It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents4, except at occasional intervals5, when it was checked by a violent gust6 of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling7 along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating8 the scanty9 flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Through one of the obscurest quarters of London, and among haunts little loved by the gentlemen of the police, a man, evidently of the lowest orders, was wending his solitary10 way. He stopped twice or thrice at different shops and houses of a description correspondent with the appearance of the quartier in which they were situated11, and tended inquiry12 for some article or another which did not seem easily to be met with. All the answers he received were couched in the negative; and as he turned from each door he muttered to himself, in no very elegant phraseology, his disappointment and discontent. At length, at one house, the landlord, a sturdy butcher, after rendering13 the same reply the inquirer had hitherto received, added, “But if this vill do as vell, Dummie, it is quite at your sarvice!” Pausing reflectively for a moment, Dummie responded that he thought the thing proffered14 might do as well; and thrusting it into his ample pocket, he strode away with as rapid a motion as the wind and the rain would allow. He soon came to a nest of low and dingy15 buildings, at the entrance to which, in half-effaced characters, was written “Thames Court.” Halting at the most conspicuous16 of these buildings, an inn or alehouse, through the half-closed windows of which blazed out in ruddy comfort the beams of the hospitable17 hearth18, he knocked hastily at the door. He was admitted by a lady of a certain age, and endowed with a comely19 rotundity of face and person.
“Hast got it, Dummie?” said she, quickly, as she closed the door on the guest.
“Noa, noa! not exactly; but I thinks as ‘ow —”
“Pish, you fool!” cried the woman, interrupting him peevishly20. “Vy, it is no use desaving me. You knows you has only stepped from my boosing-ken to another, and you has not been arter the book at all. So there’s the poor cretur a raving21 and a dying, and you —”
“Let I speak!” interrupted Dummie in his turn. “I tells you I vent22 first to Mother Bussblone’s, who, I knows, chops the whiners morning and evening to the young ladies, and I axes there for a Bible; and she says, says she, ‘I’ as only a “Companion to the Halter,” but you’ll get a Bible, I think, at Master Talkins’, the cobbler as preaches.’ So I goes to Master Talkins, and he says, says he, ‘I ‘as no call for the Bible — ‘cause vy? I ‘as a call vithout; but mayhap you’ll be a getting it at the butcher’s hover23 the vay — ‘cause vy? The butcher ‘ll be damned!’ So I goes hover the vay, and the butcher says, says he, ‘I ‘as not a Bible, but I ‘as a book of plays bound for all the vorld just like ’un, and mayhap the poor cretur may n’t see the difference.’ So I takes the plays, Mrs. Margery, and here they be surely! And how’s poor Judy?”
“Fearsome! she’ll not be over the night, I’m a thinking.”
“Vell, I’ll track up the dancers!”
So saying, Dummie ascended24 a doorless staircase, across the entrance of which a blanket, stretched angularly from the wall to the chimney, afforded a kind of screen; and presently he stood within a chamber26 which the dark and painful genius of Crabbe might have delighted to portray27. The walls were whitewashed28, and at sundry29 places strange figures and grotesque30 characters had been traced by some mirthful inmate31, in such sable32 outline as the end of a smoked stick or the edge of a piece of charcoal33 is wont34 to produce. The wan35 and flickering36 light afforded by a farthing candle gave a sort of grimness and menace to these achievements of pictorial37 art, especially as they more than once received embellishments from portraits of Satan such as he is accustomed to be drawn38. A low fire burned gloomily in the sooty grate, and on the hob hissed39 “the still small voice” of an iron kettle. On a round deal table were two vials, a cracked cup, a broken spoon of some dull metal, and upon two or three mutilated chairs were scattered40 various articles of female attire41. On another table, placed below a high, narrow, shutterless42 casement43 (athwart which, instead of a curtain, a checked apron44 had been loosely hung, and now waved fitfully to and fro in the gusts45 of wind that made easy ingress through many a chink and cranny), were a looking-glass, sundry appliances of the toilet, a box of coarse rouge46, a few ornaments47 of more show than value, and a watch, the regular and calm click of which produced that indescribably painful feeling which, we fear, many of our readers who have heard the sound in a sick-chamber can easily recall. A large tester-bed stood opposite to this table, and the looking-glass partially48 reflected curtains of a faded stripe, and ever and anon (as the