Night? How long had I lain here? And where was Drake? I struggled to rise.
“Steady, old man,” his voice came from beside me. “Steady — and quiet. How are you feeling?”
“Badly battered,” I groaned3. “What happened?”
“We weren’t used to the show,” he said. “We got all fed up at the orgy. Too much magnetism4 — we had a sudden and violent attack of electrical indigestion. Sh-h — look ahead of you.”
Gingerly I turned. I had been lying, I now saw, head toward and prone5 at the base of one of the crater6’s walls. As my gaze swept away I noted7 with a curious relief that the tiny eye-points were no longer sparkling with their enigmatic life, that they were dulled and dim once more.
Before me, glimmering8 pallidly10, bristled11 the mount of the Cones12. Around its crystal base glittered immense egg-shaped diamond incandescences. They were both rayless and strangely — lightless; they threw no shadows nor did their lambency lessen13 the dimness. Beside each of these curious luminosities stood one of the sullen14-fired, cruciform shapes — the Things that now I knew for the opened cubes.
They were smaller than the Keeper, indeed less than half his height. They were ranged in an almost unbroken crescent around the visible arc of the immense pedestal — and now I saw that the lights were a few feet closer to that pedestal than they. Egg-shaped as I have said, the wider end was undermost, resting in a broad cup upheld by a slender pedicle silvery-gray and metallic15.
“They’re building out the base,” whispered Drake. “The Cones got so big they have to give them more room.”
“Magnetism,” I whispered in return. “Electricity — they drew down from the sun spot. And it was more than that — I saw the Cones grow under it. It fed them as it fed the Hordes16 — but the Cones grew. It was as though the shields and the Cones turned pure energy into substance.”
“And if we hadn’t been pretty thoroughly17 magnetized to start with it would have done for us,” he said.
We watched the operation going on in front of us. The cross shapes had bent18, hinging above the transverse arms. They bowed in absolute unison19 as at some signal. Down from the horizontal plane of each whipped the long and writhing20 tentacles21.
At the foot of every one I could now perceive a heap of some faintly glistening22 material. The tendrils coiled among this, then drew up something that looked like a thick rod of crystal. The bent planes straightened; simultaneously23 they thrust the crystalline bars toward the incandescences.
There came a curious, brittle24 hissing25. The ends of the rods began to dissolve into dazzling, diamond rain, atomically minute, that passing through the egg-shaped lights poured upon the periphery26 of the pedestal. Rapidly the bars melted. Heat there must be in these lights, terrific heat — yet the Keeper’s workers seemed impervious27 to it.
As the ends of the bars radiated into the annealing mist I saw the tentacles creep closer and ever closer to the rayless flame through which the mist flew. And at the last, as the ultimate atoms drove through, the holding tendrils were thrust almost within it; touched it, certainly.
A score of times they repeated this process while we watched. Unaware28 of us they seemed, or — if aware, then indifferent. More rapid became their movements, the glassy ingots streaming through the floating braziers with hardly a pause in their passing. Abruptly29, as though switched, the incandescences lessened30 into candle-points; instantly, as at a signal, the crescent of crosses closed into a crescent of cubes.
Motionless they stood, huge blocks blackened against the dim glowing of the cones — sentient31 monoliths; a Druid curve; an arc of a metal Stonehenge. And as at dusk and dawn the great menhirs of Stonehenge fill with a mysterious, granitic32 life, seem to be praying priests of stone, so about these gathered hierophantic illusion.
They quivered; the slender pedicles cupping, the waned33 lights swayed; the lights lifted and soared, upright, to their backs.
Two by two with measured pace, solemnly the cubes glided34 off into the encircling darkness. As they swept away there streamed behind them other scores not until then visible to us, joining pair by pair from hidden arcs.
Into the secret shadows they flowed, two by two, each bearing over it the slim shaft35 holding the serene36 flame.
Grotesquely37 were they like a column of monks39 marching with dimmed flambeau of their worship. Angled metal monks of some god of metal, carrying tapers40 of electric fire, withdrawing slowly from a Holy of Holies whose metallically41 divine Occupant knew nothing of man — nor cared to know.
Grotesque38 — yes. But would that I had the power to crystallize in words the underlying42, alien terror every movement of the Metal Monster when disintegrate43, its every manifestation44 when combined, evoked45; the incredulous, amazed lurking47 always close behind the threshold of the mind; the never lifting, thin-shuddering shadow.
