This letter, sealed with a small seal in blue wax, begged Monsieur Bovary to come immediately to the farm of the Bertaux to set a broken leg. Now from Tostes to the Bertaux was a good eighteen miles across country by way of Longueville and Saint-Victor. It was a dark night; Madame Bovary junior was afraid of accidents for her husband. So it was decided5 the stable-boy should go on first; Charles would start three hours later when the moon rose. A boy was to be sent to meet him, and show him the way to the farm, and open the gates for him.
Towards four o’clock in the morning, Charles, well wrapped up in his cloak, set out for the Bertaux. Still sleepy from the warmth of his bed, he let himself be lulled6 by the quiet trot7 of his horse. When it stopped of its own accord in front of those holes surrounded with thorns that are dug on the margin8 of furrows9, Charles awoke with a start, suddenly remembered the broken leg, and tried to call to mind all the fractures he knew. The rain had stopped, day was breaking, and on the branches of the leafless trees birds roosted motionless, their little feathers bristling10 in the cold morning wind. The flat country stretched as far as eye could see, and the tufts of trees round the farms at long intervals11 seemed like dark violet stains on the cast grey surface, that on the horizon faded into the gloom of the sky.
Charles from time to time opened his eyes, his mind grew weary, and, sleep coming upon him, he soon fell into a doze12 wherein, his recent sensations blending with memories, he became conscious of a double self, at once student and married man, lying in his bed as but now, and crossing the operation theatre as of old. The warm smell of poultices mingled13 in his brain with the fresh odour of dew; he heard the iron rings rattling14 along the curtain-rods of the bed and saw his wife sleeping. As he passed Vassonville he came upon a boy sitting on the grass at the edge of a ditch.
“Are you the doctor?” asked the child.
And on Charles’s answer he took his wooden shoes in his hands and ran on in front of him.
The general practitioner15, riding along, gathered from his guide’s talk that Monsieur Rouault must be one of the well-to-do farmers.
He had broken his leg the evening before on his way home from a Twelfth-night feast at a neighbour’s. His wife had been dead for two years. There was with him only his daughter, who helped him to keep house.
The ruts were becoming deeper; they were approaching the Bertaux.
The little lad, slipping through a hole in the hedge, disappeared; then he came back to the end of a courtyard to open the gate. The horse slipped on the wet grass; Charles had to stoop to pass under the branches. The watchdogs in their kennels16 barked, dragging at their chains. As he entered the Bertaux, the horse took fright and stumbled.
It was a substantial-looking farm. In the stables, over the top of the open doors, one could see great cart-horses quietly feeding from new racks. Right along the outbuildings extended a large dunghill, from which manure17 liquid oozed18, while amidst fowls19 and turkeys, five or six peacocks, a luxury in Chauchois farmyards, were foraging20 on the top of it. The sheepfold was long, the barn high, with walls smooth as your hand. Under the cart-shed were two large carts and four ploughs, with their whips, shafts22 and harnesses complete, whose fleeces of blue wool were getting soiled by the fine dust that fell from the granaries. The courtyard sloped upwards23, planted with trees set out symmetrically, and the chattering24 noise of a flock of geese was heard near the pond.
A young woman in a blue merino dress with three flounces came to the threshold of the door to receive Monsieur Bovary, whom she led to the kitchen, where a large fire was blazing. The servant’s breakfast was boiling beside it in small pots of all sizes. Some damp clothes were drying inside the chimney-corner. The shovel25, tongs26, and the nozzle of the bellows27, all of colossal28 size, shone like polished steel, while along the walls hung many pots and pans in which the clear flame of the hearth29, mingling30 with the first rays of the sun coming in through the window, was mirrored fitfully.
Charles went up the first floor to see the patient. He found him in his bed, sweating under his bed-clothes, having thrown his cotton nightcap right away from him. He was a fat little man of fifty, with white skin and blue eyes, the forepart of his head bald, and he wore earrings31. By his side on a chair stood a large decanter of brandy, whence he poured himself a little from time to time to keep up his spirits; but as soon as he caught sight of the doctor his elation32 subsided33, and instead of swearing, as he had been doing for the last twelve hours, began to groan34 freely.
The fracture was a simple one, without any kind of complication.
