“Want a word with you, Thane,” said the taller one of the two puddlers.
He got out of the carriage and stood for an instant hesitating whether to let Agnes go on to the house alone or have her wait. Suddenly a scream of mindless, futile4 fury canted through the air. Everybody shuddered5.
Deciding then not to let Agnes go on alone he took her out, led her to an iron bench in the shade, and returned to hear what the men were so anxious to tell him.
“You heard him,” said the tall puddler. “That’s at us. We ain’t a going to do it. Nary if nor and about it, we ain’t. It’s against God, man and nature. It’s[257] irreligious. What’s moreover the men won’t have it. They got to work there, don’t they? No sir. They won’t have it.”
“What does he want?” Thane asked.
“He takes on that a way and says as he can’t die until’s we promise. But we ain’t a going to promise.”
“What does he want you to promise?” Thane asked, patiently.
“No sir,” the puddler went on. “Nobody’s a going to. Not so as you could notice it. Ain’t it bad enough to have him always on our necks alive?”
“You ain’t told him yet,” said the second puddler.
“’Tain’t Christian,” said the tall one, walking off by himself. “It’s heathen,” he mumbled6. “It’s unbelieving. It’s....”
“You tell me,” said Thane to the second puddler. “What does Enoch want?”
“Wants us to burn him up in a puddlin’ furnace,” said the second puddler. Trying to say it calmly, even lightly, and all at once, he lost control of his voice. It squeaked7 with horror on the last word.
“Is that all?”
“Is that all he wants?” Thane asked again.
“That’s what he’s a screaming at us for,” said the puddler, sharply.
“If he wants it, and you have no will to the contrary, I’ll promise to do it,” he concluded.
[258]
“It strikes one with terror,” she said. “If he wants it that’s enough.”
Just as they were admitted they heard the dreadful scream again. The door, closing, seemed to cut it off. Inside there was no sound of it.
The family doctor anxiously received them. He talked rapidly, addressing Agnes in a manner tactfully to include Thane, whom he had never seen before. The two best consulting physicians in Wilkes-Barre were present, he said. There had arrived within the hour also an eminent10 alienist from Philadelphia. Four men nurses had been provided. Everything possible to be done had been thought of almost at once.
“But what is it?” Agnes asked. “What has happened?”
The doctor was sympathetic. Naturally she would want to know what it was and how it happened. Those were questions anyone would ask. Alas11! who could answer them? He, the doctor, had attended the late Mrs. Gib; it had been his happiness to know Agnes before she could possibly know herself; but Mr. Gib, as they all knew, lived to himself. He had, so to speak, no pathological history. Three days before it happened he had begun to behave strangely at the mill. The men noticed it. He interfered12 with their work by having them hold the furnace doors open while he committed papers, bundles and various unidentified objects to the fire, thereby13 spoiling several heats of good iron. It was not a doctor’s business to know these things. He had taken it upon himself, nevertheless, to make inquiries14.
[259]
On the third day there had been a conference between Mr. Gib and his lawyers. What took place at this conference a doctor would probably not understand if he were told; however, he had not been told. The lawyers were reticent15 to the point of being rude, not knowing, of course, how important it was for a doctor to be able to reconstruct the events that have immediately preceded the seizure17. Mr. Gib, he had learned, never returned to the mill from that conference with his lawyers. The notice of the mill’s closing was posted by the lawyers; it was signed by them with power of attorney. Mr. Gib went straight home and was next seen in a state of frenzy18. When the doctor arrived he was in a paroxysm of rage, very dangerous to himself but otherwise harmless, since it seemed to vent16 itself upon imaginary objects. This state was followed by others, in rapid, alarming alternation—despair, exultation19, terror. It had been necessary, as they could realize, to put him under restraint. Two men nurses were by him constantly.
What was it? The Wilkes-Barre consultants20 had agreed upon one diagnosis21. The patient, they said, had been attacked by delusional22 mania23. If the attack subsided24 he would recover; if not he would die of exhaustion25. That might be a matter of weeks. The Philadelphia alienist had only just now seen the patient; yet his mind was made up. He pronounced it a kind of progressive disintegration26 of the brain matter, with sudden, catastrophic lesions. Death would take place in a few hours. And it certainly was true that all the symptoms grew worse.
