A painful acre at a time, we cleared lands that once had been cleared. As I may have stated already, forty-odd years of disuse had turned lawn space, garden space and meadow into one conglomerate2 jungle of towering weeds and tangled3 thorny5 underbrush, stretching from the broken fences along the highroad straight back to the dooryard of the moldering tumbledown dwelling6. With a gang of men under a competent foreman, and a double team of hired horses, we assaulted that tangle4, bringing to the undertaking7 much of the same ardor8 and some of the same fortitude9 which I imagine must have inspired Stanley on the day when he began chopping his way through the trackless wilds of the dark forest to find Doctor Livingstone.
It gave one the feeling of being a pioneer and a pathfinder—no, not a pathfinder; a pathmaker—to stand by, superintending in a large, broad, general, perfectly10 ignorant fashion the job of opening up those thickets11 of ours to the sunlight that had not visited them for ever so long. Off of one segment of our property, a slope directly behind the main house, we took over four hundred wagonloads of stumps12, roots, trunks, boughs13 and brush—the fruitage of nearly two months of steady labor14 on the part of men and horses.
The brambles were shorn down and piled in heaps to be burned. The locusts15, thousands of them, varying in size from half-grown trees to switchy saplings, were by main force snatched out of the ground bodily. A number of long-dead chestnuts16 and hickories, great unsightly snags that reared above the uptom harried17 earth like monuments to past neglect, were felled and sawed into cordwood lengths and carted away.
What emerged after these things had been done more than repaid us for all our pains. When the rumpled18 soil had been smoothed back and plowed19 and harrowed, and sown to grass, and when the grass had sprouted20 as promptly21 as it did, there stood forth22 a dimpling green expanse where before had been a damp, moldy23 and almost impenetrable tangle, hiding treasure-troves of old tin cans, heaps of rusted24 and broken farming implements25 and here and there the bleached-out bones of a dead cow or a deceased horse.
To our abounding26 astonishment27, we found ourselves the owners of a considerable number of old but healthy apple trees and a whole grove28 of cherry trees that we hadn't known were there at all, so thoroughly29 had they been buried in the locusts and the sumacs. It was just like finding them. Indeed, it was finding them.
The old house came down next, with some slight assistance from a crew of wreckers. Being almost ready to come down of its own accord it met them halfway30. They had merely to pry31 into the foundations, hit her a hard wallop in the ribs32, and then run for their lives. From the wreckage33 we reclaimed34, out of the cellar, which was pre-Revolutionary, some hand-hewn oak beams in a perfect state of preservation35; and out of the upper floors, which were pre-James K. Polk, a quantity of interior trim, along with door frames and window sashes.
Incidentally we dispossessed a large colony of rats and a whole synod of bats, a parish of yellow wasps36 and a small but active congregation of dissenting37 cats—half-wild, glary-eyed, roach-backed, mangy cats that resided under the broken flooring. In all there were fourteen of these cats—swift and rangy performers, all of them. One and all, they objected to being driven from home. They hung about the razed38 wreckage, and by night they convened39 in due form upon a bare knoll40 hard by, and held indignation meetings.
Parliamentary disputes arose frequently, with the result that the proceedings41 might be heard for a considerable distance. I took steps to break up these deliberations, and after several of the principal debaters had met a sudden end—I am a very good wing shot on cats—the survivors42 saw their way clear to departing entirely43 from the vicinity. Within a week thereafter the song birds, which until then had been strangely scarce upon the premises44, heard the news, and began coming in swarms45. We put up nesting boxes and feeding shelves, and long before June arrived we had hundreds of feathered boarders and a good many pairs of feathered tenants46.
One morning in the early part of the month of June I counted within sight at one time fourteen varieties of birds, including such brilliantly colored specimens47 as a scarlet48 tanager and his mate; a Baltimore oriole; a bluebird; an indigo49 bunting; a chat; and a flicker—called, where I came from, a yellow hammer. Robins50 were probing for worms in the rank grass; two brown thrashers and a black-billed cuckoo were investigating the residential52 possibilities of a cedar53 tree not far away; and from the woods beyond came the sound of a cock grouse54 drumming his amorous55 fanfare56 on a log.
Think of what that meant to a man who, for the better part of twelve years, had been hived up in a flat, with English sparrows for company, when he craved57 a bit of wild life!