Charles could not have hoped for an easier case. Then calling to mind the devices of his masters at the bedsides of patients, he comforted the sufferer with all sorts of kindly35 remarks, those Caresses36 of the surgeon that are like the oil they put on bistouries. In order to make some splints a bundle of laths was brought up from the cart-house. Charles selected one, cut it into two pieces and planed it with a fragment of windowpane, while the servant tore up sheets to make bandages, and Mademoiselle Emma tried to sew some pads. As she was a long time before she found her work-case, her father grew impatient; she did not answer, but as she sewed she pricked37 her fingers, which she then put to her mouth to suck them. Charles was surprised at the whiteness of her nails. They were shiny, delicate at the tips, more polished than the ivory of Dieppe, and almond-shaped. Yet her hand was not beautiful, perhaps not white enough, and a little hard at the knuckles38; besides, it was too long, with no soft inflections in the outlines. Her real beauty was in her eyes. Although brown, they seemed black because of the lashes39, and her look came at you frankly40, with a candid41 boldness.
The bandaging over, the doctor was invited by Monsieur Rouault himself to “pick a bit” before he left.
Charles went down into the room on the ground floor. Knives and forks and silver goblets42 were laid for two on a little table at the foot of a huge bed that had a canopy43 of printed cotton with figures representing Turks. There was an odour of iris-root and damp sheets that escaped from a large oak chest opposite the window. On the floor in corners were sacks of flour stuck upright in rows. These were the overflow44 from the neighbouring granary, to which three stone steps led. By way of decoration for the apartment, hanging to a nail in the middle of the wall, whose green paint scaled off from the effects of the saltpetre, was a crayon head of Minerva in gold frame, underneath45 which was written in Gothic letters “To dear Papa.”
First they spoke46 of the patient, then of the weather, of the great cold, of the wolves that infested47 the fields at night.
Mademoiselle Rouault did not at all like the country, especially now that she had to look after the farm almost alone. As the room was chilly48, she shivered as she ate. This showed something of her full lips, that she had a habit of biting when silent.
Her neck stood out from a white turned-down collar. Her hair, whose two black folds seemed each of a single piece, so smooth were they, was parted in the middle by a delicate lie that curved slightly with the curve of the head; and, just showing the tip of the ear, it was joined behind in a thick chignon, with a wavy49 movement at the temples that the country doctor saw now for the first time in his life. The upper part of her cheek was rose-coloured. She had, like a man, thrust in between two buttons of her bodice a tortoise-shell eyeglass.
When Charles, after bidding farewell to old Rouault, returned to the room before leaving, he found her standing, her forehead against the window, looking into the garden, where the bean props50 had been knocked down by the wind. She turned round. “Are you looking for anything?” she asked.
“My whip, if you please,” he answered.
He began rummaging51 on the bed, behind the doors, under the chairs. It had fallen to the floor, between the sacks and the wall. Mademoiselle Emma saw it, and bent52 over the flour sacks.
Charles out of politeness made a dash also, and as he stretched out his arm, at the same moment felt his breast brush against the back of the young girl bending beneath him. She drew herself up, scarlet53, and looked at him over her shoulder as she handed him his whip.
Instead of returning to the Bertaux in three days as he had promised, he went back the very next day, then regularly twice a week, without counting the visits he paid now and then as if by accident.
Everything, moreover, went well; the patient progressed favourably54; and when, at the end of forty-six days, old Rouault was seen trying to walk alone in his “den,” Monsieur Bovary began to be looked upon as a man of great capacity. Old Rouault said that he could not have been cured better by the first doctor of Yvetot, or even of Rouen.
As to Charles, he did not stop to ask himself why it was a pleasure to him to go to the Bertaux. Had he done so, he would, no doubt, have attributed his zeal55 to the importance of the case, or perhaps to the money he hoped to make by it. Was it for this, however, that his visits to the farm formed a delightful56 exception to the meagre occupations of his life? On these days he rose early, set off at a gallop57, urging on his horse, then got down to wipe his boots in the grass and put on black gloves before entering. He liked going into the courtyard, and noticing the gate turn against his shoulder, the cock crow on the wall, the lads run to meet him. He liked the granary and the stables; he liked old Rouault, who pressed his hand and called him his saviour58; he like the small wooden shoes of Mademoiselle Emma on the scoured59 flags of the kitchen — her high heels made her a little taller; and when she walked in front of him, the wooden soles springing up quickly struck with a sharp sound against the leather of her boots.
She always accompanied him to the first step of the stairs. When his horse had not yet been brought round she stayed there. They had said “Good-bye”; there was no more talking. The open air wrapped her round, playing with the soft down on the back of her neck, or blew to and fro on her hips21 the apron-strings, that fluttered like streamers. Once, during a thaw60 the bark of the trees in the yard was oozing61, the snow on the roofs of the outbuildings was melting; she stood on the threshold, and went to fetch her sunshade and opened it. The sunshade of silk of the colour of pigeons’ breasts, through which the sun shone, lighted up with shifting hues62 the white skin of her face. She smiled under the tender warmth, and drops of water could be heard falling one by one on the stretched silk.
