Chapter 7

Max Giff-Reynolds had made a career out of focusing on the things most people never saw: a carpet fiber¹ trapped on the inside edge of a victim’s coat, a grain of sand left at a crime scene that was indigenous² to a certain part of the country, the dust of a coffee grinder on the makings of a dirty bomb. As one of two hundred forensic³ microscopists in the country, he was in high demand. Chances were that Mike Bartholemew would never have gotten anywhere close to him for an analysis of Trixie’s hair sample . .

. if he hadn’t known Max when he was a skinny little geek in college, back when they were roommates and Bartholemew served as bodyguard⁴ in return for private tutorials in chemistry and physics.

He’d driven to Boston that night with a hank of Trixie Stone’s hair on the seat beside him. The salon⁵, Live and Let Dye, hadn’t even sent the sample in to Locks of Love yet; it had been languishing⁶ in a drawer in the back room near the peroxide and the paraffin wax. Now he was sitting on top of a counter, waiting for Max to tell him something useful.

The lab was piled with boxes of dust and hair and fiber for comparison. A poster of Max’s hero, Edmond Locard, hung over his polarized-light microscope. Bartholemew could remember Max reading books about Locard, the father of forensic science, even back at U Maine. “He burned off his fingerprints,” Max had told him once with admiration⁷, “just to see if they grew back in the same patterns!” It had been almost thirty years since they’d graduated, but Max looked the same. Balder, but still skinny, with a permanent curve to his back that came from bending over a microscope. “Huh,” he said.

“What’s that mean?” Max pushed back from his workspace. “What do you know about hair?” Bartholemew grinned at the other man’s gleaming pate⁹. “More than you do.” “Hair’s got three layers that are important, in terms of forensics,” Max said, ignoring his comment. “The cortex, the cuticle¹⁰, and the medulla. If you think of a piece of hair as a pencil, the medulla is the graphite, the cortex is the wood, and the paint on the outside is the cuticle. The medulla is sometimes in pieces and differs from hair to hair on the same human head.

The cells in the cortex have pigment¹¹, which is pretty much what I’m trying to match up between your two samples. You with me so far?” Bartholemew nodded.

“I can tell you, by looking at a hair, if it’s human or not. I can tell you if it came from someone of Caucasian, Negroid, or Mongolian origin. I can tell you where it came from on the body and whether the hair was forcibly removed or burned or crushed. I can tell you that a hair excludes a suspect, but I can’t use it to pinpoint¹² a particular one.” He spoke¹³ as he bent¹⁴ over the microscope again. “What I’m seeing in both samples is a moderate shaft¹⁵ diameter and diameter variation, medulla continuous and relatively¹⁶ narrow, soft texture¹⁷.

That means they’re both hairs from a human head. The hue¹⁸, value, and intensity¹⁹ of the color are nearly identical. The tip of your known sample was cut with a pair of scissors; the other still has a root attached, which is soft and distorted . . . telling me it was yanked out. Pigment varies a bit between the two samples, although not enough for me to draw any conclusion. However, the cortex of the hair you found on the victim’s body is much more prominent than the hairs in the known sample.” “The known sample came from a haircut three weeks before the murder,” Bartholemew said. “Isn’t it possible that during those three weeks, the cortex got more . . . what did you say again?” “Prominent,” Max answered. “Yeah, it’s possible, especially if the suspect had some kind of chemical hair treatment or was excessively exposed to sunlight or wind. Theoretically, it’s also possible for two hairs from the same human head to just plain look different. But there’s also the chance, here, that you’re talking about two different heads.” He looked at Bartholemew. “If you asked me to get up in front of a jury, I couldn’t tell them conclusively²⁰ that these two hairs came from the same person.” Bartholemew felt like he’d been punched in the chest. He’d been so certain that he’d been on the right track here, that Trixie Stone’s disappearance²¹ flagged her involvement in the murder of Jason Underhill.

“Hey,” Max said, looking at his face. “I don’t admit this to many people, but microscopy’s not always an exact science. Even when I think I do see a match, I tell detectives to get a DNA²² analysis to back up what the scope says.” Mike sighed. “I have a root on only one of the hairs. That rules out DNA.” “It rules out nuclear DNA,” Max corrected. He leaned over and took a card out of his desk. He scribbled²³ something on the back and handed it to Bartholemew. “Skip’s a friend of mine, at a private lab in Virginia. Make sure you say I sent you.” Bartholemew took the card. SKIPPER JOHANSSEN, he read.

GENETTA LABS. MITOCHONDRIAL DNA.

By the time the storm blew in, Trixie had already lost feeling in her toes. She was nearly catatonic, lulled²⁴ by the cold and the exhaust of the snow machine. At the first strike of ice against her cheek, Trixie blinked back to awareness²⁵. They were still somewhere on the river - the scenery looked no different than it had an hour ago, except that the lights in the sky had vanished, washed over by gray clouds that touched down at the line of the horizon.

Snow howled. Visibility grew even worse. Trixie began to imagine that she had fallen into one of her father’s comic book panels, one filled with Kirby crackle - the burst of white bubbles that Jack²⁷ Kirby, a penciler from years ago, had invented to show an energy field. The shapes in the darkness turned into villains²⁸ from her father’s art - twisted trees became the clawed arms of a witch; icicles were the bared fangs³⁰ of a demon³¹.

Willie slowed the snow machine to a crawl and then stopped it altogether. He shouted to Trixie over the roar of the wind. “We have to wait this out. It’ll clear up by morning.” Trixie wanted to answer him, but she’d spent so long clenching³² her jaw³³ shut that she couldn’t pry³⁴ it open wide enough for a word.

Willie moved to the back of the machine, rummaging³⁵ around. He handed her a blue tarp. “Tuck this under the treads,” he said. “We can use it to get out of the wind.” He left her to her own devices and disappeared into the whorls of snow. Trixie wanted to cry. She was so cold that she couldn’t even classify it as cold anymore; she had no idea what he meant by treads, and she wanted to go home. She clutched the tarp against her parka, not moving, wishing that Willie would come back.

She saw him moving in and out of the beam cast by the snow machine’s headlight. He seemed to be snapping off the branches of a dead tree next to the riverbank. When he saw her still sitting on the snow machine, he walked up to her. She expected him to scream about not pulling her weight, but instead his mouth tightened³⁷ and he helped her off. “Get under here,” he said, and he had her sit with her back to the snow machine before he wrapped it in the tarp and pulled it over her, an awning³⁸ to cut the wind.

It wasn’t perfect. There were three large slits³⁹ in the tarp, and the snow and ice unerringly found those gashes⁴⁰. Willie crouched⁴² down at Trixie’s feet and peeled some of the bark off the birch branches he’d gathered, tucking it between lengths of cottonwood and alder⁸. He poured a little gas from the snow machine on top of the pile and ignited it with a lighter⁴³ from his pocket.

Only when she could feel the fire against her skin did she let herself wonder how cold it might be out here.

Trixie remembered learning that the human body was, like, sixty percent water. How many degrees below zero did it have to get before you literally⁴⁴ froze to death? “Come on,” Willie said. “Let’s get some grass.” The last thing Trixie wanted to do right now was smoke weed.

She tried to shake her head, but even that set of muscles had stopped working. When she didn’t get up, he turned away, as if she wasn’t even worth bothering with. “Wait,” she said, and although he didn’t look at her, he stopped moving. She wanted to explain how her feet felt like blocks and her fingers stung so bad that she had to keep biting down on her lower lip. She wanted to tell him how her shoulders hurt from trying not to shiver. She wanted to tell him she was scared and that when she imagined running away, this hadn’t entered into it. “I c-can’t move,” Trixie said.

Willie knelt beside her. “What can’t you feel?” She didn’t know how to answer that. Comfort? Safety? He began unlacing Trixie’s boots. Matter-of-factly, he cupped his hands around one of her feet. “I don’t have a sleeping bag. I let my cousin Ernie take it, he’s one of the mushers, and the officials check to see if you have one before you start the race.” Then, just when Trixie could move her toes again, just as a searing burn shot from her nails to the arch of her foot, Willie stood up and left.

He came back a few minutes later with an armful of dead grass.

It was still dusted with snow; Willie had dug it out from the edge of the riverbank. He packed the grass in Trixie’s boots and mittens⁴⁵. He told her to stuff some under her parka.

“How long will it snow?” Trixie asked.

Willie shrugged⁴⁶.

“How come you don’t talk?” Willie rocked back on his heels, his boots crunching⁴⁷ in the snow. “How come you think you have to talk to say something?” He pulled off his mittens and toasted his hands over the fire.

“You’ve got frostnip.” “What’s that?” “Frostbite, before it happens.” Trixie tried to remember what she knew about frostbite. Didn’t the affected⁴⁸ body part turn black and fall off? “Where?” she panicked.

“Between your eyes. On your cheek.” Her face was going to fall off? Willie gestured, almost delicately, in a way that let her know he wanted to move closer to her, to place his hand on her. It was at that moment that Trixie realized she was in the company of a boy who was stronger than she was, in the middle of nowhere, a good twentyfive miles away from anyone who’d hear her scream. She leaned away from him, shaking her head, as her throat closed like a rose after dark.

His fingers caught her at the wrist, and Trixie’s heart started hammering harder. She closed her eyes, expecting the worst, thinking that maybe if you’d lived a nightmare once it wasn’t quite as bad the second time around.

Willie’s palm, hot as a stone in the sun, pressed against her cheek. She felt his other hand touch her forehead, then sweep down the side of her face to cup her jaw.

She could feel calluses on his skin, and she wondered where they’d come from. Trixie opened her eyes and, for the first time since she’d met him, found Willie Moses looking right at her.

Skipper Johanssen, the mitochondrial DNA expert, was a woman.

Bartholemew watched her pour sugar into her coffee and look over the notes on the case that he’d brought. “Unusual name,” he said.

“Mom had a Barbie thing going on.” She was beautiful: straight platinum⁴⁹ hair that swept the middle of her back, green eyes hidden behind her thick-framed black glasses. When she read, sometimes her mouth formed the words.

“What do you know about mitochondrial DNA?” she asked.

“That you can hopefully use it to compare two hairs?” “Well, yeah, you can. The real question is what you want to do with that comparison.” Skipper leaned back in her chair. “Thanks to C.S.I., everyone’s heard about DNA analysis. Most of the time they’re talking about nuclear DNA, the kind that comes, in equal halves, from your mother and your father. But there’s another kind of DNA that’s the up-and-comer in the forensic community - mitochondrial DNA. And even though you may not know a lot about it, you - and the rest of the world - know the largest case in history where it was used: 9/11.” “To identify the remains⁵²?” “Exactly,” Skipper said. “Traditional efforts didn’t work . . .

they couldn’t find intact teeth, or bones that weren’t crushed, or even anything to X-ray. But mtDNA can be used to profile samples that have been burned, pulverized⁵³, you name it. All scientists need is a saliva⁵⁴ sample from a family member of the deceased in order to make a comparison.” She picked up the hair sample that Max had scrutinized⁵⁵ under a microscope the previous day. “The reason we can test this for DNA without a root attached is that a cell isn’t made up of just a nucleus⁵⁶. There are many more parts - including the mitochondria, which are basically the powerhouses that keep the cell functional⁵⁷. There are hundreds of mitochondria in a cell, as compared to a single nucleus. And each mitochondrion contains several copies of the mtDNA we’re interested in.” “If there’s so much more mtDNA than nuclear DNA, why isn’t it used all the time for criminal profiling?” Bartholemew asked.

“Well, there’s a catch. Typically, when you get a nuclear DNA profile, the chances of finding another person with that profile are one in six billion. Mitochondrial DNA stats are far less discriminating⁵⁸, because unlike nuclear DNA, you inherit mtDNA only from your mom. That means that you and your brothers and sisters all have the same mtDNA she does ... and that her mom and siblings⁵⁹ do, and so on. It’s actually fascinating - a female egg cell possesses tons of mitochondria, as compared to the sperm⁶⁰ cell. At fertilization, not only are the few sperm mitochondria totally outnumbered, they’re actually destroyed.” Skipper smiled brightly.

“Natural selection at its finest.” “It’s a pity you have to keep us around for that whole fertilization thing in the first place,” Bartholemew said dryly.

“Ah, but you should see what’s going on next door to me in the cloning lab,” Skipper replied. “Anyway, my point is that mtDNA isn’t helpful if you’re choosing between two biological siblings to pinpoint a suspect, but it’s a nice tool if you’re looking to exclude someone nonrelated from an investigation⁶¹. Statistically⁶², if you test fifteen spots on the DNA strand⁶³, there are more than an octillion nuclear DNA profiles, which is awfully⁶⁴ nice when you’re in front of a jury and trying to pin down a particular individual. But with mtDNA, there are only forty-eight hundred sequences logged to date . . . and another six thousand reported in scientific literature. With mtDNA, you might wind up with a relative frequency of point one four or something like that . . .

basically, a subject will share a profile with four percent of the world’s population. It’s not specific enough to nail a perp without reasonable doubt in front of a jury, but it would allow you to rule someone out as a suspect because he or she doesn’t have that particular profile.” “So if the mtDNA profile of the hair found on the victim’s body doesn’t match the one for Trixie Stone’s hair,” Bartholemew said, “then I can’t link her to the murder.” “Correct.” “And if it does match?” Skipper glanced up. “Then you’ve got reasonable cause to arrest her.” The sun skipped the Alaskan tundra⁶⁵. At least, that’s how it seemed to Laura, or why else would it be pitch-dark at nine in the morning? She anxiously waited for the flight attendant to open the hatch of the plane, now that they had landed in Bethel. It was bad enough that she had a fear of heights and hated flying, but this was only half a plane, really - the front end was devoted⁶⁶ to cargo⁶⁷.

“How are you doing?” Daniel asked.

“Fantastic,” Laura said, trying to lighten her voice. “It could have been a Cessna, right?” Daniel turned just as they were about to exit the plane and pulled up the hood⁶⁸ of her jacket. He tugged⁷⁰ on the strings⁷¹ and tied them under her chin, just like he used to do when Trixie was tiny and headed out to play in the snow. “It’s colder than you think,” he said, and he stepped onto the rollaway staircase that led to the runway.

It was an understatement. The wind was a knife that cut her to ribbons; the act of breathing felt like swallowing glass. Laura followed Daniel across the runway, hurrying into a small, squat⁷² building.

The airport consisted of chairs arranged in narrow rows and a single ticket counter. It wasn’t manned, because the lone⁷³ employee had moved to the metal detector⁷⁴, to screen passengers on the outbound flight. Laura watched two native girls hugging an older woman, all three of them crying as they inched toward the gate.

There were signs in both English and Yup’ik. “Does that mean bathroom?” Laura asked, pointing to a doorway⁷⁶ with the word ANARVIK overhead.

“Well, there’s no Yup’ik word for bathroom,” Daniel said, smiling a little. “That actually translates to ‘the place to shit.’ “ The single door split off to the right and the left. The men’s and women’s rooms were not marked, but she could glimpse a urinal in one direction, so she walked the opposite way. The sinks were operated by push pedals; she pumped one to start the flow of water and then splashed some on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror.

