature of these purchases from the knowledge of the people of Douai, lest they should declare the whole thing a mania54; but Pierquin replied that he had already delayed to the very last moment the notarial55 deeds which the importance of the sum borrowed necessitated56, in order not to lessen57 the respect in which Monsieur Claes was held. He then revealed the full extent of the evil, telling her plainly that if she could not find means to prevent her husband from thus madly making way with his property, in six months the patrimonial58 fortune of the Claes would be mortgaged to its full value. As for himself, he said, the remonstrances59 he had already made to his cousin, with all the consideration due to a man so justly respected, had been wholly unavailing. Balthazar had replied, once for all, that he was working for the fame and the fortune of his family.
Thus, to the tortures of the heart which Madame Claes had borne for two years — one following the other with cumulative60 suffering — was now added a dreadful and ceaseless fear which made the future terrifying. Women have presentiments61 whose accuracy is often marvellous. Why do they fear so much more than they hope in matters that concern the interests of this life? Why is their faith given only to religious ideas of a future existence? Why do they so ably foresee the catastrophes62 of fortune and the crises of fate? Perhaps the sentiment which unites them to the men they love gives them a sense by which they weigh force, measure faculties63, understand tastes, passions, vices64, virtues65. The perpetual study of these causes in the midst of which they live gives them, no doubt, the fatal power of foreseeing effects in all possible relations of earthly life. What they see of the present enables them to judge of the future with an intuitive ability explained by the perfection of their nervous system, which allows them to seize the lightest indications of thought and feeling. Their whole being vibrates in communion with great moral convulsions. Either they feel, or they see.
Now, although separated from her husband for over two years, Madame Claes foresaw the loss of their property. She fully66 understood the deliberate ardor67, the well-considered, inalterable steadfastness68 of Balthazar; if it were indeed true that he was seeking to make gold, he was capable of throwing his last crust into the crucible69 with absolute indifference70. But what was he really seeking? Up to this time maternal71 feeling and conjugal72 love had been so mingled73 in the heart of this woman that the children, equally beloved by husband and wife, had never come between them. Suddenly she found herself at times more mother than wife, though hitherto she had been more wife than mother. However ready she had been to sacrifice her fortune and even her children to the man who had chosen her, loved her, adored her, and to whom she was still the only woman in the world, the remorse74 she felt for the weakness of her maternal love threw her into terrible alternations of feeling. As a wife, she suffered in heart; as a mother, through her children; as a Christian75, for all.
She kept silence, and hid the cruel struggle in her soul. Her husband, sole arbiter76 of the family fate, was the master by whose will it must be guided; he was responsible to God only. Besides, could she reproach him for the use he now made of his fortune, after the disinterestedness77 he had shown to her for many happy years? Was she to judge his purposes? And yet her conscience, in keeping with the spirit of the law, told her that parents were the depositaries and guardians78 of property, and possessed79 no right to alienate80 the material welfare of the children. To escape replying to such stern questions she preferred to shut her eyes, like one who refuses to see the abyss into whose depths he knows he is about to fall.
For more than six months her husband had given her no money for the household expenses. She sold secretly, in Paris, the handsome diamond ornaments81 her brother had given her on her marriage, and placed the family on a footing of the strictest economy. She sent away the governess of her children, and even the nurse of little Jean. Formerly82 the luxury of carriages and horses was unknown among the burgher families, so simple were they in their habits, so proud in their feelings; no provision for that modern innovation had therefore been made at the House of Claes, and Balthazar was obliged to have his stable and coach-house in a building opposite to his own house: his present occupations allowed him no time to superintend that portion of his establishment, which belongs exclusively to men. Madame Claes suppressed the whole expense of equipages and servants, which her present isolation83 from the world rendered unnecessary, and she did so without pretending to conceal84 the retrenchment85 under any pretext86. So far, facts had contradicted her assertions, and silence for the future was more becoming: indeed the change in the family mode of living called for no explanation in a country where, as in Flanders, any one who lives up to his income is considered a madman.
And yet, as her eldest87 daughter, Marguerite, approached her sixteenth birthday, Madame Claes longed to procure88 for her a good marriage, and to place her in society in a manner suitable to a daughter of the Molinas, the Van Ostron-Temnincks, and the Casa-Reals. A few days before the one on which this story opens, the money derived89 from the sale of the diamonds had been exhausted90. On the very day, at three o’clock in the afternoon, as Madame Claes was taking her children to vespers, she met Pierquin, who was on his way to see her, and who turned and accompanied her to the church, talking in a low voice of her situation.