position of the sufferer followed the restless emotion of a disordered mind) glimpses of the face of one on whom Death was rapidly hastening. Beside this bed now stood Dummie, a small, thin man dressed in a tattered49 plush jerkin, from which the rain-drops slowly dripped, and with a thin, yellow, cunning physiognomy grotesquely50 hideous51 in feature, but not positively52 villanous in expression. On the other side of the bed stood a little boy of about three years old, dressed as if belonging to the better classes, although the garb54 was somewhat tattered and discoloured. The poor child trembled violently, and evidently looked with a feeling of relief on the entrance of Dummie. And now there slowly, and with many a phthisical sigh, heaved towards the foot of the bed the heavy frame of the woman who had accosted55 Dummie below, and had followed him, haud passibus aequis, to the room of the sufferer; she stood with a bottle of medicine in her hand, shaking its contents up and down, and with a kindly56 yet timid compassion57 spread over a countenance58 crimsoned59 with habitual60 libations. This made the scene — save that on a chair by the bedside lay a profusion61 of long, glossy62, golden ringlets, which had been cut from the head of the sufferer when the fever had begun to mount upwards63, but which, with a jealousy64 that portrayed65 the darling littleness of a vain heart, she had seized and insisted on retaining near her; and save that, by the fire, perfectly66 inattentive to the event about to take place within the chamber, and to which we of the biped race attach so awful an importance, lay a large gray cat, curled in a ball, and dozing67 with half-shut eyes, and ears that now and then denoted, by a gentle inflection, the jar of a louder or nearer sound than usual upon her lethargic68 senses. The dying woman did not at first attend to the entrance either of Dummie or the female at the foot of the bed, but she turned herself round towards the child, and grasping his arm fiercely, she drew him towards her, and gazed on his terrified features with a look in which exhaustion69 and an exceeding wanness70 of complexion71 were even horribly contrasted by the glare and energy of delirium72.
“If you are like him,” she muttered, “I will strangle you — I will! Ay, tremble, you ought to tremble when your mother touches you, or when he is mentioned. You have his eyes, you have! Out with them, out — the devil sits laughing in them! Oh, you weep, do you, little one? Well, now, be still, my love; be hushed! I would not harm thee! Harm — O God, he is my child after all!” And at these words she clasped the boy passionately73 to her breast, and burst into tears.
“Coom, now, coom,” said Dummie, soothingly74; “take the stuff, Judith, and then ve’ll talk over the hurchin!”
The mother relaxed her grasp of the boy, and turning towards the speaker, gazed at him for some moments with a bewildered stare; at length she appeared slowly to remember him, and said, as she raised herself on one hand, and pointed75 the other towards him with an inquiring gesture — “Thou hast brought the book?”
Dummie answered by lifting up the book he had brought from the honest butcher’s.
“Clear the room, then,” said the sufferer, with that air of mock command so common to the insane. “We would be alone!”
Dummie winked76 at the good woman at the foot of the bed; and she (though generally no easy person to order or to persuade) left, without reluctance77, the sick chamber.
“If she be a going to pray,” murmured our landlady78 (for that office did the good matron hold), “I may indeed as well take myself off, for it’s not werry comfortable like to those who be old to hear all that ’ere!”
With this pious79 reflection, the hostess of the Mug — so was the hostelry called — heavily descended80 the creaking stairs. “Now, man,” said the sufferer, sternly, “swear that you will never reveal — swear, I say! And by the great God whose angels are about this night, if ever you break the oath, I will come back and haunt you to your dying day!”
Dummie’s face grew pale, for he was superstitiously81 affected82 by the vehemence83 and the language of the dying woman, and he answered, as he kissed the pretended Bible, that he swore to keep the secret, as much as he knew of it, which, she must be sensible, he said, was very little. As he spoke84, the wind swept with a loud and sudden gust down the chimney, and shook the roof above them so violently as to loosen many of the crumbling85 tiles, which fell one after the other, with a crashing noise, on the pavement below. Dummie started in affright; and perhaps his conscience smote86 him for the trick he had played with regard to the false Bible. But the woman, whose excited and unstrung nerves led her astray from one subject to another with preternatural celerity, said, with an hysterical87 laugh, “See, Dummie, they come in state for me; give me the cap — yonder — and bring the looking-glass!”