If someone else walks into the bathroom, she thought, I will stop being a coward.

If the family outside has made it through security, to the gate.

If Daniel is facing forward, when I come out.

She used to play this game with herself all the time. If the light changed before she counted to ten, then she would go to Seth’s after class. If Daniel picked up before the third ring, she would stay an extra five minutes.

She’d take these random⁷⁷ occurrences and elevate them to oracles⁷⁸; she’d pretend that they were enough to justify⁷⁹ her actions.

Or lack therof.

Wiping her hands on her jacket, she stepped outside to find the family still crying near the metal detector and Daniel facing out the window.

Laura sighed with relief and walked toward him.

Trixie was shivering so hard that she kept shaking off the quilt of dead grass Willie had used to cover them for warmth. It wasn’t like a blanket you could just pull over yourself; you had to burrow⁸⁰ down and think warm thoughts and hope for the best. Her feet still ached and her hair was frozen against her head. She was consciously awake - somehow she thought that sleeping was too close to the line of being blue and stiff and dead, and that you might pass from one side to the other without any fanfare⁸¹.

Willie’s breath came out in little white clouds that floated in the air like Chinese lanterns on a string. His eyes were closed, which meant Trixie could stare at him as much as she wanted. She wondered what it was like to grow up here, to have a snowstorm hit like this and to know how to save yourself, instead of needing someone to do it for you. She wondered if her father knew this sort of stuff too, if elemental knowledge about living and dying might be underneath⁸² all the other, ordinary things he knew, like how to draw a devil and change a fuse and not burn pancakes.

“Are you awake?” she murmured.

Willie didn’t open his eyes, but he nodded the tiniest bit, and a stream of white flowed out of his nostrils⁸³.

There was a warm zone connecting them. They were lying two feet apart, with grass heaped in the space between their bodies, but every time Trixie turned his way she could feel heat conducting through the dried straw, pulsing like light from a star. When she thought he might not notice, she inched infinitesimally closer.

“Do you know anyone who ever died out here?” Trixie asked.

“Yeah,” Willie said. “That’s why you don’t make a cave in a snowbank. If you die, no one can ever find you, and then your spirit won’t ever rest.” Trixie felt her eyes get damp, and that was awful, because almost immediately her lashes⁸⁴ sealed shut again. She thought of the ladders she’d cut on her arms, the way she’d wanted to feel real pain instead of the hurt gnawed⁸⁵ on her heart. Well, she’d gotten what she wanted, hadn’t she? Her toes burned like fire; her fingers had swollen⁸⁶ like sausages and ached. The thought of that delicate razor blade being drawn⁸⁷ across her skin seemed, by comparison, ridiculous, a drama for someone who didn’t really know what tragedy was.

Maybe it took realizing that you could die to keep you from wanting to do it.

Trixie wiped her nose and pressed her fingertips against her eyelashes to dissolve the ice. “I don’t want to freeze to death,” she whispered.

Willie swallowed. “Well. . . there is one way to get warmer.” “How?” “Take off our clothes.” “Yeah, right,” Trixie scoffed⁸⁸.

“I’m not bullshitting you.” Willie glanced away. “We both get.

. . you know . . . and then huddle⁸⁹ together.” Trixie stared at him. She didn’t want to be pressed up against him; she kept thinking of what had happened the last time she was this close to a boy.

“It’s just what you do,” Willie said. “It’s not like it means anything. My dad’s stripped down naked with other guys, when they get stuck overnight.” Trixie pictured her father doing this . . . but stopped abruptly⁹⁰ when she got to the part where she had to imagine him without clothes.

“Last time it happened, my dad had to cuddle up to old Ellis Puuqatak the whole night. He swore he’d never leave home again without a sleeping bag.” Trixie watched Willie’s words crystallize in the cold, each as differentiated⁹¹ as a snowflake, and she knew he was telling her the truth. “You have to close your eyes first,” she said, hesitant. She shucked off her jeans, anorak, and sweater. She left on her bra and panties, because she had to.

“Now you,” Trixie said, and she looked away as he pulled off his coat and his shirt. She peeked⁹², though. His back was the color of the outside of an almond, and his shoulder blades flexed⁹³ like pistons⁹⁴. He took off his jeans, hopping⁹⁵ around and making little sounds, like a person at the town pool who makes a big deal when he finally manages to get into the cold water.

Willie spread some grass on the ground, then lay down and motioned for Trixie to do the same. He drew their jackets over them, like a blanket, and then covered these with more grass.

Trixie squeezed her eyes shut. She could feel the rustle⁹⁶ of the straw as he moved closer and the itch²⁹ of the grass on her bare skin as it caught between them. Willie’s hand touched her back, and she stiffened⁹⁷ as he came up behind her, curling his knees into the hollow bowl made by the bend of her own. She took deep breaths. She tried not to remember the last boy she’d touched, the last boy who’d touched her.

The inferno⁹⁸ began where his fingers rested on her shoulder and spread to every spot where their skin was touching⁹⁹. Pressed up against Willie, Trixie didn’t find herself thinking about Jason, or the night of the rape¹⁰⁰. She didn’t feel threatened or even frightened. She simply felt, for the first time in hours, warm.

“Did you ever know someone who died?” she asked. “Someone our age?” It took Willie a moment, but he answered. “Yes.” The bitter wind beat against their tarp and made its loose tongue rattle¹⁰¹ like a gossip’s. Trixie unclenched her fists. “Me too,” she said.

 

Bethel was technically¹⁰² a city, but not by any normal standards.

The population was less than six thousand, although it was the closest hub for fifty-three native villages along the river.

Daniel turned to Laura. “We can get a taxi,” he said.

“There are taxis here?” “Most people don’t have cars. If you’ve got a boat and a snow-go, you’re pretty much set.” The cab driver was a tiny Asian woman with a massive bun perched on her head like an avalanche¹⁰³ waiting to happen. She wore fake Gucci sunglasses, although it was still dark outside, and was listening to Patsy Cline on the radio. “Where you go?” Daniel hesitated. “Just drive,” he said. “I’ll tell you when to stop.” The sun had finally broken over the horizon like the yolk¹⁰⁴ of an egg. Daniel stared out the window at the landscape: pancake flat, windswept, opaque¹⁰⁶ with ice. The rutted roads had houses pitted along them, ranging from tiny shacks¹⁰⁸ to modest 1970s split-levels. On the side of one road sat a couch with the cushions missing and its overstuffed arms dusted with frost.

They drove past the neighborhoods of Lousetown and Alligator¹⁰⁹ Acres, the Alaska Commercial Company store, the medical center where Yup’ik Eskimos received free treatment. They passed White Alice, a huge curved structure that resembled a drive-in movie screen but that actually was a radar¹¹⁰ system built during the Cold War. Daniel had broken into it a hundred times as a kid - climbed up through the pitch-black center to sit on top and get drunk on Windsor Whiskey.

“Okay,” he told the cab driver. “You can stop here.” The Long House Inn was covered with ravens¹¹¹. There were at least a dozen on the roof, and another group battled around the remains of a torn Hefty bag in the Dumpster off to the side. Daniel paid the driver and stared at the renovated¹¹² building. When he’d left, it was on the verge¹¹³ of being condemned¹¹⁴.

There were three snow machines parked out front, something Daniel filed away in the recesses¹¹⁵ of his mind. He’d need one, after he figured out what direction to head to find Trixie. He could hotwire one of these, if he still remembered how, or take the honorable route and charge one to his MasterCard. They were sold in the Alaska Commercial store, at the end of the dairy aisle¹¹⁶, past the $6.99 gallons of milk.

“Did you know a group of ravens is called an unkindness?” Laura said, coming to stand beside him.

He looked at her. For some reason, the space between them seemed smaller in Alaska. Or maybe you just had to get far enough away from the scene of a crime to start to forget the details.

“Did you know,” he replied, “that ravens like Thai food better than anything else?” Laura’s eyes lit up. “You win.” A banner had been strung across the doorway: K300 HEADQUARTERS.

Daniel walked inside, stamping his boots to get the snow off. He’d been a kid when this dogsled race was just getting organized, when locals like Rick Swenson and Jerry Austin and Myron Angstman had won the pot of a few thousand dollars. Now the winnings were $20,000, and the mushers who came were stars with corporate¹¹⁷ backing for their dog kennels¹¹⁸ - Jeff King and Martin Buser and DeeDee Jonrowe.

The room was crowded. A knot of native kids sat on the floor, drinking cans of Coke and passing around a comic book. Two women answered phones, another was carefully printing the latest splits on a white board. There were Yup’ik mothers carrying moonfaced babies, elderly men reading the scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, schoolgirls with blue-black braids giggling¹¹⁹ behind their hands as they helped themselves to the potluck stews¹²⁰ and cobblers. Everyone moved pendulously¹²¹ in layers of winter clothing, astronauts navigating¹²² the surface of a distant planet. Which, Daniel thought, this might as well be.

He walked up to the desk where the women were answering phones.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I’m trying to find a teenage girl. ..” One woman held up a finger: Just a moment.

He unzipped his jacket. Before they’d left, he’d packed a duffel full of winter gear; he and Laura were pretty much wearing everything they’d brought all at once. It was cold in Maine, but nothing compared to what it would be like in the Eskimo villages.

The woman hung up. “Hi. Can I . . .” She broke off as the phone rang again.

Frustrated¹²³, Daniel turned away. Impatience¹²⁴ was a trait you developed in the lower forty-eight, an attribute that a child who grew up here didn’t possess. Time wasn’t the same on the tundra; it stretched to elastic¹²⁵ lengths and snapped back fast when you weren’t looking. The only things that really operated on a schedule were school and church, and most Yupiit were late to those anyway.

Daniel noticed an old man sitting on a chair, staring. He was Yup’ik, with the weathered skin of a person who’d spent his life outside. He wore green flannel¹²⁶ pants and a fur parka.

“Aliurturua,” the man whispered. I’m seeing a ghost.

“Not a ghost.” Daniel took a step toward him. “Cama-i.” The man’s face wrinkled, and he reached for Daniel’s hand.

“Alangruksaaqamken.” You amazed me, showing up unexpectedly.

Daniel had not spoken Yup’ik in fifteen years, but the syllables¹²⁷ flowed through him like a river. Nelson Charles had, in fact, taught him his very first Yup’ik words: iqalluk . . . fish, angsaq . . . boat, and terren purruaq . . . you suck the meat off an asshole, which is what Nelson told him to say to kids who made fun of him for being kass ‘aq. Daniel reached for Laura, who was watching the exchange with amazement¹²⁸. “Una arnaq nulirqaqa,” he said. This is my wife.

“That kind’s pretty,” Nelson said in English. He shook her hand but didn’t look her in the eye.

Daniel turned to Laura. “Nelson used to be a substitute teacher.

When the native kids got to go on field trips to Anchorage that were subsidized by the government, I wasn’t allowed to go because I was white. So Nelson would take me on my own little field trip to check out fishnets and animal traps.” “Don’t teach these days,” Nelson said. “Now I’m the race marshal.” That would mean, Daniel realized, that Nelson had been here since the start of the K300. “Listen,” he said, and he found himself slipping back into Yup’ik because the words, thorny¹²⁹ on his tongue and in his throat, didn’t hurt quite as much as they did in English. “Paniika tamaumauq.” My daughter is lost.

He didn’t have to explain to Nelson why he thought that his child, who lived a whole country away, might have wound up in Alaska when she went missing. The Yupiit understood that the person you were when you went to sleep at night might not necessarily be the person you were when you woke up. You could have become a seal or a bear. You might have crossed into the land of the dead. You might have casually¹³⁰ spoken a wish aloud in your dreams and then found yourself living in the middle of it.

“She’s fourteen,” Daniel said, and he tried to describe Trixie, but he didn’t know what to say. How could her height or weight or the color of her hair convey that when she laughed, her eyes narrowed shut? That she had to have the peanut butter on the top side of the sandwich and the jelly on the bottom? That she sometimes got up and wrote poetry in the middle of the night because she’d dreamed it? The woman who had been on the phone stepped out from behind the table. “Sorry about that . . . the calls have been crazy. Anyway, the only kids coming through here I didn’t know are the Jesuit Volunteers. One girl flew in late, because of the snowstorm, but by now, they’re all up at Tuluksak, manning the checkpoint.” “What did she look like?” Laura asked. “The girl who was late?” “Skinny little thing. Black hair.” Laura turned to Daniel. “It’s not her.” “This girl didn’t have a warm coat,” the woman said. “I thought that was pretty crazy for a kid who knew she was coming to Alaska.

She didn’t even have a hat.” Daniel remembered Trixie sitting in the passenger seat of his truck in the middle of the winter as they drove up to the high school entrance. It’s freezing out, he’d said, and he handed her a hunter-orange wool stocking cap he’d used when he was out cutting wood. Wear this. And her response: Dad, do you want people to think I’m a total freak? There had been times, when he lived in Akiak, that he would know things before they happened. Sometimes it was as simple as thinking of a red fox and then looking up and seeing one.

Sometimes it was more profound: sensing a fight building up behind him, so that he could turn in time to throw the first punch. Once it had even wakened him out of his sleep: the sound of a gunshot and the echo of basketballs thudding when the bullet upset the cart they were stored on.

His mother had called it coincidence, but the Yupiit wouldn’t.

People’s lives were as tightly woven as a piece of lace, and pulling on one string might furrow¹³¹ another. And although he’d dismissed it when he was a teenager in Akiak, he recognized now the tightening¹³² of the skin at his temples, the way light moved too fast in front of his eyes a moment before he pictured his daughter, not wearing a hat, or anything else for that matter, shivering in what seemed to be a haystack.

Daniel felt his heart jump. “I have to get to Tuluksak.” “Ikayumaamken,” Nelson said. Let me help you.

The last time he’d been here, Daniel hadn’t wanted anyone’s help. The last time he’d been here, he’d actively¹³³ pushed it away.

Now he turned to Nelson. “Can I borrow your snow machine?” he asked.

The checkpoint in Tuluksak was at the school, close enough to the river for mushers to settle their dogs in straw on the banks and then walk up to the building for hot food. All mushers racing¹³⁴ the K300 passed through Tuluksak twice - once on the way up to Aniak and once on the way back. There was a mandatory¹³⁵ four-hour rest and vet¹³⁶ check during one of those stops. When Trixie and Willie arrived, a team of dogs was idling without its musher down at the bank of the river, being watched over by a kid with a clipboard who asked if they’d run into anyone else on the trail.

All but one of the mushers had passed through Tuluksak, detained, presumably, by the storm. No one had heard from him since he’d checked in at Akiak.

Trixie hadn’t really spoken much to Willie this morning. She had awakened¹³⁷ with a start a little after six A.M., noticing first that it wasn’t snowing and second that she wasn’t cold. Willie’s arm was draped over her, and his breath fell onto the nape of her neck. Most humiliating, though, was the hard thing Trixie could feel pressing up against her thigh¹³⁹. She had inched away from Willie, her face burning, and focused on getting herself fully⁵¹ dressed before he woke up and realized he had a boner.

