Yet Newson did not arrive. Lucetta had been borne along the churchyard path; Casterbridge had for the last time turned its regard upon her, before proceeding2 to its work as if she had never lived. But Elizabeth remained undisturbed in the belief of her relationship to Henchard, and now shared his home. Perhaps, after all, Newson was gone for ever.
In due time the bereaved3 Farfrae had learnt the, at least, proximate cause of Lucetta's illness and death, and his first impulse was naturally enough to wreak4 vengeance5 in the name of the law upon the perpetrators of the mischief6. He resolved to wait till the funeral was over ere he moved in the matter. The time having come he reflected. Disastrous7 as the result had been, it was obviously in no way foreseen or intended by the thoughtless crew who arranged the motley procession. The tempting8 prospect9 of putting to the blush people who stand at the head of affairs--that supreme10 and piquant11 enjoyment12 of those who writhe13 under the heel of the same--had alone animated14 them, so far as he could see; for he knew nothing of Jopp's incitements. Other considerations were also involved. Lucetta had confessed everything to him before her death, and it was not altogether desirable to make much ado about her history, alike for her sake, for Henchard's, and for his own. To regard the event as an untoward15 accident seemed, to Farfrae, truest consideration for the dead one's memory, as well as best philosophy.
Henchard and himself mutually forbore to meet. For Elizabeth's sake the former had fettered16 his pride sufficiently17 to accept the small seed and root business which some of the Town Council, headed by Farfrae, had purchased to afford him a new opening. Had he been only personally concerned Henchard, without doubt, would have declined assistance even remotely brought about by the man whom he had so fiercely assailed18. But the sympathy of the girl seemed necessary to his very existence; and on her account pride itself wore the garments of humility19.
Here they settled themselves; and on each day of their lives Henchard anticipated her every wish with a watchfulness20 in which paternal21 regard was heightened by a burning jealous dread22 of rivalry23. Yet that Newson would ever now return to Casterbridge to claim her as a daughter there was little reason to suppose. He was a wanderer and a stranger, almost an alien; he had not seen his daughter for several years; his affection for her could not in the nature of things be keen; other interests would probably soon obscure his recollections of her, and prevent any such renewal24 of inquiry25 into the past as would lead to a discovery that she was still a creature of the present. To satisfy his conscience somewhat Henchard repeated to himself that the lie which had retained for him the coveted26 treasure had not been deliberately27 told to that end, but had come from him as the last defiant28 word of a despair which took no thought of consequences. Furthermore he pleaded within himself that no Newson could love her as he loved her, or would tend her to his life's extremity29 as he was prepared to do cheerfully.
Thus they lived on in the shop overlooking the churchyard, and nothing occurred to mark their days during the remainder of the year. Going out but seldom, and never on a marketday, they saw Donald Farfrae only at rarest intervals31, and then mostly as a transitory object in the distance of the street. Yet he was pursuing his ordinary avocations32, smiling mechanically to fellow-tradesmen, and arguing with bargainers--as bereaved men do after a while.
Time, "in his own grey style," taught Farfrae how to estimate his experience of Lucetta--all that it was, and all that it was not. There are men whose hearts insist upon a dogged fidelity33 to some image or cause thrown by chance into their keeping, long after their judgment34 has pronounced it no rarity--even the reverse, indeed, and without them the band of the worthy35 is incomplete. But Farfrae was not of those. It was inevitable36 that the insight, briskness37, and rapidity of his nature should take him out of the dead blank which his loss threw about him. He could not but perceive that by the death of Lucetta he had exchanged a looming38 misery39 for a simple sorrow. After that revelation of her history, which must have come sooner or later in any circumstances, it was hard to believe that life with her would have been productive of further happiness.
But as a memory, nothwithstanding such conditions, Lucetta's image still lived on with him, her weaknesses provoking only the gentlest criticism, and her sufferings attenuating41 wrath42 at her concealments to a momentary43 spark now and then.
By the end of a year Henchard's little retail44 seed and grain shop, not much larger than a cupboard, had developed its trade considerably45, and the stepfather and daughter enjoyed much serenity46 in the pleasant, sunny corner in which it stood. The quiet bearing of one who brimmed with an inner activity characterized Elizabeth-Jane at this period. She took long walks into the country two or three times a week, mostly in the direction of Budmouth. Sometimes it occurred to him that when she sat with him in the evening after those invigorating walks she was civil rather than affectionate; and he was troubled; one more bitter regret being added to those he had already experienced at having, by his severe censorship, frozen up her precious affection when originally offered.