Dummie obeyed; and the woman, as she in a low tone uttered something about the unbecoming colour of the ribbons, adjusted the cap on her head, and then, saying in a regretful and petulant88 voice, “Why should they have cut off my hair? Such a disfigurement!” bade Dummie desire Mrs. Margery once more to ascend25 to her.
Left alone with her child, the face of the wretched mother softened89 as she regarded him, and all the levities90 and all the vehemences — if we may use the word — which, in the turbulent commotion91 of her delirium, had been stirred upward to the surface of her mind, gradually now sank as death increased upon her, and a mother’s anxiety rose to the natural level from which it had been disturbed and abased92. She took the child to her bosom93, and clasping him in her arms, which grew weaker with every instant, she soothed94 him with the sort of chant which nurses sing over their untoward95 infants; but her voice was cracked and hollow, and as she felt it was so, the mother’s eyes filled with tears. Mrs. Margery now reentered; and turning towards the hostess with an impressive calmness of manner which astonished and awed96 the person she addressed, the dying woman pointed to the child and said —
“You have been kind to me, very kind, and may God bless you for it! I have found that those whom the world calls the worst are often the most human. But I am not going to thank you as I ought to do, but to ask of you a last and exceeding favour. Protect my child till he grows up. You have often said you loved him — you are childless yourself — and a morsel97 of bread and a shelter for the night, which is all I ask of you to give him, will not impoverish98 more legitimate99 claimants.”
Poor Mrs. Margery, fairly sobbing100, vowed101 she would be a mother to the child, and that she would endeavour to rear him honestly; though a public-house was not, she confessed, the best place for good examples.
“Take him,” cried the mother, hoarsely102, as her voice, failing her strength, rattled103 indistinctly, and almost died within her. “Take him, rear him as you will, as you can; any example, any roof, better than —” Here the words were inaudible. “And oh, may it be a curse and a — Give me the medicine; I am dying.”
The hostess, alarmed, hastened to comply; but before she returned to the bedside, the sufferer was insensible — nor did she again recover speech or motion. A low and rare moan only testified continued life, and within two hours that ceased, and the spirit was gone. At that time our good hostess was herself beyond the things of this outer world, having supported her spirits during the vigils of the night with so many little liquid stimulants104 that they finally sank into that torpor105 which generally succeeds excitement. Taking, perhaps, advantage of the opportunity which the insensibility of the hostess afforded him, Dummie, by the expiring ray of the candle that burned in the death-chamber, hastily opened a huge box (which was generally concealed106 under the bed, and contained the wardrobe of the deceased), and turned with irreverent hand over the linens107 and the silks, until quite at the bottom of the trunk he discovered some packets of letters; these he seized, and buried in the conveniences of his dress. He then, rising and replacing the box, cast a longing53 eye towards the watch on the toilet-table, which was of gold; but he withdrew his gaze, and with a querulous sigh observed to himself: “The old blowen kens108 of that, ‘od rat her! but, howsomever, I’ll take this: who knows but it may be of sarvice. Tannies today may be smash tomorrow!” [Meaning, what is of no value now may be precious hereafter.] and he laid his coarse hand on the golden and silky tresses we have described. “‘T is a rum business, and puzzles I; but mum’s the word for my own little colquarren [neck].”
With this brief soliloquy Dummie descended the stairs and let himself out of the house.