Smaller, dimmer waned the lights — they were gone.
We crouched48, motionless. Nothing stirred; there was no sound. Without speaking we arose; crept together over the smooth floor toward the cones.
As we crossed I saw that the pave, like the walls, was built of the bodies of the Metal People; and, like the walls, they were dormant50, filmed eyes oblivious51 to our passing. Closer we crept — were only a scant52 score of rods from that colossal53 mechanism54. I noted that the crystal foundation was set low; was not more than four feet above the floor. The sturdy, dwarfed55 pilasters supporting it thrust up in crowded copses, merging56 through distance into apparent solidity.
Now, too, I realized, as I had not when looking down from above, how stupendous the structure rising from the crystal foundation was.
I began to wonder how so thin a support could bear the mount bristling57 above it — then remembered what it was that at first had flown from them, shrinking them, and at last had fed and swelled58 them.
Light! Weightless magnetic ions; swarms59 of electric ions; the misty60 breath of the infinite energy breathing upon, condensing upon, them. Could it be that the Cones for all their apparent mass had little, if any, weight? Like ringed Saturn61, thousands of times Earth’s bulk, flaunting62 itself in the Heavens — yet if transported to our world so light that rings and all it would float like a bubble upon our oceans. The Cones towered above me — close, so close.
The Cones were weightless. How I knew I cannot say — but now, almost touching63 them, I did know. Nebulous, yet solid, were they; compact, yet tenuous64, dense65 and unsubstantial.
Again the thought came to me — they were force made visible; energy made concentrate into matter.
We skirted, seeking for the tablet over which the Keeper had hovered66; the mechanism which, under his tentacles, had shifted the circling shields, thrust the spear of green fire into the side of the wounded sun. Hesitantly I touched the crystal base; the edge was warm, but whether this warmth came from the dazzling rain which we had just watched build it outward or whether it was a property inherent with the substance itself I do not know.
Certainly there was no mark upon it to show where the molten mists had fallen. It was diamond hard and smooth. The nearest cones were but a scant nine feet from its rim67.
Suddenly we saw the tablet; stood beside it. The shape of a great T, glimmering with a faint and limpid68 violet phosphorescence, it might have been, in shape and size, the palely shining shadow of the Keeper. It was a foot above the floor, and had apparently69 no connection with the cones.
It was made of thousands of close-packed tiny octagonal rods the tops of some of which were cupped, of others pointed70; none was more than half an inch in width. There was about it a suggestion of wedded71 crystal and metal — as about its burden was the suggestion of mated energy and matter.
The rods were movable; they formed a keyboard unimaginably complex; a keyboard whose infinite combinations were like a Fourth Dimensional chess game. I saw that only the swarms of tentacles that were the Keeper’s hands and these only could be masters of its incredible intricacies. No Disk — not even the Emperor, no Star shape could play on it, draw out its chords of power.
But why? Why had it been so made that sullen flaming Cross alone could release its hidden meanings, made articulate its interwoven octaves? And how were its messages conveyed? Up to its bases pressed the dormant cubes — that under it they lay as well I did not doubt.
There was no visible copula of the tablet with cones; no antennae72 between it and the circled shields. Could it be that the impulses released by the Keeper’s coilings passed through the Metal People of the pave on the upthrust Metal People of the crater rim who held the shields?
That WAS unthinkable — unthinkable because if so this mechanism was superfluous73.
The swift response to the communal74 will that we had observed showed that the Metal Monster needed nothing of this kind for transmission of the thought of any of its units.
There was some gap here — a gap that the grouped consciousness could not bridge without other means. Clearly that was true — else why the tablet, why the Keeper’s travail75?
Was each of these tiny rods a mechanism akin49, in a fashion, to the sending keys of the wireless76; were they transmitters of subtle energy in which was enfolded command? Spellers-out of a super-Morse carrying to each responsive cell of the Metal Monster the bidding of those higher units which were to It as the brain cells are to us? That, advanced as the knowledge it implied might be, was closer to the heart of the possible.
I bent, determined77, despite the well-nigh unconquerable shrinking I felt, to touch the tablet’s rods.
A flickering78 shadow fell upon me; a flock of pulsating79 ochreous and scarlet80 shadows —
The Keeper glowed above us!
