Dal is a modest hamlet consisting of but a few houses; some on either side of a road that is little more than a bridle-path, others scattered1 over the surrounding hills. But they all face the narrow valley of Vesfjorddal, with their backs to the line of hills to the north, at the base of which flows the Maan.
A little church erected2 in 1855, whose chancel is pierced by two narrow stained-glass windows, lifts its square belfry from out a leafy grove3 hard by. Here and there rustic4 bridges cross the rivulets5 that dance merrily along toward the river. In the distance are two or three primitive6 saw-mills, run by water-power, with a wheel to move the saw, as well as a wheel to move the beam or the tree; and seen from a little distance, the chapel7, saw-mills, houses, and cabins, all seem to be enveloped8 in a soft olive haze9 that emanates10 from the dark-green firs and the paler birches which either singly or in groups extend from the winding11 banks of the Maan to the crests12 of the lofty mountains.
Such is the fresh and laughing hamlet of Dal, with its picturesque13 dwellings14, painted, some of them, in delicate green or pale pink tints15, others in such glaring colors as bright yellow and blood-red. The roofs of birch bark, covered with turf, which is mown in the autumn, are crowned with natural flowers. All this is indescribably charming, and eminently16 characteristic of the most picturesque country in the world. In short, Dal is in the Telemark, the Telemark is in Norway, and Norway is in Switzerland, with thousands of fiords that permit the sea to kiss the feet of its mountains.
The Telemark composes the broad portion of the immense horn that Norway forms between Bergen and Christiania.
This dependency of the prefecture of Batsberg, has the mountains and glaciers17 of Switzerland, but it is not Switzerland. It has gigantic water-falls like North America, but it is not America. The landscape is adorned19 with picturesque cottages, and processions of inhabitants, clad in costumes of a former age, like Holland, but it is not Holland. The Telemark is far better than any or all of these; it is the Telemark, noted20 above all countries in the world for the beauty of its scenery. The writer has had the pleasure of visiting it. He has explored it thoroughly21, in a kariol with relays of post-horses--when he could get them--and he brought back with him such a vivid recollection of its manifold charms that he would be glad to convey some idea of it to the reader of this simple narrative22.
At the date of this story, 1862, Norway was not yet traversed by the railroad that now enables one to go from Stockholm to Drontheim, by way of Christiania. Now, an extensive network of iron rails extends entirely24 across these two Scandinavian countries, which are so averse23 to a united existence. But imprisoned25 in a railroad-carriage, the traveler, though he makes much more rapid progress than in a kariol, misses all the originality26 that formerly27 pervaded28 the routes of travel. He misses the journey through Southern Sweden on the curious Gotha Canal, in which the steamboats, by rising from lock to lock, manage to reach an elevation29 of three hundred feet. Nor does he have an opportunity to visit the falls of Trolletann, nor Drammen, nor Kongsberg, nor any of the beauties of the Telemark.
In those days the railroad existed only upon paper. Twenty years were to elapse before one could traverse the Scandinavian kingdom from one shore to the other in forty hours, and visit the North Cape18 on excursion tickets to Spitzberg.
In those days Dal was, and may it long remain, the central point for foreign or native tourists, these last being for the most part students from Christiania. From Dal they could wander over the entire Telemark and Hardanger region, explore the valley of Vesfjorddal between Lakes Mjos and Tinn, and visit the wonderful cataracts30 of the Rjukan Tun. The hamlet boasts of but one inn, but that is certainly the most attractive and comfortable imaginable, and one of the most important also, for it can offer four bed-chambers for the accommodation of its guests. In a word, it is Dame31 Hansen's inn.
A few benches surround the base of its pink walls, which are separated from the ground by a substantial granite32 foundation. The spruce rafters and weather-boarding have acquired such hardness and toughness with age that the sharpest hatchet33 can make little or no impression upon them. Between the roughly hewn rafters, which are placed horizontally one above the other, a mixture of clay and turf forms a stanch34 roof, through which the hardest winter rains can not force their way.
Upstairs, in the bedrooms, the ceilings are painted in dark red or black tints to contrast with the more cheerful and delicate hues35 of the wood-work.
In one corner of the large hall stands a huge cylinder36 stove, the pipe of which rises nearly to the ceiling, before it disappears in the kitchen chimney. In another corner stands a tall clock which emits a sonorous37 tick-tack, as its carved hands travel slowly around its enameled38 face. Here is a secretary, black with age, side by side with a massive iron tripod. Upon the mantel is an immense terra-cotta candlestick which can be transformed into a three-branched candelabrum by turning it upside down. The handsomest furniture in the house adorns39 this spacious40 hall--the birch-root table, with its spreading feet, the big chest with its richly wrought41 brass42 handles, in which the Sunday and holiday clothing is kept, the tall arm-chair, hard and uncomfortable as a church-pew, the painted wooden chairs, and the spinning-wheel striped with green, to contrast with the scarlet43 petticoat of the spinner.
Yonder stands the pot in which the butter is kept, and the paddle with which it is worked, and here is the tobacco-box, and the grater of elaborately carved bone.
And, finally, over the door which opens into the kitchen is a large dresser, with long rows of brass and copper44 cooking-utensils and bright-colored dishes, the little grindstone for sharpening knives, half-buried in its varnished45 case, and the egg-dish, old enough to serve as a chalice46.
And how wonderful and amusing are the walls, hung with linen47 tapestries48 representing scenes from the Bible, and brilliant with all the gorgeous coloring of the pictures of Epinal.
As for the guests' rooms, though they are less pretentious49, they are no less comfortable, with their spotless neatness, their curtains of hanging-vines that droop50 from the turf-covered roof, their huge beds, sheeted with snowy and fragrant51 linen, and their hangings with verses from the Old Testament52, embroidered53 in yellow upon a red ground.