Willie parked outside the school and climbed off the snow machine. “Aren’t you coming in?” Trixie asked, but he was already tinkering with the engine, not seeming the least bit inclined to finesse¹⁴⁰ an introduction for her. “Whatever,” she muttered under her breath, and she walked into the building.

Directly in front of her was a trophy¹⁴¹ case that held a wooden mask decorated with feathers and fur and a loving cup with a basketball etched onto it. A tall boy with a long, horsey face was standing¹⁴² next to it. “You’re not Andi,” he said, surprised.

The Jesuit Volunteers who were in charge of the checkpoint at Tuluksak were a group of college-age kids who did Peace Corpsstyle service work at the native clinic in Bethel. Trixie had thought Jesuits were priestsand these kids clearly weren’t. She asked Willie why they were called that, and he just shrugged.

“I don’t know about Andi,” Trixie said. “I was just told to come here/- She held her breath, waiting for this boy to point a finger at her and scream Imposter! but before he could, Willie walked inside, stamping off his boots. “Hey, Willie, what’s up,” the tall boy said. Willie nodded and walked into one of the classrooms, heading toward a table set up with Crock Pots and Tupperware. He helped himself to a bowl of something and disappeared through another doorway.

“Well, I’m Carl,” the boy said. He held out his hand.

“Trixie.” “You ever done this before?” “Oh, sure,” Trixie lied. “Tons of times.” “Great.” He led her into the classroom. “Things are a little crazy right now, because we’ve got a team that just came in, but here’s a five-second orientation¹⁴³: First and most important, that’s where the food is.” He pointed¹⁴⁴. “The locals bring stuff all day long, and if you haven’t had any, I recommend the beaver¹⁴⁵ soup. On the other side of the door where you came in is another classroom; that’s where the mushers sleep when they come in for their layover. They basically grab a mat and tell you when they want to be woken up.

We rotate shifts - every half hour someone’s got to sit out on the river, which is cruel and unusual punishment in this kind of weather. If you’re the one on duty when a musher comes in, make sure you tell him his time and call it into headquarters, then show him which plywood corral has his gear in it. Right now everyone’s a little freaked out because one team hasn’t made it in since the storm.” Trixie listened to Carl, nodding at the right places, but he might as well have been speaking Swahili. Maybe if she watched someone else doing what she was supposed to do, she could copy when it came her turn.

“And just so you know,” Carl said. “Mushers are allowed to drop dogs here.” Why? Trixie wondered. To see if they land on their feet? A cell phone rang, and someone called out Carl’s name. Left alone, Trixie wandered around, hoping to avoid Willie, who was doing such an effortless job of avoiding her. It seemed that the entire school consisted of two classrooms, and Trixie thought of Bethel High’s complex layout, a map she had memorized all summer before starting ninth grade.

“You made it.” Trixie turned to find the vet who’d been on the bush plane with her from Anchorage. “Go figure.” “Well, I guess I’ll see you outside. I hear there’s a nasty case of frostbite out there with my name on it.” He zipped up his coat and waved as he walked out the door.

Trixie was starving, but not enough to want to eat something that might have beaver in it. She gravitated toward the oil stove at the corner of the room and held her hands out in front of it.

It was no warmer than Willie’s skin had been.

“You all set?” As if her thoughts had conjured¹⁴⁶ him, Willie was suddenly standing next to her. “For what?” “This.” “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Piece of cake.” He smirked¹⁴⁷ and started to walk away. “Hey. Where are you going?” “Home. This is my village.” Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to Trixie that she was going to be by herself again. As a teenager, she was always part of a greater whole - a family, a class, a peer group - and there was always someone sticking a nose in her business. How many times had she stormed off after a fight with her mother, yelling that she just wanted to be left alone? Be careful what you wish for, Trixie thought. After a single day spent on her own, here she was getting all upset about losing the company of a total stranger.

She tried to wipe all the emotion off her face, so that it reflected back at Willie the same indifference¹⁴⁸ he was showing her.

Then she remembered she was still wearing a coat that belonged to someone he knew, and she struggled to unfasten it.

Willie pushed her hands away from the zipper¹⁴⁹. “Keep it,” he said. “I’ll come back for it later.” She followed him out of the school building, feeling the cold rake the hair from her scalp. Willie headed toward a cluster of small houses that seemed two-dimensional, sketched¹⁵⁰ in shades of smoky brown and gray. His hands were dug deep into his pockets, and he spun¹⁵¹ around so that he wouldn’t have to bear the bite of the wind. “Willie,” Trixie called out, and although he didn’t look up, he stopped walking. “Thanks.” He ducked his head deeper, an acknowledgment, then kept moving backward toward the village. It was exactly how Trixie felt: If she was getting anywhere on this journey, it was still the wrong way. She watched Willie, pretending she could see him even when she couldn’t, until she was distracted by the sound of barking near the river.

The JV they’d seen when they pulled up in their snow-go was still on the ice, watching over the same dog team, which panted in small frosty bites of punctuation¹⁵². He grinned when he saw Trixie and passed her the clipboard. “Are you my relief? It’s brutal¹⁵³ out here. Hey, listen, Finn Hanlon’s up taking a leak while the vet finishes checking out the team.” “What do I have to do?” Trixie said, but the boy was already halfway¹⁵⁴ up the hill, making a beeline for the warmth of the school. Trixie looked around, nervous. The vet was too busy to pay attention to her, but there were a few native kids kicking a Sprite can, and their parents, who hopped¹⁵⁵ from foot to foot to ward⁷⁵ off the cold and talked about who would win the race this year.

The lead dog looked tired. Trixie couldn’t blame the poor thing; she’d traveled the same route on the back of a snow machine and it had nearly killed her; what would it be like to do that barefoot and naked? Taking a glance at the vet - he could keep an eye out, just in case that last musher came in, couldn’t he? - she walked away from the team to a set of plywood lockers¹⁵⁶. Rummaging inside one, she grabbed a handful of kibble and walked back to the husky. She held out her palm, and the dog’s tongue, rough and warm, rasped against her skin to devour¹⁵⁸ the treat.

“Jesus,” a voice yelled. “You trying to get me disqualified?” Staring down at her was a musher wearing a bib with the number 12 on it. She glanced at her clipboard: FINN HANLON.

“You’re feeding my dogs!” “S-sorry,” Trixie stammered¹⁶⁰. “I thought . . .” Ignoring her, Hanlon turned to the vet. “What’s the verdict?” “He’s going to be fine, but not if you race him.” The vet stood up, wiped his hands on his coat.

The musher knelt beside the dog and rubbed him between the ears, then unhooked his traces. “I’m dropping him,” he said, handing the neck line to Trixie. She held it and watched Hanlon reconfigure the tug⁶⁹ line of the dog that had been Juno’s partner, so that the sled would pull straight. “Sign me out,” he ordered, and he stepped on the runners of his sled, holding on to the handle bow. “All right,” he called, and the team loped north along the river, gaining speed, as the spectators on the bank cheered.

The vet packed up his bag. “Let’s get Juno comfortable,” he said, and Trixie nodded, holding the neck line like a leash¹⁶¹ as she started to walk the dog toward the school building.

“Very funny,” the vet said.

She turned around to find him in front of a stake hammered into the grass along the edge of the river. “But it’s so cold out here ...” “You noticed? Tie him up, and I’ll get the straw.” Trixie clipped the dog’s neck line onto the stake. The vet returned, carrying a slice of hay in his arms. “You’d be surprised how cozy¹⁶² this is,” he said, and Trixie thought of the night she’d spent with Willie.

A current suddenly energized¹⁶³ the small tangle¹⁶⁴ of spectators, and they began to point to the spot on the horizon where the river became a vanishing point. Trixie gripped the clipboard with her mittened¹⁶⁵ hands and looked at the pinprick in the distance.

“It’s Edmonds!” a Yup’ik boy cried. “He made it!” The vet stood up. “I’ll go tell Carl,” he said, and he left Trixie to fend¹⁶⁶ for herself.

The musher was wearing a white parka that came down to his knees and the number 06 on his bib. “Whoa,” he called out, and his malamutes slowed to a stop, panting. The swing dog - the one closest to the sled - curled up like a fiddlehead on the ice and closed her eyes.

The children spilled over the riverbank, tugging¹⁶⁷ at the musher’s coat. “Alex Edmonds! Alex Edmonds!” they shouted. “Do you remember me from last year?” Edmonds brushed them off. “I have to scratch,” he said to Trixie. “Um. Okay,” she answered, and she wondered why he thought he had to make an itch common knowledge. But Edmonds took the clipboard out of her hands and drew a line through his name. He handed it back and pulled the sleeping bag off the basket of the sled, revealing an old Yup’ik man who reeked¹⁶⁸ of alcohol and who was shaking even as he snored. “I found him on the trail. He must have passed out during the storm. I gave him mouth to mouth last night to get him breathing again, but the weather was too bad to get him back to the medical center in Bethel. This was the closest checkpoint ... can someone help me get him inside?” Before Trixie could run up to the school, she saw Carl and the other volunteers hurrying down to the river. “Holy cow,” Carl said, staring at the drunk. “You probably saved his life.” “Whatever that’s worth,” Edmonds replied. Trixie watched the other volunteers drag the old man out of the dogsled and carry him up to the school. The bystanders whispered and clucked to each other, snippets of conversation in Yup’ik and English that Trixie caught: Edmonds used to be an EMT... Kingurauten Joseph ought to pay for this. . . damn shame. One Yup’ik woman with owl²⁶ eyeglasses and a tiny bow of a mouth came up to Trixie. She leaned over the clipboard and pointed to the line splitting Edmonds’s name. “I had ten bucks¹⁶⁹ riding on him to win,” she complained.

With all the dog teams accounted for, the onlookers¹⁷⁰ dispersed¹⁷¹, heading into the village where Willie had gone. Trixie wondered if he was related to any of those little kids who’d been cheering for Edmonds. She wondered what he’d done when he got home. Drunk orange juice out of the container, like she might have? Taken a shower? Lay down on his bed, thinking of her? Just as suddenly as all the activity had arrived, there was nobody on the bank of the river. Trixie looked north, but she couldn’t see Finn Hanlon and his team anymore. She looked south, but she couldn’t tell where she and Willie had come from. The sun had climbed almost directly overhead, washing out the ice so that it made her eyes burn even to pick out the trail from the field of white.

Trixie sank down beside Juno on the straw and scratched the dog’s head with her glove. The husky stared up at her with one brown eye and one blue, and when he panted, it looked like he was smiling. Trixie imagined what it was like to be a sled dog, to have to pull your weight or realize you’d be left behind. She pictured how it would feel to trust your instincts in a strange land, to know the difference between where you had been and where you were going.

When the river froze in the winter, it got its own highway number, and at any given time you would see rusted¹⁷² trucks and dogsled teams driving over the ice in no particular direction or parallel course. Like most Yup’ik Eskimos, Nelson didn’t believe in a helmet or goggles¹⁷³; to brace¹⁷⁴ himself against the wind on the old man’s snow machine, Daniel had to crouch⁴¹ down close to the windshield. Laura sat behind him, her face buried against the back of his coat.

In the middle of the river was a stationary¹⁷⁵ white truck. As Daniel slowed the snow-go, he could feel Laura relax - she was freezing, even if she wasn’t complaining. “This must be a checkpoint,” he said, and he got off the machine with his thighs¹⁷⁶ still thrumming from the power of the engine.

A dreadlocked white woman unrolled the driver’s side window.

“Kingurauten Joseph, for the love of God, go pass out in someone else’s backyard.” Kingurauten was Yup’ik for too late. Daniel pulled down the neck warmer that covered his nose and mouth. “I think you’ve got me confused with someone else,” he began, and then realized that he knew the woman in the truck. “Daisy?” he said hesitantly.

Crazy Daisy, that was what they’d called her when she used to run the mail out to the native villages by dogsled back when Daniel was a kid. She frowned at him. “Who the hell are you?” “Daniel Stone,” he said. “Annette Stone’s son.” “That wasn’t the name of Annette’s kid. He was” “Wassilie,” Daniel finished.

Daisy scratched her scalp. “Didn’t you bug¹⁷⁷ out of here because . . .” “Nah,” Daniel lied. “I just left for college.” It was common knowledge that Crazy Daisy had gotten that way by running with Timothy Leary’s crowd in the sixties, and that she’d pretty much fried the functioning parts of her brain. “Did you happen to see a snow-go pass by here with a kass’aq girl and a Yup’ik boy?” “This morning?” “Yeah.” Daisy shook her head. “Nope. Sorry.” She jerked her thumb toward the back of the truck. “You want to come in and warm up? I got coffee and Snickers bars.” “Can’t,” Daniel said, lost in thought. If Trixie hadn’t come past Akiak, then how had he missed her on the trail? “Maybe later,” Daisy yelled, as he turned the ignition on the snow machine again. “I’d love to catch up.” Daniel pretended not to hear her. But as he circled around the truck, Daisy started waving like a madwoman, trying to get his attention. “No one’s passed by this morning,” she said, “but a girl and boy came through last night, before the storm hit.” Daniel didn’t answer, just gunned the engine and drove up the riverbank into Akiak, the town he’d run away from fifteen years earlier. The Washeteria - the place they’d gone with their laundry and for showers - was now a convenience store and video rental¹⁷⁸ shop. The school was still a squat, serviceable gray building; the house beside it where he’d grown up had two dogs staked out front.

Daniel wondered who lived there now, if it was still the schoolteacher, if she had children. If basketballs still sometimes started to bounce in the gymnasium without being set in motion, if the last one to lock up the school building ever saw the old principal who’d killed himself, still hanging from the crossbeam in the only classroom.

He stopped in front of the house next door to the school, a shack¹⁰⁷ with a slight pedigree. A snow-go sat in front of the building, and an aluminum¹⁷⁹ boat peeked out from beneath a blue tarp. Paper snowflakes had been taped to the windows, as well as a red metallic¹⁸⁰ crucifix. “Why are we stopping?” Laura asked. “What about Trixie?” He got off the snow machine and turned to her. “You’re not coming with me.” She wasn’t used to this kind of cold, and he couldn’t slow down for her and risk losing Trixie for good. And a part of him wanted to be alone when he found Trixie. There was so much he needed to explain.

Laura stared at him, struck dumb. Her eyebrows¹⁸¹ had frosted over, her eyelashes were matted together with ice, and when she finally spoke, her sentence rose like a white banner between them.

“Please don’t do this,” she said, starting to cry. “Take me with you.” Daniel pulled her into his arms, assuming that Laura thought this was a punishment, retribution for leaving him behind when she had her affair. It made her seem vulnerable; it made him remember how easy it was for them to still hurt each other. “If we had to walk through hell to find Trixie, I’d follow you. But this is a different kind of hell, and I’m the one who knows where he’s going. I’m asking you .. . I’m begging you to trust me.” Laura opened her mouth, and what might have been a reply came out only as a smoke ring full of what she could not say. Trust was exactly what they no longer had between them. “I can go faster if I don’t have to worry about you,” he said.