What had been a gardener's cottage stood at the roadside a hundred yards away from the site of the main house. On first examination it seemed fit only for the scrap58 heap; but one of those wise elderly persons who are to be found in nearly every rural community—a genius who was part carpenter, part mason, part painter, part glazier and part plasterer—was called into consultation59, and he decided60 that, given time and material for mending, he might be able to do something with the shell. Modestly he called himself an odd-jobs man; really he was a doctor to decrepit61 and ailing62 structures.
From neglect and dry rot the patient was almost gone; but he nursed it back to a new lease on life, trepanning its top with new rafters, splinting its broken sides with new clapboards. He cured the cellar walls of rickets63, the roof of baldness, and the inside woodwork of tetter; and he so wrought64 with hammer and saw and nails, with lime and cement, with paintbrush and putty knife, that presently what had been a most disreputable blot65 on the landscape became not only a livable little house but an exceedingly picturesque66 one, what with its wide overhanging gables, its cocky little front veranda67, and its new complexion68 of roughcast stucco.
While this transformation69 was accomplished70 in the lower field, we were doing things to the barn up on the hillside. It had good square lines, the barn had; and, though its outer casing was in a woeful state of nonrepair, its frame, having been built sixty or seventy years ago of splendid big timbers, stood straight and unskewed. Thanks to the ability of our architect to dream an artistic71 dream and then to create it, this structure, without impairment of its general lines and with no change at all in its general dimensions, presently became a combination garage and bungalow72.
The garage part was down below, occupying the space formerly73 given over to horse stalls and cow sheds. Here, also, a furnace room, a laundry and a servant's room were built in. Above were the housekeeping quarters—three bedrooms; two baths; a big living hall, with a wide-mouthed fireplace in it; a kitchen, and a pantry. This floor had been the haymow; but I'll warrant that if any of the long-vanished hay which once rested there could have returned it wouldn't have known the old place.
The roof of the transmogrified mow74 was sufficiently75 high to permit the construction of a roomy attic76, with accommodations for one sleeper77 at one end of it, and ample storage space besides.
At the back of the building, where the teams had driven in, a little square courtyard of weathered brick was laid; a roof of rough Vermont slate78 was laid on in an irregular splotchy pattern of buff and yellow and black squares; and finally, upon the front, at the level of the second floor, the builder hung on a little Italian balcony, from which on clear days, looking south down the Hudson, we have a forty-mile stretch of landscape and waterscape before us.
On the nearer bank, two miles away, the spires79 of the market town show above the tree tops; on the further bank, six miles away, the rumpled blue outlines of the Ramapo Hills bulk up against the sky line; and back of those hills are sunsets such as ambitious artists try, more or less unsuccessfully, to put on canvas.
All this had not cost so much as it might have, because all the interior trim, all the doors and windows, and all the studs and joists and beams had been reclaimed from the demolished80 main building. The chief extravagances had been a facing of stonework for the garage front and a stucco dress for the upper walls. We broke camp and moved in.
For a month or so we went along swimmingly. One morning we quit swimming. All of a sudden we woke up to find there was no longer sufficient water for aquatic81 pastimes.
The absolutely unprecedented82 dry spell that occurs every second or third year in this part of the North Temperate83 Zone had descended84 upon us, taking us, as it were, unawares. The brooks85 were going dry; the grass on hillsides where the soil was thin turned from a luscious86 green to a parched87 brown; and the mother spring of our seven up the valley, which had gushed89 so plenteously, now diminished overnight, as it were, into a puny90 runlet. There were no indications that the spring would be absolutely dry; but there was every indication that it would continue to lessen91 in the volume of its output—which it did. We summoned friends and well-wishers into consultation, and by them were advised to dig an artesian well.
We did not want to bother with artesian wells then. We were living very comfortably upstairs over the garage and we were planning the house we meant to build. We had drawn92 plans, and yet more plans, torn them up and started all over again; and had found doing this to be one of the deepest pleasures of life. Time without end we had conferred with friends who had built houses of their own, and who gave us their ideas of the things which would be absolutely indispensable to our comfort and happiness in our new house. We had incorporated these ideas with a few of our own, and then we had found that if we meant to construct a house which would please all concerned, ourselves included, there would be needed a bond issue to float the enterprise and the completed structure would be about the size of a cathedral. So then we would trim down, paring off a breakfast porch here and a conservatory93 there, until we had a design for a compact edifice94 not much larger than an averagesized railroad terminal.