[260]
“What is your opinion?” Agnes asked.
“My own?” said the doctor, casting glances around. He lowered his voice to a nonprofessional tone. “We have different names for it,” he said. “That is scientific. No matter. We are all talking about the same thing.... He ... is ... possessed27.”
Agnes shuddered.
“What does he want from these mill workers outside?” Thane asked.
Yes, yes. The doctor was just coming to that. Mr. Gib had lucid28, coherent intervals29. They were decreasing in frequency and duration and that was an ominous31 sign. In the very first of these intervals he seemed to be facing the thought of death and revealed an extreme horror of natural interment. He had in one such interval30 either conceived a way or remembered one of cheating the earth, which was to be cremated32 in one of his own furnaces. Thereupon he began to call for certain old puddlers and heaters by name and when they were brought up to him he demanded of them a promise to dispose of his body in that extraordinary way. While he looked at them they had not the strength to say outright33 they would not; but he could not make them promise, and each time he failed it was very bad for him. The state of terror returned, and if this continued the consequences would be fatal.
“Would it relieve him if I promised?” Thane asked.
“Promised what?” the doctor asked moving uneasily.
“To do what he wants done with his body,” said Thane.
[261]
“But who would do it?” the doctor asked.
“I would,” said Thane.
The doctor looked away in all four directions. “Certainly it would relieve him now,” he said, vaguely34, as if that were not the point.
Thane suggested that Agnes be permitted to see him in the next lucid interval, and that afterward35, in the same interval if possible, and if not, then in the next one, they should try letting him promise to carry out the old man’s cremation36 wish.
The doctor agreed. However, he was not to be held responsible for the consequences. He had been responsible until now for everything because there was no one else. He could not be unaware37 of the fact that there had been an unfortunate family episode. No one could tell how Mr. Gib would be affected38 by the unexpected sight of his own daughter. He had not asked to see her. However, she was his daughter and there was no one else,—no one. How extraordinary!
Agnes, putting off her hat and gloves, sat facing the window. Thane took several turns about the room, came up behind her chair, laid his hand gently on her head. She sat quite still and reached over her shoulder for his other hand. They did not speak. The doctor returned in haste, saying: “If Mrs. Thane will come now, at once, very softly, we may try.” Agnes and the doctor walked up the staircase together, Thane following. Her feet were as steady as his own. He was suddenly swept with a feeling of great tenderness for her.
[262]
The Philadelphia alienist and the Wilkes-Barre consultants made a group in the front hall window. They had been arguing technically40 and stopped to stare a little at Agnes and then at Thane, who fell back and stood leaning against the wall as Agnes and the doctor went on. The doctor opened the door carefully and peered in. Standing41 aside he motioned Agnes to enter.
Her father lay in a great four-poster on his back, extended to his full length, his feet together and vertical42, his head slightly raised on pillows,—and their eyes met as she crossed the threshold. He recognized her instantly. She was sure of it,—sure he was in his right mind. Yet he gave not the slightest sign of his feelings. She was surprised that he was not more shrunken. His bulk was intact. But he was the color of sand. His aspect was sepulchral43. She advanced slowly, holding his gaze, hardly aware of two men standing alert at the head of the bed, just outside the line of vision, ready to seize him.
When she was half way to him he began to sit up, lifting his whole trunk from the hips44 without the use of his arms, his feet at the same time rising a little, under the lower part of the sheet.
“Go away!” he said hoarsely45, and she stopped. “Go away!” he meant to say again, but as his voice rose he became inarticulate and made guttural sounds. He began to repel46 her with excited gestures. The doctor interfered. “Come,” he whispered. She half turned to go, but faced her father again. In a clear, loud voice, she uttered the three words he had once with all his strength demanded and could not make her say.[263] “I am sorry.” Their effect was to excite him all the more. He continued to wave her away. When the door had closed behind her he collapsed47.