Daniel saw true fear in her eyes. “You’ll come back?” she asked.

“We both will.” Laura glanced around at the rutted street with snow-go tracks, at the public water receptacles at the base of the street. The community was silent, windswept, frigid¹⁸². It looked, Daniel knew, like a dead end.

“Come with me.” He led Laura up the set of wooden stairs and opened the door without knocking, entering a little antechamber.

There were plastic bags stuck on nails in the frame overhead, and stacks of newspaper. A pair of boots toppled to the right, and a tanned hide was stretched on the back wall, beside the door that led into the house. Lying on the linoleum¹⁸⁴ was a severed¹⁸⁵ moose hoof¹⁸⁶ and a half rack of frozen ribs¹⁸⁷.

Laura stepped hesitantly over them. “Is this ... is this where you used to live?” The interior door opened, revealing a Yup’ik woman about sixty years old, holding an infant in her arms. She took one look at Daniel and backed away, her eyes bright with tears.

“Not me,” Daniel said. “Cane¹⁸⁸.” Charles and Minnie Johnson, the parents of Daniel’s one and only childhood friend, treated him with the same sort of deference¹⁸⁹ they might have given any other ghost who sat down at their kitchen table to share a cup of coffee. Charles’s skin was as dark and lined as a cinnamon stick; he wore creased¹⁹⁰ jeans and a red western shirt and called Daniel Wass. His eyes were clouded with cataracts¹⁹¹, as if life were something poured into a body, a vessel¹⁹² that could hold only so much before memories floated across the windows of consciousness.

“It’s been a long time,” Charles said.

“Yes.” “You’ve been living Outside?” “With my family.” There was a long silence. “We wondered when you’d come home,” Minnie said.

The Yupiit did not speak of the dead, and because of that, neither would Daniel. But he had less practice with silence. In a Yup’ik household, ten minutes might pass between a question and the answer. Sometimes you didn’t even have to reply out loud; it was enough to be thinking your response.

They sat around the kitchen table in the quiet, until a young woman walked through the front door. She was clearly Minnie’s daughter - they had the same wide smile and smooth hickory skin but Daniel remembered her only as a young girl who liked to storyknife - using a butter knife in the soft mud to illustrate¹⁹³ the tales she’d tell. Now, though, she held in her arms her own fat, squirming baby, who took one look at Laura and pointed at her and laughed.

“Sorry,” Elaine said shyly. “He’s never seen anyone with that color hair before.” She unwound her scarf and unzipped her coat, then did the same for the baby.

“Elaine, this is Wass,” Charles said. “He lived here a long time ago.” Daniel stood at the introduction, and when he did, the baby reached for him. He grinned, catching¹⁹⁴ the boy as he twisted out of his mother’s arms. “And who’s this?” “My son,” Elaine said. “His name’s Cane.” Elaine lived in the same house as her parents, along with her two older children and her husband. So did her sister Aurora¹⁹⁵, who was seventeen years old and heavily pregnant. There was a brother, too, in his late twenties; Laura could see him in the only bedroom in the house, feverishly¹⁹⁶ playing Nintendo.

On the kitchen table was a hunk of frozen meat in a bowl - if Laura had to guess, she would have said it was intimately related to the moose parts in the arctic entry. There was a stove but no sink. Instead, a fifty-five-gallon drum in the corner of the kitchen area was filled with water. Dusty ice-fishing lures¹⁹⁷ and antique hand-carved kayak paddles were suspended from the ceiling; five-gallon buckets filled with lard and dried fish were stacked beside the threadbare couch. The walls were covered with religious paraphernalia¹⁹⁹: programs from church services, plaques²⁰⁰ of Jesus and Mary, calendars printed with the feast days of saints. Anywhere there was a spare square of paneling, a photograph had been tacked¹⁹⁸: recent pictures of the baby, old school portraits of Elaine and Aurora and their brother, the boy Daniel had been accused of murdering.

There was a curious irony²⁰¹ to being left behind here, even if the very thought of it made Laura break into a sweat. She kept remembering what Daniel had said about the Alaskan bush: It was a place where people tended to disappear. What did that bode²⁰² for Trixie, or for Daniel? And what might it mean for Laura herself? In Maine, when Lauras life had been jolted²⁰³ off course, it had been terrifying and unfamiliar²⁰⁴. Here, though, she had no standard for comparison - and not knowing what came next was the norm. She didn’t know why no one would look her in the eye, why the boy playing video games hadn’t come out to introduce himself, why they even had state-of-the-art video equipment when the house itself was little more than a shed, why a family that at one point had believed you’d killed their son would welcome you into their home. The world had been turned inside out, and she was navigating by the feel of its seams.

Daniel was speaking quietly to Charles, telling him about Trixie. “Excuse me,” Laura said, leaning toward Minnie. “Could I use your restroom?” Minnie pointed down the hall. At its end was a flattened²⁰⁵ cardboard refrigerator box, erected²⁰⁶ like a screen. “Laura,” Daniel said, getting to his feet.

“I’m fine!” she said, because she thought if she could make Daniel believe it, then maybe he’d convince her of it as well. She slipped behind the screen, and her jaw dropped. There was no bathroom; there wasn’t even a toilet. Only a white bucketlike the ones in the living room that stored dried fishwith a toilet seat balanced on top of it.

She peeled off her ski pants and squatted²⁰⁷, holding her breath the whole time, praying nobody was listening. When Laura and Daniel had moved in together, there had still been a certain shyness between them. After all, she was pregnant, and that had speeded along a relationship that might have otherwise taken years to reach that level of commitment. Laura could remember Daniel separating his laundry from hers for the first few months, for example. And she had studiously avoided going to the bathroom if Daniel happened to be in there taking a shower.

She couldn’t recall when, exactly, all their shirts and jeans and underwear had mixed in the washer together. Or when she’d been able to pee while he was two feet away from her, brushing his teeth. It was simply what happened when the histories of two people dovetailed into one.

Laura straightened her clothes - washing her hands wasn’t even an option - and stepped out from behind the partition. Daniel was waiting for her in the narrow hallway. “I should have warned you about the honey bucket.” She thought of how Daniel couldn’t bear to run the dishwasher if it wasn’t overflowing²⁰⁸, how his showers lasted less than five minutes. She’d always considered it thrifty²⁰⁹; now she saw that when you grew up with water as a luxury and plumbing²¹⁰ a distant wish, it might simply be a habit too deeply rooted to break.

“I need to get going,” Daniel said.

Laura nodded. She wanted to smile at him, but she couldn’t find it in herself. So much could happen between now and the next time she saw him. She wrapped her arms around Daniel and buried her face against his chest.

He led her into the kitchen, where he shook Charles’s hand and spoke in Yup’ik: “Quyana. Piurra.” When Daniel walked into the arctic entry, Laura followed. She stood at the front door, watching him start the snow machine and climb aboard. He lifted one hand, a farewell, and mouthed words he knew she would not hear over the roar of the engine.

I love you.

“I love you, too,” Laura murmured, but by then, all that remained of Daniel was what he’d left behind: a trail of exhaust, hatched tracks in the snow, and a truth neither of them had spoken for some time.

Bartholemew stared at the sheet of results that Skipper Johanssen had given him. “How sure are you?” he asked.

Skipper shrugged. “As sure as this particular typing can be.

Onehundredth of one percent of the world’s population has the same mito DNA profile as your suspect. You’re talking about six hundred thousand people, any of whom could have been at the scene of the crime.” “But that also suggests that ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the population wasn’t there.” “Correct. At least not based on that piece of hair you found on the victim.” Bartholemew stared at her. “And Trixie Stone doesn’t fall into that ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent?” “Nope.” “So I can’t exclude Trixie Stone.” “Not mitochondrially speaking.” The odds²¹¹ were looking better, when you glanced at them from this angle, Bartholemew thought. “Even though Max said . . .” “No insult to Max, but no court is going to put stock in an analysis done by the human eye, as compared to a validated²¹² scientific test like mine.” Skipper smiled at him. “I think,” she said, “you’ve got yourself a suspect.” The Johnsons were addicted²¹³ to the Game Show Network. They especially liked Richard Dawson, who kissed anything on two legs while hosting Family Feud²¹⁴. “One day,” Minnie kept saying, elbowing her husband, “I’m gonna run away with Richard.” “He’ll run, all right, when he sees you coming after him.” Charles laughed.

They had a satellite dish, a flat-screen TV, a PlayStation and a GameCube, as well as a DVD/VCR player and a stereo system that would have put Laura’s own to shame. Roland, the antisocial brother, had bought all the equipment with his check this year from the Alaska Permanent Fund - the dividends²¹⁵ on oil that every Alaskan was paid by the government since 1984. The Johnsons had lived the entire year on the $1,100 of Charles’s check alone, supplemented by hunting expeditions for caribou²¹⁶ and dried salmon²¹⁷ caught during the summer at fish camp. Roland had told her that Akiak residents could even get wireless²¹⁸ Internet for free - they qualified¹⁵⁹ for government-funded technology because they were both rural and native - but that no one could afford it. A person had to have a computer first, which would cost nearly a whole year’s Permanent Fund check.

When Laura had had her fill of Richard Dawson, she put on her coat and walked outside. On a telephone pole, someone had nailed a basketball hoop²²⁰; the ball itself was half buried in a hummock²²¹ of snow. She pulled it free and bounced it, amazed at how the sound echoed. Here there were no lawn mowers or blaring radios or rap music. No slamming of SUV doors, no clatter²²² of kids spilling out of a school bus, no hum from a nearby highway. It was the sort of place where you could hear the tumblers of your mind falling into place as you pieced thought together, as you tried to match it to action.

Although Laura knew without a doubt that Trixie had not murdered Jason, she didn’t understand what had made her daughter run away. Was Trixie just scared? Or did she know more about what had happened that night than she’d let on? Laura wondered if it was possible to run away forever. Daniel had certainly managed to do it. She knew that his childhood had been foreign, but she never could have envisioned something as stark²²³ as this. If she’d believed that there was a vast dichotomy between the man she’d met in college and the one she lived with now . . . well, there was an even greater gap between who Daniel had been when she met him and where he had started. It made Laura wonder where all of Daniel’s jettisoned²²⁴ personalities²²⁵ had gone. It made her wonder if you could know a person only at a single moment in time, because a year from now or a day from now, he might be different. It made her wonder if everyone reinvented himself or herself, if that was as natural as other animals shedding skin.

If she was going to be honest now - and wasn’t it time for that, already? - Laura would have to admit that Trixie had changed, too. She had wanted to believe that behind that closed bedroom door, her daughter was still playing God with the denizens²²⁶ of her dollhouse; but in fact Trixie had been keeping secrets, and pushing boundaries, and turning into someone Laura didn’t recognize.

On the other hand, Daniel had been keeping a vigil for Trixie’s metamorphosis. He’d been so nervous about the thought of their daughter getting older, taking on the world, being flattened by it. As it turned out, though, Trixie had grown up during the one instant Daniel had turned away, momentarily distracted by his wife’s betrayal.

It wasn’t what you didn’t know about the people you loved that would shock you; it was what you didn’t want to admit about yourself.

When the door opened, Laura jumped, her thoughts scattering²²⁷ like a flock of crows. Charles stood on the steps, smoking a pipe.

“You know what it means if you go outside and there are no Yupiit around?” “No.” “That it’s too damn cold to be standing here.” He took the basketball from Laura’s hands and sank a neat basket; together they watched it roll into a neighbor’s yard.

Laura dug her hands into her pockets. “It’s so quiet,” she said. How ironic²²⁸, she thought, to make conversation about the lack of it.

Charles nodded. “Every now and again someone will move to Bethel, and then come back because it’s too loud. Down there, there’s too much going on.” It was hard to imagine this: Bethel was the last place Laura would ever have considered a metropolis²²⁹. “New York City would probably make their heads explode.” “I was there once,” Charles said, surprising her. “Oh, I been lots of places you wouldn’t think: to California, and to Georgia, when I was in the army. And to Oregon, when I went to school.” “College?” Charles shook his head. “Boarding school. Back before they made it a law to have education in every village, the government used to ship us off to learn the same things the whites did. You could pick your school . . . there was one in Oklahoma, but I went to Chemawa in Oregon because my cousins were already there. I got sick like you can’t imagine, eating all that white food ...

melting in that heat. One time I even got in trouble for trying to snare²³⁰ a rabbit with one of my shoelaces.” Laura tried to imagine what it would be like to be sent away from the only home you’d ever known, just because somebody else thought it was best for you. “You must have hated it.” “Back then, I did,” Charles said. He dumped the contents of his pipe and kicked snow over the embers. “Now, I’m not so sure. Most of us came back home, but we got to see what else was out there and how those folks lived. Now some kids don’t ever leave the village. The only kass’aqs they meet are teachers, and the only teachers who come up here either can’t get hired in their own towns or are running away from something . . . not exactly role models. The kids today, they all talk about getting out of the village, but then when they do, it’s like Bethel . . . only a hundred times worse. People move too fast and talk too much, and before you know it, they come back to a place they don’t want to be . . . except now they know there’s nowhere left to run.” Charles glanced at Laura, then tucked the pipe into his coat pocket. “That’s how it was for my son.” She nodded. “Daniel told me about him.” “He wasn’t the first. The year before him, a girl took pills.

And earlier still, two ball players hanged themselves.” “I’m sorry,” Laura said.

“I knew all along that Wass wasn’t the one who killed Cane.

Cane would have done that, no matter what, all by himself. Some people, they get down in a hole so deep they can’t figure out what to hold on to.” And some people, Laura thought, make the choice to let go.

Although it was only two o’clock, the sun was already sagging²³¹ against the horizon. Charles headed back up the steps. “I know this place must seem like Mars to you. And that you and me, we’re about as different as different could be. But I also know what it feels like to lose a child.” He turned at the top landing. “Don’t freeze to death. Wassilie’d never forgive me.” He left Laura outside, watching the night sky bloom. She found herself lulled by the lack of sound. It was easier than you’d think to grow accustomed to silence.

When the Jesuit Volunteers tried to raise Kingurauten Joseph’s body temperature by cutting off his frozen clothes and covering him with blankets, they found a dove fashioned delicately out of bone, a carving²³² knife, and three hundred dollars in his boot. This was a cash economy, Carl told Trixie. That was Joseph’s health insurance, wadded up in his sock.

Trixie had just come in from her rotation²³³ on the riverbank, and she was still frozen to the core. “Why don’t you two warm up together?” Carl suggested, and he left her watching over the old man.

She didn’t mind, actually. While the mushers raced from Tuluksak to Kalskag and Aniak and back, the volunteers were mostly catching some sleep. But Trixie was wide awake; she’d slept on the trail with Willie, and her body was all mixed up with jet lag. She remembered how every year when it was time to turn the clocks back, her father would insist that he was going to stay on daylight saving time and keep the extra hour, so that he’d get more work done. The problem was, when he took the additional minutes every morning, he’d conk out in front of the television earlier at night. Finally he’d give in and live on the same schedule as the rest of the world.