“My dear cousin,” he said, “unless I fail in the friendship which binds91 me to your family, I cannot conceal from you the peril of your position, nor refrain from begging you to speak to your husband. Who but you can hold him back from the gulf92 into which he is plunging93? The rents from the mortgaged estates are not enough to pay the interest on the sums he has borrowed. If he cuts the wood on them he destroys your last chance of safety in the future. My cousin Balthazar owes at this moment thirty thousand francs to the house of Protez and Chiffreville. How can you pay them? What will you live on? If Claes persists in sending for reagents, retorts, voltaic batteries, and other such playthings, what will become of you? Your whole property, except the house and furniture, has been dissipated in gas and carbon; yesterday he talked of mortgaging the house, and in answer to a remark of mine, he cried out, ‘The devil!’ It was the first sign of reason I have known him show for three years.”
Madame Claes pressed the notary’s arm, and said in a tone of suffering, “Keep it secret.”
Overwhelmed by these plain words of startling clearness, the poor woman, pious94 as she was, could not pray; she sat still on her chair between her children, with her prayer-book open, but not turning its leaves; her mind was sunk in meditations96 as absorbing as those of her husband. The Spanish sense of honor, the Flemish integrity, resounded97 in her soul with a peal98 louder than any organ. The ruin of her children was accomplished99! Between them and their father’s honor she must no longer hesitate. The necessity of a coming struggle with her husband terrified her; in her eyes he was so great, so majestic100, that the mere101 prospect102 of his anger made her tremble as at a vision of the divine wrath103. She must now depart from the submission104 she had sacredly practised as a wife. The interests of her children compelled her to oppose, in his most cherished tastes, the man she idolized. Must she not daily force him back to common matters from the higher realms of Science; drag him forcibly from a smiling future and plunge105 him into a materialism106 hideous107 to artists and great men? To her, Balthazar Claes was a Titan of science, a man big with glory; he could only have forgotten her for the riches of a mighty108 hope. Then too, was he not profoundly wise? she had heard him talk with such good sense on every subject that he must be sincere when he declared he worked for the glory and prosperity of his family. His love for his wife and family was not only vast, it was infinite. That feeling could not be extinct; it was magnified, and reproduced in another form.
Noble, generous, timid as she was, she prepared herself to ring into the ears of this noble man the word and the sound of money, to show him the sores of poverty, and force him to hear cries of distress when he was listening only for the melodious109 voice of Fame. Perhaps his love for her would lessen! If she had had no children, she would bravely and joyously111 have welcomed the new destiny her husband was making for her. Women who are brought up in opulence112 are quick to feel the emptiness of material enjoyments113; and when their hearts, more wearied than withered114, have once learned the happiness of a constant interchange of real feelings, they feel no shrinking from reduced outward circumstances, provided they are still acceptable to the man who has loved them. Their wishes, their pleasures, are subordinated to the caprices of that other life outside of their own; to them the only dreadful future is to lose him.
At this moment, therefore, her children came between Pepita and her true life, just as Science had come between herself and Balthazar. And thus, when she reached home after vespers, and threw herself into the deep armchair before the window of the parlor115, she sent away her children, directing them to keep perfectly116 quiet, and despatched a message to her husband, through Lemulquinier, saying that she wished to see him. But although the old valet did his best to make his master leave the laboratory, Balthazar scarcely heeded118 him. Madame Claes thus gained time for reflection. She sat thinking, paying no attention to the hour nor the light. The thought of owing thirty thousand francs that could not be paid renewed her past anguish119 and joined it to that of the present and the future. This influx120 of painful interests, ideas, and feelings overcame her, and she wept.
As Balthazar entered at last through the panelled door, the expression of his face seemed to her more dreadful, more absorbed, more distracted than she had yet seen it. When he made her no answer she was magnetized for a moment by the fixity of that blank look emptied of all expression, by the consuming ideas that issued as if distilled121 from that bald brow. Under the shock of this impression she wished to die. But when she heard the callous122 voice, uttering a scientific wish at the moment when her heart was breaking, her courage came back to her; she resolved to struggle with that awful power which had torn a lover from her arms, a father from her children, a fortune from their home, happiness from all. And yet she could not repress a trepidation123 which made her quiver; in all her life no such solemn scene as this had taken place. This dreadful moment — did it not virtually contain her future, and gather within it all the past?
Weak and timid persons, or those whose excessive sensibility magnifies the smallest difficulties of life, men who tremble involuntarily before the masters of their fate, can now, one and all, conceive the rush of thoughts that crowded into the brain of this woman, and the feelings under the weight of which her heart was crushed as her husband slowly crossed the room towards the garden-door. Most women know that agony of inward deliberation in which Madame Claes was writhing124. Even one whose heart has been tried by nothing worse than the declaration to a husband of some extravagance, or a debt to a dress-maker, will understand how its pulses swell125 and quicken when the matter is one of life itself.
