He tried to say —
“Do not believe . . . ”
A fit of coughing checked his sentence in a faint splutter. Directly afterwards he swallowed — as it were — a couple of pebbles8, throwing his chin up in the act; and Lingard, who looked at him narrowly, saw a bone, sharp and triangular9 like the head of a snake, dart10 up and down twice under the skin of his throat. Then that, too, did not move. Nothing moved. “Well,” said Lingard, and with that word he came unexpectedly to the end of his speech. His hand in his pocket closed firmly round the butt11 of his revolver bulging12 his jacket on the hip13, and he thought how soon and how quickly he could terminate his quarrel with that man who had been so anxious to deliver himself into his hands — and how inadequate14 would be that ending! He could not bear the idea of that man escaping from him by going out of life; escaping from fear, from doubt, from remorse15 into the peaceful certitude of death. He held him now. And he was not going to let him go — to let him disappear for ever in the faint blue smoke of a pistol shot. His anger grew within him. He felt a touch as of a burning hand on his heart. Not on the flesh of his breast, but a touch on his heart itself, on the palpitating and untiring particle of matter that responds to every emotion of the soul; that leaps with joy, with terror, or with anger.
He drew a long breath. He could see before him the bare chest of the man expanding and collapsing16 under the wide-open jacket. He glanced aside, and saw the bosom17 of the woman near him rise and fall in quick respirations that moved slightly up and down her hand, which was pressed to her breast with all the fingers spread out and a little curved, as if grasping something too big for its span. And nearly a minute passed. One of those minutes when the voice is silenced, while the thoughts flutter in the head, like captive birds inside a cage, in rushes desperate, exhausting and vain.
During that minute of silence Lingard’s anger kept rising, immense and towering, such as a crested19 wave running over the troubled shallows of the sands. Its roar filled his cars; a roar so powerful and distracting that, it seemed to him, his head must burst directly with the expanding volume of that sound. He looked at that man. That infamous20 figure upright on its feet, still, rigid21, with stony22 eyes, as if its rotten soul had departed that moment and the carcass hadn’t had the time yet to topple over. For the fraction of a second he had the illusion and the fear of the scoundrel having died there before the enraged23 glance of his eyes. Willems’ eyelids24 fluttered, and the unconscious and passing tremor25 in that stiffly erect26 body exasperated27 Lingard like a fresh outrage28. The fellow dared to stir! Dared to wink29, to breathe, to exist; here, right before his eyes! His grip on the revolver relaxed gradually. As the transport of his rage increased, so also his contempt for the instruments that pierce or stab, that interpose themselves between the hand and the object of hate. He wanted another kind of satisfaction. Naked hands, by heaven! No firearms. Hands that could take him by the throat, beat down his defence, batter30 his face into shapeless flesh; hands that could feel all the desperation of his resistance and overpower it in the violent delight of a contact lingering and furious, intimate and brutal31.
He let go the revolver altogether, stood hesitating, then throwing his hands out, strode forward — and everything passed from his sight. He could not see the man, the woman, the earth, the sky — saw nothing, as if in that one stride he had left the visible world behind to step into a black and deserted32 space. He heard screams round him in that obscurity, screams like the melancholy33 and pitiful cries of sea-birds that dwell on the lonely reefs of great oceans. Then suddenly a face appeared within a few inches of his own. His face. He felt something in his left hand. His throat . . . Ah! the thing like a snake’s head that darts34 up and down . . . He squeezed hard. He was back in the world. He could see the quick beating of eyelids over a pair of eyes that were all whites, the grin of a drawn35-up lip, a row of teeth gleaming through the drooping36 hair of a moustache . . . Strong white teeth. Knock them down his lying throat . . . He drew back his right hand, the fist up to the shoulder, knuckles37 out. From under his feet rose the screams of sea-birds. Thousands of them. Something held his legs . . . What the devil . . . He delivered his blow straight from the shoulder, felt the jar right up his arm, and realized suddenly that he was striking something passive and unresisting. His heart sank within him with disappointment, with rage, with mortification38. He pushed with his left arm, opening the hand with haste, as if he had just perceived that he got hold by accident of something repulsive39 — and he watched with stupefied eyes Willems tottering40 backwards41 in groping strides, the white sleeve of his jacket across his face. He watched his distance from that man increase, while he remained motionless, without being able to account to himself for the fact that so much empty space had come in between them. It should have been the other way. They ought to have been very close, and . . . Ah! He wouldn’t fight, he wouldn’t resist, he wouldn’t defend himself! A cur! Evidently a cur! . . . He was amazed and aggrieved42 — profoundly — bitterly — with the immense and blank desolation of a small child robbed of a toy. He shouted — unbelieving:
“Will you be a cheat to the end?”