She wished her father was here right now.

“I’ve missed you,” he answered, and Trixie whirled around in the dark classroom. Her heart was pounding, but she couldn’t see anyone there.

She looked down at Joseph. He had the broad, chiseled²³⁴ features of a Yup’ik and white hair that was matted down in whorls. His beard stubble glinted silver in the moonlight. His hands were folded over his chest, and Trixie thought they couldn’t have looked more different from her father’s - Joseph’s were blunt and calloused²³⁵, the tools of a laborer²³⁶; her father’s were smooth and long fingered and ink stained, an artist’s.

“Aw, Nettie,” he murmured, opening his eyes. “I came back.” “I’m not Nettie,” Trixie said, moving away.

Joseph blinked. “Where am I?” “Tuluksak. You nearly froze to death.” Trixie hesitated. “You got really drunk and passed out on the K300 trail, and a musher quit the race to bring you in here. He saved your life.” “Shouldn’t have bothered,” Joseph muttered.

There was something about Joseph that seemed familiar to Trixie, something that made her want to take a second look at the lines around his eyes and the way his eyebrows arched. “You one of those juveniles²³⁷ for Jesus?” “They’re Jesuit Volunteers,” Trixie corrected. “And no. I’m not.” “Then who are you?” Well, wasn’t that the $64,000 question. Trixie couldn’t have answered that if Joseph had held a gun to her head. It wasn’t even a matter of giving her name, because that didn’t explain anything.

She could remember who she used to be - that picture was like an image sealed into a snow globe, one that went fuzzy when she shook it too hard but then, if she held her breath, might see clearly.

She could look down at herself now and tell you how surprised she was that she had come this distance, how strange it was to discover that lying came as easily as breathing. What she couldn’t put into words was what had happened in between to change her from one person into the other.

Her father used to tell her the story of how, when she was eight, she’d awakened in the middle of the night with her arms and legs burning, as if they’d been tugged from their sockets²³⁸. It’s growing pains, he’d told her sympathetically, and she’d burst into tears, certain that when she woke up in the morning, she’d be as big as him.

The amazing thing was, it did happen that quickly. All those mornings in middle school she’d spent scrutinizing²³⁹ her chest to see if it had budded the slightest bit, all the practice kisses she’d given her bathroom mirror to make sure her nose didn’t get in the way on D-day; all the waiting for a boy to notice her . . .

and as it turned out, growing up was just as she’d feared. One day when your alarm clock rang, you got up and realized you had someone else’s thoughts in your head ... or maybe just your old ones, minus the hope.

“Are you sure you’re not Nettie?” Joseph said when Trixie didn’t answer.

It was the name he’d called her before. “Who is she?” “Well.” He turned his face to the wall. “She’s dead.” “Then chances are pretty good I’m not her.” Joseph seemed surprised. “Didn’t you ever hear about the girl who came back from the dead?” Trixie rolled her eyes. “You’re still trashed.” “A young girl died,” Joseph replied, as if she hadn’t spoken at all, “but she didn’t know it. All she knew is that she went on a journey and reached a village. Her grandmother was at the village, too, and they lived together there. Every now and then, they went to another village, where the girl’s father would give her fur parkas. What she didn’t know was that he was really giving them to her namesake, the girl who’d been born just after his daughter had died.” Joseph sat up gingerly, sending a potent²⁴⁰ wave of alcohol fumes²⁴¹ toward Trixie. “One day, they were going home from that other village, and the girl’s grandmother said she’d forgotten some things. She asked the girl to go get them. She told her that if she came to a fallen evergreen²⁴² tree, even though it might look like she could go under it or around it, she had to go over it instead.” Trixie folded her arms, listening in spite of her best intentions.

“The girl backtracked to the village, and sure enough, she came to a fallen tree. She tried to do what her grandmother had told her, but when she climbed over it she tripped, and that was the last thing she remembered. She couldn’t figure out the way back to her grandmother, and she started to cry. Just then, a man from the village came out of the qasgiq and heard weeping. He followed the noise and saw the girl who had died years ago. He tried to grab on to her, but it was like holding only air.” Of course, Trixie thought. Because the more you changed, the less of you there was.

“The man rubbed his arms with food, and then he could grab her, even when the girl fought him. He carried her into the qasgiq, but they kept rising off the floorboards. An elder rubbed the girl with drippings from a seal oil lamp, and then she was able to stand without floating away. They all saw that this girl was the same one who had died. She was wearing the parkas her father had given to her namesake, all those years. And wouldn’t you know it, after she came back, her namesake died not long after that.” Joseph pulled the blanket up to his chest. “She lived to be an old woman,” he said. “She told people what it had been like in Pamaalirugmiut . .

. the place back there, obscured from their view.” “Oh really,” Trixie said, not buying a word of the story. “Let me guess: There was a white light and harp²⁴³ music?” Joseph looked at her, puzzled. “No, she used to say it was dry.

People who die are always thirsty. That’s why we send the dead on their way with fresh water. And why, maybe, I’m always looking for a little something to wet my throat.” Trixie drew her knees into her chest, shivering as she thought of Jason. “You’re not dead.” Joseph sank back down on the mat. “You’d be surprised,” he said.

“It’s not too cold to keep me from going for a walk,” Aurora Johnson said to Laura in perfect, unaccented English, and she stood there, waiting for Laura to respond, as if she’d asked her a question.

Maybe Aurora wanted someone to talk to and didn’t know how to ask. Laura could understand that. She got to her feet and reached for her coat. “Do you mind company?” Aurora smiled and pulled on a jacket that fell to her knees but managed to zip up over her swollen belly²⁴⁴. She stepped into boots with soles as thick as a fireman’s and headed outside.

Laura fell into step beside her, moving briskly against the cold. It had been two hours since Daniel had left, and the afternoon was pitch-dark now - there were no streetlamps lighting²⁴⁵ their way, no glow from a distant highway. From time to time the green cast of a television set inside a house would rise like a spirit in the window, but for the most part, the sky was an unbroken navy velvet²⁴⁶, the stars so thick you could cut through them with a sweep of your arm.

Aurora’s hair was brown, streaked²⁴⁷ with orange. Long tendrils blew out from the edges of her parka’s hood. She was only three years older than Trixie, yet she was on the verge of giving birth.

“When are you due?” Laura asked.

“My BIB date is January tenth.” “BIB date?” “Be-in-Bethel,” Aurora explained. “If you live in the villages and you’re pregnant, you have to move into the prematernal home in the city six weeks or so before you’re due. That way, the docs have you where they need you. Otherwise, if there’s some kind of complication, the medical center has to get the anguyagta to fly in a Blackhawk. It costs the National Guard ten thousand bucks a pop.” She glanced at Laura. “Do you just have the one? Baby, I mean?” Laura nodded, bowing her head as she thought of Trixie. She hoped that wherever Trixie was now, it was warm. That someone had given her a bite to eat, or a blanket. She hoped that Trixie was leaving markers the way she had learned ages ago in Girl Scouts²⁴⁸ - a twig²⁴⁹ broken here, a cairn of rocks there.

“Minnie’s my second mom, you know,” Aurora said. “I was adopted out. Families are like that here. If a baby dies, your sister or aunt might give you her own. After Cane died, I was born and my mom sent me to be Minnie’s daughter too.” She shrugged. “I’m adopting out this baby to my biological mom’s cousin.” “You’re just going to give it away?” Laura said, shocked.

“I’m not giving her away. I’m making it so she’ll have both of us.” “What about the father?” Laura asked. “Are you still involved with him?” “I see him about once a week,” Aurora said.

Laura stopped walking. She was talking to a Yup’ik girl who was heavily pregnant, but she was seeing Trixie’s face and hearing Trixie’s voice. What if Laura had been around when Trixie had met Jason, instead of having her own affair? Would Trixie have ever dated him? Would she have been as crushed when they broke up? Would she have been at Zephyr’s house the night of the party? Would she have gotten raped¹³⁸? For every action, there was an opposite reaction. But maybe you could undo²⁵⁰ your wrongs by keeping someone else from making the same mistakes of misjudgment. “Aurora,” Laura said slowly, “I’d love to meet him. Your boyfriend.” The Yup’ik girl beamed. “Really? Now?” “That would be great.” Aurora grabbed her hand and dragged her through the streets of Akiak. When they reached a long, low gray building, Aurora clattered²⁵² up the wooden ramp²⁵³. “I just need to stop off at the school for a sec,” she said.

The doors were unlocked, but there was nobody inside. Aurora flipped²⁵⁴ on a light switch and hurried into an adjoining room.

Laura unzipped her jacket and glanced toward the gymnasium on the right, its polished wooden floors gleaming. If she looked closely, would she still see Cane’s blood? Could she retrace²⁵⁵ the steps Daniel had taken all those years ago, when he ran away and into her own life? Laura was distracted by the sound of... well, it couldn’t be a toilet flushing, could it? She pushed through the door that Aurora had entered, marked Nas’ak. Aurora was standing in front of a serviceable white porcelain²⁵⁶ sink with running water. “That one’s sitting on my bladder,” Aurora said, smiling.

“There’s plumbing here?” Laura glanced around. On the upper lip of the bathroom stall, various items of clothing had been draped: bras and panties, long-sleeved T-shirts, socks.

“Just in the school,” Aurora said. “On any given day, the line’ll be out the door with girls waiting to wash their hair.

This is the only place it won’t freeze solid.” She gave Laura a chance to use the facilities - use wasn’t really the word as much as relish²⁵⁷ or give thanks for - and then they struck outside again. “Does your boyfriend live far away?” Laura asked, wondering what might happen if Daniel returned to find her missing.

“He’s just over that hill,” Aurora said, but as they crested²⁵⁸ the rise, Laura didn’t see any homes at all. She followed Aurora inside a picket²⁵⁹ fence, careful to stay on the trodden path instead of hiking through the drifts that were hip-high. In the dark, it took her a moment to realize that they were walking to the far end of a tiny cemetery²⁶⁰, one scattered²⁶¹ with white wooden crosses that were almost entirely²⁶² buried in snow.

Aurora stopped at a cleared grave. A name was engraved²⁶³ on the wooden cross: ARTHUR M. PETERSON, June 5, 1982-March 30, 2005. “He was mushing, but it was the end of March, and he went through the ice. His lead dog chewed through the lead and came to our house. I knew the minute I saw the dog that something was wrong, but by the time we got to the river, Art and the sled had both gone under.” She faced Laura. “Three days later I found out I was pregnant.” “I’m so sorry.” “Don’t be,” Aurora said, matter-of-fact. “He was probably drinking when he went out on the trail, like usual.” As she spoke, though, she leaned down and gently swept the cross clean of its most recent dusting of snow.

Laura turned away to give Aurora privacy and saw one other grave that had been carefully cleared. In front of the marker was a collection of ivory - full mammoth²⁶⁴ tusks²⁶⁶ and partial ones, some nearly as tall as the wooden cross. On each tusk²⁶⁵, numerous flowers had been carved in exquisite²⁶⁷ detail: roses and orchids²⁶⁸ and peonies, lupine and forget-me-nots and lady’s slippers²⁶⁹. It was a garden that had been bleached²⁷⁰ of its color and none of its beauty, flowers that would never die, flowers that could bloom even in the most inhospitable climate.

She imagined the artist who’d crafted these, walking through sleet²⁷¹ and hail and ice storms to plant this endless garden. It was exactly the sort of romance and passion she would have expected of Seth, who had tucked poems into the flustered²⁷² leaves of her date book and the prim²⁷³ mouth of her change purse.

Wistfully, Laura let herself imagine what it was like to be loved that deeply. She envisioned a wooden cross labeled with her own name. She saw someone fighting the elements to bring gifts to her grave. But when she pictured the man weeping over what he’d lost, it wasn’t Seth.

It was Daniel.

Laura brushed the snow off the marker, wanting to know the identity of the woman who had inspired such devotion.

“Oh, I was going to show you that one,” Aurora said, just as Laura read the name: ANNETTE STONE. Daniel’s mother.

Trixie had gone AWOL. She couldn’t say why she felt guilty about this, especially since it wasn’t like she was really supposed to be working the Tuluksak checkpoint in the first place.

She ran beside Willie in the dark, small puffs²⁷⁴ of her breath leaving a dissipating trail.

As promised, Willie had come back to the school, although Trixie hadn’t really expected him to. She had planned to leave his coat behind with one of the volunteers when she got ready to leave whenever and toward wherever that would be. But Willie had arrived while Trixie was still babysitting Joseph. He’d knelt down on the other side of the snoring old man and shook his head. He knew Joseph - apparently²⁷⁵ everyone did in an eight-village radius²⁷⁶, since Joseph didn’t discriminate²⁷⁷ when it came to where he’d go on a bender. The Yupiit called him Kingurauten - Too Late - Joseph because he’d promised a woman he’d return, only to turn up a week after she’d died.

Willie had come to invite Trixie to steam. She didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded heavenly after shivering for nearly two days straight. She’d followed Willie, tiptoeing past Joseph, past the sleeping Jesuit Volunteers, and out the front door of the school.

They ran. The night was spread like icing over the dome²⁷⁸ of the sky; stars kept falling at Trixie’s feet. It was hard to tell if it was the uncovered beauty of this place that took her breath away, or the seize of the cold. Willie slowed when they came to a narrow road lined with tiny homes. “Are we going to your house?” Trixie asked.

“No, my dad’s there, and when I left he was drinking. We’re going to my cousin’s. He was having a steam with some of his buddies²⁷⁹, but they’re leaving for a city league basketball game downriver.” Several dogs that were chained up outside houses started to bark. Willie fumbled²⁸⁰ for her hand, probably to get her to move faster, but if that was the intent it didn’t work. Everything slowed inside Trixie: her heartbeat, her breathing, her blood.

Although Janice had tried to tell her otherwise, Trixie had believed she would never want another guy to lay hands on her again. But when Willie touched her, she couldn’t really remember what it had felt like to touch Jason. It was almost as if one canceled out the other. She knew this: Willie’s skin was smoother than Jason’s. His hand was closer to hers in size. The muscles in his forearms weren’t thick, the product of a million slap shots - they were lean and ropy, almost sculpted²⁸¹. It made no sense, given their upbringings, but she had this weird²⁸² feeling that she and Willie were equals, that neither of them was in control, because they were both so skittish²⁸³ in each other’s company.

They stopped behind one of the houses. Through the buttery light of the windows, Trixie could see a sparse²⁸⁴ living room, a single couch, and a few young men putting on their coats and boots. “Come on,” Willie said, and he tugged her away.

He opened the door to a wooden shack not much bigger than an outhouse. It was divided into two rooms - they had entered the larger one; the other room lay through the closed door directly ahead of Trixie. Once the sound of his cousin’s snow machine winnowed²⁸⁵ away, Willie shrugged out of his coat and boots, gesturing to Trixie to do the same. “The good news is, my cousin already did all the hard work tonight - hauling water and chopping wood. He built this magi a few years ago.” “What do you do in it?” Willie grinned, and in the dark his teeth gleamed. “Sweat,” he said. “A lot. The men usually go in first, because they can handle the real heat. Women go in later.” “Then how come we’re here together?” Trixie asked.