Nor must we forget that the floor of the main hall, and the floors of all the rooms, both upstairs and down, are strewn with little twigs54 of birch, pine, and juniper, whose leaves fill the house with their healthful and exhilarating odor.
Can one imagine a more charming _posada_ in Italy, or a more seductive _fonda_ in Spain? No. And the crowd of English tourists have not yet raised the scale of prices as in Switzerland--at least, they had not at the time of which I write. In Dal, the current coin is not the pound sterling55, the sovereign of which the travelers' purse is soon emptied. It is a silver coin, worth about five francs, and its subdivisions are the mark, equal in value to about a franc, and the skilling, which must not be confounded with the English shilling, as it is only equivalent to a French _sou_.
Nor will the tourist have any opportunity to use or abuse the pretentious bank-note in the Telemark. One-mark notes are white; five-mark notes are blue; ten-mark notes are yellow; fifty-mark notes, green; one hundred mark notes, red. Two more, and we should have all the colors of the rainbow.
Besides--and this is a point of very considerable importance--the food one obtains at the Dal inn is excellent; a very unusual thing at houses of public entertainment in this locality, for the Telemark deserves only too well its surname of the Buttermilk Country. At Tiness, Listhus, Tinoset, and many other places, no bread is to be had, or if there be, it is of such poor quality as to be uneatable. One finds there only an oaten cake, known as _flat brod_, dry, black, and hard as pasteboard, or a coarse loaf composed of a mixture of birch-bark, lichens56, and chopped straw. Eggs are a luxury, and a most stale and unprofitable one; but there is any quantity of poor beer to be had, a profusion57 of buttermilk, either sweet or sour, and sometimes a little coffee, so thick and muddy that it is much more like distilled58 soot59 than the products of Mocha or Rio Nunez.
In Dame Hansen's establishment, on the contrary, cellar and larder60 were alike well-stored. What more could the most exacting61 tourist ask than salmon62, either salt or smoked--fresh salmon that have never tasted tainted63 waters, fish from the pure streams of the Telemark, fowls64, neither too fat nor too lean, eggs in every style, crisp oaten and barley65 cakes, fruits, more especially strawberries, bread--unleavened bread, it is here, but of the very best quality--beer, and some old bottles of that Saint Julien that have spread the fame of French vineyards even to this distant land?
And this being the case, it is not strange that the inn at Dal is well and favorably known in all the countries of Northern Europe.
One can see this, too, by glancing over the register in which many travelers have not only recorded their names, but paid glowing tributes to Dame Hansen's merits as an inn-keeper. The names are principally those of Swedes and Norwegians from every part of Scandinavia; but the English make a very respectable showing; and one of them, who had waited at least an hour for the summit of Gousta to emerge from the morning mist that enveloped it, wrote upon one of the pages:
"Patientia omnia vincit?"
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1
scattered
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adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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2
ERECTED
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adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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grove
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n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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rustic
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adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
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rivulets
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n.小河,小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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primitive
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adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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chapel
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n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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enveloped
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v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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haze
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n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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emanates
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v.从…处传出,传出( emanate的第三人称单数 );产生,表现,显示 | |
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winding
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n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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crests
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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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picturesque
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adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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14
dwellings
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n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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15
tints
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色彩( tint的名词复数 ); 带白的颜色; (淡色)染发剂; 痕迹 | |
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eminently
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adv.突出地;显著地;不寻常地 | |
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17
glaciers
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冰河,冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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18
cape
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n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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19
adorned
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[计]被修饰的 | |
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20
noted
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adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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21
thoroughly
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adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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22
narrative
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n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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23
averse
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adj.厌恶的;反对的,不乐意的 | |
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24
entirely
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ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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25
imprisoned
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下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26
originality
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n.创造力,独创性;新颖 | |
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27
formerly
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adv.从前,以前 | |
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28
pervaded
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v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
elevation
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n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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30
cataracts
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n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 );白内障 | |
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31
dame
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n.女士 | |
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32
granite
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adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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33
hatchet
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n.短柄小斧;v.扼杀 | |
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34
stanch
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v.止住(血等);adj.坚固的;坚定的 | |
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35
hues
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色彩( hue的名词复数 ); 色调; 信仰; 观点 | |
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36
cylinder
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n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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37
sonorous
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adj.响亮的,回响的;adv.圆润低沉地;感人地;n.感人,堂皇 | |
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38
enameled
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涂瓷釉于,给…上瓷漆,给…上彩饰( enamel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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adorns
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装饰,佩带( adorn的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40
spacious
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adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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41
wrought
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v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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42
brass
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n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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43
scarlet
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n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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44
copper
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n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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varnished
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浸渍过的,涂漆的 | |
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46
chalice
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n.圣餐杯;金杯毒酒 | |
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47
linen
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n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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48
tapestries
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n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 );绣帷,织锦v.用挂毯(或绣帷)装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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49
pretentious
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adj.自命不凡的,自负的,炫耀的 | |
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50
droop
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v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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51
fragrant
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adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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52
testament
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n.遗嘱;证明 | |
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53
embroidered
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adj.绣花的 | |
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54
twigs
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细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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55
sterling
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adj.英币的(纯粹的,货真价实的);n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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56
lichens
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n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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57
profusion
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n.挥霍;丰富 | |
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58
distilled
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adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 );从…提取精华 | |
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59
soot
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n.煤烟,烟尘;vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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60
larder
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n.食物贮藏室,食品橱 | |
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61
exacting
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adj.苛求的,要求严格的 | |
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62
salmon
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n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的 | |
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63
tainted
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adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏 | |
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64
fowls
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鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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barley
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n.大麦,大麦粒 | |
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