The universal sign of winter was the town handyman — Miles Bjornstam, a tall, thick, red-mustached bachelor, opinionated atheist5, general-store arguer, cynical6 Santa Claus. Children loved him, and he sneaked7 away from work to tell them improbable stories of sea-faring and horse-trading and bears. The children’s parents either laughed at him or hated him. He was the one democrat8 in town. He called both Lyman Cass the miller9 and the Finn homesteader from Lost Lake by their first names. He was known as “The Red Swede,” and considered slightly insane.
Bjornstam could do anything with his hands — solder10 a pan, weld an automobile11 spring, soothe12 a frightened filly, tinker a clock, carve a Gloucester schooner13 which magically went into a bottle. Now, for a week, he was commissioner14 general of Gopher Prairie. He was the only person besides the repairman at Sam Clark’s who understood plumbing15. Everybody begged him to look over the furnace and the water-pipes. He rushed from house to house till after bedtime — ten o’clock. Icicles from burst water-pipes hung along the skirt of his brown dog- skin overcoat; his plush cap, which he never took off in the house, was a pulp16 of ice and coal-dust; his red hands were cracked to rawness; he chewed the stub of a cigar.
But he was courtly to Carol. He stooped to examine the furnace flues; he straightened, glanced down at her, and hemmed17, “Got to fix your furnace, no matter what else I do.”
The poorer houses of Gopher Prairie, where the services of Miles Bjornstam were a luxury — which included the shanty18 of Miles Bjornstam — were banked to the lower windows with earth and manure19. Along the railroad the sections of snow fence, which had been stacked all summer in romantic wooden tents occupied by roving small boys, were set up to prevent drifts from covering the track.
The farmers came into town in home-made sleighs, with bed- quilts and hay piled in the rough boxes.
Fur coats, fur caps, fur mittens20, overshoes buckling21 almost to the knees, gray knitted scarfs ten feet long, thick woolen22 socks, canvas jackets lined with fluffy23 yellow wool like the plumage of ducklings, moccasins, red flannel24 wristlets for the blazing chapped wrists of boys — these protections against winter were busily dug out of moth-ball-sprinkled drawers and tar-bags in closets, and all over town small boys were squealing25, “Oh, there’s my mittens!” or “Look at my shoe-packs!” There is so sharp a division between the panting summer and the stinging winter of the Northern plains that they rediscovered with surprise and a feeling of heroism26 this armor of an Artic explorer.
Winter garments surpassed even personal gossip as the topic at parties. It was good form to ask, “Put on your heavies yet?” There were as many distinctions in wraps as in motor cars. The lesser27 sort appeared in yellow and black dogskin coats, but Kennicott was lordly in a long raccoon ulster and a new seal cap. When the snow was too deep for his motor he went off on country calls in a shiny, floral, steel- tipped cutter, only his ruddy nose and his cigar emerging from the fur.
Carol herself stirred Main Street by a loose coat of nutria. Her finger-tips loved the silken fur.
Her liveliest activity now was organizing outdoor sports in the motor-paralyzed town.
The automobile and bridge-whist had not only made more evident the social divisions in Gopher Prairie but they had also enfeebled the love of activity. It was so rich-looking to sit and drive — and so easy. Skiing and sliding were “stupid” and “old-fashioned.” In fact, the village longed for the ele- gance of city recreations almost as much as the cities longed for village sports; and Gopher Prairie took as much pride in neglecting coasting as St. Paul — or New York — in going coasting. Carol did inspire a successful skating-party in mid- November. Plover29 Lake glistened30 in clear sweeps of gray- green ice, ringing to the skates. On shore the ice-tipped reeds clattered31 in the wind, and oak twigs32 with stubborn last leaves hung against a milky33 sky. Harry34 Haydock did figure-eights, and Carol was certain that she had found the perfect life. But when snow had ended the skating and she tried to get up a moonlight sliding party, the matrons hesitated to stir away from their radiators35 and their daily bridge-whist imitations of the city. She had to nag37 them. They scooted down a long hill on a bob-sled, they upset and got snow down their necks they shrieked38 that they would do it again immediately — and they did not do it again at all.
She badgered another group into going skiing. They shouted and threw snowballs, and informed her that it was SUCH fun, and they’d have another skiing expedition right away, and they jollily returned home and never thereafter left their manuals of bridge.
