With the coffee, the head clerk brought in two powerful flashlights which he put on the desk.
When the clerk had left the room Kerim said, `He is one of my sons-the eldest3 one. The others in there are all my children. The chauffeur4 and the watchman are uncles of mine. Common blood is the best security. And this spice business is good cover for us all. M set me up in it. He spoke5 to friends of his in the City of London. I am now the leading spice merchant in Turkey. I have long ago repaid M the money that was lent me. My children are shareholders6 in the business. They have a good life. When there is secret work to be done and I need help, I choose the child who will be most suitable. They all have training in different secret things. They are clever and brave. Some have already killed for me. They would all die for me-and for M. I have taught them he is just below God.' Kerim made a deprecating wave. `But that is just to tell you that you are in good hands.' `I hadn't imagined anything different.'
`Ha!' said Kerim non-committally. He picked up the torches and handed one to Bond. `And now to work.'
Kerim walked over to the wide glass-fronted bookcase and put his hand behind it. There was a click and the bookcase rolled silently and easily along the wall to the left. Behind it was a small door, flush with the wall. Kerim pressed one side of the door and it swung inwards to reveal a dark tunnel with stone steps leading straight down. A dank smell, mixed with a faint zoo stench, came out into the room.
`You go first,' said Kerim. `Go down the steps to the bottom and wait. I must fix the door.'
Bond switched on his torch and stepped through the opening and went carefully down the stairs. The light of the torch showed fresh masonry8, and, twenty feet below, a glimmer9 of water. When Bond got to the bottom he
found that the glimmer was a small stream running down a central gutter10 in the floor of an ancient stone-walled tunnel that sloped steeply up to the right. To the left, the tunnel went on downwards11 and would, he guessed, come out below the surface of the Golden Horn.
Out of range of Bond's light there was a steady, quiet, scuttling12 sound, and in the blackness hundreds of pinpoints13 of red light flickered14 and moved. It was the same uphill and downhill. Twenty yards away on either side, a thousand rats were looking at Bond. They were sniffing15 at his scent16. Bond imagined the whiskers lifting slightly from their teeth. He had a quick moment of wondering what action they would take if his torch went out.
Kerim was suddenly beside him. `It is a long climb. A quarter of an hour. I hope you love animals.' Kerim's laugh boomed hugely away up the tunnel. The rats scuffled and stirred. `Unfortunately there is not much choice. Rats and bats. Squadrons of them, divisions-a whole air force and army. And we have to drive them in front of us. Towards the end of the climb it becomes quite congested. Let's get started. The air is good. It is dry underfoot on both sides of the stream. But in winter the floods come and then we have to use frogmen's suits. Keep your torch on my feet. If a bat gets in your hair, brush him off. It will not be often. Their radar17 is very good.'
They set off up the steep slope. The smell of the rats and of the droppings of bats was thick-a mixture of monkey house arid18 chicken battery. It occurred to Bond that it would be days before he got rid of it.
Clusters of bats hung like bunches of withered19 grapes from the roof and when, from time to time, either Kerim's head or Bond's brushed against them, they exploded twittering into the darkness. Ahead of them as they climbed there was the forest of squeaking20, scuffling red pin-points that grew denser21 on both sides of the central gutter. Occasionally Kerim flashed his torch forward and the light shone on a grey field sown with glittering teeth and glinting whiskers. When this happened, an extra frenzy22 seized the rats, and those nearest jumped on the backs of the others to get away. All the while, fighting tumbling grey bodies came sweeping23 down the central gutter and, as the pressure of the mass higher up the tunnel grew heavier, the frothing rear-rank came closer.
The two men kept their torches levelled like guns on the rear ranks until, after a good quarter of an hour's climb, they reached their destination.
It was a deep alcove24 of newly faced brick in the side of the tunnel. There were two benches on each side of a thick tarpaulin25-wrapped object that came down from the ceiling of the alcove.
They stepped inside. Another few yards' climb, Bond thought, and mass hysteria must have seized the distant thousands of rats further up the tunnel. The horde26 would have turned. Out of sheer pressure for space, the rats would have braved the lights and hurled27 themselves down on to the two intruders, in spite of the two glaring eyes and the threatening scent.
`Watch,' said Kerim.
There was a moment of silence. Further up the tunnel the squeaking had stopped, as if at a word of command. Then suddenly the tunnel was a foot deep in a great wave of hurtling, scrambling28 grey bodies as, with a continuous high-pitched squeal29, the rats turned and pelted30 back down the slope.
For minutes the sleek31 grey river foamed32 by outside the alcove until at last the numbers thinned and only a trickle33 of sick or wounded rats came limping and probing their way down the tunnel floor.