She had her own way in everything now. In going and coming, in buying and selling, her word was law.
"You have got a new muff, Elizabeth," he said to her one day quite humbly47.
"Yes; I bought it," she said.
He looked at it again as it lay on an adjoining table. The fur was of a glossy48 brown, and, though he was no judge of such articles, he thought it seemed an unusually good one for her to possess.
"Rather costly49, I suppose, my dear, was it not?" he hazarded.
"It was rather above my figure," she said quietly. "But it is not showy."
"O no," said the netted lion, anxious not to pique50 her in the least.
Some little time after, when the year had advanced into another spring, he paused opposite her empty bedroom in passing it. He thought of the time when she had cleared out of his then large and handsome house in corn Street, in consequence of his dislike and harshness, and he had looked into her chamber51 in just the same way. The present room was much humbler, but what struck him about it was the abundance of books lying everywhere. Their number and quality made the meagre furniture that supported them seem absurdly disproportionate. Some, indeed many, must have been recently purchased; and though he encouraged her to buy in reason, he had no notion that she indulged her innate52 passion so extensively in proportion to the narrowness of their income. For the first time he felt a little hurt by what he thought her extravagance, and resolved to say a word to her about it. But, before he had found the courage to speak an event happened which set his thoughts flying in quite another direction.
The busy time of the seed trade was over, and the quiet weeks that preceded the hay-season had come--setting their special stamp upon Casterbridge by thronging53 the market with wood rakes, new waggons54 in yellow, green, and red, formidable scythes55, and pitchforks of prong sufficient to skewer56 up a small family. Henchard, contrary to his wont57, went out one Saturday afternoon towards the market-place from a curious feeling that he would like to pass a few minutes on the spot of his former triumphs. Farfrae, to whom he was still a comparative stranger, stood a few steps below the Corn Exchange door--a usual position with him at this hour--and he appeared lost in thought about something he was looking at a little way off.
Henchard's eyes followed Farfrae's, and he saw that the object of his gaze was no sample-showing farmer, but his own stepdaughter, who had just come out of a shop over the way. She, on her part, was quite unconscious of his attention, and in this was less fortunate than those young women whose very plumes58, like those of Juno's bird, are set with Argus eyes whenever possible admirers are within ken59.
Henchard went away, thinking that perhaps there was nothing significant after all in Farfrae's look at Elizabeth-Jane at that juncture60. Yet he could not forget that the Scotchman had once shown a tender interest in her, of a fleeting61 kind. Thereupon promptly62 came to the surface that idiosyncrasy of Henchard's which had ruled his courses from the beginning and had mainly made him what he was. Instead of thinking that a union between his cherished step-daughter and the energetic thriving Donald was a thing to be desired for her good and his own, he hated the very possibility.
Time had been when such instinctive63 opposition64 would have taken shape in action. But he was not now the Henchard of former days. He schooled himself to accept her will, in this as in other matters, as absolute and unquestionable. He dreaded65 lest an antagonistic66 word should lose for him such regard as he had regained67 from her by his devotion, feeling that to retain this under separation was better than to incur68 her dislike by keeping her near.
But the mere69 thought of such separation fevered his spirit much, and in the evening he said, with the stillness of suspense70: "Have you seen Mr. Farfrae to-day, Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth-Jane started at the question; and it was with some confusion that she replied "No."
"Oh--that's right--that's right....It was only that I saw him in the street when we both were there." He was wondering if her embarrassment71 justified72 him in a new suspicion--that the long walks which she had latterly been taking, that the new books which had so surprised him, had anything to do with the young man. She did not enlighten him, and lest silence should allow her to shape thoughts unfavourable to their present friendly relations, he diverted the discourse73 into another channel.
Henchard was, by original make, the last man to act stealthily, for good or for evil. But the solicitus timor of his love--the dependence74 upon Elizabeth's regard into which he had declined (or, in another sense, to which he had advanced)--denaturalized him. He would often weigh and consider for hours together the meaning of such and such a deed or phrase of hers, when a blunt settling question would formerly75 have been his first instinct. And now, uneasy at the thought of a passion for Farfrae which should entirely76 displace her mild filial sympathy with himself, he observed her going and coming more narrowly.
