Bond washed and shaved under the amused eyes of Tatiana. She approved of the fact that he put no oil on his hair. `It is a dirty habit,' she said. `I was told that many Europeans have it. We would not think of doing it in Russia. It dirties the pillows. But it is odd that you in the West do not use perfume. All our men do.'
`We wash,' said Bond dryly.
In the heat of her protests, there came a knock on the door. It was Kerim. Bond let him in. Kerim bowed towards the girl. `What a charming domestic scene,' he commented cheerfully, lowering his bulk into the corner near the door. `I have rarely seen a handsomer pair of spies.'
Tatiana glowered6 at him. `I am not accustomed to Western jokes,' she said coldly.
Kerim's laugh was disarming7. `You'll learn, my dear. In England, they are great people for jokes. There it is considered proper to make a joke of everything. I also have learned to make jokes. They grease the wheels. I have been laughing a lot this morning. Those poor fellows at Uzunkopru. I wish I could be there when the police telephone the German Consulate8 in Istanbul. That is the worst of forged passports. They are not difficult to make, but it is almost impossible to forge also their birth certificate-the files of the country which is supposed to have issued them. I fear the careers of your two comrades have come to a sad end, Mrs Somerset.'
`How did you do it?' Bond knotted his tie.
`Money and influence. Five hundred dollars to the conductor. Some big talk to the police. It was lucky our friend tried a bribe9. A pity that crafty11 Benqd next door,' he gestured at the wall, `didn't get involved. I couldn't do the passport trick twice. We will have to get him some other way. The man with the boils was easy. He knew no German and travelling without a ticket is a serious matter. Ah well, the day has started favourably12. We have won the first round, but our friend next door will now be very careful. He knows what he has to reckon with. Perhaps that is for the best. It would have been a nuisance having to keep you both under cover all day. Now we can move about-even have lunch together, as long as you bring the family jewels with you. We must watch to see if he makes a telephone call at one of the stations. But I doubt if he could tackle the Greek telephone exchange. He will probably wait until we are in Yugoslavia. But there I have my machine. We can get reinforcements if we need them. It should be a most interesting journey. There is always excitement on the Orient Express,' Kerim got to his feet. He opened the door, `and romance.' He smiled across the compartment13. `I will call for you at lunchtime! Greek food is worse than Turkish, but even my stomach is in the service of the Queen.'
Bond got up and locked the door. Tatiana snapped, `Your friend is not kulturny. It is disloyal to refer to your Queen in that manner.'
Bond sat down beside her. `Tania,' he said patiently, `that is a wonderful man. He is also a good friend. As far as I am concerned he can say anything he likes. He is jealous of me. He would like to have a girl like you. So he teases you. It is a form of flirting14. You should take it as a compliment.'
`You think so?' she turned her large blue eyes on his. `But what he said about his stomach and the head of your State. That was being rude to your Queen. It would be considered very bad manners to say such a thing in Russia.'
They were still arguing when the train ground to a halt in the sunbaked, fly-swarming station of Alexandropolis. Bond opened the door into the corridor and the sun poured in across a pale mirrored sea that married, almost without horizon, into a sky the colour of the Greek flag.
They had lunch, with the heavy bag under the table between Bond's feet. Kerim quickly made friends with the girl. The M.G.B. man called Benz avoided the restaurant car. They saw him on the platform buying sandwiches and beer from a buffet on wheels. Kerim suggested they ask him to make a four at bridge. Bond suddenly felt very tired and his tiredness made him feel that they were turning this dangerous journey into a picnic. Tatiana noticed his silence. She got up and said that she must rest. As they went out of the wagon-restaurant they heard Kerim calling gaily15 for brandy and cigars.
Back in the compartment, Tatiana said firmly, `Now it is you who will sleep.' She drew down the blind and shut out the hard afternoon light and the endless baked fields of maize and tobacco and wilting16 sunflowers. The compartment became a dark green underground cavern17. Bond wedged the doors and gave her his gun and stretched out with his head in her lap and was immediately asleep.
The long train snaked along the north of Greece below the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains. Xanthi came, and Drama, and Serrai, and then they were in the Macedonian highlands and the line swerved18 due south towards Salonica.