During the first period of Charles’s visits to the Bertaux, Madame Bovary junior never failed to inquire after the invalid63, and she had even chosen in the book that she kept on a system of double entry a clean blank page for Monsieur Rouault. But when she heard he had a daughter, she began to make inquiries64, and she learnt the Mademoiselle Rouault, brought up at the Ursuline Convent, had received what is called “a good education”; and so knew dancing, geography, drawing, how to embroider65 and play the piano. That was the last straw.
“So it is for this,” she said to herself, “that his face beams when he goes to see her, and that he puts on his new waistcoat at the risk of spoiling it with the rain. Ah! that woman! That woman!”
And she detested66 her instinctively67. At first she solaced68 herself by allusions69 that Charles did not understand, then by casual observations that he let pass for fear of a storm, finally by open apostrophes to which he knew not what to answer. “Why did he go back to the Bertaux now that Monsieur Rouault was cured and that these folks hadn’t paid yet? Ah! it was because a young lady was there, some one who know how to talk, to embroider, to be witty70. That was what he cared about; he wanted town misses.” And she went on —
“The daughter of old Rouault a town miss! Get out! Their grandfather was a shepherd, and they have a cousin who was almost had up at the assizes for a nasty blow in a quarrel. It is not worth while making such a fuss, or showing herself at church on Sundays in a silk gown like a countess. Besides, the poor old chap, if it hadn’t been for the colza last year, would have had much ado to pay up his arrears71.”
For very weariness Charles left off going to the Bertaux. Heloise made him swear, his hand on the prayer-book, that he would go there no more after much sobbing72 and many kisses, in a great outburst of love. He obeyed then, but the strength of his desire protested against the servility of his conduct; and he thought, with a kind of naive73 hypocrisy74, that his interdict75 to see her gave him a sort of right to love her. And then the widow was thin; she had long teeth; wore in all weathers a little black shawl, the edge of which hung down between her shoulder-blades; her bony figure was sheathed76 in her clothes as if they were a scabbard; they were too short, and displayed her ankles with the laces of her large boots crossed over grey stockings.
Charles’s mother came to see them from time to time, but after a few days the daughter-in-law seemed to put her own edge on her, and then, like two knives, they scarified him with their reflections and observations. It was wrong of him to eat so much.
Why did he always offer a glass of something to everyone who came? What obstinacy77 not to wear flannels78! In the spring it came about that a notary79 at Ingouville, the holder80 of the widow Dubuc’s property, one fine day went off, taking with him all the money in his office. Heloise, it is true, still possessed82, besides a share in a boat valued at six thousand francs, her house in the Rue81 St. Francois; and yet, with all this fortune that had been so trumpeted83 abroad, nothing, excepting perhaps a little furniture and a few clothes, had appeared in the household. The matter had to be gone into. The house at Dieppe was found to be eaten up with mortgages to its foundations; what she had placed with the notary God only knew, and her share in the boat did not exceed one thousand crowns. She had lied, the good lady! In his exasperation84, Monsieur Bovary the elder, smashing a chair on the flags, accused his wife of having caused misfortune to the son by harnessing him to such a harridan85, whose harness wasn’t worth her hide. They came to Tostes. Explanations followed. There were scenes. Heloise in tears, throwing her arms about her husband, implored86 him to defend her from his parents.
Charles tried to speak up for her. They grew angry and left the house.
But “the blow had struck home.” A week after, as she was hanging up some washing in her yard, she was seized with a spitting of blood, and the next day, while Charles had his back turned to her drawing the window-curtain, she said, “O God!” gave a sigh and fainted. She was dead! What a surprise! When all was over at the cemetery87 Charles went home. He found no one downstairs; he went up to the first floor to their room; say her dress still hanging at the foot of the alcove88; then, leaning against the writing-table, he stayed until the evening, buried in a sorrowful reverie. She had loved him after all!