There was nothing secret in Elizabeth-Jane's movements beyond what habitual77 reserve induced, and it may at once be owned on her account that she was guilty of occasional conversations with Donald when they chanced to meet. Whatever the origin of her walks on the Budmouth Road, her return from those walks was often coincident with Farfrae's emergence78 from corn Street for a twenty minutes' blow on that rather windy highway--just to winnow79 the seeds and chaff80 out of him before sitting down to tea, as he said. Henchard became aware of this by going to the Ring, and, screened by its enclosure, keeping his eye upon the road till he saw them meet. His face assumed an expression of extreme anguish81.
"Of her, too, he means to rob me!" he whispered. "But he has the right. I do not wish to interfere82."
The meeting, in truth, was of a very innocent kind, and matters were by no means so far advanced between the young people as Henchard's jealous grief inferred. Could he have heard such conversation as passed he would have been enlightened thus much:-
HE.--"You like walking this way, Miss Henchard--and is it not so?" (uttered in his undulatory accents, and with an appraising83, pondering gaze at her).
SHE.--"O yes. I have chosen this road latterly. I have no great reason for it."
HE.--"But that may make a reason for others."
SHE (reddening).--"I don't know that. My reason, however, such as it is, is that I wish to get a glimpse of the sea every day.
HE.--"Is it a secret why?"
SHE ( reluctantly ).--"Yes."
HE (with the pathos84 of one of his native ballads).--"Ah, I doubt there will be any good in secrets! A secret cast a deep shadow over my life. And well you know what it was."
Elizabeth admitted that she did, but she refrained from confessing why the sea attracted her. She could not herself account for it fully30, not knowing the secret possibly to be that, in addition to early marine85 associations, her blood was a sailor's.
"Thank you for those new books, Mr. Farfrae," she added shyly. "I wonder if I ought to accept so many!"
"Ay! why not? It gives me more pleasure to get them for you, than you to have them!"
"It cannot."
They proceeded along the road together till they reached the town, and their paths diverged86.
Henchard vowed87 that he would leave them to their own devices, put nothing in the way of their courses, whatever they might mean. If he were doomed88 to be bereft89 of her, so it must be. In the situation which their marriage would create he could see no locus90 standi for himself at all. Farfrae would never recognize him more than superciliously91; his poverty ensured that, no less than his past conduct. And so Elizabeth would grow to be a stranger to him, and the end of his life would be friendless solitude92.
With such a possibility impending93 he could not help watchfulness. Indeed, within certain lines, he had the right to keep an eye upon her as his charge. The meetings seemed to become matters of course with them on special days of the week.
At last full proof was given him. He was standing40 behind a wall close to the place at which Farfrae encountered her. He heard the young man address her as "Dearest ElizabethJane," and then kiss her, the girl looking quickly round to assure herself that nobody was near.
When they were gone their way Henchard came out from the wall, and mournfully followed them to Casterbridge. The chief looming trouble in this engagement had not decreased. Both Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane, unlike the rest of the people, must suppose Elizabeth to be his actual daughter, from his own assertion while he himself had the same belief; and though Farfrae must have so far forgiven him as to have no objection to own him as a father-in-law, intimate they could never be. Thus would the girl, who was his only friend, be withdrawn94 from him by degrees through her husband's influence, and learn to despise him.
Had she lost her heart to any other man in the world than the one he had rivalled, cursed, wrestled95 with for life in days before his spirit was broken, Henchard would have said, "I am content." But content with the prospect as now depicted96 was hard to acquire.
There is an outer chamber of the brain in which thoughts unowned, unsolicited, and of noxious97 kind, are sometimes allowed to wander for a moment prior to being sent off whence they came. One of these thoughts sailed into Henchard's ken now.
Suppose he were to communicate to Farfrae the fact that his betrothed98 was not the child of Michael Henchard at all-legally, nobody's child; how would that correct and leading townsman receive the information? He might possibly forsake99 Elizabeth-Jane, and then she would be her step-sire's own again.