点击收听单词发音
1 woes | |
困境( woe的名词复数 ); 悲伤; 我好苦哇; 某人就要倒霉 | |
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2 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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3 dire | |
adj.可怕的,悲惨的,阴惨的,极端的 | |
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4 torrents | |
n.倾注;奔流( torrent的名词复数 );急流;爆发;连续不断 | |
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5 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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6 gust | |
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发 | |
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7 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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8 agitating | |
搅动( agitate的现在分词 ); 激怒; 使焦虑不安; (尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而)激烈争论 | |
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9 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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10 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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11 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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12 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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13 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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14 proffered | |
v.提供,贡献,提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 dingy | |
adj.昏暗的,肮脏的 | |
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16 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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17 hospitable | |
adj.好客的;宽容的;有利的,适宜的 | |
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18 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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19 comely | |
adj.漂亮的,合宜的 | |
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20 peevishly | |
adv.暴躁地 | |
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21 raving | |
adj.说胡话的;疯狂的,怒吼的;非常漂亮的;令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话;疯话adv.胡言乱语地;疯狂地 | |
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22 vent | |
n.通风口,排放口;开衩;vt.表达,发泄 | |
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23 hover | |
vi.翱翔,盘旋;徘徊;彷徨,犹豫 | |
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24 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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26 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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27 portray | |
v.描写,描述;画(人物、景象等) | |
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28 whitewashed | |
粉饰,美化,掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29 sundry | |
adj.各式各样的,种种的 | |
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30 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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31 inmate | |
n.被收容者;(房屋等的)居住人;住院人 | |
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32 sable | |
n.黑貂;adj.黑色的 | |
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33 charcoal | |
n.炭,木炭,生物炭 | |
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34 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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35 wan | |
(wide area network)广域网 | |
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36 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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37 pictorial | |
adj.绘画的;图片的;n.画报 | |
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38 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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39 hissed | |
发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 ); 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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40 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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41 attire | |
v.穿衣,装扮[同]array;n.衣着;盛装 | |
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42 shutterless | |
快门不 | |
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43 casement | |
n.竖铰链窗;窗扉 | |
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44 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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45 gusts | |
一阵强风( gust的名词复数 ); (怒、笑等的)爆发; (感情的)迸发; 发作 | |
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46 rouge | |
n.胭脂,口红唇膏;v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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47 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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48 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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49 tattered | |
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的 | |
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50 grotesquely | |
adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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51 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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52 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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53 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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54 garb | |
n.服装,装束 | |
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55 accosted | |
v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 );跟…搭讪;(乞丐等)上前向…乞讨;(妓女等)勾搭 | |
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56 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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57 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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58 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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59 crimsoned | |
变为深红色(crimson的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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60 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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61 profusion | |
n.挥霍;丰富 | |
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62 glossy | |
adj.平滑的;有光泽的 | |
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63 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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64 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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65 portrayed | |
v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 );描述;描绘;描画 | |
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66 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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67 dozing | |
v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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68 lethargic | |
adj.昏睡的,懒洋洋的 | |
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69 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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70 wanness | |
n.虚弱 | |
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71 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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72 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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73 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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74 soothingly | |
adv.抚慰地,安慰地;镇痛地 | |
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75 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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76 winked | |
v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮 | |
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77 reluctance | |
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
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78 landlady | |
n.女房东,女地主 | |
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79 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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80 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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81 superstitiously | |
被邪教所支配 | |
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82 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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83 vehemence | |
n.热切;激烈;愤怒 | |
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84 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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85 crumbling | |
adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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86 smote | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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87 hysterical | |
adj.情绪异常激动的,歇斯底里般的 | |
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88 petulant | |
adj.性急的,暴躁的 | |
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89 softened | |
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
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90 levities | |
n.欠考虑( levity的名词复数 );不慎重;轻率;轻浮 | |
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91 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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92 abased | |
使谦卑( abase的过去式和过去分词 ); 使感到羞耻; 使降低(地位、身份等); 降下 | |
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93 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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94 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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95 untoward | |
adj.不利的,不幸的,困难重重的 | |
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96 awed | |
adj.充满敬畏的,表示敬畏的v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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97 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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98 impoverish | |
vt.使穷困,使贫困 | |
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99 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
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100 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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101 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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102 hoarsely | |
adv.嘶哑地 | |
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103 rattled | |
慌乱的,恼火的 | |
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104 stimulants | |
n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 );含兴奋剂的饮料;刺激物;激励物 | |
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105 torpor | |
n.迟钝;麻木;(动物的)冬眠 | |
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106 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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107 linens | |
n.亚麻布( linen的名词复数 );家庭日用织品 | |
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108 kens | |
vt.知道(ken的第三人称单数形式) | |
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