Willie ducked his head. She knew he was blushing, even if she couldn’t see it.

“I bet you take girls here all the time,” she said, but she was only half joking, waiting for his answer.

“I’ve never been with a girl in the steam before,” Willie said, and then he shucked off his skirt. Trixie closed her eyes, but not before she saw the bright white flash of his underwear.

He opened a door and disappeared inside the adjoining room.

Trixie waited for him to come back, but he didn’t. She heard the hiss²⁸⁶ of rising steam.

She stared at the wooden door, wondering what was on the other side. Was he trying to show her how tough he was, by taking the real heat! What did he mean when he said that he hadn’t been with a girl in the steam before? Did he take them other places, or was that an invitation for her to follow? She felt like she had fallen into one of her father’s comic book universes, where what you said was not what you meant, and vice³⁶ versa.

Hesitantly, Trixie pulled off her shirt. The action - and Willie’s proximityimmediately - made her think about playing strip poker²⁸⁷ the night of Zephyr’s party. But nobody was watching this time; there were no rules to the game; no one was telling her what she had to do. It was entirely different, she realized, when the choice was up to her.

If she went in there in her bra and panties, that was just like wearing a bikini, wasn’t it? She shivered only a moment before she opened the stunted²⁸⁸ door and crawled inside.

The heat slammed into her, a solid wall. It wasn’t just heat.

It was a sauna and a steam room and a bonfire all rolled together, and then ratcheted up a notch²⁸⁹. The floor beneath her bare feet was slick plywood. She couldn’t see, because of all the steam. As the clouds drifted, she could make out a fifty-five-gallon oil drum on its side with a fire burning hot in its belly. Rocks were nestled in birdcage wire on top, and a metal container of water sat beside it. Willie was hunkered down on the plywood, his knees drawn up to his chest, his skin red and blotched.

He didn’t say anything when he saw her, and Trixie understood why - if she opened her mouth, surely her throat would burst into flame. He wasn’t wearing anything, but the region between his thighs was only a shadow, and somehow, she was the one who felt overdressed. She sat down beside him - in that small a space there wasn’t much choice - and felt him wrapping something around her head. A rag, she realized, that had been dipped in water, to cover her ears and keep them from burning. When he knotted it, the skin of his upper arm stuck to hers.

The orange light that spilled through the cracks in the stove door illuminated²⁹⁰ Willie. His silhouette²⁹¹ glowed, lean and feline²⁹²; at that moment, Trixie wouldn’t have been surprised to see him turn into a panther. Willie reached for a ladle, a wooden stick wired to a soup can. He dipped it into the bucket of water, pouring more over the rocks and causing a fresh cloud of steam to fill the chamber¹⁸³. When he settled down beside Trixie, his hand was so close to hers on the plywood that their pinkies touched.

It hurt, almost past the point of pain. The room had a pulse, and breathing was nearly impossible. Heat rose off Trixie’s skin in the shape of her soul. Perspiration²⁹³ ran down her back and between her legs: her entire body, crying.

When Trixie’s lungs were about to explode, she ran through the door into the cold room again. She sat down on the floor, warmth rolling off her in waves, just as Willie burst in with a towel wrapped around his waist. He sank down beside her and passed her a jug²⁹⁴.

Trixie drank it without even knowing what was inside. The water cooled the lining²⁹⁵ of her throat. She passed the jug to Willie, who tipped his head back against the wall and drank deeply, the knot of his Adam’s apple following each swallow. He turned to her, grinning. “Crazy, huh?” She found herself laughing, too. “Totally.” Willie leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. “I always kind of figured that’s what Florida’s like.” “Florida? It’s nothing like this.” “You’ve been to Florida?” Willie asked, intrigued²⁹⁶.

“Yeah. It’s just, you know, another state.” “I’d like to see an orange growing on a tree. I’d pretty much like to see anything that’s somewhere other than here.” He turned to her. “What did you do when you went to Florida?” It was so long ago, Trixie had to think for a moment. “We went to Cape¹⁰⁵ Canaveral. And Disney World.” Willie started picking at the wooden floor. “I bet you fit in there.” “Because it’s so tacky?” “Because you’re like that fairy. The one who hangs out with Peter Pan.” Trixie burst out laughing. “Tinker Bell?” “Yeah. My sister had that book.” She was about to tell him he was crazy, but then she remembered that Peter Pan was about a boy who didn’t want to grow up, and she decided²⁹⁷ she didn’t mind the comparison.

“She was so pretty,” Willie said. “She had a light inside her.” Trixie stared at him. “You think I’m pretty?” Instead of answering, Willie got up and crawled back into the hot room. By the time she followed, he’d already poured water over the rocks. Blinded by steam, she had to find her way by touch.

She drew her fingers over the rough run of the wooden floor, up the joints²⁹⁸ of the walls, and then she brushed the smooth curve of Willie’s shoulder. Before she could pull away, Willie’s hand came up to capture hers. He tugged her closer, until they were facing each other on their knees, in the heart of a cloud. “Yeah, you’re pretty,” Willie said.

Trixie felt like she was falling. She had ugly chopped black hair and scars up and down her arms, and it was like he didn’t even notice. She looked down at their interlaced fingers - a weave of dark and pale skin - and she let herself pretend that maybe there could be a light inside of her.

“When the first white folks came to the tundra,” Willie said, “the people here thought they were ghosts.” “Sometimes that’s what I think I am, too,” Trixie murmured.

They leaned toward each other, or maybe the steam pushed them closer. And just as Trixie was certain that there wasn’t any air left in the room, Willie’s mouth closed over hers and breathed for her.

Willie tasted like smoke and sugar. His hands settled on her shoulders, respectfully staying there even when she itched²⁹⁹ to have him touch her. When they drew back from each other, Willie looked down at the ground. “I’ve never done that before,” he confessed, and Trixie realized that when he’d said he’d never been with a girl in a steam, he’d meant that he’d never been with a girl.

Trixie had lost her virginity a lifetime ago, back when she

 

thought it was a prize to give to someone like Jason. They’d had sex countless³⁰⁰ times - in the backseat of his car, in his bedroom when his parents were out, in the locker¹⁵⁷ room at the hockey rink after hours. But what she had done with him compared in no way to the kiss she had just experienced with Willie; it was impossible to draw a line to connect the two. She couldn’t even say

that her own participation³⁰¹ was the common denominator, because the girl she was back then was completely different from the one here now.

Trixie leaned toward Willie, and this time, she kissed him. “Me neither,” she said, and she knew she wasn’t lying.

When Daniel was eleven, the circus had come for the first and only time to the tundra. Bethel was the last stop for the Ford²¹⁹ Brothers Circus, on an unprecedented³⁰² tour of bush Alaska. Cane and Daniel weren’t going to miss it for the world. They worked odd jobs - painting an elder’s house, putting a new roof on Cane’s uncle’s steam bath - until they each had fifteen dollars. The flyers, which had been put up in all the village schools, including Akiak, said that admission would be eight bucks, and that left plenty of money for popcorn³⁰³ and souvenirs.

Most of the village was planning to go. Daniel’s mother was going to hitch³⁰⁴ a ride with the principal, but at the last minute, Cane invited Daniel to go in his family’s boat. They sat in its belly, the aluminum sides cold against their backs and bottoms, and told each other elephant jokes on the way down.

Why is an elephant gray, large, and wrinkled? Because if he was small, white, and round, he’d be an aspirin³⁰⁵.

Why does an elephant have a trunk? Because he’d look stupid with a glove compartment³⁰⁶.

Six thousand people from all over the delta³⁰⁷ showed up, many coming just after midnight so that they could see the MarkAir Here fly in at dawn with the performers and the animals. The circus was going to take place at the National Guard Armory³⁰⁸ gym, with the bathrooms converted to costume changing areas. Cane and Daniel, running ragged²⁵¹ around the edges of the activity, even got to hold a rope as the big top was pitched.

During the show, there were trained dogs in ratty tutus, and two lions named Lulu and Strawberry. There was a leopard³⁰⁹, which waited for its cue outside the big top, drinking from a mud puddle³¹⁰. There was calliope music and peanuts and cotton candy, and for the little children, an inflatable house to jump in and Shetland pony³¹¹ rides. When Shorty Serra came thundering out to do rope tricks with his monstrous³¹² horse, Juneau, the beast stood on his hind⁵⁰ legs to tower over everyone, and the crowd shrieked³¹³. A group of Yup’ik boys sitting behind Daniel and Cane cheered, too. But when Daniel leaned over to say something to Cane, one of them spit out a slur³¹⁴: “Look at that: I always knew kass’aqs belonged in the circus.” Daniel turned around. “Shut the fuck up.” One Yup’ik boy turned to another. “Did you hear something?” “Want to feel something instead?” Daniel threatened, balling his hand into a fist.

“Ignore them,” Cane said. “They’re assholes.” The ringmaster appeared, to the roar of applause. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid we have some disappointing news. Our elephant, Tika, is too ill for the show. But I’m delighted to introduce . .. all the way from Madagascar . . . Florence and her Amazing Waltzing Pigeons!” A tiny woman in a flamenco skirt walked out with birds perched on each shoulder. Daniel turned to Cane. “How sick could an elephant be?” “Yeah,” Cane said. “This sucks.” One of the Yup’ik boys poked³¹⁵ him. “So do you. And I guess you like white meat.” All of his life, Daniel had been teased by the village kids - for not having a father, for being kass’aq, for not knowing how to do native things like fish and hunt. Cane would hang out with him, but the Yup’ik boys in school let that slide, because after all, Cane was one of them.

These boys, though, were not from his village.

Daniel saw the look on Cane’s face and felt something break loose inside of him. He stood up, intent on leaving the big top.

“Hang on,” Cane said.

Daniel made his gaze as flat as possible. “I didn’t invite you,” he said, and he walked away.

It didn’t take him long to find the elephant, penned up in a makeshift fence with no one to watch over it. Daniel had never seen an elephant up close; it was the one thing that he had in common with kids who lived in normal places. The elephant was limping and throwing hay in the air with its trunk. Daniel ducked under the wire and walked up to the animal, moving slowly. He touched its skin, warm and craggy, and laid his cheek along the haunch.

The best part about his friendship with Cane was that Cane was an insider, and that made Daniel one by association. He’d never realized that it could go the other way, too, that their acquaintance might make Cane a pariah³¹⁶. If the only way to keep Cane from being ostracized³¹⁷ was to stay away from him, then Daniel would. You did what you had to, for the people you cared about.

The elephant swung its massive head toward Daniel. Its dark eye winked³¹⁸; the loose-lipped drip of its mouth worked soundlessly. But Daniel could hear the animal perfectly³¹⁹, and so he answered out loud: I don’t belong here either.

It was still dark out the next morning when the cargo plane arrived, puddle-jumping from village to village to pick up the dogs that had been dropped by mushers along the trail. They’d be flown back to Bethel where a handler could pick them up.

Willie was driving his cousin’s pickup³²⁰ truck to the airstrip, and Trixie was in the passenger seat. They held hands across the space between them.

In the flatbed were all of Alex Edmonds’s dogs, Juno, and Kingurauten Joseph, who was being transported back to the medical center. Willie parked the truck and then began to pass the dogs to Trixie, who walked them over to the chain-link fence and tethered them.

Every time she returned for another one, he smiled at her, and she melted as if she were back in the steam again.

Last night, after the steam had died out, Willie bathed her with a rag dipped in warm water. He’d run the makeshift sponge right over her bra and her panties. Then they’d gone back to the cold room, and he’d toweled her dry, kneeling in front of her to get the backs of her knees and between her toes before they’d dressed each other. Fastening and tucking seemed so much more intimate than unbuttoning and unzipping, as if you were privy³²¹ to putting the person back together whole, instead of unraveling him.

“I have to take my uncle’s coat back,” Willie had said, but then he had given her his own lined canvas jacket.

It smelled like him, every time Trixie buried her nose in the collar.

The lights on the airstrip suddenly blazed, magic. Trixie whirled around, but there was no control tower anywhere nearby.

“The pilots have remotes in their planes,” Willie said, laughing, and sure enough ten minutes hadn’t passed before Trixie could hear the approach of an engine.

The plane that landed looked like the one that had flown Trixie into Bethel. The pilota Yup’ik boy not much older than Willie jumped out. “Hey,” he said. “Is this all you’ve got?” When he opened the cargo bay, Trixie could see a dozen dogs already tethered to D rings. As Willie loaded the sled dogs, she helped Joseph climb down from the back of the pickup. He leaned on her heavily as they walked to the runway, and when he stepped into the cargo bay, the animals inside started barking. “You remind me of someone I used to know,” Joseph said.

You already told me that, Trixie thought, but she just nodded at him. Maybe it wasn’t that he wanted her to hear it but only that he needed to say it again.

The pilot closed up the hatch and hopped back into his plane, accelerating down the airstrip until Trixie could not tell his landing lights apart from any given star. The airstrip blinked and went black again.

She felt Willie move closer in the dark, but before her eyes could adjust, another beacon³²² came at them. It glinted directly into her eyes, had her shielding them from the glare with one hand. The snow machine pulled up, its engine growling³²³ before it died down completely and the driver stood up on the runners.

“Trixie?” her father said. “Is that you?”

