We ceased to gaze. We turned to each other, the same thought, the same question in our eyes. For these plants to grow, there must be some air, however attenuated1, air that we also should be able to breathe.
"The manhole?" I said.
"Yes!" said Cavor, "if it is air we see!"
"In a little while," I said, "these plants will be as high as we are. Suppose--suppose after all-- Is it certain? How do you know that stuff _is_ air? It may be nitrogen--it may be carbonic acid even!"
"That's easy," he said, and set about proving it. He produced a big piece of crumpled2 paper from the bale, lit it, and thrust it hastily through the man-hole valve. I bent3 forward and peered down through the thick glass for its appearance outside, that little flame on whose evidence depended so much!
I saw the paper drop out and lie lightly upon the snow. The pink flame of its burning vanished. For an instant it seemed to be extinguished. And then I saw a little blue tongue upon the edge of it that trembled, and crept, and spread!
Quietly the whole sheet, save where it lay in immediate4 contact with the snow, charred5 and shrivelled and sent up a quivering thread of smoke. There was no doubt left to me; the atmosphere of the moon was either pure oxygen or air, and capable therefore--unless its tenuity was excessive--of supporting our alien life. We might emerge--and live!
I sat down with my legs on either side of the manhole and prepared to unscrew it, but Cavor stopped me. "There is first a little precaution," he said. He pointed6 out that although it was certainly an oxygenated atmosphere outside, it might still be so rarefied as to cause us grave injury. He reminded me of mountain sickness, and of the bleeding that often afflicts7 aeronauts who have ascended8 too swiftly, and he spent some time in the preparation of a sickly-tasting drink which he insisted on my sharing. It made me feel a little numb9, but otherwise had no effect on me. Then he permitted me to begin unscrewing.
Presently the glass stopper of the manhole was so far undone10 that the denser11 air within our sphere began to escape along the thread of the screw, singing as a kettle sings before it boils. Thereupon he made me desist. It speedily became evident that the pressure outside was very much less than it was within. How much less it was we had no means of telling.
I sat grasping the stopper with both hands, ready to close it again if, in spite of our intense hope, the lunar atmosphere should after all prove too rarefied for us, and Cavor sat with a cylinder12 of compressed oxygen at hand to restore our pressure. We looked at one another in silence, and then at the fantastic vegetation that swayed and grew visibly and noiselessly without. And ever that shrill13 piping continued.
My blood-vessels began to throb14 in my ears, and the sound of Cavor's movements diminished. I noted15 how still everything had become, because of the thinning of the air.
As our air sizzled out from the screw the moisture of it condensed in little puffs16.
Presently I experienced a peculiar17 shortness of breath that lasted indeed during the whole of the time of our exposure to the moon's exterior18 atmosphere, and a rather unpleasant sensation about the ears and finger-nails and the back of the throat grew upon my attention, and presently passed off again.
But then came vertigo19 and nausea20 that abruptly21 changed the quality of my courage. I gave the lid of the manhole half a turn and made a hasty explanation to Cavor; but now he was the more sanguine22. He answered me in a voice that seemed extraordinarily23 small and remote, because of the thinness of the air that carried the sound. He recommended a nip of brandy, and set me the example, and presently I felt better. I turned the manhole stopper back again. The throbbing24 in my ears grew louder, and then I remarked that the piping note of the outrush had ceased. For a time I could not be sure that it had ceased.
"Well?" said Cavor, in the ghost of a voice.
"Well?" said I.
"Shall we go on?"
I thought. "Is this all?"
"If you can stand it."
By way of answer I went on unscrewing. I lifted the circular operculum from its place and laid it carefully on the bale. A flake25 or so of snow whirled and vanished as that thin and unfamiliar26 air took possession of our sphere. I knelt, and then seated myself at the edge of the manhole, peering over it. Beneath, within a yard of my face, lay the untrodden snow of the moon.
There came a little pause. Our eyes met.
"It doesn't distress27 your lungs too much?" said Cavor.
"No," I said. "I can stand this."
He stretched out his hand for his blanket, thrust his head through its central hole, and wrapped it about him. He sat down on the edge of the manhole, he let his feet drop until they were within six inches of the lunar ground. He hesitated for a moment, then thrust himself forward, dropped these intervening inches, and stood upon the untrodden soil of the moon.
As he stepped forward he was refracted grotesquely28 by the edge of the glass. He stood for a moment looking this way and that. Then he drew himself together and leapt.
The glass distorted everything, but it seemed to me even then to be an extremely big leap. He had at one bound become remote. He seemed twenty or thirty feet off. He was standing30 high upon a rocky mass and gesticulating back to me. Perhaps he was shouting--but the sound did not reach me. But how the deuce had he done this? I felt like a man who has just seen a new conjuring31 trick.