Carol was discouraged. She was grateful when Kennicott invited her to go rabbit-hunting in the woods. She waded39 down stilly cloisters40 between burnt stump41 and icy oak, through drifts marked with a million hieroglyphics42 of rabbit and mouse and bird. She squealed43 as he leaped on a pile of brush and fired at the rabbit which ran out. He belonged there, masculine in reefer and sweater and high-laced boots. That night she ate prodigiously44 of steak and fried potatoes; she produced electric sparks by touching45 his ear with her finger-tip; she slept twelve hours; and awoke to think how glorious was this brave land.
She rose to a radiance of sun on snow. Snug46 in her furs she trotted47 up-town. Frosted shingles48 smoked against a sky colored like flax-blossoms, sleigh-bells clinked, shouts of greeting were loud in the thin bright air, and everywhere was a rhythmic49 sound of wood-sawing. It was Saturday, and the neighbors’ sons were getting up the winter fuel. Behind walls of corded wood in back yards their sawbucks stood in depressions scattered50 with canary-yellow flakes51 of sawdust. The frames of their buck-saws were cherry-red, the blades blued steel, and the fresh cut ends of the sticks — poplar, maple52, iron- wood, birch — were marked with engraved53 rings of growth. The boys wore shoe-packs, blue flannel shirts with enormous pearl buttons, and mackinaws of crimson54, lemon yellow, and foxy brown.
Carol cried “Fine day!” to the boys; she came in a glow to Howland & Gould’s grocery, her collar white with frost from her breath; she bought a can of tomatoes as though it were Orient fruit; and returned home planning to surprise Kennicott with an omelet creole for dinner.
So brilliant was the snow-glare that when she entered the house she saw the door-knobs, the newspaper on the table, every white surface as dazzling mauve, and her head was dizzy in the pyrotechnic dimness. When her eyes had recovered she felt expanded, drunk with health, mistress of life. The world was so luminous55 that she sat down at her rickety little desk in the living-room to make a poem. (She got no farther than “The sky is bright, the sun is warm, there ne’er will be another storm.”)
In the mid-afternoon of this same day Kennicott was called into the country. It was Bea’s evening out — her evening for the Lutheran Dance. Carol was alone from three till midnight. She wearied of reading pure love stories in the magazines and sat by a radiator36, beginning to brood.
Thus she chanced to discover that she had nothing to do.
II
She had, she meditated56, passed through the novelty of seeing the town and meeting people, of skating and sliding and hunting. Bea was competent; there was no household labor57 except sewing and darning and gossipy assistance to Bea in bed-making. She couldn’t satisfy her ingenuity58 in planning meals. At Dahl & Oleson’s Meat Market you didn’t give orders — you wofully inquired whether there was anything today besides steak and pork and ham. The cuts of beef were not cuts. They were hacks59. Lamb chops were as exotic as sharks’ fins61. The meat-dealers shipped their best to the city, with its higher prices.
In all the shops there was the same lack of choice. She could not find a glass-headed picture-nail in town; she did not hunt for the sort of veiling she wanted — she took what she could get; and only at Howland & Gould’s was there such a luxury as canned asparagus. Routine care was all she could devote to the house. Only by such fussing as the Widow Bogart’s could she make it fill her time.
She could not have outside employment. To the village doctor’s wife it was taboo62.
She was a woman with a working brain and no work.
There were only three things which she could do: Have children; start her career of reforming; or become so definitely a part of the town that she would be fulfilled by the activities of church and study-club and bridge-parties.
Children, yes, she wanted them, but —— She was not quite ready. She had been embarrassed by Kennicott’s frankness, but she agreed with him that in the insane condition of civilization, which made the rearing of citizens more costly64 and perilous3 than any other crime, it was inadvisable to have children till he had made more money. She was sorry —— Perhaps he had made all the mystery of love a mechanical cautiousness but —— She fled from the thought with a dubious65, “Some day.”
Her “reforms,” her impulses toward beauty in raw Main Street, they had become indistinct. But she would set them going now. She would! She swore it with soft fist beating the edges of the radiator. And at the end of all her vows66 she had no notion as to when and where the crusade was to begin.
Become an authentic67 part of the town? She began to think with unpleasant lucidity68. She reflected that she did not know whether the people liked her. She had gone to the women at afternoon-coffees, to the merchants in their stores, with so many outpouring comments and whimsies69 that she hadn’t given them a chance to betray their opinions of her. The men smiled — but did they like her? She was lively among the women — but was she one of them? She could not recall many times when she had been admitted to the whispering of scandal which is the secret chamber70 of Gopher Prairie conversation.
She was poisoned with doubt, as she drooped71 up to bed.
