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CHAPTER XXI. THE VILLAGE WITCH.
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 People who have lived all their lives in London, when they come to live in a country place generally find the inhabitants what is called “behind the world,” and the village that our hotel is in is no exception to the rule. Even the railway, which has done a lot to take stupid ideas out of country people, hasn’t made our village folks quite as sharp as they should be. The old people—those who were born before School Boards and all the new-fangled ideas—have some awfully1 funny notions, and nothing you can say will shake their belief in them.
In our village there are still no end of old people who believe in charms, especially for warts2; and one day that I had one come on my hand, Graves, the farrier, said quite seriously, “I’ll tell you how you can cure that, Mrs. Beckett. You get old Dame3 Trueman to charm it away for you.”
I said, “What nonsense, Mr. Graves! You don’t suppose I believe in such stuff as that?”
“Oh, but it isn’t stuff!” said Graves. “Dame Trueman has got charms for no end of things, and there’s plenty of people that she’s done good to, and cured, when the doctors had given them up.”
This Dame Trueman was quite a character, and lived up at the end of a village all alone with a black cat in an old broken-down cottage. Many years ago she had lost her husband under rather mysterious circumstances, and, it was said, she had bewitched him and caused his death, because he treated her badly.{278}
He was a farm labourer, and worked on the farm that I told you about in “Old Gaffer Gabbitas,” called Curnock’s Farm; but he used to take more than was good for him at the village alehouse. People used to say, “How can he afford to spend such a lot of money out of his wages?” but the mystery was cleared up when one day it got all over the village that he had found out where his wife had hidden her savings5, and that he had been helping6 himself for a long time without her knowing it.
It seems she had made a bit of money selling charms and telling fortunes to servant-girls and other foolish people, and had changed her savings into bank-notes, and sewn them up in the mattress7, not telling her husband anything about it. But he had found it out, and had unsewn the mattress one day while she was out marketing8, taken a couple of notes, and then sewn the place up again very neatly9, and she had never noticed it.
How she found it out was through a neighbour who had seen Trueman change a five-pound note at the inn. Directly his wife heard of that, she went and unsewed the mattress, and the cat was out of the bag.
She was heard to say that he would never help himself to any more. And soon after that, one night he was at the alehouse, smoking his pipe, when a black cat, that nobody in the place ever remembered to have seen before, came into the tap-room and jumped up on his knee.
It was a very curious-looking cat, with very fierce eyes, and it had three white hairs on its breast. Trueman said, “Hullo, whose cat is this?” and he put his hand on its back and stroked it. Everybody in the room declared that as he did so they saw sparks fly out of its back, but the awful thing about it was that the man gave a sudden cry, as if some terrible pain had just come to him. The cat jumped off his knee, and ran out of the door and disappeared. Trueman tried to get on his legs; but he only staggered half-way across the room and fell down in a heap on the floor. They ran and fetched the doctor to him; but before the doctor could get there he was quite dead.
At the inquest the jury brought it in that he had died of heart disease; but everybody in the village declared{279} that he had been bewitched by his wife for stealing her money, and that the black cat was the “familiar,” or whatever it is called.
Of course, when I first heard the story, I said, “What nonsense!” and I couldn’t understand how people living in a Christian10 country could believe in such rubbish; but there is no mistake about it that this very black cat, after the funeral, was seen in Dame Trueman’s house, and it followed her about like a dog, and nobody had ever seen it in the village before the night that it jumped on the poor man’s lap at the alehouse.
After that the old lady got quite the reputation of being a witch, and very curious stories were told about her, and the things that went on in her cottage. She was always very clever with herbs and old women’s remedies, as they are called, and she had, according to the ignorant people, wonderful charms for curing sore eyes, and wounds, and other things; and once when a man working on a farm had put his wrist out, he went to her, and she caught hold of his hand and muttered a charm, and pulled it and put it in its place again.
All these things made the old woman looked up to with a good deal of fear by the ignorant people. Nobody liked her; but they were all a bit afraid of her. And it was said that if anybody offended her she could put them under a spell, and bring misfortune upon them.
There was a boy in the village, a mischievous11 young imp12, named Joe Daniels. His mother did washing, and he used to go round with an old perambulator and fetch it and also take it home. One day that he was wheeling his perambulator along with a bundle of linen13 on it, he met Old Dame Trueman coming down the lane, and after she had passed him he said to another boy that was with him, “Do you know she’s an old witch, and rides through the air on a broomstick? My mother says she ought to be burned alive, if she had her deserts.”