Between times, when not engaged in the pleasing occupation of building our house on paper, we chose the site where it should stand. This, also, consumed a good many days, because each time we decided on a different location. One of our favorite recreations was shifting the house we meant to build about from place to place. We put imaginary wheels under that imaginary home of ours and kept it traveling all over the farm. The trouble with us was we had too much latitude95. With half an acre of land at our disposal, we should have been circumscribed96 by boundary lines. On half an acre you have to be reasonably definite about where you are going to build; slide too far one way or the other, and you are committing trespass97, and litigation ensues. But we had sixty acres from which to pick and to choose—sixty acres, with desirable sites scattered98 all over the tract99.
No sooner had we absolutely and positively100 settled on one spot as the spot where the house must stand than we would find half a dozen others equally desirable, or even more so; and then, figuratively speaking, we would pick up the establishment and transport it to one of the newly discovered spots, and wheel it round to face in a different direction from the direction in which it had just been facing. If a thing that does not yet physically101 exist may have sensations, the poor dizzy thing must have felt as if it were a merry-go-round.
Likewise we were very busy putting in our road. Up until a short time ago Miss Anna Peck, who makes a specialty102 of scaling supposedly inaccessible103 crags, was probably the only living person who could have derived104 any pleasure from penetrating105 to our mountain fastness, either afoot or otherwise. When we heard an engine in difficulties coughing down under the hill, followed by the sound of a tire blowing out, or by the smell of rubber scorching106 as the brakes clamped into the fabric107, we knew some of our friends had been reckless enough to undertake to climb up by motor. So, unless we wanted to become hermits108, we felt it incumbent109 upon us to put in a road.
When we got the estimates on the job we decided that the contractor110 must have figured on building our road of chalcedony or onyx or moss111 agate112 or some other of the semi-precious stones. It didn't seem possible that he meant to use any native material—at that price. It turned out, though, that his bid was fairly moderate—as processed blue-stone roads go in this climate; and ours has cost us only about eight times as much as I had previously113 supposed a replica114 of the Appian Way would cost. However, it has been pronounced a very good road by critics who should know; not a fancy road, but a fair average one.
It would look smarter, of course, with wide brick gutters115 down either side of it for its entire length; and I should add brick gutters, too, if I were as comfortably fixed116, say, as Mr. Charles Schwab, and felt sure that I could get some of the Vanderbilt boys to help me out in case I ran short of funds before the job was completed. Still, for persons who live simply it does very well.
With all these absorbing employments to engage us, we naturally were loath117 to turn our attentions to water. We had lived too long in a flat where, when you wanted water, you merely turned a faucet118. To us water had always been a matter of course. But now the situation was different. With each succeeding day the flow from our spring was slackening. In its present puniness119 it was no more than a reminder120 of the brave stream of the springtime.
There was a water witch, so called, in the neighborhood—a gentleman water witch. We were recommended to avail ourselves of his services. It was his custom, we were told, to arm himself with a forked peach-tree switch and walk about over the land, holding the wand in front of him by its two prongs, meantime muttering strange incantations. When he came to a spot where water lay close to the surface the other end of his divining rod would dip magically toward the earth. You dug there, and if you struck water the magician took the credit for it; and if you didn't strike water it was a sign the peach-tree switch had wilfully121 deceived its proprietor122, and he cut a fresh twig123 off another and more dependable tree and gave you a second demonstration124 at half rates. However, before opening negotiations125 with this person, I bethought me to interview the man who had contracted to do the boring.
The latter gentleman proved to be the most noncommittal man I ever met in my life. He was as chary126 about making predictions as to the result of operations in his line as the ticket agent of a jerkwater railroad down South is about estimating the probable time of arrival of the next passenger train—always conceding that there is to be any next train; and that is as chary as any human being can possibly be. Only upon one thing was he positive, which was that no peach-tree switch in the world could be educated up to the point where it could find water that was hidden underground.