In a life that has had its share of dangers, its need for quick decisions, I recognize that few indeed of my reactions to peril81 have been more than purely82 instinctive83; no more consciously courageous84 nor intellectually dissociate from the activating85 stimulus86 than the shrinking of the burned hand from the brand, the will-to-live dictated87 rush of the cornered animal upon the thing menacing it.
One such higher functioning was when I followed Larry O’Keefe and Lakla, the Handmaiden, out to what we believed soul-destroying death in a place almost as strange as this; another was now. Deliberately88, detachedly, I studied the angrily flaming Shape.
* See “The Moon Pool” and “The Conquest of the Moon Pool.”
Compared to it we were as a pair of Hop-o’-my-Thumbs to the Giant; had it been man-shaped we would have come less than a third way up to its knees. I focussed my attention upon the twenty-foot-wide square that was the Keeper’s foot. Its surface was jewel smooth, hyaline — yet beneath it was a suggestion of granulation, of close-packed, innumerable, microscopic89 crystals.
Within these grains whose existence was more sensed than seen glowed dull red light, smoky and sullen. At each end of the square, close to the bottom, was a diamond-shaped lozenge, cabochon, perhaps a yard in width. These were dim yellow, translucent90, with no suggestion of the underlying crystallization. Sense organs I set them down to be — similar to the great ovals within the Emperor’s golden zone.
My gaze traveled up to the transverse arms. They stretched sixty feet from tip to tip. At each tip were two more of the diamond figures, not dull but burning angrily with orange-and-scarlet luster91. In the center of the beam was something that might have been a smoldering92 rubrous reflection of the Emperor’s pulsing multicolored rose had each of the petals93 of the latter been clipped and squared.
It deepened toward its heart into a singular pattern of vermilion latticings. Into the entire figure ran numerous tiny rivulets94 of angry crimson95 and orange light, angling in interwoven patterns with never a curve nor arching.
Set at intervals96 between them were what looked like octagonal rosettes filled with slender silvery flutings, wan1 striations — like — it came to me — immense chrysanthemum97 buds, half opened, and carved in gray jade98.
Above towered the gigantic vertical99 beam. Toward its top I glimpsed a huge square of flaring100 crimsons101 and bright topaz; two other diamonds stared down upon us from just beneath it — like eyes. And over all its height the striated102 octagons clustered.
I felt myself lifted, floated upward. Drake’s hand shot out, clung to me as together we drifted up the living wall. Opposite the latticed heart of the square-petaled rose our flight was checked. There for an instant we hung. Then the octagonal symbols stirred, unfolded like buds —
They were the nests of the Keeper’s tentacles, and out from them the whiplike tendrils uncoiled, shot out and writhed103 toward us.
My skin flinched104 from their touch; my body, held in the unseen grip, was motionless. Yet when they touched their contact was not unpleasant. They were like flexible strands105 of glass; their smooth tips questioned us, passing through our hair, searching our faces, writhing over our clothing.
There was a pulse in the great clipped rose, a rhythmic106 throbbing107 of vermilion fire that ran into it from the angled veins108, beat through the latticed nucleus109 and throbbed110 back whence it had come. The huge, high square of scarlet and yellow was liquid flame; the diamond organs beneath it seemed to smoke, to send out swirls111 of orange red vapor112.
Holding us so the Keeper studied us.
The rhythm of the square rose, became the rhythm of my own mind. But here was none of the vast, serene and elemental calm that Ruth had described as emanating113 from the Metal Emperor. Powerful it was, without doubt, but in it were undertones of rage, of impatience114, overtones of revolt, something incomplete and struggling. Within the disharmonies I seemed to sense a fettered115 force striving for freedom; energy battling against itself.
Greater grew the swarms of the tentacles winding116 about us like slender strands of glass, covering our faces, making breathing more and more difficult. There was a coil of them around my throat and tightening117 — tightening.
I heard Drake gasping118, laboring119 for breath. I could not turn my head toward him, could not speak. Was this then to be our end?
The strangling clutch relaxed, the mass of the tentacles lessened. I was conscious of a surge of anger through the cruciform Thing that held us.
Its sullen fires blazed. I was aware of another light beating past us — beating down the Keeper’s. The hosts of tendrils drew back from me. I felt myself picked from the unseen grasp, whirled in the air and drawn120 away.
Drake beside me, I hung now before the Shining Disk — the Metal Emperor!