The End

1 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

2 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

3 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

4 bodyguard   

n.护卫，保镖

参考例句：

• She has to have an armed bodyguard wherever she goes.她不管到哪儿都得有带武器的保镖跟从。
• The big guy standing at his side may be his bodyguard.站在他身旁的那个大个子可能是他的保镖。

5 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

6 languishing   

a. 衰弱下去的

参考例句：

• He is languishing for home. 他苦思家乡。
• How long will she go on languishing for her red-haired boy? 为想见到她的红头发的儿子，她还将为此烦恼多久呢？

7 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。

8 alder   

n.赤杨树

参考例句：

• He gave john some alder bark.他给了约翰一些桤木树皮。
• Several coppice plantations have been seeded with poplar,willow,and alder.好几个灌木林场都种上了白杨、柳树和赤杨。

9 pate   

n.头顶；光顶

参考例句：

• The few strands of white hair at the back of his gourd-like pate also quivered.他那长在半个葫芦样的头上的白发，也随着笑声一齐抖动着。
• He removed his hat to reveal a glowing bald pate.他脱下帽子，露出了发亮的光头。

10 cuticle   

n.表皮

参考例句：

• You'd never puncture the cuticle.你无法刺穿表皮。
• The reform has hardly made a scratch upon the cuticle of affairs.改革几乎还没有触到事物的表皮。

11 pigment   

n.天然色素，干粉颜料

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls.古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。
• Who thought he might know what the skin pigment phenomenon meant.他自认为可能知道皮肤色素出现这种现象到底是怎么回事。

12 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

15 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

16 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

17 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

18 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

19 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

20 conclusively   

adv.令人信服地，确凿地

参考例句：

• All this proves conclusively that she couldn't have known the truth. 这一切无可置疑地证明她不可能知道真相。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• From the facts,he was able to determine conclusively that the death was not a suicide. 根据这些事实他断定这起死亡事件并非自杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

22 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

23 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。

24 lulled   

vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• They lulled her into a false sense of security. 他们哄骗她，使她产生一种虚假的安全感。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The movement of the train lulled me to sleep. 火车轻微的震动催我进入梦乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

26 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

27 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

28 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

29 itch   

n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望

参考例句：

• Shylock has an itch for money.夏洛克渴望发财。
• He had an itch on his back.他背部发痒。

30 fangs   

n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座

参考例句：

• The dog fleshed his fangs in the deer's leg. 狗用尖牙咬住了鹿腿。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Dogs came lunging forward with their fangs bared. 狗龇牙咧嘴地扑过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 demon   

n.魔鬼，恶魔

参考例句：

• The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。
• He has been possessed by the demon of disease for years.他多年来病魔缠身。

32 clenching   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I'll never get used to them, she thought, clenching her fists. 我永远也看不惯这些家伙，她握紧双拳，心里想。 来自飘（部分）
• Clenching her lips, she nodded. 她紧闭着嘴唇，点点头。 来自辞典例句

33 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

34 pry   

vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起)

参考例句：

• He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
• We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。

35 rummaging   

翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查

参考例句：

• She was rummaging around in her bag for her keys. 她在自己的包里翻来翻去找钥匙。
• Who's been rummaging through my papers? 谁乱翻我的文件来着？

36 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

37 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

38 awning   

n.遮阳篷；雨篷

参考例句：

• A large green awning is set over the glass window to shelter against the sun.在玻璃窗上装了个绿色的大遮棚以遮挡阳光。
• Several people herded under an awning to get out the shower.几个人聚集在门栅下避阵雨

39 slits   

n.狭长的口子，裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开，撕开( slit的第三人称单数 )；在…上开狭长口子

参考例句：

• He appears to have two slits for eyes. 他眯着两眼。
• "You go to--Halifax,'she said tensely, her green eyes slits of rage. "你给我滚----滚到远远的地方去！" 她恶狠狠地说，那双绿眼睛冒出了怒火。

40 gashes   

n.深长的切口（或伤口）( gash的名词复数 )v.划伤，割破( gash的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The classmates' hearts ached for him and they begged him to wear gloves to prevent any more gashes. 同学们都心疼他，劝他干活时戴上手套，免得再弄破手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He stripped himself, and I counted twenty-seven separate scars and gashes. 他脱去衣服，我在他身上数出了二十七处瘢痕和深深的伤口。 来自辞典例句

41 crouch   

v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏

参考例句：

• I crouched on the ground.我蹲在地上。
• He crouched down beside him.他在他的旁边蹲下来。

42 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

43 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

44 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

45 mittens   

不分指手套

参考例句：

• Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face. 棉的连指手套使婴儿不会抓伤自己的脸。
• I'd fisted my hands inside their mittens to keep the fingers warm. 我在手套中握拳头来保暖手指。

46 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

47 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

48 affected   

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。

49 platinum   

n.白金

参考例句：

• I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
• Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。

50 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

51 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

52 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

53 pulverized   

adj.[医]雾化的，粉末状的v.将…弄碎( pulverize的过去式和过去分词 )；将…弄成粉末或尘埃；摧毁；粉碎

参考例句：

• We pulverized the opposition. 我们彻底击败了对手。
• He pulverized the opposition with the force of his oratory. 他能言善辩把对方驳得体无完肤。 来自辞典例句

54 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

55 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

56 nucleus   

n.核，核心，原子核

参考例句：

• These young people formed the nucleus of the club.这些年轻人成了俱乐部的核心。
• These councils would form the nucleus of a future regime.这些委员会将成为一个未来政权的核心。

57 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

58 discriminating   

a.有辨别能力的

参考例句：

• Due caution should be exercised in discriminating between the two. 在区别这两者时应该相当谨慎。
• Many businesses are accused of discriminating against women. 许多企业被控有歧视妇女的做法。

59 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

60 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

61 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

62 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

63 strand   

vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地）

参考例句：

• She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
• The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。

64 awfully   

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。

65 tundra   

n.苔原，冻土地带

参考例句：

• The arctic tundra is at the top of the world around the North Pole.北极冻原是指北极点周边的地区，是世界最高的地方。
• There is a large amount of methane gas under the Siberian tundra.西伯利亚的冻土地带之下有大量的甲烷气体。

66 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

67 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

68 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

69 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

70 tugged   

v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
• A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

71 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

72 squat   

v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的

参考例句：

• For this exercise you need to get into a squat.在这次练习中你需要蹲下来。
• He is a squat man.他是一个矮胖的男人。

73 lone   

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。

74 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

75 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

76 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

77 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

78 oracles   

神示所( oracle的名词复数 )； 神谕； 圣贤； 哲人

参考例句：

• Do all oracles tell the truth? 是否所有的神谕都揭示真理？ 来自哲学部分
• The ancient oracles were often vague and equivocal. 古代的神谕常是意义模糊和模棱两可的。

79 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

80 burrow   

vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞

参考例句：

• Earthworms burrow deep into the subsoil.蚯蚓深深地钻进底土。
• The dog had chased a rabbit into its burrow.狗把兔子追进了洞穴。

81 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

82 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

83 nostrils   

鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
• The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。

84 lashes   

n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• Mother always lashes out food for the children's party. 孩子们聚会时，母亲总是给他们许多吃的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Never walk behind a horse in case it lashes out. 绝对不要跟在马后面，以防它突然猛踢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

85 gnawed   

咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物

参考例句：

• His attitude towards her gnawed away at her confidence. 他对她的态度一直在削弱她的自尊心。
• The root of this dead tree has been gnawed away by ants. 这棵死树根被蚂蚁唼了。

86 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

87 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

88 scoffed   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scoffed at our amateurish attempts. 他对我们不在行的尝试嗤之以鼻。
• A hundred years ago people scoffed at the idea. 一百年前人们曾嘲笑过这种想法。

89 huddle   

vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人

参考例句：

• They like living in a huddle.他们喜欢杂居在一起。
• The cold wind made the boy huddle inside his coat.寒风使这个男孩卷缩在他的外衣里。

90 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

91 differentiated   

区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征

参考例句：

• The development of mouse kidney tubules requires two kinds of differentiated cells. 小鼠肾小管的发育需要有两种分化的细胞。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

92 peeked   

v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• She peeked over the top of her menu. 她从菜单上往外偷看。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On two occasions she had peeked at him through a crack in the wall. 她曾两次透过墙缝窥视他。 来自辞典例句

93 flexed   

adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌

参考例句：

• He stretched and flexed his knees to relax himself. 他伸屈膝关节使自己放松一下。 来自辞典例句
• He flexed his long stringy muscles manfully. 他孔武有力地弯起膀子，显露出细长条的肌肉。 来自辞典例句

94 pistons   

活塞( piston的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some pistons have seating rings of metal or leather. 有些活塞上有金属或皮革的密封环。
• A pump uses valves and pistons. 泵使用阀和活塞。

95 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

96 rustle   

v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声

参考例句：

• She heard a rustle in the bushes.她听到灌木丛中一阵沙沙声。
• He heard a rustle of leaves in the breeze.他听到树叶在微风中发出的沙沙声。

97 stiffened   

加强的

参考例句：

• He leaned towards her and she stiffened at this invasion of her personal space. 他向她俯过身去，这种侵犯她个人空间的举动让她绷紧了身子。
• She stiffened with fear. 她吓呆了。

98 inferno   

n.火海；地狱般的场所

参考例句：

• Rescue workers fought to get to victims inside the inferno.救援人员奋力营救大火中的受害者。
• The burning building became an inferno.燃烧着的大楼成了地狱般的地方。

99 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

100 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

101 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

102 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

103 avalanche   

n.雪崩，大量涌来

参考例句：

• They were killed by an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.他们在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的一次雪崩中罹难。
• Higher still the snow was ready to avalanche.在更高处积雪随时都会崩塌。

104 yolk   

n.蛋黄，卵黄

参考例句：

• This dish would be more delicious with some yolk powder.加点蛋黄粉，这道菜就会更好吃。
• Egg yolk serves as the emulsifying agent in salad dressing.在色拉调味时，蛋黄能作为乳化剂。

105 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

106 opaque   

adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的

参考例句：

• The windows are of opaque glass.这些窗户装着不透明玻璃。
• Their intentions remained opaque.他们的意图仍然令人费解。

107 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

108 shacks   

n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They live in shacks which they made out of wood. 他们住在用木头搭成的简陋的小屋里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most people in Port au-Prince live in tin shacks. 太子港的大多数居民居住在铁皮棚里。 来自互联网

109 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

110 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

111 ravens   

n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Wheresoever the carcase is,there will the ravens be gathered together. 哪里有死尸，哪里就有乌鸦麇集。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A couple of ravens croaked above our boat. 两只乌鸦在我们小船的上空嘎嘎叫着。 来自辞典例句

112 renovated   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He renovated his house. 他翻修了房子。
• The house has been renovated three years earlier. 这所房子三年前就已翻新。

113 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

114 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

115 recesses   

n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭

参考例句：

• I could see the inmost recesses. 我能看见最深处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had continually pushed my doubts to the darker recesses of my mind. 我一直把怀疑深深地隐藏在心中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

116 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

117 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

118 kennels   

n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场

参考例句：

• We put the dog in kennels when we go away. 我们外出时把狗寄养在养狗场。
• He left his dog in a kennels when he went on holiday. 他外出度假时把狗交给养狗场照管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

119 giggling   

v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We just sat there giggling like naughty schoolchildren. 我们只是坐在那儿像调皮的小学生一样的咯咯地傻笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I can't stand her giggling, she's so silly. 她吃吃地笑，叫我真受不了，那样子傻透了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

120 stews   

n.炖煮的菜肴( stew的名词复数 )；烦恼，焦虑v.炖( stew的第三人称单数 )；煨；思考；担忧

参考例句：

• Corn starch is used as a thickener in stews. 玉米淀粉在炖煮菜肴中被用作增稠剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most stews contain meat and vegetables. 炖的食物大多是肉类和蔬菜。 来自辞典例句

121 pendulously   

吊着的，下垂的，摆动的； 摆式； 悬垂

参考例句：

• Her unbuttoned jacket opened to show two huge, pendulous breasts. 小棉袄本没扣着，胸前露出一对极长极大的奶来。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• The pendulous accelerometer design had much in common with the gyro design. 摆式加速度计的设计与陀螺设计有很多共同之处。

122 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

123 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

124 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

125 elastic   

n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的

参考例句：

• Rubber is an elastic material.橡胶是一种弹性材料。
• These regulations are elastic.这些规定是有弹性的。

126 flannel   

n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服

参考例句：

• She always wears a grey flannel trousers.她总是穿一条灰色法兰绒长裤。
• She was looking luscious in a flannel shirt.她穿着法兰绒裙子，看上去楚楚动人。

127 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

128 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

129 thorny   

adj.多刺的，棘手的

参考例句：

• The young captain is pondering over a thorny problem.年轻的上尉正在思考一个棘手的问题。
• The boys argued over the thorny points in the lesson.孩子们辩论功课中的难点。

130 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

131 furrow   

n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹

参考例句：

• The tractor has make deep furrow in the loose sand.拖拉机在松软的沙土上留下了深深的车辙。
• Mei did not weep.She only bit her lips,and the furrow in her brow deepened.梅埋下头，她咬了咬嘴唇皮，额上的皱纹显得更深了。

132 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

133 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

134 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

135 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

136 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

137 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

138 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

139 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。

140 finesse   

n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕

参考例句：

• It was a disappointing performance which lacked finesse.那场演出缺乏技巧，令人失望。
• Lillian Hellman's plays are marked by insight and finesse.莉莲.赫尔曼的巨作以富有洞察力和写作技巧著称。

141 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

142 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

143 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

144 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

145 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

146 conjured   

用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现

参考例句：

• He conjured them with his dying breath to look after his children. 他临终时恳求他们照顾他的孩子。
• His very funny joke soon conjured my anger away. 他讲了个十分有趣的笑话，使得我的怒气顿消。

147 smirked   

v.傻笑( smirk的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He smirked at Tu Wei-yueh. 他对屠维岳狞笑。 来自子夜部分
• He smirked in acknowledgement of their uncouth greetings, and sat down. 他皮笑肉不笑地接受了他的粗鲁的招呼，坐了下来。 来自辞典例句

148 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

149 zipper   

n.拉链；v.拉上拉链

参考例句：

• The zipper is red.这条拉链是红色的。
• The zipper is a wonderful invention.拉链是个了不起的发明。

150 sketched   

v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The historical article sketched the major events of the decade. 这篇有关历史的文章概述了这十年中的重大事件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He sketched the situation in a few vivid words. 他用几句生动的语言简述了局势。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

151 spun   

v.纺，杜撰，急转身

参考例句：

• His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
• Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。

152 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

153 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

154 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

155 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

156 lockers   

n.寄物柜( locker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I care about more lockers for the teachers. 我关心教师要有更多的储物柜。 来自辞典例句
• Passengers are requested to stow their hand-baggage in the lockers above the seats. 旅客须将随身携带的行李放入座位上方的贮藏柜里。 来自辞典例句

157 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

158 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

159 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

160 stammered   

v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He stammered most when he was nervous. 他一紧张往往口吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Barsad leaned back in his chair, and stammered, \"What do you mean?\" 巴萨往椅背上一靠，结结巴巴地说，“你是什么意思？” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

161 leash   

n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住

参考例句：

• I reached for the leash,but the dog got in between.我伸手去拿系狗绳，但被狗挡住了路。
• The dog strains at the leash,eager to be off.狗拼命地扯拉皮带，想挣脱开去。

162 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

163 energized   

v.给予…精力，能量( energize的过去式和过去分词 )；使通电

参考例句：

• We are energized by love if we put our energy into loving. 如果我们付出能量去表现爱意，爱就会使我们充满活力。 来自辞典例句
• I am completely energized and feeling terrific. 我充满了活力，感觉非常好。 来自辞典例句

164 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

165 mittened   

v.（使）变得潮湿，变得湿润( moisten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He moistened his lips before he spoke. 他润了润嘴唇，接着就开始讲话。
• Although I moistened it,the flap doesn't stick to the envelope. 我把信封弄湿了，可是信封口盖还是粘不上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

166 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

167 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

168 reeked   

v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象）

参考例句：

• His breath reeked of tobacco. 他满嘴烟臭味。
• His breath reeked of tobacco. 他满嘴烟臭味。 来自《简明英汉词典》

169 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

170 onlookers   

n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene of the crash. 在撞车地点聚集了一大群围观者。
• The onlookers stood at a respectful distance. 旁观者站在一定的距离之外，以示尊敬。

171 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。

172 rusted   

v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝，它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了，需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》

173 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

174 brace   

n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备

参考例句：

• My daughter has to wear a brace on her teeth. 我的女儿得戴牙套以矫正牙齿。
• You had better brace yourself for some bad news. 有些坏消息,你最好做好准备。