The scream of the horde slowly vanished down towards the river, until there was silence except for the occasional twitter of a fleeing bat.
Kerim gave a non-committal grunt34. `One of these days those rats will start dying. Then we shall have the plague in Istanbul again. Sometimes I feel guilty for not telling the authorities of this tunnel so that they can clean the place up. But I can't so long as the Russians are up here.' He jerked his head at the roof. He looked at his watch. `Five minutes to go. They will be pulling up their chairs and fiddling35 with their papers. There will be the three permanent men-M.G.B., or one of them may be from army intelligence, G.R.U. And there will probably be three others. Two came in a fortnight ago, one through Greece and another through Persia. Another one arrived on Monday. God knows who they are, or what they are here for. And sometimes the girl, Tatiana, comes in with a signal and goes out again. Let us hope we will see her today. You will be impressed. She is something.'
Kerim reached up and untied36 the tarpaulin cover and pulled it downwards. Bond understood. The cover protected the shining butt37 of a submarine periscope38, fully7 withdrawn39. The moisture glistened40 on the thick grease of the exposed bottom joint41. Bond chuckled42. `Where the hell did you get that from, Darko?'
`Turkish Navy. War surplus.' Kerim's voice did not invite further questions. `Now Q Branch in London is trying to fix some way of wiring the damn thing for sound. It's not going to be easy. The lens at the top of this is no bigger than a cigarette-lighter, end on. When I raise it, it comes up to floor level in their room. In the corner of the room where it comes up, we cut a small mousehole. We did it well. Once when I came to have a look, the first thing I saw was a big mousetrap with a piece of cheese on it. At least it looked big through the lens.' Kerim laughed briefly43. `But there's not much room to fit a sensitive pick-up alongside the lens. And there's no hope of getting in again to do any more fiddling about with their architecture. The only way I managed to install this thing was to get my friends in the Public Works Ministry44 to turn the Russians out for a few days. The story was that the trams going up the hill were shaking the foundations of the houses. There had to be a survey. It cost me a few hundred pounds for the right pockets. The Public Works inspected half a dozen houses on either side of this one and declared the place safe. By that time, I and the family had finished our construction work. The Russians were suspicious as hell. I gather they went over the place with a toothcomb when they got back, looking for microphones and bombs and so on. But we can't work that trick twice. Unless Q Branch can think up something very clever, I shall have to be content with keeping an eye on them. One of these days they'll give away something useful. They'll be interrogating45 someone we're interested in or something of that sort.'
Alongside the matrix of the periscope in the roof of the alcove there was a pendulous46 blister47 of metal, twice the size of a football. `What's that?' said Bond.
`Bottom half of a bomb-a big bomb. If anything happens to me, or if war breaks out with Russia, that bomb will be set off by radio-control from my office. It is sad [Kerim didn't look sad] but I fear that many innocent people will get killed besides the Russians. When the blood is on the boil, man is as unselective as nature.'
Kerim had been polishing away at the hooded48 eyepieces between the two handle-bars that stuck out on both sides of the base of the periscope. Now he glanced at his watch and bent49 down and gripped the two handles and slowly brought them up level with his chin. There was a hiss50 of hydraulics as the glistening51 stem of the periscope slid up into its steel sheath in the roof of the alcove. Kerim bent his head and gazed into the eyepieces and slowly inched up the handles until he could stand upright. He twisted gently. He centred the lens and beckoned52 to Bond. `Just the six of them.'
Bond moved over and took the handles.
`Have a good look at them,' said Kerim. `I know them, but you'd better get their faces in your mind. Head of the table is their Resident Director. On his left are his two staff. Opposite them are the three new ones. The latest, who looks quite an important chap, is on the Director's right. Tell me if they do anything except talk.'
Bond's first impulse was to tell Kerim not to make so much noise. It was as if he was in the room with the Russians, as if he was sitting in a chair in the corner, a secretary perhaps, taking shorthand of the conference.
The wide, all-round lens, designed for spotting aircraft as well as surface ships, gave him a curious picture-a mouse's eye view of a forest of legs below the fore-edge of the table, and various aspects of the heads belonging to the legs. The Director and his two colleagues were clear-serious dull Russian faces whose characteristics Bond filed away. There was the studious, professional face of the Director-thick spectacles, lantern jaw53, big forehead and thin hair brushed back. On his left was a square wooden face with deep clefts54 on either side of the nose, fair hair en brosse and a nick out of the left ear. The third member of the permanent staff had a shifty Armenian face with clever bright almond eyes. He was talking now. His face wore a falsely humble55 look. Gold glinted in his mouth.