Dame Trueman, who was hobbling along, being a little lame14 with one leg, heard the boy, and she turned round and said, “Your mother says that, does she?—let her beware!” Then she made an awful grimace15 at the boy, and shook her stick at him. He declared that fire came{280} out of her eyes, and that he felt an awful sensation go all over his body. When he got home he told his mother what had happened, and she was in a terrible state, and said she would be ruined, as the old witch would be sure to put a spell on her now. She was in such a state that she went off to the clergyman and asked him what she could do to guard against the spells. He lectured her, which was quite right, and told her it was very wicked to believe in such things as witches, as there weren’t any. But it certainly was a fact that, from that day, nothing went right with Mrs. Daniels. She had the best linen, belonging to the richest family she washed for, stolen out of her drying-ground two days after; and her boy Joe, that the witch had shaken her stick at, was run over by a horse and cart the next time he took the washing home, and had his leg broken; and, to crown everything, it got about that she had taken washing of a family that had come down from London with the scarlet16 fever, and after that nobody would send her any washing at all; and, having been security for her married daughter’s husband, and signed a bill of sale on her things, everything was seized one day, and the poor woman took on so about it that she died not long afterwards; and little Joe was sent away to a training-ship to be made a sailor, and the first time he went to sea he fell down off the top of the mast into the water and was drowned.
This is one of the stories that I was told in our bar-parlour one night that we were talking about charms and things, and it brought up about old Dame Trueman. I said that all these things might have happened. I found out afterwards that they did—but that didn’t prove that the old woman was a witch, or that her “charms” were anything more than ordinary remedies.
Our new clergyman, poor Mr. Wilkins’s “young whipper-snapper,” was awfully wild when he found that a lot of his parishioners believed in witches and spells, and he made it his business to investigate a lot of things that were being said about the old woman. He found out that she was telling fortunes by cards on the quiet, and selling a lot of foolish young women charms to make them get fallen in love with, and all that sort of nonsense; so he{281} went straight up to the dilapidated old cottage where the old Dame lived, and he told her that if he heard any more of it he would have her up before the magistrate17, and she would be sent to prison.
Of course she pitched him a nice tale, and tried to make out that it wasn’t true; but that she was a poor, lone4 widow woman, and that these stories were circulated by her enemies to do her harm.
Graves, the farrier, said, when he heard that the young clergyman had been threatening the Dame, that something was sure to happen to him—that nobody ever crossed “the old witch’s” path without coming to grief.
I laughed at the time, and told Graves that a great strong fellow, like he was, ought to be ashamed of himself for having such silly, childish ideas; but it was a very remarkable18 thing that, the week after, the young clergyman was riding past the Dame’s door, when her black cat dashed suddenly across the road, and so terrified the clergyman’s horse that it bolted and ran into a tree, and fell, and flung the young clergyman off on to his head, and he was confined to his bed for six weeks in consequence.
Of course it was only a coincidence; but Graves was quite triumphant19 about it, and he said to me the evening of the accident, “Well, Mrs. Beckett, what about old Dame Trueman being a witch now?”
Of course, things happening like this, and the things that had happened before, made a great impression on the ignorant people; and even people who weren’t ignorant said it was very odd that everybody who crossed or offended that dreadful old woman came to grief. It was no good arguing against it, because these things were known all over the village, and there is no doubt that the old hag made a lot of money out of her dupes, in consequence of her being held in such dread20 and looked up to as having supernatural powers.
As I said when I began to write about her, folks who live in London can hardly credit the number of people in villages who still believe in magic and spells and charms and witches. But even in some parts of London there are people who believe the same thing, because every now and{282} then you read about “a wise woman” being brought up at the police-court for swindling young women by telling their fortunes, and selling them charms; and not long ago Harry21 read a bit out of the paper to me about “a wise woman,” who had got five pounds out of a working man’s wife for a bottle of something which she was to put in his tea to make him die, so that she could marry another man. A nice wife and a nice woman she must have been!