He waited for some answer. He waited anxiously with an impatience43 that seemed to lift him off his feet. He waited for some word, some sign; for some threatening stir. Nothing! Only two unwinking eyes glittered intently at him above the white sleeve. He saw the raised arm detach itself from the face and sink along the body. A white clad arm, with a big stain on the white sleeve. A red stain. There was a cut on the cheek. It bled. The nose bled too. The blood ran down, made one moustache look like a dark rag stuck over the lip, and went on in a wet streak44 down the clipped beard on one side of the chin. A drop of blood hung on the end of some hairs that were glued together; it hung for a while and took a leap down on the ground. Many more followed, leaping one after another in close file. One alighted on the breast and glided45 down instantly with devious46 vivacity47, like a small insect running away; it left a narrow dark track on the white skin. He looked at it, looked at the tiny and active drops, looked at what he had done, with obscure satisfaction, with anger, with regret. This wasn’t much like an act of justice. He had a desire to go up nearer to the man, to hear him speak, to hear him say something atrocious and wicked that would justify48 the violence of the blow. He made an attempt to move, and became aware of a close embrace round both his legs, just above the ankles. Instinctively49, he kicked out with his foot, broke through the close bond and felt at once the clasp transferred to his other leg; the clasp warm, desperate and soft, of human arms. He looked down bewildered. He saw the body of the woman stretched at length, flattened50 on the ground like a dark blue rag. She trailed face downwards51, clinging to his leg with both arms in a tenacious52 hug. He saw the top of her head, the long black hair streaming over his foot, all over the beaten earth, around his boot. He couldn’t see his foot for it. He heard the short and repeated moaning of her breath. He imagined the invisible face close to his heel. With one kick into that face he could free himself. He dared not stir, and shouted down —
“Let go! Let go! Let go!”
The only result of his shouting was a tightening53 of the pressure of her arms. With a tremendous effort he tried to bring his right foot up to his left, and succeeded partly. He heard distinctly the rub of her body on the ground as he jerked her along. He tried to disengage himself by drawing up his foot. He stamped. He heard a voice saying sharply —
“Steady, Captain Lingard, steady!”
His eyes flew back to Willems at the sound of that voice, and, in the quick awakening54 of sleeping memories, Lingard stood suddenly still, appeased55 by the clear ring of familiar words. Appeased as in days of old, when they were trading together, when Willems was his trusted and helpful companion in out-of-the-way and dangerous places; when that fellow, who could keep his temper so much better than he could himself, had spared him many a difficulty, had saved him from many an act of hasty violence by the timely and good-humoured warning, whispered or shouted, “Steady, Captain Lingard, steady.” A smart fellow. He had brought him up. The smartest fellow in the islands. If he had only stayed with him, then all this . . . He called out to Willems —
“Tell her to let me go or . . . ”
He heard Willems shouting something, waited for awhile, then glanced vaguely56 down and saw the woman still stretched out perfectly57 mute and unstirring, with her head at his feet. He felt a nervous impatience that, somehow, resembled fear.
“Tell her to let go, to go away, Willems, I tell you. I’ve had enough of this,” he cried.
“All right, Captain Lingard,” answered the calm voice of Willems, “she has let go. Take your foot off her hair; she can’t get up.”
Lingard leaped aside, clean away, and spun58 round quickly. He saw her sit up and cover her face with both hands, then he turned slowly on his heel and looked at the man. Willems held himself very straight, but was unsteady on his feet, and moved about nearly on the same spot, like a tipsy man attempting to preserve his balance. After gazing at him for a while, Lingard called, rancorous and irritable59 —
“What have you got to say for yourself?”
Willems began to walk towards him. He walked slowly, reeling a little before he took each step, and Lingard saw him put his hand to his face, then look at it holding it up to his eyes, as if he had there, concealed60 in the hollow of the palm, some small object which he wanted to examine secretly. Suddenly he drew it, with a brusque movement, down the front of his jacket and left a long smudge.
“That’s a fine thing to do,” said Willems.
He stood in front of Lingard, one of his eyes sunk deep in the increasing swelling61 of his cheek, still repeating mechanically the movement of feeling his damaged face; and every time he did this he pressed the palm to some clean spot on his jacket, covering the white cotton with bloody62 imprints63 as of some deformed64 and monstrous65 hand. Lingard said nothing, looking on. At last Willems left off staunching the blood and stood, his arms hanging by his side, with his face stiff and distorted under the patches of coagulated blood; and he seemed as though he had been set up there for a warning: an incomprehensible figure marked all over with some awful and symbolic66 signs of deadly import. Speaking with difficulty, he repeated in a reproachful tone —
“That was a fine thing to do.”