It was dark when Bond awoke in the soft cradle of her lap. At once, as if she had been waiting for the moment, Tatiana took his face between her hands and looked down into his eyes and said urgently, `Duschka, how long shall we have this for?'
`For long.' Bond's thoughts were still luxurious19 with sleep.
`But for how long?'
Bond gazed up into the beautiful, worried eyes. He cleared the sleep out of his mind. It was impossible to see beyond the next three days on the train, beyond their arrival in London. One had to face the fact that this girl was an enemy agent. His feelings would be of no interest to the interrogators from his Service and from the Ministries20. Other intelligence services would also want to know what this girl had to tell them about the machine she had worked for. Probably at Dover she would be taken away to `The Cage', that well-sentried private house near Guildford, where she would be put in a comfortable, but oh so well-wired room. And the efficient men in plain clothes would come one by one and sit and talk with her, and the recorder would spin in the room below and the records would be transcribed21 and sifted22 for their grains of new fact-and, of course, for the contradictions they would trap her into. Perhaps they would introduce a stool-pigeon-a nice Russian girl who would commiserate23 with Tatiana over her treatment and suggest ways of escape, of turning double, of getting `harmless' information back to her parents. This might go on for weeks or months. Meanwhile Bond would be tactfully kept away from her, unless the interrogators thought he could extract further secrets by using their feelings for each other. Then what? The changed name, the offer of a new life in Canada, the thousand pounds a year she would be given from the secret funds? And where would he be when she came out of it all? Perhaps the other side of the world. Or, if he was still in London, how much of her feeling for him would have survived the grinding of the interrogation machine? How much would she hate or despise the English after going through all this? And, for the matter of that, how much would have survived of his own hot flame?
`Duschka,' repeated Tatiana impatiently. `How long?'
`As long as possible. It will depend on us. Many people will interfere24. We shall be separated. It will not always be like this in a little room. In a few days we shall have to step out into the world. It will not be easy. It would be foolish to tell you anything else.'
Tatiana's face cleared. She smiled down at him. `You are right. I will not ask any more foolish questions. But we must waste no more of these days.' She shifted his head and got up and lay down beside him.
An hour later, when Bond was standing25 in the corridor, Darko Kerim was suddenly beside him. He examined Bond's face. He said slyly, `You should not sleep so long. You have been missing the historic landscape of northern Greece. And it is time for the premier26 service.'
`All you think about is food,' said Bond. He gestured back with his head. `What about our friend?'
`He has not stirred. The conductor has been watching for me. That man will end up the richest conductor in the wagon-lit company. Five hundred dollars for Goldfarb's papers, and now a hundred dollars a day retainer until the end of the journey.' Kerim chuckled27. `I have told him he may even get a medal for his services to Turkey. He believes we are after a smuggling28 gang. They're always using this train for running Turkish opium29 to Paris. He is not surprised, only pleased that he is being paid so well. And now, have you found out anything more from this Russian princess you have in there? I still feel disquiet30. Everything is too peaceful. Those two men we left behind may have been quite innocently bound for Berlin as the girl says. This Benz may be keeping to his room because he is frightened of us. All is going well with our journey. And yet, and yet ... Kerim shook his head. `These Russians are great chess players. When they wish to execute a plot, they execute it brilliantly. The game is planned minutely, the gambits of the enemy are provided for. They are foreseen and countered. At the back of my mind,' Kerim's face in the window was gloomy, `I have a feeling that you and I and this girl are pawns31 on a very big board-that we are being allowed our moves because they do not interfere with the Russian game.'
`But what is the object of the plot?' Bond looked out into the darkness. He spoke32 to his reflection in the window. `What can they want to achieve? We always get back to that. Of course we have all smelt33 a conspiracy34 of some sort. And the girl may not even know that she's involved in it. I know she's hiding something, but I think it's only some small secret she thinks is unimportant. She says she'll tell me everything when we get to London. Everything? What does she mean? She only says that I must have faith-that there is no danger. You must admit, Darko,' Bond looked up for confirmation35 into the slow crafty eyes, `that she's lived up to her story.'
There was no enthusiasm in Kerim's eyes. He said nothing.