A beautiful or graceful126 woman might have thrown herself at her husband’s feet, might have called to her aid the attitudes of grief; but to Madame Claes the sense of physical defects only added to her fears. When she saw Balthazar about to leave the room, her impulse was to spring towards him; then a cruel thought restrained her — she should stand before him! would she not seem ridiculous in the eyes of a man no longer under the glamour127 of love — who might see true? She resolved to avoid all dangerous chances at so solemn a moment, and remained seated, saying in a clear voice,
“Balthazar.”
He turned mechanically and coughed; then, paying no attention to his wife, he walked to one of the little square boxes that are placed at intervals128 along the wainscoting of every room in Holland and Belgium, and spat117 in it. This man, who took no thought of other persons, never forgot the inveterate129 habit of using those boxes. To poor Josephine, unable to find a reason for this singularity, the constant care which her husband took of the furniture caused her at all times an unspeakable pang130, but at this moment the pain was so violent that it put her beside herself and made her exclaim in a tone of impatience, which expressed her wounded feelings —
“Monsieur, I am speaking to you!”
“What does that mean?” answered Balthazar, turning quickly, and casting a look of reviving intelligence upon his wife, which fell upon her like a thunderbolt.
“Forgive me, my friend,” she said, turning pale. She tried to rise and put out her hand to him, but her strength gave way and she fell back. “I am dying!” she cried in a voice choked by sobs131.
At the sight Balthazar had, like all abstracted persons, a vivid reaction of mind; and he divined, so to speak, the secret cause of this attack. Taking Madame Claes at once in his arms, he opened the door upon the little antechamber, and ran so rapidly up the ancient wooden staircase that his wife’s dress having caught on the jaws132 of one of the griffins that supported the balustrade, a whole breadth was torn off with a loud noise. He kicked in the door of the vestibule between their chambers133, but the door of Josephine’s bedroom was locked.
He gently placed her on a chair, saying to himself, “My God! the key, where is the key?”
“Thank you, dear friend,” said Madame Claes, opening her eyes. “This is the first time for a long, long while that I have been so near your heart.”
“Good God!” cried Claes, “the key! — here come the servants.”
Josephine signed to him to take a key that hung from a ribbon at her waist. After opening the door, Balthazar laid his wife on a sofa, and left the room to stop the frightened servants from coming up by giving them orders to serve the dinner; then he went back to Madame Claes.
“What is it, my dear life?” he said, sitting down beside her, and taking her hand and kissing it.
“Nothing — now,” she answered. “I suffer no longer. Only, I would I had the power of God to pour all the gold of the world at thy feet.”
“Why gold?” he asked. He took her in his arms, pressed her to him and kissed her once more upon the forehead. “Do you not give me the greatest of all riches in loving me as you do love me, my dear and precious wife?”
“Oh! my Balthazar, will you not drive away the anguish of our lives as your voice now drives out the misery134 of my heart? At last, at last, I see that you are still the same.”
“What anguish do you speak of, dear?”
“My friend, we are ruined.”
“Ruined!” he repeated. Then, with a smile, he stroked her hand, holding it within his own, and said in his tender voice, so long unheard: “To-morrow, dear love, our wealth may perhaps be limitless. Yesterday, in searching for a far more important secret, I think I found the means of crystallizing carbon, the substance of the diamond. Oh, my dear wife! in a few days’ time you will forgive me all my forgetfulness — I am forgetful sometimes, am I not? Was I not harsh to you just now? Be indulgent for a man who never ceases to think of you, whose toils135 are full of you — of us.”
“Enough, enough!” she said, “let us talk of it all to-night, dear friend. I suffered from too much grief, and now I suffer from too much joy.”
“To-night,” he resumed; “yes, willingly: we will talk of it. If I fall into meditation95, remind me of this promise. To-night I desire to leave my work, my researches, and return to family joys, to the delights of the heart — Pepita, I need them, I thirst for them!”
“You will tell me what it is you seek, Balthazar?”
“Poor child, you cannot understand it.”
“You think so? Ah! my friend, listen; for nearly four months I have studied chemistry that I might talk of it with you. I have read Fourcroy, Lavoisier, Chaptal, Nollet, Rouelle, Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, Spallanzani, Leuwenhoek, Galvani, Volta — in fact, all the books about the science you worship. You can tell me your secrets, I shall understand you.”
“Oh! you are indeed an angel,” cried Balthazar, falling at her feet, and shedding tears of tender feeling that made her quiver. “Yes, we will understand each other in all things.”