点击收听单词发音
1 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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2 Undid | |
v. 解开, 复原 | |
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3 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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4 modesty | |
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素 | |
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5 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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6 lulled | |
vt.使镇静,使安静(lull的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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7 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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8 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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9 furrows | |
n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 );(脸上的)皱纹v.犁田,开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10 bristling | |
a.竖立的 | |
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11 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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12 doze | |
v.打瞌睡;n.打盹,假寐 | |
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13 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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14 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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15 practitioner | |
n.实践者,从事者;(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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16 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 | |
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17 manure | |
n.粪,肥,肥粒;vt.施肥 | |
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18 oozed | |
v.(浓液等)慢慢地冒出,渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 );使(液体)缓缓流出;(浓液)渗出,慢慢流出 | |
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19 fowls | |
鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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20 foraging | |
v.搜寻(食物),尤指动物觅(食)( forage的现在分词 );(尤指用手)搜寻(东西) | |
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21 hips | |
abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯,耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 );[建筑学]屋脊;臀围(尺寸);臀部…的 | |
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22 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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23 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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24 chattering | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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25 shovel | |
n.铁锨,铲子,一铲之量;v.铲,铲出 | |
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26 tongs | |
n.钳;夹子 | |
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27 bellows | |
n.风箱;发出吼叫声,咆哮(尤指因痛苦)( bellow的名词复数 );(愤怒地)说出(某事),大叫v.发出吼叫声,咆哮(尤指因痛苦)( bellow的第三人称单数 );(愤怒地)说出(某事),大叫 | |
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28 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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29 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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30 mingling | |
adj.混合的 | |
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31 earrings | |
n.耳环( earring的名词复数 );耳坠子 | |
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32 elation | |
n.兴高采烈,洋洋得意 | |
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33 subsided | |
v.(土地)下陷(因在地下采矿)( subside的过去式和过去分词 );减弱;下降至较低或正常水平;一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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34 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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35 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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36 caresses | |
爱抚,抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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37 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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38 knuckles | |
n.(指人)指关节( knuckle的名词复数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝 | |
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39 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 | |
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40 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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41 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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42 goblets | |
n.高脚酒杯( goblet的名词复数 ) | |
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43 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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44 overflow | |
v.(使)外溢,(使)溢出;溢出,流出,漫出 | |
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45 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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46 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 | |
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47 infested | |
adj.为患的,大批滋生的(常与with搭配)v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 );遍布于 | |
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48 chilly | |
adj.凉快的,寒冷的 | |
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49 wavy | |
adj.有波浪的,多浪的,波浪状的,波动的,不稳定的 | |
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50 props | |
小道具; 支柱( prop的名词复数 ); 支持者; 道具; (橄榄球中的)支柱前锋 | |
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51 rummaging | |
翻找,搜寻( rummage的现在分词 ); 海关检查 | |
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52 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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53 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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54 favourably | |
adv. 善意地,赞成地 =favorably | |
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55 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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56 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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57 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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58 saviour | |
n.拯救者,救星 | |
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59 scoured | |
走遍(某地)搜寻(人或物)( scour的过去式和过去分词 ); (用力)刷; 擦净; 擦亮 | |
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60 thaw | |
v.(使)融化,(使)变得友善;n.融化,缓和 | |
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61 oozing | |
v.(浓液等)慢慢地冒出,渗出( ooze的现在分词 );使(液体)缓缓流出;(浓液)渗出,慢慢流出 | |
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62 hues | |
色彩( hue的名词复数 ); 色调; 信仰; 观点 | |
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63 invalid | |
n.病人,伤残人;adj.有病的,伤残的;无效的 | |
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64 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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65 embroider | |
v.刺绣于(布)上;给…添枝加叶,润饰 | |
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66 detested | |
v.憎恶,嫌恶,痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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68 solaced | |
v.安慰,慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
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69 allusions | |
暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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70 witty | |
adj.机智的,风趣的 | |
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71 arrears | |
n.到期未付之债,拖欠的款项;待做的工作 | |
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72 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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73 naive | |
adj.幼稚的,轻信的;天真的 | |
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74 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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75 interdict | |
v.限制;禁止;n.正式禁止;禁令 | |
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76 sheathed | |
adj.雕塑像下半身包在鞘中的;覆盖的;铠装的;装鞘了的v.将(刀、剑等)插入鞘( sheathe的过去式和过去分词 );包,覆盖 | |
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77 obstinacy | |
n.顽固;(病痛等)难治 | |
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78 flannels | |
法兰绒男裤; 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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79 notary | |
n.公证人,公证员 | |
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80 holder | |
n.持有者,占有者;(台,架等)支持物 | |
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81 rue | |
n.懊悔,芸香,后悔;v.后悔,悲伤,懊悔 | |
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82 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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83 trumpeted | |
大声说出或宣告(trumpet的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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84 exasperation | |
n.愤慨 | |
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85 harridan | |
n.恶妇;丑老大婆 | |
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86 implored | |
恳求或乞求(某人)( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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88 alcove | |
n.凹室 | |
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