Next day, through her shopping, her mind sat back and observed. Dave Dyer and Sam Clark were as cordial as she had been fancying; but wasn’t there an impersonal72 abruptness73 in the “H’ are yuh?” of Chet Dashaway? Howland the grocer was curt74. Was that merely his usual manner?
“It’s infuriating to have to pay attention to what people think. In St. Paul I didn’t care. But here I’m spied on. They’re watching me. I mustn’t let it make me self-conscious,” she coaxed75 herself — overstimulated by the drug of thought, and offensively on the defensive76.
III
A thaw77 which stripped the snow from the sidewalks; a ringing iron night when the lakes could be heard booming; a clear roistering morning. In tam o’shanter and tweed skirt Carol felt herself a college junior going out to play hockey. She wanted to whoop78, her legs ached to run. On the way home from shopping she yielded, as a pup would have yielded. She galloped79 down a block and as she jumped from a curb80 across a welter of slush, she gave a student “Yippee!”
She saw that in a window three old women were gasping81. Their triple glare was paralyzing. Across the street, at another window, the curtain had secretively moved. She stopped, walked on sedately82, changed from the girl Carol into Mrs. Dr. Kennicott.
She never again felt quite young enough and defiant83 enough and free enough to run and halloo in the public streets; and it was as a Nice Married Woman that she attended the next weekly bridge of the Jolly Seventeen.
IV
The Jolly Seventeen (the membership of which ranged from fourteen to twenty-six) was the social cornice of Gopher Prairie. It was the country club, the diplomatic set, the St. Cecilia, the Ritz oval room, the Club de Vingt. To belong to it was to be “in.” Though its membership partly coincided with that of the Thanatopsis study club, the Jolly Seventeen as a separate entity84 guffawed85 at the Thanatopsis, and considered it middle-class and even “highbrow.”
Most of the Jolly Seventeen were young married women, with their husbands as associate members. Once a week they had a women’s afternoon-bridge; once a month the husbands joined them for supper and evening-bridge; twice a year they had dances at I. O. O. F. Hall. Then the town exploded. Only at the annual balls of the Firemen and of the Eastern Star was there such prodigality86 of chiffon scarfs and tangoing and heart-burnings, and these rival institutions were not select — hired girls attended the Firemen’s Ball, with section-hands and laborers87. Ella Stowbody had once gone to a Jolly Seventeen Soiree in the village hack60, hitherto confined to chief mourners at funerals; and Harry Haydock and Dr. Terry Gould always appeared in the town’s only specimens88 of evening clothes.
The afternoon-bridge of the Jolly Seventeen which followed Carol’s lonely doubting was held at Juanita Haydock’s new concrete bungalow89, with its door of polished oak and beveled plate-glass, jar of ferns in the plastered hall, and in the living-room, a fumed90 oak Morris chair, sixteen color-prints, and a square varnished91 table with a mat made of cigar-ribbons on which was one Illustrated92 Gift Edition and one pack of cards in a burnt-leather case.
Carol stepped into a sirocco of furnace heat. They were already playing. Despite her flabby resolves she had not yet learned bridge. She was winningly apologetic about it to Juanita, and ashamed that she should have to go on being apologetic.
Mrs. Dave Dyer, a sallow woman with a thin prettiness devoted93 to experiments in religious cults94, illnesses, and scandal- bearing, shook her finger at Carol and trilled, “You’re a naughty one! I don’t believe you appreciate the honor, when you got into the Jolly Seventeen so easy!”
Mrs. Chet Dashaway nudged her neighbor at the second table. But Carol kept up the appealing bridal manner so far as possible. She twittered, “You’re perfectly95 right. I’m a lazy thing. I’ll make Will start teaching me this very evening.” Her supplication96 had all the sound of birdies in the nest, and Easter church-bells, and frosted Christmas cards. Internally she snarled97, “That ought to be saccharine98 enough.” She sat in the smallest rocking-chair, a model of Victorian modesty99. But she saw or she imagined that the women who had gurgled at her so welcomingly when she had first come to Gopher Prairie were nodding at her brusquely.
During the pause after the first game she petitioned Mrs. Jackson Elder, “Don’t you think we ought to get up another bob-sled party soon?”
“It’s so cold when you get dumped in the snow,” said Mrs. Elder, indifferently.
“I hate snow down my neck,” volunteered Mrs. Dave Dyer, with an unpleasant look at Carol and, turning her back, she bubbled at Rita Simons, “Dearie, won’t you run in this evening? I’ve got the loveliest new Butterick pattern I want to show you.”