“Ah!” she cried, “I would throw myself into those hellish fires which heat your furnaces to hear these words from your lips and to see you thus.” Then, hearing her daughter’s step in the anteroom, she sprang quickly forward. “What is it, Marguerite?” she said to her eldest daughter.
“My dear mother, Monsieur Pierquin has just come. If he stays to dinner we need some table-linen136; you forgot to give it out this morning.”
Madame Claes drew from her pocket a bunch of small keys and gave them to the young girl, pointing to the mahogany closets which lined the ante-chamber as she said:
“My daughter, take a set of the Graindorge linen; it is on your right.”
“Since my dear Balthazar comes back to me, let the return be complete,” she said, re-entering her chamber with a soft and arch expression on her face. “My friend, go into your own room; do me the kindness to dress for dinner, Pierquin will be with us. Come, take off this ragged137 clothing; see those stains! Is it muratic or sulphuric acid which left these yellow edges to the holes? Make yourself young again — I will send you Mulquinier as soon as I have changed my dress.”
Balthazar attempted to pass through the door of communication, forgetting that it was locked on his side. He went out through the anteroom.
“Marguerite, put the linen on a chair, and come and help me dress; I don’t want Martha,” said Madame Claes, calling her daughter.
Balthazar had caught Marguerite and turned her towards him with a joyous110 action, exclaiming: “Good-evening, my child; how pretty you are in your muslin gown and that pink sash!” Then he kissed her forehead and pressed her hand.
“Mamma, papa has kissed me!” cried Marguerite, running into her mother’s room. “He seems so joyous, so happy!”
“My child, your father is a great man; for three years he has toiled138 for the fame and fortune of his family: he thinks he has attained139 the object of his search. This day is a festival for us all.”
“My dear mamma,” replied Marguerite, “we shall not be alone in our joy, for the servants have been so grieved to see him unlike himself. Oh! put on another sash, this is faded.”
“So be it; but make haste, I want to speak to Pierquin. Where is he?”
“In the parlor, playing with Jean.”
“Where are Gabriel and Felicie?”
“I hear them in the garden.”
“Run down quickly and see that they do not pick the tulips; your father has not seen them in flower this year, and he may take a fancy to look at them after dinner. Tell Mulquinier to go up and assist your father in dressing140.”
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1
affronted
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| adj.被侮辱的，被冒犯的v.勇敢地面对( affront的过去式和过去分词 )；相遇 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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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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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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corroborated
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| v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的过去式 ) | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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negligence
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| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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allured
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| 诱引，吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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23
preyed
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| v.掠食( prey的过去式和过去分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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24
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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25
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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26
entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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27
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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28
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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29
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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30
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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31
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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32
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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33
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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34
decompose
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| vi.分解；vt.（使）腐败，（使）腐烂 | |
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35
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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36
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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37
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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38
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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39
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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40
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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41
cloistered
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| adj.隐居的，躲开尘世纷争的v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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43
atrophy
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| n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退 | |
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44
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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45
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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46
authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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47
conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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48
notary
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| n.公证人，公证员 | |
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49
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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50
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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51
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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52
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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53
exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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54
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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55
notarial
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| adj.公证人的，公证的 | |
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56
necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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58
patrimonial
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| adj.祖传的 | |
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59
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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60
cumulative
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| adj.累积的，渐增的 | |
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61
presentiments
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| n.（对不祥事物的）预感( presentiment的名词复数 ) | |
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62
catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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63
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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64
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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65
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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66
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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67
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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68
steadfastness
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| n.坚定，稳当 | |
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69
crucible
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| n.坩锅，严酷的考验 | |
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70
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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71
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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72
conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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73
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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74
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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75
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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76
arbiter
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| n.仲裁人，公断人 | |
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77
disinterestedness
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78
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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79
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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80
alienate
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| vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等) | |
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81
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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82
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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83
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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84
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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85
retrenchment
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| n.节省，删除 | |
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86
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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87
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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88
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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89
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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90
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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91
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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92
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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93
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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94
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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95
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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96
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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97
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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98
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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99
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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100
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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101
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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102
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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103
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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104
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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105
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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106
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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107
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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108
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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109
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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110
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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111
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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112
opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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113
enjoyments
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| 愉快( enjoyment的名词复数 )； 令人愉快的事物； 享有； 享受 | |
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114
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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115
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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116
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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117
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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118
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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119
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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120
influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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121
distilled
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| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
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122
callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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123
trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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124
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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125
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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126
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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127
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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128
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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129
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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130
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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131
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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132
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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133
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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134
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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135
toils
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| 网 | |
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136
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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137
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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138
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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139
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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140
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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