Bond could see less of the three visitors. Their backs were held towards him and only the profile of the nearest, and presumably most junior, showed clearly. This man's skin also was dark. He too would be from one of the southern republics. The jaw was badly shaved and the eye in profile was bovine56 and dull under a thick black brow. The nose was fleshy and porous57. The upper lip was long over a sullen58 mouth and the beginning of a double chin. The tough black hair was cut very short so that most of the back of the neck looked blue to the level of the tips of the ears. It was a military haircut, done with mechanical clippers.
The only clues to the next man were an angry boil on the back of a fat bald neck, a shiny blue suit and rather bright brown shoes. The man was motionless during the whole period that Bond kept watch and apparently59 never spoke.
Now the senior visitor, on the right of the Resident Director, sat back and began talking. It was a strong, crag-like profile with big bones and a jutting60 chin under a heavy brown moustache of Stalin cut. Bond could see one cold grey eye under a bushy eyebrow61 and a low forehead topped by wiry grey-brown hair. This man was the only one who was smoking. He puffed62 busily at a tiny wooden pipe in the bowl of which stood half a cigarette. Every now and then he shook the pipe sideways so that the ash fell on the floor. His profile had more authority than any of the other faces and Bond guessed that he was a senior man sent down from Moscow.
Bond's eyes were getting tired. He twisted the handles gently and looked round the office as far as the blurring63 jagged edges of the mousehole would allow. He saw nothing of interest-two olive green filing cabinets, a hatstand by the door, on which he counted six more or less identical grey homburgs, and a sideboard with a heavy carafe64 of water and some glasses. Bond stood away from the eyepiece, rubbing his eyes.
`If only we could hear,' Kerim said, shaking his head sadly. It would be worth diamonds.'
`It would solve a lot of problems,' agreed Bond. Then, `By the way Darko, how did you come on this tunnel? What was it built for?'
Kerim bent and gave a quick glance into the eyepieces and straightened up.
`It's a lost drain from the Hall of Pillars,' he said. The Hall of Pillars is now a thing for tourists. It's up above us on the heights of Istanbul, near St. Sophia. A thousand years ago it was built as a reservoir in case of siege. It's a huge underground palace, a hundred yards long and about half as broad. It was made to hold millions of gallons of water. It was discovered again about four hundred years ago by a man called Gyllius. One day I was reading his account of finding it. He said it was filled in winter from ``a great pipe with a mighty65 noise''. It occurred to me that there might be another ``great pipe'' to empty it quickly if the city fell to the enemy. I went up to the Hall of Pillars and bribed66 the watchman and rowed about among the pillars all one night in a rubber dinghy with one of my boys. We went over the walls with a hammer and an echo-sounder. At one end, in the most likely spot, there was a hollow sound. I handed out more money to the Minister of Public Works and he closed the place for a week-``for cleaning''. My little team got busy.' Kerim ducked down again for a look through the eyepieces and went on. `We dug into the wall above waterlevel and came on the top of an arch. The arch was the beginning of a tunnel. We got into the tunnel and went down it. Quite exciting, not knowing where we were going to come out. And, of course, it went straight down the hill-under the Street of Books where the Russians have their place, and out into the Golden Horn, by the Galata Bridge, twenty yards away from my warehouse67. So we filled in our hole in the Hall of Pillars and started digging from my end. That was two years ago. It took us a year and a lot of survey work to get directly under the Russians.' Kerim laughed. `And now I suppose one of these days the Russians will decide to change their offices. By then I hope someone else will be Head of T.'
Kerim bent down to the rubber eyepieces. Bond saw him stiffen68. Kerim said urgently. `The door's opening. Quick. Take over. Here she comes.'
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1
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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spoke
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| 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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shareholders
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| n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 ) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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scuttling
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| n.船底穿孔，打开通海阀（沉船用）v.使船沉没( scuttle的现在分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
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13
pinpoints
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| 准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的第三人称单数 )； 为…准确定位 | |
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flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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radar
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| n.雷达，无线电探测器 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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20
squeaking
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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alcove
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| n.凹室 | |
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tarpaulin
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| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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pelted
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| （连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮 | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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foamed
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| 泡沫的 | |
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trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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fiddling
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| 微小的 | |
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untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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periscope
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| n. 潜望镜 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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42
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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45
interrogating
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| n.询问技术v.询问( interrogate的现在分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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46
pendulous
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| adj.下垂的；摆动的 | |
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47
blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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48
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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49
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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50
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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51
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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52
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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54
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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55
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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bovine
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| adj.牛的；n.牛 | |
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porous
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| adj.可渗透的，多孔的 | |
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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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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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60
jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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61
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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62
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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63
blurring
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| n.模糊，斑点甚多，（图像的）混乱v.（使）变模糊( blur的现在分词 )；（使）难以区分 | |
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carafe
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| n.玻璃水瓶 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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66
bribed
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| v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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67
warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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