Carol crept back to her chair. In the fervor100 of discussing the game they ignored her. She was not used to being a wallflower. She struggled to keep from oversensitiveness, from becoming unpopular by the sure method of believing that she was unpopular; but she hadn’t much reserve of patience, and at the end of the second game, when Ella Stowbody sniffily asked her, “Are you going to send to Minneapolis for your dress for the next soiree — heard you were,” Carol said “Don’t know yet” with unnecessary sharpness.
She was relieved by the admiration101 with which the jeune fille Rita Simons looked at the steel buckles102 on her pumps; but she resented Mrs. Howland’s tart63 demand, “Don’t you find that new couch of yours is too broad to be practical?” She nodded, then shook her head, and touchily103 left Mrs. Howland to get out of it any meaning she desired. Immediately she wanted to make peace. She was close to simpering in the sweetness with which she addressed Mrs Howland: “I think that is the prettiest display of beef-tea your husband has in his store.”
“Oh yes, Gopher Prairie isn’t so much behind the times,” gibed104 Mrs. Howland. Some one giggled105.
Their rebuffs made her haughty106; her haughtiness107 irritated them to franker rebuffs; they were working up to a state of painfully righteous war when they were saved by the coming of food.
Though Juanita Haydock was highly advanced in the matters of finger-bowls, doilies, and bath-mats, her “refreshments” were typical of all the afternoon-coffees. Juanita’s best friends, Mrs. Dyer and Mrs. Dashaway, passed large dinner plates, each with a spoon, a fork, and a coffee cup without saucer. They apologized and discussed the afternoon’s game as they passed through the thicket108 of women’s feet. Then they distributed hot buttered rolls, coffee poured from an enamel-ware pot, stuffed olives, potato salad, and angel’s-food cake. There was, even in the most strictly109 conforming Gopher Prairie circles, a certain option as to collations. The olives need not be stuffed. Doughnuts were in some houses well thought of as a substitute for the hot buttered rolls. But there was in all the town no heretic save Carol who omitted angel’s-food.
They ate enormously. Carol had a suspicion that the thriftier110 housewives made the afternoon treat do for evening supper.
She tried to get back into the current. She edged over to Mrs. McGanum. Chunky, amiable111, young Mrs. McGanum with her breast and arms of a milkmaid, and her loud delayed laugh which burst startlingly from a sober face, was the daughter of old Dr. Westlake, and the wife of Westlake’s partner, Dr. McGanum. Kennicott asserted that Westlake and McGanum and their contaminated families were tricky112, but Carol had found them gracious. She asked for friendliness113 by crying to Mrs. McGanum, “How is the baby’s throat now?” and she was attentive114 while Mrs. McGanum rocked and knitted and placidly115 described symptoms.
Vida Sherwin came in after school, with Miss Ethel Villets, the town librarian. Miss Sherwin’s optimistic presence gave Carol more confidence. She talked. She informed the circle “I drove almost down to Wahkeenyan with Will, a few days ago. Isn’t the country lovely! And I do admire the Scandinavian farmers down there so: their big red barns and silos and milking-machines and everything. Do you all know that lonely Lutheran church, with the tin-covered spire28, that stands out alone on a hill? It’s so bleak116; somehow it seems so brave. I do think the Scandinavians are the hardiest117 and best people ——”
“Oh, do you THINK so?” protested Mrs. Jackson Elder. “My husband says the Svenskas that work in the planing-mill are perfectly terrible — so silent and cranky, and so selfish, the way they keep demanding raises. If they had their way they’d simply ruin the business.”
“Yes, and they’re simply GHASTLY hired girls!” wailed118 Mrs. Dave Dyer. “I swear, I work myself to skin and bone trying to please my hired girls — when I can get them! I do everything in the world for them. They can have their gentleman friends call on them in the kitchen any time, and they get just the same to eat as we do, if there’s, any left over, and I practically never jump on them.”
Juanita Haydock rattled119, “They’re ungrateful, all that class of people. I do think the domestic problem is simply becoming awful. I don’t know what the country’s coming to, with these Scandahoofian clodhoppers demanding every cent you can save, and so ignorant and impertinent, and on my word, demanding bath-tubs and everything — as if they weren’t mighty120 good and lucky at home if they got a bath in the wash-tub.”