In a puzzled state of mind I too dropped through the manhole. I stood up. Just in front of me the snowdrift had fallen away and made a sort of ditch. I made a step and jumped.
I found myself flying through the air, saw the rock on which he stood coming to meet me, clutched it and clung in a state of infinite amazement32.
I gasped33 a painful laugh. I was tremendously confused. Cavor bent down and shouted in piping tones for me to be careful.
I had forgotten that on the moon, with only an eighth part of the earth's mass and a quarter of its diameter, my weight was barely a sixth what it was on earth. But now that fact insisted on being remembered.
"We are out of Mother Earth's leading-strings now," he said.
With a guarded effort I raised myself to the top, and moving as cautiously as a rheumatic patient, stood up beside him under the blaze of the sun. The sphere lay behind us on its dwindling34 snowdrift thirty feet away.
As far as the eye could see over the enormous disorder35 of rocks that formed the crater36 floor, the same bristling37 scrub that surrounded us was starting into life, diversified38 here and there by bulging39 masses of a cactus40 form, and scarlet41 and purple lichens43 that grew so fast they seemed to crawl over the rocks. The whole area of the crater seemed to me then to be one similar wilderness44 up to the very foot of the surrounding cliff.
This cliff was apparently45 bare of vegetation save at its base, and with buttresses46 and terraces and platforms that did not very greatly attract our attention at the time. It was many miles away from us in every direction; we seemed to be almost at the centre of the crater, and we saw it through a certain haziness47 that drove before the wind. For there was even a wind now in the thin air, a swift yet weak wind that chilled exceedingly but exerted little pressure. It was blowing round the crater, as it seemed, to the hot illuminated48 side from the foggy darkness under the sunward wall. It was difficult to look into this eastward49 fog; we had to peer with half-closed eyes beneath the shade of our hands, because of the fierce intensity50 of the motionless sun.
"It seems to be deserted," said Cavor, "absolutely desolate51."
I looked about me again. I retained even then a clinging hope of some quasi-human evidence, some pinnacle52 of building, some house or engine, but everywhere one looked spread the tumbled rocks in peaks and crests53, and the darting54 scrub and those bulging cacti55 that swelled56 and swelled, a flat negation57 as it seemed of all such hope.
"It looks as though these plants had it to themselves," I said. "I see no trace of any other creature."
"No insects--no birds, no! Not a trace, not a scrap58 nor particle of animal life. If there was--what would they do in the night? ... No; there's just these plants alone."
I shaded my eyes with my hand. "It's like the landscape of a dream. These things are less like earthly land plants than the things one imagines among the rocks at the bottom of the sea. Look at that yonder! One might imagine it a lizard59 changed into a plant. And the glare!"
"This is only the fresh morning," said Cavor.
He sighed and looked about him. "This is no world for men," he said. "And yet in a way--it appeals."
He became silent for a time, then commenced his meditative60 humming.
I started at a gentle touch, and found a thin sheet of livid lichen42 lapping over my shoe. I kicked at it and it fell to powder, and each speck61 began to grow.
I heard Cavor exclaim sharply, and perceived that one of the fixed62 bayonets of the scrub had pricked63 him. He hesitated, his eyes sought among the rocks about us. A sudden blaze of pink had crept up a ragged64 pillar of crag. It was a most extraordinary pink, a livid magenta65.
"Look!" said I, turning, and behold66 Cavor had vanished.
For an instant I stood transfixed. Then I made a hasty step to look over the verge67 of the rock. But in my surprise at his disappearance68 I forgot once more that we were on the moon. The thrust of my foot that I made in striding would have carried me a yard on earth; on the moon it carried me six--a good five yards over the edge. For the moment the thing had something of the effect of those nightmares when one falls and falls. For while one falls sixteen feet in the first second of a fall on earth, on the moon one falls two, and with only a sixth of one's weight. I fell, or rather I jumped down, about ten yards I suppose. It seemed to take quite a long time, five or six seconds, I should think. I floated through the air and fell like a feather, knee-deep in a snow-drift in the bottom of a gully of blue-gray, white-veined rock.
I looked about me. "Cavor!" I cried; but no Cavor was visible.
"Cavor!" I cried louder, and the rocks echoed me.
I turned fiercely to the rocks and clambered to the summit of them. "Cavor!" I cried. My voice sounded like the voice of a lost lamb.
The sphere, too, was not in sight, and for a moment a horrible feeling of desolation pinched my heart.