He it was who had plucked us from the Keeper — and even as I swung I saw the Keeper’s multitudinous, serpentine121 arms surge out toward us angrily and then sullenly122, slowly, draw back into their nests.
And out of the Disk, clothing me, permeating123 me, came an immense tranquillity124, a muting of all human thought, all human endeavor, an unthinkable, cosmic calm into which all that was human of me seemed to be sinking, drowning as in a fathomless125 abyss. I struggled against it, desperately126, striving in study of the Disk to erect127 a barrier of preoccupation against the power pouring from it.
A dozen feet away from us the sapphire128 ovals centered upon us their regard. They were limpid, pellucid129 as gems131 whose giant replicas132 they seemed to be. The surface of the Disk ringed about by the aureate zodiac in which the nine ovals shone was a maze46 of geometric symbols traced in the lines of living gem130 fires; infinitely133 complex those patterns and infinitely beautiful; an infinite number of symmetric forms in which I seemed to trace all the ordered crystalline wonders of the snowflakes, the groupings of all crystalline patternings, the soul of ordered beauty that are the marvels134 of the Radiolaria, Nature’s own miraculous135 book of the soul of mathematical beauty.
The flashing, petaled heart was woven of living rainbows of cold flame.
Silently we floated there while the Disk — LOOKED— at us.
And as though I had been not an actor but an observer, the weird136 picture of it all came to me — two men swinging like motes137 in mid138 air, on one side the flickering scarlet and orange Cruciform shape, on the other side the radiant Disk, behind the two manikins the pallid9 mount of the bristling cones; and high above the wan circle of the shields.
There was a ringing about us — an elfin chiming, sweet and crystalline. It came from the cones — and strangely was it their vocal139 synthesis, their voice. Into the vast circle of sky pierced a lance of green fire; swift in its wake uprose others.
We slid gently down, stood swaying at the Disk’s base. The Keeper bent; angled. Again the planes above the supporting square hovered over the tablet. The tendrils swept down, pushed here and there, playing upon the rods some unknown symphony of power.
Thicker pulsed the lances of the aurora140; changed to vast billowing curtains. The faceted141 wheel at the top of the central spire142 of the cones swung upward; a light began to stream from the cones themselves — no pillar now, but a vast circle that shot whirling into the heavens like a noose143.
And like a noose it caught the aurora, snared144 it!
Into it the coruscating145 mists of mysterious flame swirled146; lost their colors, became a torrent147 of light flying down through the ring as though through a funnel148 top.
Down poured the radiant corpuscles, bathing the cones. They did not glow as they had beneath the flood from the shields, and if they grew it was too slowly for me to see; the shields were motionless. Now here, now there, I saw the other rings whirl up — smaller mouths of lesser149 cones hidden within the body of the Metal Monster, I knew, sucking down this magnetic flux150, these countless151 ions gushing152 forth153 from the sun.
Then as when first we had seen the phenomenon in the valley of the blue poppies, the ring vanished, hidden by a fog of coruscations — as though the force streaming through the rings became diffused154 after it had been caught.
Crouching155, forgetful of our juxtaposition156 to these two unhuman, anomalous157 Things, we watched the play of the tentacles upon the upthrust rods.
But if we forgot, we were not forgotten!
The Emperor slipped nearer; seemed to contemplate158 us — quizzically, AMUSED; as a man would look down upon some curious and interesting insect, a puppy, a kitten. I sensed this amusement in the Disk’s regard even as I had sensed its soul of awful tranquillity; as we had sensed the playful malice159 in the eye stars of the living corridor, the curiosity in the column that had dropped us into the valley.
I felt a push — a push that was filled with a colossal, GLITTERING playfulness.
Under it I went spinning away for yards — Drake twirling close behind me. The force, whatever it was, swept out from the Emperor, but in it was no slightest hint of anger or of malice, no slightest shadow of the sinister160.
Rather it was as though one would blow away a feather; urge gently some little lesser thing away.
The Disk watched our whirlings — with a sparkling, jeweled LAUGHTER in its pulsing radiance.
Again came the push — farther yet we spun161. Suddenly before us, across the pave, shone out a twinkling trail — the wakened eyes of the cubes that formed it, marking out a pathway for us to follow.
Immediately upon their gleaming forth I saw the Emperor turn — his immense, oval, metallic back now black against the radiance of the cones.