They were off, riding hard. Carol thought of Bea and waylaid121 them:
“But isn’t it possibly the fault of the mistresses if the maids are ungrateful? For generations we’ve given them the leavings of food, and holes to live in. I don’t want to boast, but I must say I don’t have much trouble with Bea. She’s so friendly. The Scandinavians are sturdy and honest ——”
Mrs. Dave Dyer snapped, “Honest? Do you call it honest to hold us up for every cent of pay they can get? I can’t say that I’ve had any of them steal anything (though you might call it stealing to eat so much that a roast of beef hardly lasts three days), but just the same I don’t intend to let them think they can put anything over on ME! I always make them pack and unpack122 their trunks down-stairs, right under my eyes, and then I know they aren’t being tempted123 to dishonesty by any slackness on MY part!”
“How much do the maids get here?” Carol ventured.
Mrs. B. J. Gougerling, wife of the banker, stated in a shocked manner, “Any place from three-fifty to five-fifty a week! I know positively124 that Mrs. Clark, after swearing that she wouldn’t weaken and encourage them in their outrageous125 demands, went and paid five-fifty — think of it! practically a dollar a day for unskilled work and, of course, her food and room and a chance to do her own washing right in with the rest of the wash. HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY, Mrs. KENNICOTT?”
“Yes! How much do you pay?” insisted half a dozen.
“W-why, I pay six a week,” she feebly confessed.
They gasped126. Juanita protested, “Don’t you think it’s hard on the rest of us when you pay so much?” Juanita’s demand was re-inforced by the universal glower127.
Carol was angry. “I don’t care! A maid has one of the hardest jobs on earth. She works from ten to eighteen hours a day. She has to wash slimy dishes and dirty clothes. She tends the children and runs to the door with wet chapped hands and ——”
Mrs. Dave Dyer broke into Carol’s peroration128 with a furious, “That’s all very well, but believe me, I do those things myself when I’m without a maid — and that’s a good share of the time for a person that isn’t willing to yield and pay exorbitant129 wages!”
Carol was retorting, “But a maid does it for strangers, and all she gets out of it is the pay ——”
Their eyes were hostile. Four of them were talking at once Vida Sherwin’s dictatorial130 voice cut through, took control of the revolution:
“Tut, tut, tut, tut! What angry passions — and what an idiotic131 discussion! All of you getting too serious. Stop it! Carol Kennicott, you’re probably right, but you’re too much ahead of the times. Juanita, quit looking so belligerent132. What is this, a card party or a hen fight? Carol, you stop admiring yourself as the Joan of Arc of the hired girls, or I’ll spank133 you. You come over here and talk libraries with Ethel Villets. Boooooo! If there’s any more pecking, I’ll take charge of the hen roost myself!”
They all laughed artificially, and Carol obediently “talked libraries.”
A small-town bungalow, the wives of a village doctor and a village dry-goods merchant, a provincial134 teacher, a colloquial135 brawl136 over paying a servant a dollar more a week. Yet this insignificance137 echoed cellar-plots and cabinet meetings and labor conferences in Persia and Prussia, Rome and Boston, and the orators138 who deemed themselves international leaders were but the raised voices of a billion Juanitas denouncing a million Carols, with a hundred thousand Vida Sherwins trying to shoo away the storm.
Carol felt guilty. She devoted herself to admiring the spinsterish Miss Villets — and immediately committed another offense139 against the laws of decency140.
“We haven’t seen you at the library yet,” Miss Villets reproved.
“I’ve wanted to run in so much but I’ve been getting settled and —— I’ll probably come in so often you’ll get tired of me! I hear you have such a nice library.”
“There are many who like it. We have two thousand more books than Wakamin.”
“Isn’t that fine. I’m sure you are largely responsible. I’ve had some experience, in St. Paul.”
“So I have been informed. Not that I entirely141 approve of library methods in these large cities. So careless, letting tramps and all sorts of dirty persons practically sleep in the reading-rooms.”
“I know, but the poor souls —— Well, I’m sure you will agree with me in one thing: The chief task of a librarian is to get people to read.”
“You feel so? My feeling, Mrs. Kennicott, and I am merely quoting the librarian of a very large college, is that the first duty of the CONSCIENTIOUS142 librarian is to preserve the books.”
“Oh!” Carol repented143 her “Oh.” Miss Villets stiffened144, and attacked:
“It may be all very well in cities, where they have unlimited145 funds, to let nasty children ruin books and just deliberately146 tear them up, and fresh young men take more books out than they are entitled to by the regulations, but I’m never going to permit it in this library!”
“What if some children are destructive? They learn to read. Books are cheaper than minds.”