“After all,” answered Lingard, bitterly, “I had too good an opinion of you.”
“And I of you. Don’t you see that I could have had that fool over there killed and the whole thing burnt to the ground, swept off the face of the earth. You wouldn’t have found as much as a heap of ashes had I liked. I could have done all that. And I wouldn’t.”
“You — could — not. You dared not. You scoundrel!” cried Lingard.
“What’s the use of calling me names?”
“True,” retorted Lingard —“there’s no name bad enough for you.”
There was a short interval67 of silence. At the sound of their rapidly exchanged words, Aissa had got up from the ground where she had been sitting, in a sorrowful and dejected pose, and approached the two men. She stood on one side and looked on eagerly, in a desperate effort of her brain, with the quick and distracted eyes of a person trying for her life to penetrate68 the meaning of sentences uttered in a foreign tongue: the meaning portentous69 and fateful that lurks70 in the sounds of mysterious words; in the sounds surprising, unknown and strange.
Willems let the last speech of Lingard pass by; seemed by a slight movement of his hand to help it on its way to join the other shadows of the past. Then he said —
“You have struck me; you have insulted me . . . ”
“Insulted you!” interrupted Lingard, passionately71. “Who — what can insult you . . . you . . . ”
He choked, advanced a step.
“Steady! steady!” said Willems calmly. “I tell you I sha’n’t fight. Is it clear enough to you that I sha’n’t? I— shall — not — lift — a — finger.”
As he spoke72, slowly punctuating73 each word with a slight jerk of his head, he stared at Lingard, his right eye open and big, the left small and nearly closed by the swelling of one half of his face, that appeared all drawn out on one side like faces seen in a concave glass. And they stood exactly opposite each other: one tall, slight and disfigured; the other tall, heavy and severe.
Willems went on —
“If I had wanted to hurt you — if I had wanted to destroy you, it was easy. I stood in the doorway74 long enough to pull a trigger — and you know I shoot straight.”
“You would have missed,” said Lingard, with assurance. “There is, under heaven, such a thing as justice.”
The sound of that word on his own lips made him pause, confused, like an unexpected and unanswerable rebuke75. The anger of his outraged76 pride, the anger of his outraged heart, had gone out in the blow; and there remained nothing but the sense of some immense infamy77 — of something vague, disgusting and terrible, which seemed to surround him on all sides, hover78 about him with shadowy and stealthy movements, like a band of assassins in the darkness of vast and unsafe places. Was there, under heaven, such a thing as justice? He looked at the man before him with such an intensity79 of prolonged glance that he seemed to see right through him, that at last he saw but a floating and unsteady mist in human shape. Would it blow away before the first breath of the breeze and leave nothing behind?
The sound of Willems’ voice made him start violently. Willems was saying —
“I have always led a virtuous80 life; you know I have. You always praised me for my steadiness; you know you have. You know also I never stole — if that’s what you’re thinking of. I borrowed. You know how much I repaid. It was an error of judgment81. But then consider my position there. I had been a little unlucky in my private affairs, and had debts. Could I let myself go under before the eyes of all those men who envied me? But that’s all over. It was an error of judgment. I’ve paid for it. An error of judgment.”
Lingard, astounded82 into perfect stillness, looked down. He looked down at Willems’ bare feet. Then, as the other had paused, he repeated in a blank tone —
“An error of judgment . . . ”
“Yes,” drawled out Willems, thoughtfully, and went on with increasing animation83: “As I said, I have always led a virtuous life. More so than Hudig — than you. Yes, than you. I drank a little, I played cards a little. Who doesn’t? But I had principles from a boy. Yes, principles. Business is business, and I never was an ass18. I never respected fools. They had to suffer for their folly84 when they dealt with me. The evil was in them, not in me. But as to principles, it’s another matter. I kept clear of women. It’s forbidden — I had no time — and I despised them. Now I hate them!”
He put his tongue out a little; a tongue whose pink and moist end ran here and there, like something independently alive, under his swollen85 and blackened lip; he touched with the tips of his fingers the cut on his cheek, felt all round it with precaution: and the unharmed side of his face appeared for a moment to be preoccupied86 and uneasy about the state of that other side which was so very sore and stiff.
He recommenced speaking, and his voice vibrated as though with repressed emotion of some kind.