Thane was waiting outside the door. She leaned on him heavily and seemed about to go under. He took her in his arms and bore her downstairs. She revived at once and sharply declined to be made about, even by the doctor, whose smelling salts she put aside. Thane walked with her in the air.
Presently the doctor joined them. The idea of bringing Mr. Thane to Mr. Gib’s notice as one who would promise to do the strange thing he desired,—this idea, he said, had been discussed with the alienist; and it was the alienist’s notion first to put the patient under the suggestion that a puddler named Thane had been sent for, the point being that Mr. Gib might remember Mr. Thane as a puddler and forget him as a son-in-law. This seemed to the doctor too subtle altogether; still, as it couldn’t do any harm he had consented. It had in fact been done with such success that Mr. Gib now lay in a fever of hope. Would Mr. Thane, the puddler, please come at once?
Thane had never been in a sick room. He had never seen death transacting48. He had known two idiots and had an idea of imbecility; insanity49 he could not imagine. The doctor’s long medical discourse50 on Enoch’s disorder51 had filled him with a vague sense of resentment52; and the doctor’s private conviction that Enoch was possessed had made him angry. He did not believe in devils. That flash of superstition53 threw the professional manner into grotesque54 relief and he[264] was contemptuous of it. His feelings went over and stood with Enoch against these self-important outsiders who by some law of their own had established themselves above him in his own house, were permitted to restrain him in his own bed, who stood about in his hallway disputing as to how and why he should die.
As Thane entered the room the two nurses were leaning over the old man from opposite sides of the bed, and the sight of them deepened his antagonism55. They stood back as he approached. Enoch, slowly opening his eyes, gazed at Thane with a look of tense recognition. Otherwise he lay perfectly56 inert57 until Thane stood looking down at him. Then his lips began to move as if he were talking. No sound was audible. Thane, bending lower and lower, dropped on his knees and put his ear very close. Enoch was whispering. His words, though faint, were distinct, almost fluent, and dramatically intentional58.
What he said was that worse puddlers and lesser59 men than Thane, men he had known all his life, had refused to do for him that service one cannot perform for oneself and must therefore be permitted to ask as a favor. This service was to dispose of his remains60 agreeably to a certain wish, which was to be cremated. There was no physical difficulty whatever. It was feasible to be done in a puddling furnace!—his own furnace!—his own mill!—his own body! Why not?
“I will do it,” said Thane, removing his ear and meeting the old man’s eyes. Enoch’s lips continued to move. Thane returned his ear.
It was to be done in Number One Furnace.
[265]
Thane met his eyes again, saying: “All right. In Number One. I understand.”
Enoch’s lips were still moving. Thane listened.
There was one thing more, Enoch said. He had no right to ask it except as a favor for which he would be deeply grateful. Would Thane listen very carefully? In that walnut61 secretary by the door, in a secret drawer of it that would come open when the moulding above the pen rack was pressed downward—there he would find the key to a room upstairs, directly above the one they were in. He wished to die in that room upstairs,—by himself. He knew better than to ask the nurses or the doctors. They already thought him mad. Anyhow they would ask questions and he couldn’t tell them why he wished to die in that room alone. He had been saving his strength against an opportunity to give them the slip, intending to lock himself into it. Once in it he would be safe. But his strength had suddenly departed forever. No one knew this yet. It had just happened. The nurses supposed he was resting. The fact was he could not move foot, hand or finger. So now he was utterly62 helpless and hopeless except for Thane,—and the end was so near.
Would Thane get the key?—carry him over all obstacles to that room above?—set him in a certain chair, taking care not to move it?—then retire and lock the door and keep them all off for an hour? An hour would do it. In one hour he would be out of their reach.
Thane did not pause to reflect. The old man’s appeal to be permitted to die as he would in his own[266] house was irresistible63. It moved him dynamically. He strode to the walnut secretary, discovered the key, dropped it in his pocket and returned to the bedside.
The nurses were dumfounded! scandalized! to see him suddenly take the old man up in his arms, sheet and all, and start off with him toward the door.