Up from the narrow gleaming path — a path opened I knew by some command — lifted the hosts of tiny unseen hands; the sentient currents of magnetic force that were the fingers and arms of the Metal Hordes. They held us, thrust us along, passed us forward. Faster and faster we moved, speeding on the wake of the long-vanished metal monks.
I turned my head — the cones were already far away. Over the tablet of limpid violet phosphorescence still hovered the planes of the Keeper; and still was the oval of the Emperor black against the radiance.
But the twinkling, sparkling path between us and them was gone — was fading out close behind us as we swept onward162.
Faster and faster grew our pace. The cylindrical163 wall loomed164 close. A high oblong portal showed within it. Into this we were carried. Before us stretched a corridor precisely165 similar to that which, closing upon us, had forced us completely out into the hall.
Unlike that passage, its floor lifted steeply — a smooth and shining slide up which no man could climb. A shaft, indeed, which thrust upward straight as an arrow at an angle of at least thirty degrees and whose end or turning we could not see. Up and up it cleared its way through the City — through the Metal Monster — closed only by the inability of the eye to pierce the faint luminosity that thickened by distance became impenetrable.
For an instant we hovered upon its threshold. But the impulse, the command, that had carried us thus far was not to stop here. Into it and up it we were thrust, our feet barely touching the glimmering surface; lifted by the force that emanated166 from its floor, carried on by the force that pressed out from the sides.
Up and up we went — scores of feet — hundreds —
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1
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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wanly
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| adv.虚弱地；苍白地，无血色地 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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pallidly
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| adv.无光泽地，苍白无血色地 | |
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bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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cones
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| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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periphery
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| n.(圆体的)外面；周围 | |
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impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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granitic
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| 花岗石的，由花岗岩形成的 | |
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waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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metallically
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| 金属的 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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disintegrate
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| v.瓦解，解体，（使）碎裂，（使）粉碎 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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48
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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50
dormant
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| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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51
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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52
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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53
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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54
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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55
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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56
merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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57
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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58
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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59
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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60
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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61
Saturn
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| n.农神，土星 | |
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62
flaunting
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| adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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63
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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64
tenuous
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| adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的 | |
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65
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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66
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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67
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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68
limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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69
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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70
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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71
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
antennae
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| n.天线；触角 | |
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73
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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74
communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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75
travail
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| n.阵痛；努力 | |
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76
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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77
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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78
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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79
pulsating
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| adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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80
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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81
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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82
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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83
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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84
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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85
activating
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| 活动的，活性的 | |
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86
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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87
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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88
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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89
microscopic
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| adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的 | |
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90
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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91
luster
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| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
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92
smoldering
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 ) | |
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93
petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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94
rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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95
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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96
intervals
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| 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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97
chrysanthemum
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| n.菊，菊花 | |
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98
jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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99
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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100
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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101
crimsons
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| 变为深红色（crimson的第三人称单数形式） | |
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102
striated
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| adj.有纵线，条纹的 | |
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103
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
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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105
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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106
rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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107
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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108
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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109
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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110
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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111
swirls
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| n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 ) | |
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112
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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113
emanating
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的现在分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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114
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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115
fettered
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| v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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116
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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117
tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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118
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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119
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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120
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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121
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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122
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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123
permeating
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| 弥漫( permeate的现在分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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124
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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125
fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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126
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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127
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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128
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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129
pellucid
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| adj.透明的，简单的 | |
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130
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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131
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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132
replicas
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| n.复制品( replica的名词复数 ) | |
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133
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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134
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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135
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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136
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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137
motes
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| n.尘埃( mote的名词复数 )；斑点 | |
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138
mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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139
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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140
aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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141
faceted
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| adj. 有小面的，分成块面的 | |
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142
spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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143
noose
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| n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑 | |
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144
snared
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| v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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145
coruscating
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| v.闪光，闪烁( coruscate的现在分词 ) | |
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146
swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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147
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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148
funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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149
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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150
flux
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| n.流动；不断的改变 | |
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151
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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152
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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153
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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154
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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155
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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156
juxtaposition
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| n.毗邻，并置，并列 | |
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157
anomalous
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| adj.反常的；不规则的 | |
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158
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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159
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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160
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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161
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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162
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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163
cylindrical
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| adj.圆筒形的 | |
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164
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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165
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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166
emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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