Then I saw him. He was laughing and gesticulating to attract my attention. He was on a bare patch of rock twenty or thirty yards away. I could not hear his voice, but "jump" said his gestures. I hesitated, the distance seemed enormous. Yet I reflected that surely I must be able to clear a greater distance than Cavor.
I made a step back, gathered myself together, and leapt with all my might. I seemed to shoot right up in the air as though I should never come down.
It was horrible and delightful69, and as wild as a nightmare, to go flying off in this fashion. I realised my leap had been altogether too violent. I flew clean over Cavor's head and beheld70 a spiky71 confusion in a gully spreading to meet my fall. I gave a yelp72 of alarm. I put out my hands and straightened my legs.
I hit a huge fungoid bulk that burst all about me, scattering73 a mass of orange spores74 in every direction, and covering me with orange powder. I rolled over spluttering, and came to rest convulsed with breathless laughter.
I became aware of Cavor's little round face peering over a bristling hedge. He shouted some faded inquiry75. "Eh?" I tried to shout, but could not do so for want of breath. He made his way towards me, coming gingerly among the bushes.
"We've got to be careful," he said. "This moon has no discipline. She'll let us smash ourselves."
He helped me to my feet. "You exerted yourself too much," he said, dabbing76 at the yellow stuff with his hand to remove it from my garments.
I stood passive and panting, allowing him to beat off the jelly from my knees and elbows and lecture me upon my misfortunes. "We don't quite allow for the gravitation. Our muscles are scarcely educated yet. We must practise a little, when you have got your breath."
I pulled two or three little thorns out of my hand, and sat for a time on a boulder77 of rock. My muscles were quivering, and I had that feeling of personal disillusionment that comes at the first fall to the learner of cycling on earth.
It suddenly occurred to Cavor that the cold air in the gully, after the brightness of the sun, might give me a fever. So we clambered back into the sunlight. We found that beyond a few abrasions78 I had received no serious injuries from my tumble, and at Cavor's suggestion we were presently looking round for some safe and easy landing-place for my next leap. We chose a rocky slab79 some ten yards off, separated from us by a little thicket80 of olive-green spikes81.
"Imagine it there!" said Cavor, who was assuming the airs of a trainer, and he pointed to a spot about four feet from my toes. This leap I managed without difficulty, and I must confess I found a certain satisfaction in Cavor's falling short by a foot or so and tasting the spikes of the scrub. "One has to be careful you see," he said, pulling out his thorns, and with that he ceased to be my mentor82 and became my fellow-learner in the art of lunar locomotion83.
We chose a still easier jump and did it without difficulty, and then leapt back again, and to and fro several times, accustoming84 our muscles to the new standard. I could never have believed had I not experienced it, how rapid that adaptation would be. In a very little time indeed, certainly after fewer than thirty leaps, we could judge the effort necessary for a distance with almost terrestrial assurance.
And all this time the lunar plants were growing around us, higher and denser and more entangled85, every moment thicker and taller, spiked86 plants, green cactus masses, fungi87, fleshy and lichenous88 things, strangest radiate and sinuous89 shapes. But we were so intent upon our leaping, that for a time we gave no heed90 to their unfaltering expansion.
An extraordinary elation91 had taken possession of us. Partly, I think, it was our sense of release from the confinement92 of the sphere. Mainly, however, the thin sweetness of the air, which I am certain contained a much larger proportion of oxygen than our terrestrial atmosphere. In spite of the strange quality of all about us, I felt as adventurous93 and experimental as a cockney would do placed for the first time among mountains and I do not think it occurred to either of us, face to face though we were with the unknown, to be very greatly afraid.
We were bitten by a spirit of enterprise. We selected a lichenous kopje perhaps fifteen yards away, and landed neatly94 on its summit one after the other. "Good!" we cried to each other; "good!" and Cavor made three steps and went off to a tempting95 slope of snow a good twenty yards and more beyond. I stood for a moment struck by the grotesque29 effect of his soaring figure--his dirty cricket cap, and spiky hair, his little round body, his arms and his knicker-bockered legs tucked up tightly--against the weird96 spaciousness97 of the lunar scene. A gust98 of laughter seized me, and then I stepped off to follow. Plump! I dropped beside him.
We made a few gargantuan99 strides, leapt three or four times more, and sat down at last in a lichenous hollow. Our lungs were painful. We sat holding our sides and recovering our breath, looking appreciation100 to one another. Cavor panted something about "amazing sensations." And then came a thought into my head. For the moment it did not seem a particularly appalling101 thought, simply a natural question arising out of the situation.
"By the way," I said, "where exactly is the sphere?"
Cavor looked at me. "Eh?"
The full meaning of what we were saying struck me sharply.
"Cavor!" I cried, laying a hand on his arm, "where is the sphere?"