Man and boy, he had been boring wells for thirty years, he said; and it was all guess. One shaft127 would be put down—at three dollars a foot—until it pierced the roof of Tophet, and the only resultant moisture would be night sweats for the unhappy party who was footing the bills. Or the same prospector129 might dig his estate so full of circular holes that it would resemble honeycomb tripe130, and never get anything except monthly statements for the work to date. On the other hand, a luckier man, living right across the way, had been known to start sinking a shaft, and before the drill had gone twenty feet it became necessary to remove the women and children to a place of safety until the geyser had been throttled131 down.
This particular well digger's business, as he himself explained, was digging wells, not filling them after they were dug. He guaranteed to make a hole in the ground of suitable caliber132 for an artesian well, but Nature and Providence133 must do the rest. With this understanding, he fetched up his outfit134 and greased himself and the machinery135 all over, and announced that he was ready to start.
So we picked out a spot where it would be convenient to build a pump house afterward136, and he fixed up the engine and began grinding away. And he ground and ground and ground. Every morning, whistling a cheerful air, he would set his drills in circular motion, and all day he would keep it turning and turning. At eventide I would call on him and he would report progress—he had advanced so many feet or so many yards in a southerly direction and had encountered such and such a formation.
"Any water?" At first I would put up the question hopefully, then nervously137, and finally for the sake of regularity138 merely.
"No water," he would reply blithely139; "but this afternoon about three o'clock I hit a stratum140 of the prettiest white quartz141 you ever saw in your life." And, with the passion of the born geologist142 gleaming in his eye, he would pick up a handful of shining specimens and hold them out for me to admire; but I am afraid that toward the last any enthusiasm displayed by me was more or less forced.
And the next night it would be red sandstone, or gray mica143, or sky-blue schist, or mottled granite144, or pink iron ore—or something! This abandoned farm of ours certainly proved herself to be a mighty145 variegated146 mineral prospect128. In the course of four weeks that six-inch hole brought forth silver and solder147, soda148 and sulphur, borax and soapstone, crystal and gravel149, amalgam150 fillings and a very fair grade of moth88 balls.
It brought forth nearly everything that may be found beneath the surface of the earth, I think, except radium—and water. On second thought, I am not so sure about the radium. It occurs to me that we did strike a trace of something resembling radium at the two-hundred-foot level—I won't be positive. But I am absolutely sure about the water. There wasn't any.
At the end of a long and expensive month we abandoned that hole, fruitful though it was in mineral wealth, moved the machinery a hundred yards west, and began all over again. We didn't get any water here, either; but before we quit we ran into a layer of wonderful white marble. If anybody ever discovers a way of getting marble for monuments and statuary out of a hole six inches in diameter and a hundred and seventy-five feet deep our fortunes are made. We have the hole and the marble at the bottom of it; all he will have to provide is the machinery.
By now we were desperate, but determined151. We sent word to George Creel to rush us application blanks for membership in his Despair Association. We transferred the digging apparatus152 to a point away down in the valley, and the contractor retuned his engine and inserted a new steel drill—his other one had been worn completely out—and we began boring a third time. And three weeks later—oh, frabjous joy!—we struck water—plenteous oodles of it; cold, clear and pure. And then we broke ground for our new house.
That isn't all—by no means is it all. Free from blight153, our potatoes are in the bin51; our apples have been picked; and our corn has been gathered, and in a rich golden store, it fills our new corncrib. We are eating our own chickens and our own eggs; we are drinking milk from our own cow; and we are living on vegetables of our own raising.
Until now I never cared deeply for turnips154. Turnips, whether yellow or white, meant little in my life. But now I know that was because they were strange turnips, not turnips which had grown in our own soil and for which I could have almost a paternal155 affection. Last night for dinner I ate a derby hatful of mashed156 turnips, size seven and an eighth.
Let the servants quit now if they will—and do. Only the day before yesterday the laundress walked out on us. It was our new laundress, who had succeeded the old laundress, the one who stayed with us for nearly two consecutive157 weeks before the country life palled158 upon her sensitive spirit. And the day before that we lost a perfect treasure of a housemaid. She disliked something that was said by some one occupying the comparatively unimportant position of a member of the family, and she took umbrage159 and some silverware and departed from our fireside. We've had our troubles with cooks, too.