What has made me write so much about old Dame Trueman is this. There was an old gentleman who used to come to our smoke-room pretty regularly of an evening; but not till after Mr. Wilkins had left, and so he might be called a new customer. He was an old gentleman who took a small house in the neighbourhood, and it was said he was a retired22 builder. He was very nice and quiet, and I should say comfortably off, for his house was nicely furnished, and although there was only himself and his wife, they had two servants, and kept a pony23 and trap.
Mr. Gwillam—that was the old gentleman’s name—began to use our house of an evening soon after he came, I suppose finding it dull at home, and he always smoked a long clay pipe, and drank hot grog in the good old-fashioned way. He didn’t talk very much, only joining in the conversation now and then; but he was a wonderful listener, and the other customers soon found out that he was very simple-minded, because he took everything he heard for gospel. Some of them, when they found that out, used to start telling the most dreadful stories about what had happened in the place, and it was a sight to see the dear old gentleman open his innocent blue eyes, and to hear him say, “Good gracious!”
Somebody who knew him told us that what made him seem so simple and eccentric at times was that years ago, while superintending some building operations, he had fallen off a ladder on to his head, and it had affected24 him a little.
We liked him very much, because he was so nice and quiet, and, being an independent and retired person, he was just the sort of customer we liked to get into the smoke-room, as it brings others of the same class, and{283} keeps the wrong sort out, as the wrong sort never feel comfortable where the right sort are.
The first thing that made me think Mr. Gwillam really was a little eccentric was his saying very quietly one evening that according to Revelations the end of the world would be at five-and-twenty minutes past six in the evening the last Friday in August, 1890. I thought it was a very odd thing to say, as nobody was talking about the end of the world, and, in fact, just at the time there was a dead silence.
I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Indeed!” Then he said, “Oh yes; but it’s nothing to be frightened at, as we shall all be caught up by a whirlwind.”
Graves, the farrier, looked at Mr. Gwillam for a minute, and then he said, “How do you know that, sir?”
“Oh,” he said, “I read it in the Evening Standard, and that is a most respectable paper. It has been in several evenings.”
“Oh,” said Graves, “has it? It’s very good of the editor to let us know. I hope we shall go up steady and not knock against each other. It will be very awkward if some of us turn over and go up head downwards25.”
I frowned at Graves, as it seemed to me wrong to jest about such matters; but I knew where Mr. Gwillam had seen it. It was an advertisement which some madman had put in for years, having nothing better to do with his money. But I thought it very queer that anybody in their senses could believe such mischievous nonsense.
After that I began to notice one or two queer things that Mr. Gwillam said, and I made up my mind that he must have what Harry calls “a tile loose;” but how loose it was I didn’t know till he did something which made quite a sensation in the village. One night in our smoke-room he happened to mention that, coming out of his gate, he had come upon one of his maid-servants talking to a queer-looking old woman, and when he described the woman everybody said, “Why, that is old Dame Trueman, the witch!”
He looked very horrified26, and said, “Do you mean to say that a witch is allowed to live in the place?”
That turned the conversation on to the subject, and{284} everybody began to tell stories about Dame Trueman; of course, making them out as awful as possible to astonish the old gentleman.
He didn’t say much that night; but the next evening when he came he didn’t look very well, and he said that he had been awake all night thinking about the witch.
He smoked his pipe and had his glass of grog; but he went away early. After he was gone I said it was a pity for them to have told him such a lot of stuff about old Dame Trueman—he was just the man to take it all for gospel.
The next evening he didn’t come as usual, and I was afraid he was ill, and our doctor happening to look in, I asked him if he had heard if Mr. Gwillam was ill.
“Yes,” he said, “he is a bit poorly; but it’s nothing. The old boy hasn’t been able to sleep the last night or two, and it has upset his nerves. He’s got some absurd idea into his head that he is under a spell. He can’t be quite right in his head.”
The next day after dinner Graves came in in quite a bustle27, and said, “I say, Mrs. Beckett, whatever do you think has happened?”
“How should I know?” I said. And if you come to think of it, it’s absurd for people to ask you what you think has happened. As if, out of the thousands of things that might happen, anybody could think straight off at once of the one that has happened.