They followed, exclaiming and chattering64. They were too amazed to act. At the door occurred a scene of pure confusion. As Thane pulled it open the four doctors, having heard the commotion65 within, were there in a group on the momentum66 of entry. At sight of Enoch in Thane’s arms they recoiled and stood blankly aghast. The two nurses behind Thane became hysterically67 vocal68, trying all in one breath to exculpate69 themselves and explain an inconceivable thing.
Thane was pushing through.
“He wants to die upstairs,” he said.
Instantly on speaking of it he became aware that the situation had an irrational70 aspect; and he wondered how he should clear them out of the room in which Enoch wished to die and keep them out,—for of course they would follow. He could not help that. With a resolve if necessary to throw them all downstairs he crossed the threshold. The alienist from Philadelphia and the two Wilkes-Barre consultants fell back. It was not their case. The family doctor barred Thane’s way at the foot of the staircase.
“You must be crazy,” he shouted, waving his arms. “This simply cannot be permitted. As his physician I order you to take him back.”
“Stand aside,” said Thane.
[267]
“You will kill him,” said the doctor. “Do you hear that? This will kill him. I forbid it.”
Thane seemed not at all impressed. Probably he would have pursued his purpose in a straight line but that his mind was arrested by a startling change in the heft and feeling of his burden.
It became suddenly so much heavier that he almost lost his balance. And as he looked to see what this could mean there rose out of Enoch a groan71 unlike any sound concerned with life. With that the body underwent a violent muscular commotion and threw itself into a state of rigid72 extension. Thane needed all his strength to hold it. Immediately there was another change. The body began slowly to go limp.
“It’s over,” said the Philadelphia alienist.
What Thane held in his arms was no longer Enoch, but a distasteful object, fallen in one breath from the first person I, from the second person you, to the state of a pronominal third thing which is spoken of—that!
Thane carried it back to the bed.
All of this had taken place in less than half an hour. Thane found Agnes as he had left her, on an iron bench in the maple73 shade.
“He is dead,” she said, on looking at him.
He answered by sitting by her side in silence.
She asked him nothing about the end, and he was glad, for it had been extremely harrowing. Still, he was surprised at her want of curiosity, and had a moment of thinking her callous74. He had somehow mysteriously arrived at an understanding of Enoch,[268] was shaken by a sense of loss, even grief, and yearned75 to share his emotion with Agnes.
Having been for some time withdrawn76 in thought she started slightly. “Did you promise?” she asked. “Was there time for that?”
“Yes,” he said. “Don’t let it upset you,” he continued gently. “You won’t have to think about it. I’ve got it worked out in my mind. There can be funeral services here like they have sometimes when nobody goes to the grave or when there ain’t going to be any burial. Then I can go alone with him to the mill. There’s nobody at the mill, you know. It’s shut.”
She regarded him with a troubled, unbelieving expression.
“Alone!” she said.
“I’d rather to,” he said, “with everybody being so superstitious77 about it.”
“But I shall go,” she said.
“May take a long time,” he said uneasily. “I’ll have the furnace going, of course, but it’s got to be kept going and watched I don’t know how long.”
She met these difficulties with a scornful gesture.
“All right,” he said. “He’ll be pleased you feel that way.”
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收听单词发音
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1
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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2
puddler
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| n.捣泥者，搅拌器，混凝器 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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4
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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5
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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6
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
squeaked
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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8
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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9
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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10
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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11
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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12
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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13
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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14
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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15
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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consultants
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| 顾问( consultant的名词复数 )； 高级顾问医生，会诊医生 | |
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21
diagnosis
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| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
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delusional
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| 妄想的 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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24
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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25
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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26
disintegration
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| n.分散，解体 | |
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27
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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29
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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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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31
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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32
cremated
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| v.火葬，火化（尸体）( cremate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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cremation
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| n.火葬，火化 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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38
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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39
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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40
technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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41
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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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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43
sepulchral
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| adj.坟墓的，阴深的 | |
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44
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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45
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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46
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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48
transacting
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的现在分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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49
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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50
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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51
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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52
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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53
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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54
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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55
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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56
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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57
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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intentional
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| adj.故意的，有意（识）的 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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momentum
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| n.动力，冲力，势头；动量 | |
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hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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exculpate
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| v.开脱，使无罪 | |
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irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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