When the latest one showed signs of a gnawing160 discontent I offered to take lessons on the ukulele and play for her in the long winter evenings that are now upon us. I suggested that we think up charades161 and acrostics—I am very fertile at acrostics—and have anagram parties now and then to while away the laggard162 hours. But no; she felt the call of the city and she must go. We are expecting a fresh candidate to-morrow. We shall try to make her stay with us, however brief, a pleasant one.
But these domestic upsets are to us as nothing at all; for we have struck water, and we are living, in part at least, on our own home-grown provender163, and shortly we shall start the home of our dreams. And to-day something else happened that filled our cup of joy to overflowing164. In the middle of the day a dainty little doe came mincing165 down through our garden just as confidently as though she owned the place.
We are less than an hour by rail from the Grand Central Station; and yet, as I write this line, a lordly cock grouse is strutting166 proud and unafraid through the undergrowth not fifty yards from my workroom! Last night, when I opened my bedroom window—in the garage—to watch the distant reflection of the New York lights, flickering167 against the sky to the southward, I heard a dog fox yelping168 in the woods!
Let Old Major Gloom, the human Dismal169 Swamp, come over now as often as pleases him. Our chalice170 is proof against his poison.
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1
hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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conglomerate
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| n.综合商社，多元化集团公司 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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thorny
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| adj.多刺的，棘手的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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harried
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| v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰 | |
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rumpled
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| v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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sprouted
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| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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moldy
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| adj.发霉的 | |
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rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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razed
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| v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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convened
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| 召开( convene的过去式 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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45
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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46
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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47
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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48
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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49
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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50
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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51
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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52
residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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53
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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54
grouse
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| n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦 | |
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55
amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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56
fanfare
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| n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布 | |
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57
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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58
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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59
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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60
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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61
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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62
ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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63
rickets
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| n.软骨病，佝偻病，驼背 | |
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64
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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65
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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66
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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67
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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68
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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69
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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70
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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71
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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72
bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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73
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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74
mow
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| v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆 | |
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75
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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76
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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77
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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78
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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79
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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80
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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81
aquatic
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| adj.水生的，水栖的 | |
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82
unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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83
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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84
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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85
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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86
luscious
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| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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87
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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88
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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89
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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90
puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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91
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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92
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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93
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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94
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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95
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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96
circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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97
trespass
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| n./v.侵犯，闯入私人领地 | |
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98
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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99
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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100
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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101
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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102
specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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103
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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104
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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105
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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106
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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107
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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108
hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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109
incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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110
contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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111
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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112
agate
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| n.玛瑙 | |
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113
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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114
replica
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| n.复制品 | |
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115
gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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116
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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117
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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118
faucet
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| n.水龙头 | |
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119
puniness
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| n.微小，弱小 | |
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120
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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121
wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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122
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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123
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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124
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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125
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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126
chary
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| adj.谨慎的，细心的 | |
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127
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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128
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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129
prospector
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| n.探矿者 | |
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130
tripe
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| n.废话，肚子, 内脏 | |
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131
throttled
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| v.扼杀( throttle的过去式和过去分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
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132
caliber
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| n.能力；水准 | |
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133
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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134
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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135
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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136
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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137
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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138
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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139
blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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140
stratum
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| n.地层，社会阶层 | |
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141
quartz
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| n.石英 | |
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142
geologist
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| n.地质学家 | |
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143
mica
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| n.云母 | |
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144
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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145
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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146
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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147
solder
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| v.焊接，焊在一起；n.焊料，焊锡 | |
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148
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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149
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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150
amalgam
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| n.混合物；汞合金 | |
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151
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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152
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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153
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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154
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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155
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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156
mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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157
consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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158
palled
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| v.（因过多或过久而）生厌，感到乏味，厌烦( pall的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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159
umbrage
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| n.不快；树荫 | |
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160
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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161
charades
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| n.伪装( charade的名词复数 )；猜字游戏 | |
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162
laggard
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| n.落后者；adj.缓慢的，落后的 | |
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163
provender
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| n.刍草；秣料 | |
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164
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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165
mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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166
strutting
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| 加固，支撑物 | |
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167
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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168
yelping
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的现在分词 ) | |
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169
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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170
chalice
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| n.圣餐杯；金杯毒酒 | |
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