“Oh,” said Graves, “there’s been an awful scene in the village! Old Gwillam was out for a walk this morning, and he saw old Dame Trueman coming along, and he ran after her and seized her by the neck and tried to push her into the horse-pond, shouting out that she was a witch, and a crowd came round, and some of them said, “Serve her right!” But the others interfered28 and dragged the old woman away, half-choked and black in the face, and then he ran after her, and laid into her with his walking-stick, shouting and cursing, and saying that she had bewitched him, and prevented him from sleeping; and the end of it was that Jones, the policeman, had to come to the rescue, and rush in and stop Mr. Gwillam. But he was so excited that he whacked29 into the policeman, and for that{285} he was marched off to the police-station, all the village tagrag and bobtail following.”
When Graves told me that, I thought it was a very dreadful thing. I laid the blame on the people who had told the poor old gentleman all that nonsense about Dame Trueman being a witch.
Harry went up to the police-station to make inquiries30, and he told me that Mr. Gwillam had been allowed to go home; but he was to be summoned for assaulting the policeman, and also that Dame Trueman had been and applied31 for a summons against him for assaulting her.
There was a lot of talk about it in our bar and in the parlour that evening, and it was the biggest sensation we had had in the village since the inquest on the London gentleman, who was found dead in the wood near the Silent Pool, with a pistol in his hand, and a letter in his pocket saying he had committed suicide because he heard voices. It was a dreadful letter, and showed the poor fellow was quite mad. I cut the letter out from our county paper, and kept it, because I thought it so curious, as showing what extraordinary delusions33 some people go through life with, appearing sane34 in every other way. This was some of the letter—
“I have committed suicide to escape from the pursuit of a devilish agency. This is the story of my life. When I was a boy of tender age, some organization of individuals erected35—where, of course, I cannot tell—an elaborate scientific contrivance for conveying all kinds of sounds and disagreeable sensations to the human frame. At the time this was first erected it was not brought into full play; but at a very early stage these persons worked upon my feelings by simulating the voices of persons with whom I was brought into contact. But, since then, wherever I go I have been annoyed by this scientific agency. Wherever I go the sound of human voices is conveyed to me. When I sit down an intense heavy pressure is brought to bear upon my body, destroying the effect of the food I eat, and producing great discomfort36. This and the voices have at last driven me mad, and as no human agency will protect me I am determined37 to end my life, believing that{286} beyond the grave those voices will not be allowed to pursue me, and I shall be at rest.”
Poor fellow!—but I suppose it is a common delusion32, that about voices.
Of course Mr. Gwillam wasn’t as mad as that; but it was certain that he must have delusions because of his believing about the end of the world coming at twenty-five past six on a Friday, and about our going up into the skies on a whirlwind. And it was a delusion for him to believe that Dame Trueman had bewitched him.
When the summonses came on for hearing before our magistrate, the little justice-room was crowded almost to suffocation38. Mr. Gwillam, poor gentleman, had gone about the village, and got all the people who had anything to say against Dame Trueman to promise to come forward and prove that she had practised witchcraft39, and what he called the black art.
He was very troublesome directly the case began, interrupting every minute, and saying that by the law of the land all witches had a right to be burned at the stake, and a lot of nonsense, and the magistrate had to speak quite cross to make him be quiet.
Old Dame Trueman was in court, and they say she looked most malignant—in fact, as much like a witch as it was possible to look without being one—and she told the magistrate how she had been assaulted. The magistrate asked Mr. Gwillam what he had to say, and he told the most extraordinary story you ever heard in your life.
He declared that “the old witch” had put a spell upon him so that he could not sleep. He had seen her plotting with his servant at his gate, and that night he couldn’t sleep, nor the next night either, and that he never should have slept again, only he was determined to find out what the spell was; and so he got up in the middle of the night and went out into his garden, and there, under a clod of earth, he discovered a toad40, that was walking round and round. He said the toad had been charmed and put there by the witch, and as long as it kept walking round and round he could not go to sleep, so he had killed the toad, and the proof that it was a spell, was this—that directly{287} he had killed it he went back to bed again and fell asleep, and he had not had another bad night since.
The magistrate looked over his gold spectacles very hard at Mr. Gwillam, and he said, “My dear sir, I’m very sorry for you; but we can’t accept your explanation. No toad could have anything to do with your sleeping, and there is no such thing as a witch.”
“What!” exclaimed Mr. Gwillam, “no such thing as a witch! Why, this woman is one! I have dozens of witnesses here to prove that she has put them under her spells. I demand that she shall be punished as the law directs, and burnt alive, or drowned in the horse-pond!”