Henchard shuddered100, and exclaimed, "God forbid such a thing! Why should I still be subject to these visitations of the devil, when I try so hard to keep him away?"
点击收听单词发音
1 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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2 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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3 bereaved | |
adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去(希望、生命等)( bereave的过去式和过去分词);(尤指死亡)使丧失(亲人、朋友等);使孤寂;抢走(财物) | |
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4 wreak | |
v.发泄;报复 | |
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5 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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6 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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7 disastrous | |
adj.灾难性的,造成灾害的;极坏的,很糟的 | |
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8 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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9 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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10 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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11 piquant | |
adj.辛辣的,开胃的,令人兴奋的 | |
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12 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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13 writhe | |
vt.挣扎,痛苦地扭曲;vi.扭曲,翻腾,受苦;n.翻腾,苦恼 | |
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14 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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15 untoward | |
adj.不利的,不幸的,困难重重的 | |
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16 fettered | |
v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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18 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
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19 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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20 watchfulness | |
警惕,留心; 警觉(性) | |
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21 paternal | |
adj.父亲的,像父亲的,父系的,父方的 | |
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22 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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23 rivalry | |
n.竞争,竞赛,对抗 | |
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24 renewal | |
adj.(契约)延期,续订,更新,复活,重来 | |
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25 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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26 coveted | |
adj.令人垂涎的;垂涎的,梦寐以求的v.贪求,觊觎(covet的过去分词);垂涎;贪图 | |
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27 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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28 defiant | |
adj.无礼的,挑战的 | |
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29 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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30 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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31 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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32 avocations | |
n.业余爱好,嗜好( avocation的名词复数 );职业 | |
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33 fidelity | |
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
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34 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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35 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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36 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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37 briskness | |
n.敏捷,活泼 | |
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38 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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39 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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40 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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41 attenuating | |
v.(使)变细( attenuate的现在分词 );(使)变薄;(使)变小;减弱 | |
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42 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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43 momentary | |
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
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44 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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45 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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46 serenity | |
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
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47 humbly | |
adv. 恭顺地,谦卑地 | |
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48 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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49 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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50 pique | |
v.伤害…的自尊心,使生气 n.不满,生气 | |
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51 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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52 innate | |
adj.天生的,固有的,天赋的 | |
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53 thronging | |
v.成群,挤满( throng的现在分词 ) | |
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54 waggons | |
四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 ); 铁路货车; 小手推车 | |
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55 scythes | |
n.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的名词复数 )v.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56 skewer | |
n.(烤肉用的)串肉杆;v.用杆串好 | |
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57 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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58 plumes | |
羽毛( plume的名词复数 ); 羽毛饰; 羽毛状物; 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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59 ken | |
n.视野,知识领域 | |
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60 juncture | |
n.时刻,关键时刻,紧要关头 | |
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61 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
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62 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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63 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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64 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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65 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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66 antagonistic | |
adj.敌对的 | |
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67 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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68 incur | |
vt.招致,蒙受,遭遇 | |
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69 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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70 suspense | |
n.(对可能发生的事)紧张感,担心,挂虑 | |
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71 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
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72 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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73 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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74 dependence | |
n.依靠,依赖;信任,信赖;隶属 | |
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75 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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76 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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77 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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78 emergence | |
n.浮现,显现,出现,(植物)突出体 | |
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79 winnow | |
v.把(谷物)的杂质吹掉,扬去 | |
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80 chaff | |
v.取笑,嘲笑;n.谷壳 | |
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81 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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82 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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83 appraising | |
v.估价( appraise的现在分词 );估计;估量;评价 | |
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84 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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85 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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86 diverged | |
分开( diverge的过去式和过去分词 ); 偏离; 分歧; 分道扬镳 | |
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87 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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88 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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89 bereft | |
adj.被剥夺的 | |
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90 locus | |
n.中心 | |
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91 superciliously | |
adv.高傲地;傲慢地 | |
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92 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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93 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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94 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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95 wrestled | |
v.(与某人)搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 );扭成一团;扭打;(与…)摔跤 | |
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96 depicted | |
描绘,描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 ); 描述 | |
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97 noxious | |
adj.有害的,有毒的;使道德败坏的,讨厌的 | |
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98 betrothed | |
n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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99 forsake | |
vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
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100 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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