175 stationary   

adj.固定的，静止不动的

参考例句：

• A stationary object is easy to be aimed at.一个静止不动的物体是容易瞄准的。
• Wait until the bus is stationary before you get off.你要等公共汽车停稳了再下车。

176 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

177 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

178 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

179 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

180 metallic   

adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的

参考例句：

• A sharp metallic note coming from the outside frightened me.外面传来尖锐铿锵的声音吓了我一跳。
• He picked up a metallic ring last night.昨夜他捡了一个金属戒指。

181 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

182 frigid   

adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的

参考例句：

• The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间。
• She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

183 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

184 linoleum   

n.油布，油毯

参考例句：

• They mislaid the linoleum.他们把油毡放错了地方。
• Who will lay the linoleum?谁将铺设地板油毡？

185 severed   

v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂

参考例句：

• The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》

186 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。

187 ribs   

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

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

188 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

189 deference   

n.尊重，顺从；敬意

参考例句：

• Do you treat your parents and teachers with deference?你对父母师长尊敬吗？
• The major defect of their work was deference to authority.他们的主要缺陷是趋从权威。

190 creased   

（使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的过去式和过去分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 皱皱巴巴

参考例句：

• You've creased my newspaper. 你把我的报纸弄皱了。
• The bullet merely creased his shoulder. 子弹只不过擦破了他肩部的皮肤。

191 cataracts   

n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障

参考例句：

• The rotor cataracts water over the top of the machines. 回转轮将水从机器顶上注入。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Cataracts of rain flooded the streets. 倾盆大雨弄得街道淹水。 来自辞典例句

192 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

193 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

194 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

195 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

196 feverishly   

adv. 兴奋地

参考例句：

• Feverishly he collected his data. 他拼命收集资料。
• The company is having to cast around feverishly for ways to cut its costs. 公司迫切须要想出各种降低成本的办法。

197 lures   

吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式）

参考例句：

• He left home because of the lures of life in the city. 他离家是由于都市生活的诱惑。
• Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures men down to the depths of the earth. 可能正是寻觅幽静的去处，或者找个猎奇的机会的欲望引诱着人们进入地球的深处。

198 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

199 paraphernalia   

n.装备；随身用品

参考例句：

• Can you move all your paraphernalia out of the way?你可以把所有的随身物品移开吗？
• All my fishing paraphernalia is in the car.我的鱼具都在汽车里。

200 plaques   

（纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑

参考例句：

• Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
• The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服，胸前别着银质徽章。

201 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

202 bode   

v.预示

参考例句：

• These figures do not bode well for the company's future.这些数字显示出公司的前景不妙。
• His careful habits bode well for his future.他那认真的习惯预示著他会有好的前途。

203 jolted   

（使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• She was jolted out of her reverie as the door opened. 门一开就把她从幻想中惊醒。

204 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

205 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

206 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。

207 squatted   

v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。

参考例句：

• He squatted down beside the footprints and examined them closely. 他蹲在脚印旁仔细地观察。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He squatted in the grass discussing with someone. 他蹲在草地上与一个人谈话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

208 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

209 thrifty   

adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的

参考例句：

• Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒，他是个生活节俭的人。
• She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女，每月都设法存些钱。

210 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

211 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

212 validated   

v.证实( validate的过去式和过去分词 )；确证；使生效；使有法律效力

参考例句：

• Time validated our suspicion. 时间证实了我们的怀疑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The decade of history since 1927 had richly validated their thesis. 1927年以来的十年的历史，充分证明了他们的论点。 来自辞典例句

213 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

214 feud   

n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇

参考例句：

• How did he start his feud with his neighbor?他是怎样和邻居开始争吵起来的？
• The two tribes were long at feud with each other.这两个部族长期不和。

215 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。

216 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

217 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

218 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

219 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

220 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

221 hummock   

n.小丘

参考例句：

• He crawled up a small hummock and surveyed the prospect.他慢腾腾地登上一个小丘，看了看周围的地形。
• The two young men advanced cautiously towards the hummock.两个年轻人小心翼翼地向小丘前进。

222 clatter   

v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声

参考例句：

• The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
• Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。

223 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

224 jettisoned   

v.抛弃，丢弃( jettison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was jettisoned as team coach after the defeat. 他因这次失败被撤销了运动队教练职务。
• They jettisoned big boxes to make the bus lighter. 他们抛弃公共汽车上的货物，使车减轻重量。 来自《简明英汉词典》

225 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

226 denizens   

n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• polar bears, denizens of the frozen north 北极熊，在冰天雪地的北方生活的动物
• At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn. 到了后来，连这些沼泽国的居民们也不见了。 来自辞典例句

227 scattering   

n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散

参考例句：

• The child felle into a rage and began scattering its toys about. 这孩子突发狂怒，把玩具扔得满地都是。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The farmers are scattering seed. 农夫们在播种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

228 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

229 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

230 snare   

n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑

参考例句：

• I used to snare small birds such as sparrows.我曾常用罗网捕捉麻雀等小鸟。
• Most of the people realized that their scheme was simply a snare and a delusion.大多数人都认识到他们的诡计不过是一个骗人的圈套。

231 sagging   

下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is continuously sagging. 敌军的士气不断低落。
• We are sagging south. 我们的船正离开航线向南漂流。

232 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

233 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

234 chiseled   

adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Woltz had chiseled the guy, given him peanuts for the book. 乌尔茨敲了这个作家的竹杠，用了他的书，却只给微不足道的一点点钱。 来自教父部分
• He chiseled the piece of wood into the shape of a head. 他把这块木头凿刻成人头的形状。 来自辞典例句

235 calloused   

adj.粗糙的，粗硬的，起老茧的v.（使）硬结，（使）起茧( callous的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）冷酷无情

参考例句：

• A most practical and emotionally calloused Youth interrupted. 一个非常讲究实际而心肠很硬的年轻人插了一嘴。 来自辞典例句
• McTeague exhibited his hard, calloused palms. 麦克梯格摊开那双生满老茧坚硬的手掌。 来自辞典例句

236 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

237 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

238 sockets   

n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴

参考例句：

• All new PCs now have USB sockets. 新的个人计算机现在都有通用串行总线插孔。
• Make sure the sockets in your house are fingerproof. 确保你房中的插座是防触电的。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

239 scrutinizing   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His grandfather's stern eyes were scrutinizing him, and Chueh-hui felt his face reddening. 祖父的严厉的眼光射在他的脸上。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• The machine hushed, extraction and injection nozzles poised, scrutinizing its targets. 机器“嘘”地一声静了下来，输入输出管道各就各位，检查着它的目标。 来自互联网

240 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

241 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

242 evergreen   

n.常青树；adj.四季常青的

参考例句：

• Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的，被叫做常青树。
• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。

243 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

244 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

245 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

246 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

247 streaked   

adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• The children streaked off as fast as they could. 孩子们拔脚飞跑 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His face was pale and streaked with dirt. 他脸色苍白，脸上有一道道的污痕。 来自辞典例句

248 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

249 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

250 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

251 ragged   

adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的

参考例句：

• A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
• Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。

252 clattered   

发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He dropped the knife and it clattered on the stone floor. 他一失手，刀子当啷一声掉到石头地面上。
• His hand went limp and the knife clattered to the ground. 他的手一软，刀子当啷一声掉到地上。

253 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

254 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

255 retrace   

v.折回；追溯，探源

参考例句：

• He retraced his steps to the spot where he'd left the case.他折回到他丢下箱子的地方。
• You must retrace your steps.你必须折回原来走过的路。

256 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

257 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。

258 crested   

adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• a great crested grebe 凤头䴙䴘
• The stately mansion crested the hill. 庄严的大厦位于山顶。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

259 picket   

n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫

参考例句：

• They marched to the factory and formed a picket.他们向工厂前进,并组成了纠察队。
• Some of the union members did not want to picket.工会的一些会员不想担任罢工纠察员。

260 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

261 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

262 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

263 engraved   

v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• The silver cup was engraved with his name. 银杯上刻有他的名字。
• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back. 此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。 来自《简明英汉词典》

264 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

265 tusk   

n.獠牙，长牙，象牙

参考例句：

• The wild boar had its tusk sunk deeply into a tree and howled desperately.野猪的獠牙陷在了树里，绝望地嗥叫着。
• A huge tusk decorated the wall of his study.他书房的墙上装饰着一支巨大的象牙。

266 tusks   

n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头

参考例句：

• The elephants are poached for their tusks. 为获取象牙而偷猎大象。
• Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. 非洲的一些地区则使用象牙、猴尾和盐。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

267 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

268 orchids   

n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Wild flowers such as orchids and primroses are becoming rare. 兰花和报春花这类野花越来越稀少了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She breeds orchids in her greenhouse. 她在温室里培育兰花。 来自《简明英汉词典》

269 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

270 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

271 sleet   

n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹

参考例句：

• There was a great deal of sleet last night.昨夜雨夹雪下得真大。
• When winter comes,we get sleet and frost.冬天来到时我们这儿会有雨夹雪和霜冻。

272 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

273 prim   

adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地

参考例句：

• She's too prim to enjoy rude jokes!她太古板，不喜欢听粗野的笑话！
• He is prim and precise in manner.他的态度一本正经而严谨

274 puffs   

n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• We sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his. 我们坐在那里，轮番抽着他那支野里野气的烟斗。 来自辞典例句
• Puffs of steam and smoke came from the engine. 一股股蒸汽和烟雾从那火车头里冒出来。 来自辞典例句

275 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

276 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

277 discriminate   

v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待

参考例句：

• You must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions.你必须学会把事实和看法区分出来。
• They can discriminate hundreds of colours.他们能分辨上百种颜色。

278 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

279 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

280 fumbled   

（笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下

参考例句：

• She fumbled in her pocket for a handkerchief. 她在她口袋里胡乱摸找手帕。
• He fumbled about in his pockets for the ticket. 他（瞎）摸着衣兜找票。

281 sculpted   

adj.经雕塑的

参考例句：

• a display of animals sculpted in ice 冰雕动物展
• The ladies had their hair sculpted by the leading coiffeur of the day. 女士们的发型都是当代有名的理发师做的。

282 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

283 skittish   

adj.易激动的，轻佻的

参考例句：

• She gets very skittish when her boy-friend is around.她男朋友在场时，她就显得格外轻佻。
• I won't have my son associating with skittish girls.我不准我的儿子与轻佻的女孩交往。

284 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

285 winnowed   

adj.扬净的，风选的v.扬( winnow的过去式和过去分词 )；辨别；选择；除去

参考例句：

• Administration officials have winnowed the list of candidates to three. 行政官员将候选名单筛减至3人。 来自辞典例句
• I had winnowed the husk away when he came in. 他进来时，我已把糠筛去了。 来自辞典例句

286 hiss   

v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满

参考例句：

• We can hear the hiss of air escaping from a tire.我们能听到一只轮胎的嘶嘶漏气声。
• Don't hiss at the speaker.不要嘘演讲人。

287 poker   

n.扑克；vt.烙制

参考例句：

• He was cleared out in the poker game.他打扑克牌，把钱都输光了。
• I'm old enough to play poker and do something with it.我打扑克是老手了，可以玩些花样。

288 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

289 notch   

n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级

参考例句：

• The peanuts they grow are top-notch.他们种的花生是拔尖的。
• He cut a notch in the stick with a sharp knife.他用利刃在棒上刻了一个凹痕。

290 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

291 silhouette   

n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓

参考例句：

• I could see its black silhouette against the evening sky.我能看到夜幕下它黑色的轮廓。
• I could see the silhouette of the woman in the pickup.我可以见到小卡车的女人黑色半身侧面影。

292 feline   

adj.猫科的

参考例句：

• As a result,humans have learned to respect feline independence.结果是人们已经学会尊重猫的独立性。
• The awakening was almost feline in its stealthiness.这种醒觉，简直和猫的脚步一样地轻悄。

293 perspiration   

n.汗水；出汗

参考例句：

• It is so hot that my clothes are wet with perspiration.天太热了，我的衣服被汗水湿透了。
• The perspiration was running down my back.汗从我背上淌下来。

294 jug   

n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂

参考例句：

• He walked along with a jug poised on his head.他头上顶着一个水罐，保持着平衡往前走。
• She filled the jug with fresh water.她将水壶注满了清水。

295 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

296 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

297 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

298 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

299 itched   

v.发痒( itch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Seeing the children playing ping-pong, he itched to have a go. 他看到孩子们打乒乓，不觉技痒。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He could hardly sIt'still and itched to have a go. 他再也坐不住了，心里跃跃欲试。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

300 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

301 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

302 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

303 popcorn   

n.爆米花

参考例句：

• I like to eat popcorn when I am watching TV play at home.当我在家观看电视剧时，喜欢吃爆米花。
• He still stood behind his cash register stuffing his mouth with popcorn.他仍站在收银机后，嘴里塞满了爆米花。

304 hitch   

v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉

参考例句：

• They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
• All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。

305 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

306 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

307 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

308 armory   

n.纹章，兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Nuclear weapons will play a less prominent part in NATO's armory in the future.核武器将来在北约的军械中会起较次要的作用。
• Every March the Armory Show sets up shop in New York.每年三月，军械博览会都会在纽约设置展场。

309 leopard   

n.豹

参考例句：

• I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
• The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。

310 puddle   

n.(雨)水坑，泥潭

参考例句：

• The boy hopped the mud puddle and ran down the walk.这个男孩跳过泥坑，沿着人行道跑了。
• She tripped over and landed in a puddle.她绊了一下，跌在水坑里。

311 pony   

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。

312 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

313 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

314 slur   

v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音

参考例句：

• He took the remarks as a slur on his reputation.他把这些话当作是对他的名誉的中伤。
• The drug made her speak with a slur.药物使她口齿不清。

315 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

316 pariah   

n.被社会抛弃者

参考例句：

• Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village.不一会儿，汤姆碰上了村里的少年弃儿。
• His landlady had treated him like a dangerous criminal,a pariah.房东太太对待他就像对待危险的罪犯、对待社会弃儿一样。

317 ostracized   

v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 )；流放；摈弃；排斥

参考例句：

• He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike. 他因拒绝支持罢工而受到同事的排斥。
• The family were ostracized by the neighborhood. 邻居们都不理睬那一家人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

318 winked   

v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮

参考例句：

• He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing that she was. 他冲她眨了眨眼，她便知道他的想法和她一样。
• He winked his eyes at her and left the classroom. 他向她眨巴一下眼睛走出了教室。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

319 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

320 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

321 privy   

adj.私用的；隐密的

参考例句：

• Only three people,including a policeman,will be privy to the facts.只会允许3个人，其中包括一名警察，了解这些内情。
• Very few of them were privy to the details of the conspiracy.他们中很少有人知道这一阴谋的详情。

322 beacon   

n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔

参考例句：

• The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
• The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。

323 growling   

n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼

参考例句：

• We heard thunder growling in the distance. 我们听见远处有隆隆雷声。
• The lay about the deck growling together in talk. 他们在甲板上到处游荡，聚集在一起发牢骚。