The magistrate, of course, had heard the rumours41 about Dame Trueman, because they had been the common talk in the village for years, so he thought it was a good opportunity to give the people a lecture, and he made a long speech, saying how wicked it was to suppose that anybody had supernatural powers; that witches were only believed in when people were ignorant and degraded and knew no better, and he was ashamed to think that in such a thriving place as our village there were still people so foolish as to entertain such beliefs. As to the story about the toad, it was too absurd. It was trifling42 with the Court to make such an excuse for a wanton attack upon a feeble old woman.
“It is no excuse!” exclaimed Mr. Gwillam indignantly. “She is a bad old woman, and she put that toad in my garden to charm me. She charmed me, and I got no rest day nor night for her till I found this walking toad under the mould. She dug a hole, and she put it there to have a spell on me. She went round and round this walking toad after she had buried it, and I shouldn’t have slept till now if I hadn’t found it and killed it.”
The magistrate called the doctor up and whispered with him for a little, and then he said that no doubt Mr. Gwillam, who was a very respectable person, was the victim of a delusion, and had allowed himself to be carried away by his feelings. He must mark his sense of the impropriety of the proceedings43 by fining him ten pounds—five pounds for each assault—or a month’s imprisonment44.{288}
“I won’t pay!” shouted Mr. Gwillam, brandishing45 his umbrella. “I’ll go to prison!”
He was quieted down a little and taken into another room, and the crowd was got away while a consultation46 was held. The old gentleman’s wife saw the magistrate, and asked to be allowed to pay the ten pounds without her husband knowing it, and this was done, and presently he was released believing that the magistrate had altered his mind.
That evening he came into our bar-parlour as calm as though nothing had happened. I had begged the customers not to say anything about the affair to him, and they didn’t. But just as I thought everything was all right he startled everybody by saying that he was going to wait for the witch at midnight, and rid the place of her.
“Harry,” I said to my husband in a whisper, “you must see Mr. Gwillam home, and don’t leave him till he’s safe in his own house. He isn’t fit to be trusted alone. He’ll murder that old woman, or some awful thing.”
So Harry went home with him that evening, and saw him safe indoors, and told his wife to look after him; but we all agreed that he ought to be watched, or something dreadful would happen, as he’d evidently got the witch on his mind.
But before anything was done, a most extraordinary thing happened. One morning soon after the trial, the neighbours noticed that there was no smoke coming out of Dame Trueman’s chimney. They thought it odd, as she was generally up and her fire alight very early. About twelve o’clock a young woman, who, it seems, had an appointment with her to get a charm for her lover, who was going to sea, called at the house, and knocked at the door, but couldn’t make anybody hear. Some people saw her knocking, and getting no answer, and made up their minds something was wrong, so they went and forced the door open.
“When they got inside all was quite still. They called out, but got no answer. One of them then went into the kitchen and gave a cry of horror. There, on the hearth47, by a fire that had gone out, lay something that looked{289} like a heap of cinders48. And walking round and round the heap was a black cat with three white hairs on its breast.
The heap of cinders was old Dame Trueman. The witch was dead. It was supposed that she fell forward in a fit of some sort into the fire, and her clothes caught, and that she was burned to death on the hearth. Nothing else had caught light from the flames, as the kitchen was all paved with bricks.
That was the end of “our witch,” and a very awful end it was, and a nice sensation it made in the village. Of course she wasn’t a witch; but I’m afraid she was a very wicked old woman, and was quite willing to be thought to be able to cast spells, because she made money by it.
When her house was searched, over a hundred pounds was found concealed49 in different places. The black cat disappeared the day she was found dead, and nobody ever saw it again.
I know there are lots of London people who will think that I am like the customers in our smoke-room, and that I have exaggerated; but I have not. I have just told you the true story of our village witch—and I can show you the county paper with the account in it of Mr. Gwillam’s trial for beating her; and the very words he said about the walking toad are in it.
After the witch was dead, Mr. Gwillam seemed to get better; but to the last he persisted that it was his killing50 the toad that had brought about the old woman’s death. It was one of her “familiars,” and he had slain51 her in slaying52 that. Nobody attempted to argue with him on the question. He didn’t come to our place very long afterwards, because he got an idea that whenever he went out he was followed by a shadow, and if ever the shadow overtook him it would kill him; so his wife had a man to look after him and go about with him, who was really his keeper, and he was never brought out after dark. Poor gentleman, I have no doubt it was all the result of his tumbling off the ladder on to his head before he retired from business.