“Nothing is cheaper than the minds of some of these children that come in and bother me simply because their mothers don’t keep them home where they belong. Some librarians may choose to be so wishy-washy and turn their libraries into nursing-homes and kindergartens, but as long as I’m in charge, the Gopher Prairie library is going to be quiet and decent, and the books well kept!”
Carol saw that the others were listening, waiting for her to be objectionable. She flinched147 before their dislike. She hastened to smile in agreement with Miss Villets, to glance publicly at her wrist-watch, to warble that it was “so late — have to hurry home — husband — such nice party — maybe you were right about maids, prejudiced because Bea so nice — such perfectly divine angel’s-food, Mrs. Haydock must give me the recipe — good-by, such happy party ——”
She walked home. She reflected, “It was my fault. I was touchy148. And I opposed them so much. Only —— I can’t! I can’t be one of them if I must damn all the maids toiling149 in filthy150 kitchens, all the ragged151 hungry children. And these women are to be my arbiters152, the rest of my life!”
She ignored Bea’s call from the kitchen; she ran up-stairs to the unfrequented guest-room; she wept in terror, her body a pale arc as she knelt beside a cumbrous black-walnut bed, beside a puffy mattress153 covered with a red quilt, in a shuttered and airless room.
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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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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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perilously
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| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
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atheist
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| n.无神论者 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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7
sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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solder
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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schooner
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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plumbing
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| 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 | |
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pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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mittens
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buckling
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woolen
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| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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27
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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28
spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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29
plover
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| n.珩，珩科鸟，千鸟 | |
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30
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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32
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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33
milky
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| adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的 | |
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34
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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35
radiators
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| n.（暖气设备的）散热器( radiator的名词复数 )；汽车引擎的冷却器，散热器 | |
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36
radiator
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| n.暖气片，散热器 | |
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37
nag
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| v.(对…)不停地唠叨；n.爱唠叨的人 | |
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38
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
cloisters
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| n.（学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的）走廊( cloister的名词复数 )；回廊；修道院的生活；隐居v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41
stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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42
hieroglyphics
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| n.pl.象形文字 | |
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43
squealed
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
prodigiously
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| adv.异常地，惊人地，巨大地 | |
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45
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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46
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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47
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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48
shingles
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| n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板 | |
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49
rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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50
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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51
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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52
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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53
engraved
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| 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） | |
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54
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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55
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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56
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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57
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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58
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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59
hacks
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| 黑客 | |
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60
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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61
fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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62
taboo
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| n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止 | |
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63
tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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64
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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65
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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66
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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67
authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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68
lucidity
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| n.明朗，清晰，透明 | |
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69
whimsies
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| n.怪念头( whimsy的名词复数 )；异想天开；怪脾气；与众不同的幽默感 | |
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70
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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71
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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73
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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74
curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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75
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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76
defensive
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|
| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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77
thaw
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| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
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78
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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79
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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80
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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81
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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82
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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83
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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84
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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85
guffawed
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| v.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
prodigality
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| n.浪费，挥霍 | |
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87
laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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88
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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89
bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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90
fumed
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| 愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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91
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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92
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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93
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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94
cults
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| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
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95
perfectly
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|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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96
supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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97
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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98
saccharine
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|
| adj.奉承的，讨好的 | |
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99
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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100
fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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101
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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102
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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103
touchily
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| adv.易动气地；过分敏感地；小心眼地；难以取悦地 | |
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104
gibed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄( gibe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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107
haughtiness
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| n.傲慢；傲气 | |
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108
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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109
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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110
thriftier
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| 节俭的( thrifty的比较级 )； 节约的； 茁壮的； 茂盛的 | |
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111
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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112
tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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113
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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114
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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115
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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116
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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117
hardiest
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| 能吃苦耐劳的，坚强的( hardy的最高级 )； （植物等）耐寒的 | |
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118
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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119
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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120
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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121
waylaid
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| v.拦截，拦路( waylay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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123
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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124
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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125
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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126
gasped
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| 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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127
glower
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| v.怒目而视 | |
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128
peroration
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| n.（演说等之）结论 | |
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129
exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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130
dictatorial
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| adj. 独裁的，专断的 | |
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131
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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132
belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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133
spank
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| v.打，拍打(在屁股上) | |
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134
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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135
colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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136
brawl
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| n.大声争吵，喧嚷；v.吵架，对骂 | |
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137
insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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138
orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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139
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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140
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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141
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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142
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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143
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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144
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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145
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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146
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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147
flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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148
touchy
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| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
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149
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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150
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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151
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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