“You ask my wife, when you see her in Macassar, whether I have no reason to hate her. She was nobody, and I made her Mrs. Willems. A half-caste girl! You ask her how she showed her gratitude87 to me. You ask . . . Never mind that. Well, you came and dumped me here like a load of rubbish; dumped me here and left me with nothing to do — nothing good to remember — and damn little to hope for. You left me here at the mercy of that fool, Almayer, who suspected me of something. Of what? Devil only knows. But he suspected and hated me from the first; I suppose because you befriended me. Oh! I could read him like a book. He isn’t very deep, your Sambir partner, Captain Lingard, but he knows how to be disagreeable. Months passed. I thought I would die of sheer weariness, of my thoughts, of my regrets And then . . . ”
He made a quick step nearer to Lingard, and as if moved by the same thought, by the same instinct, by the impulse of his will, Aissa also stepped nearer to them. They stood in a close group, and the two men could feel the calm air between their faces stirred by the light breath of the anxious woman who enveloped88 them both in the uncomprehending, in the despairing and wondering glances of her wild and mournful eyes.
点击收听单词发音
1 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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2 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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3 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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4 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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5 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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6 turmoil | |
n.骚乱,混乱,动乱 | |
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7 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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8 pebbles | |
[复数]鹅卵石; 沙砾; 卵石,小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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9 triangular | |
adj.三角(形)的,三者间的 | |
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10 dart | |
v.猛冲,投掷;n.飞镖,猛冲 | |
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11 butt | |
n.笑柄;烟蒂;枪托;臀部;v.用头撞或顶 | |
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12 bulging | |
膨胀; 凸出(部); 打气; 折皱 | |
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13 hip | |
n.臀部,髋;屋脊 | |
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14 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
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15 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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16 collapsing | |
压扁[平],毁坏,断裂 | |
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17 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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18 ass | |
n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人 | |
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19 crested | |
adj.有顶饰的,有纹章的,有冠毛的v.到达山顶(或浪峰)( crest的过去式和过去分词 );到达洪峰,达到顶点 | |
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20 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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21 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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22 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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23 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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24 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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25 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
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26 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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27 exasperated | |
adj.恼怒的 | |
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28 outrage | |
n.暴行,侮辱,愤怒;vt.凌辱,激怒 | |
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29 wink | |
n.眨眼,使眼色,瞬间;v.眨眼,使眼色,闪烁 | |
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30 batter | |
v.接连重击;磨损;n.牛奶面糊;击球员 | |
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31 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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32 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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33 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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34 darts | |
n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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35 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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36 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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37 knuckles | |
n.(指人)指关节( knuckle的名词复数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝 | |
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38 mortification | |
n.耻辱,屈辱 | |
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39 repulsive | |
adj.排斥的,使人反感的 | |
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40 tottering | |
adj.蹒跚的,动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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41 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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42 aggrieved | |
adj.愤愤不平的,受委屈的;悲痛的;(在合法权利方面)受侵害的v.令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式);令委屈,令苦恼,侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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43 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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44 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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45 glided | |
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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46 devious | |
adj.不坦率的,狡猾的;迂回的,曲折的 | |
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47 vivacity | |
n.快活,活泼,精神充沛 | |
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48 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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49 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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50 flattened | |
[医](水)平扁的,弄平的 | |
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51 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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52 tenacious | |
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
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53 tightening | |
上紧,固定,紧密 | |
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54 awakening | |
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的 | |
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55 appeased | |
安抚,抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 ); 绥靖(满足另一国的要求以避免战争) | |
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56 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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57 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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58 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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59 irritable | |
adj.急躁的;过敏的;易怒的 | |
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60 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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61 swelling | |
n.肿胀 | |
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62 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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63 imprints | |
n.压印( imprint的名词复数 );痕迹;持久影响 | |
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64 deformed | |
adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的 | |
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65 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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66 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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67 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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68 penetrate | |
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
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69 portentous | |
adj.不祥的,可怕的,装腔作势的 | |
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70 lurks | |
n.潜在,潜伏;(lurk的复数形式)vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的第三人称单数形式) | |
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71 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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72 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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73 punctuating | |
v.(在文字中)加标点符号,加标点( punctuate的现在分词 );不时打断某事物 | |
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74 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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75 rebuke | |
v.指责,非难,斥责 [反]praise | |
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76 outraged | |
a.震惊的,义愤填膺的 | |
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77 infamy | |
n.声名狼藉,出丑,恶行 | |
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78 hover | |
vi.翱翔,盘旋;徘徊;彷徨,犹豫 | |
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79 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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80 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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81 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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82 astounded | |
v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词);愕然;愕;惊讶 | |
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83 animation | |
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作 | |
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84 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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85 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
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86 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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87 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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88 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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