The cottage that “the witch” had lived in so many{290} years was done up and thoroughly53 repaired; but nobody would live in it, as it was said to be haunted. Some boys declared that late at night they had seen a black cat with three white hairs on its breast prowling about on the roof and making a most unearthly noise, and that——
* * * * *
The post! Thank you. Oh, Harry! who do you think this letter’s from? It’s from Jenny. She and her husband are coming to stay with us at last, and they’re going to bring the baby. Oh! I am so glad.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
参考例句:
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
2 warts b5d5eab9e823b8f3769fad05f1f2d423     
n.疣( wart的名词复数 );肉赘;树瘤;缺点
参考例句:
  • You agreed to marry me, warts and all! 是你同意和我结婚的,我又没掩饰缺陷。 来自辞典例句
  • Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! 用那样糊涂蛋的方法还谈什么仙水治疣子! 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
3 dame dvGzR0     
n.女士
参考例句:
  • The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
  • If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会,你就要跟那个夫人结婚。
4 lone Q0cxL     
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的
参考例句:
  • A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
  • She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。
5 savings ZjbzGu     
n.存款,储蓄
参考例句:
  • I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假,那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
  • By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时,他的存款已全部用完。
6 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
7 mattress Z7wzi     
n.床垫,床褥
参考例句:
  • The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
  • The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。
8 marketing Boez7e     
n.行销,在市场的买卖,买东西
参考例句:
  • They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
  • He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。
9 neatly ynZzBp     
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地
参考例句:
  • Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
  • The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。
10 Christian KVByl     
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒
参考例句:
  • They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
  • His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
11 mischievous mischievous     
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的
参考例句:
  • He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
  • A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。
12 imp Qy3yY     
n.顽童
参考例句:
  • What a little imp you are!你这个淘气包!
  • There's a little imp always running with him.他总有一个小鬼跟着。
13 linen W3LyK     
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的
参考例句:
  • The worker is starching the linen.这名工人正在给亚麻布上浆。
  • Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool.精细的亚麻织品和棉织品像羊毛一样闻名遐迩。
14 lame r9gzj     
adj.跛的,(辩解、论据等)无说服力的
参考例句:
  • The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍。
  • I don't believe his story.It'sounds a bit lame.我不信他讲的那一套。他的话听起来有些靠不住。
15 grimace XQVza     
v.做鬼脸,面部歪扭
参考例句:
  • The boy stole a look at his father with grimace.那男孩扮着鬼脸偷看了他父亲一眼。
  • Thomas made a grimace after he had tasted the wine.托马斯尝了那葡萄酒后做了个鬼脸。
16 scarlet zD8zv     
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的
参考例句:
  • The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
  • The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了,深红的颜色变成了绯红,绯红又变为浅红。
17 magistrate e8vzN     
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官
参考例句:
  • The magistrate committed him to prison for a month.法官判处他一个月监禁。
  • John was fined 1000 dollars by the magistrate.约翰被地方法官罚款1000美元。
18 remarkable 8Vbx6     
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的
参考例句:
  • She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
  • These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。
19 triumphant JpQys     
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的
参考例句:
  • The army made a triumphant entry into the enemy's capital.部队胜利地进入了敌方首都。
  • There was a positively triumphant note in her voice.她的声音里带有一种极为得意的语气。
20 dread Ekpz8     
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧
参考例句:
  • We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
  • Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。
21 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
22 retired Njhzyv     
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
参考例句:
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
23 pony Au5yJ     
adj.小型的;n.小马
参考例句:
  • His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
  • They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。
24 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
25 downwards MsDxU     
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地)
参考例句:
  • He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
  • As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。
26 horrified 8rUzZU     
a.(表现出)恐惧的
参考例句:
  • The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
  • We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。
27 bustle esazC     
v.喧扰地忙乱,匆忙,奔忙;n.忙碌;喧闹
参考例句:
  • The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深,喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
  • There is a lot of hustle and bustle in the railway station.火车站里非常拥挤。
28 interfered 71b7e795becf1adbddfab2cd6c5f0cff     
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉
参考例句:
  • Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》
29 whacked je8z8E     
a.精疲力尽的
参考例句:
  • She whacked him with her handbag. 她用手提包狠狠地打他。
  • He whacked me on the back and I held both his arms. 他用力拍拍我的背,我抱住他的双臂。
30 inquiries 86a54c7f2b27c02acf9fcb16a31c4b57     
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释,等候进一步调查。
  • I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
31 applied Tz2zXA     
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用
参考例句:
  • She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
  • This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。
32 delusion x9uyf     
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑
参考例句:
  • He is under the delusion that he is Napoleon.他患了妄想症,认为自己是拿破仑。
  • I was under the delusion that he intended to marry me.我误认为他要娶我。
33 delusions 2aa783957a753fb9191a38d959fe2c25     
n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 );谬见;错觉;妄想
参考例句:
  • the delusions of the mentally ill 精神病患者的妄想
  • She wants to travel first-class: she must have delusions of grandeur. 她想坐头等舱旅行,她一定自以为很了不起。 来自辞典例句
34 sane 9YZxB     
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的
参考例句:
  • He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
  • He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。
35 ERECTED ERECTED     
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立
参考例句:
  • A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
  • A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。
36 discomfort cuvxN     
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便
参考例句:
  • One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
  • She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。
37 determined duszmP     
adj.坚定的;有决心的
参考例句:
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
38 suffocation b834eadeaf680f6ffcb13068245a1fed     
n.窒息
参考例句:
  • The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
  • The room was hot to suffocation. 房间热得闷人。 来自辞典例句
39 witchcraft pe7zD7     
n.魔法,巫术
参考例句:
  • The woman practising witchcraft claimed that she could conjure up the spirits of the dead.那个女巫说她能用魔法召唤亡灵。
  • All these things that you call witchcraft are capable of a natural explanation.被你们统统叫做巫术的那些东西都可以得到合情合理的解释。
40 toad oJezr     
n.蟾蜍,癞蛤蟆
参考例句:
  • Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
  • Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。
41 rumours ba6e2decd2e28dec9a80f28cb99e131d     
n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 );风闻;谣言;谣传
参考例句:
  • The rumours were completely baseless. 那些谣传毫无根据。
  • Rumours of job losses were later confirmed. 裁员的传言后来得到了证实。
42 trifling SJwzX     
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的
参考例句:
  • They quarreled over a trifling matter.他们为这种微不足道的事情争吵。
  • So far Europe has no doubt, gained a real conveniency,though surely a very trifling one.直到现在为止,欧洲无疑地已经获得了实在的便利,不过那确是一种微不足道的便利。
43 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
44 imprisonment I9Uxk     
n.关押,监禁,坐牢
参考例句:
  • His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
  • He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。
45 brandishing 9a352ce6d3d7e0a224b2fc7c1cfea26c     
v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 );炫耀
参考例句:
  • The horseman came up to Robin Hood, brandishing his sword. 那个骑士挥舞着剑,来到罗宾汉面前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He appeared in the lounge brandishing a knife. 他挥舞着一把小刀,出现在休息室里。 来自辞典例句
46 consultation VZAyq     
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议
参考例句:
  • The company has promised wide consultation on its expansion plans.该公司允诺就其扩展计划广泛征求意见。
  • The scheme was developed in close consultation with the local community.该计划是在同当地社区密切磋商中逐渐形成的。
47 hearth n5by9     
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面
参考例句:
  • She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来,在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
  • She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里,打开电灯。
48 cinders cinders     
n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 );炭渣;煤渣路;煤渣跑道
参考例句:
  • This material is variously termed ash, clinker, cinders or slag. 这种材料有不同的名称,如灰、炉渣、煤渣或矿渣。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Rake out the cinders before you start a new fire. 在重新点火前先把煤渣耙出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
49 concealed 0v3zxG     
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的
参考例句:
  • The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
  • I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。
50 killing kpBziQ     
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财
参考例句:
  • Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
  • Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
51 slain slain     
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
  • His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。
52 slaying 4ce8e7b4134fbeb566658660b6a9b0a9     
杀戮。
参考例句:
  • The man mimed the slaying of an enemy. 此人比手划脚地表演砍死一个敌人的情况。
  • He is suspected of having been an accomplice in the slaying,butthey can't pin it on him. 他有嫌疑曾参与该杀人案,但他们找不到证据来指控他。
53 thoroughly sgmz0J     
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地
参考例句:
  • The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
  • The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。


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