1 attenuated | |
v.(使)变细( attenuate的过去式和过去分词 );(使)变薄;(使)变小;减弱 | |
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2 crumpled | |
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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3 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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4 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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5 charred | |
v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式);烧焦 | |
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6 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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7 afflicts | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的名词复数 ) | |
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8 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 numb | |
adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木 | |
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10 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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11 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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12 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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13 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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14 throb | |
v.震颤,颤动;(急速强烈地)跳动,搏动 | |
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15 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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16 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 | |
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17 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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18 exterior | |
adj.外部的,外在的;表面的 | |
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19 vertigo | |
n.眩晕 | |
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20 nausea | |
n.作呕,恶心;极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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21 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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22 sanguine | |
adj.充满希望的,乐观的,血红色的 | |
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23 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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24 throbbing | |
a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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25 flake | |
v.使成薄片;雪片般落下;n.薄片 | |
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26 unfamiliar | |
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的 | |
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27 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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28 grotesquely | |
adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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29 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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30 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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31 conjuring | |
n.魔术 | |
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32 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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33 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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34 dwindling | |
adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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35 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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36 crater | |
n.火山口,弹坑 | |
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37 bristling | |
a.竖立的 | |
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38 diversified | |
adj.多样化的,多种经营的v.使多样化,多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 );进入新的商业领域 | |
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39 bulging | |
膨胀; 凸出(部); 打气; 折皱 | |
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40 cactus | |
n.仙人掌 | |
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41 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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42 lichen | |
n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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43 lichens | |
n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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44 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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45 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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46 buttresses | |
n.扶壁,扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑,加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47 haziness | |
有薄雾,模糊; 朦胧之性质或状态; 零能见度 | |
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48 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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49 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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50 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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51 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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52 pinnacle | |
n.尖塔,尖顶,山峰;(喻)顶峰 | |
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53 crests | |
v.到达山顶(或浪峰)( crest的第三人称单数 );到达洪峰,达到顶点 | |
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54 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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55 cacti | |
n.(复)仙人掌 | |
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56 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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57 negation | |
n.否定;否认 | |
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58 scrap | |
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废 | |
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59 lizard | |
n.蜥蜴,壁虎 | |
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60 meditative | |
adj.沉思的,冥想的 | |
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61 speck | |
n.微粒,小污点,小斑点 | |
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62 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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63 pricked | |
刺,扎,戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 ); 刺伤; 刺痛; 使剧痛 | |
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64 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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65 magenta | |
n..紫红色(的染料);adj.紫红色的 | |
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66 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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67 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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68 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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69 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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70 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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71 spiky | |
adj.长而尖的,大钉似的 | |
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72 yelp | |
vi.狗吠 | |
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73 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 | |
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74 spores | |
n.(细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物)孢子( spore的名词复数 )v.(细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物)孢子( spore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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76 dabbing | |
石面凿毛,灰泥抛毛 | |
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77 boulder | |
n.巨砾;卵石,圆石 | |
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78 abrasions | |
n.磨损( abrasion的名词复数 );擦伤处;摩擦;磨蚀(作用) | |
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79 slab | |
n.平板,厚的切片;v.切成厚板,以平板盖上 | |
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80 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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81 spikes | |
n.穗( spike的名词复数 );跑鞋;(防滑)鞋钉;尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 );偷偷地给某人的饮料加入(更多)酒精( 或药物);把尖状物钉入;打乱某人的计划 | |
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82 mentor | |
n.指导者,良师益友;v.指导 | |
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83 locomotion | |
n.运动,移动 | |
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84 accustoming | |
v.(使)习惯于( accustom的现在分词 ) | |
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85 entangled | |
adj.卷入的;陷入的;被缠住的;缠在一起的v.使某人(某物/自己)缠绕,纠缠于(某物中),使某人(自己)陷入(困难或复杂的环境中)( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86 spiked | |
adj.有穗的;成锥形的;有尖顶的 | |
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87 fungi | |
n.真菌,霉菌 | |
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88 lichenous | |
adj.青苔的 | |
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89 sinuous | |
adj.蜿蜒的,迂回的 | |
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90 heed | |
v.注意,留意;n.注意,留心 | |
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91 elation | |
n.兴高采烈,洋洋得意 | |
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92 confinement | |
n.幽禁,拘留,监禁;分娩;限制,局限 | |
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93 adventurous | |
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 | |
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94 neatly | |
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地 | |
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95 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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96 weird | |
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的 | |
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97 spaciousness | |
n.宽敞 | |
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98 gust | |
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发 | |
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99 gargantuan | |
adj.巨大的,庞大的 | |
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100 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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101 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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