Bond shrugged37. `I admit I've fallen for her. But I'm not a fool, Darko. I've been watching for any clue, anything that would help. You know one can tell a lot when certain barriers are down. Well they are down, and I know she's telling the truth. At any rate ninety per cent of it. And I know she thinks the rest doesn't matter. If she's cheating, she's also being cheated herself. On your chess analogy, that is possible. But you still get back to the question of what it's all in aid of.' Bond's voice hardened. `And, if you want to know, all I ask is to go on with the game until we find out.'
Kerim smiled at the obstinate38 look on Bond's face. He laughed abruptly39.
`If it was me, my friend, I would slip off the train at Salonica-with the machine, and, if you like, with the girl also, though that is not so important. I would take a hired car to Athens and get on the next plane for London. But I was not brought up ``to be a sport''.' Kerim put irony40 into the words. `This is not a game to me. It is a business. For you it is different. You are a gambler. M also is a gambler. He obviously is, or he would not have given you a free hand. He also wants to know the answer to this riddle41. So be it. But I like to play safe, to make certain, to leave as little as possible to chance. You think the odds42 look right, that they are in your favour?' Darko Kerim turned and faced Bond. His voice became insistent43. `Listen, my friend,' he put a huge hand on Bond's shoulder. `This is a billiard table. An easy, flat, green billiard table. And you have hit your white ball and it is travelling easily and quietly towards the red. The pocket is alongside. Fatally, inevitably44, you are going to hit the red and the red is going into that pocket. It is the law of the billiard table, the law of the billiard room. But, outside the orbit of these things, a jet pilot has fainted and his plane is diving straight at that billiard room, or a gas main is about to explode, or lightning is about to strike. And the building collapses45 on top of you and on top of the billiard table. Then what has happened to that white ball that could not miss the red ball, and to the red ball that could not miss the pocket? The white ball could not miss according to the laws of the billiard table. But the laws of the billiard table are not the only laws, and the laws governing the progress of this train, and of you to your destination, are also not the only laws in this particular game.'
Kerim paused. He dismissed his harangue46 with a shrug36 of the shoulders. `You already know these things, my friend,' he said apologetically. `And I have made myself thirsty talking platitudes47. Hurry the girl up and we will go and eat. But watch for surprises, I beg of you.' He made a cross with his finger over the centre of his coat. `I do not cross my heart. That is being too serious. But I cross my stomach, which is an important oath for me. There are surprises on the way for both of us. The gipsy said to watch out. Now I say the same. We can play the game on the billiard table, but we must both be on guard against the world outside the billiard room. My nose,' he tapped it, `tells me so.'
Kerim's stomach made an indignant noise like a forgotten telephone receiver with an angry caller on the other end. `There,' he said solicitously48. `What did I say? We must go and eat.'
They finished their dinner as the train pulled into the hideous49 modern junction50 of Thessaloniki. With Bond carrying the heavy little bag, they went back down the train and parted for the night. `We shall soon be disturbed again,' warned Kerim. `There is the frontier at one o'clock. The Greeks will be no trouble, but those Yugoslavs like waking up anyone who is travelling soft. If they annoy you, send for me. Even in their country there are some names I can mention. I am in the second compartment in the next carriage. I have it to myself. Tomorrow I will move into our friend Goldfarb's bed in No. 12. For the time being, the first-class is an adequate stable.'
Bond dozed51 wakefully as the train laboured up the moonlit valley of the Vardar towards the instep of Yugoslavia. Tatiana again slept with her head in his lap. He thought of what Darko had said. He wondered if he should not send the big man back to Istanbul when they had got safely through Belgrade. It was not fair to drag him across Europe on an adventure that was outside his territory and with which he had little sympathy. Darko obviously suspected that Bond had become infatuated with the girl and wasn't seeing the operation straight any more. Well, there was a grain of truth in that. It would certainly be safer to get off the train and take another route home. But, Bond admitted to himself, he couldn't bear the idea of running away from this plot, if it was a plot. If it wasn't, he equally couldn't bear the idea of sacrificing the three more days with Tatiana. And M had left the decision to him. As Darko had said, M also was curious to see the game through. Perversely52, M too wanted to see what this whole rigmarole was about. Bond dismissed the problem. The journey was going well. Once again, why panic?
Ten minutes after they had arrived at the Greek frontier station of Idomeni there was a hasty knocking on the door. It woke the girl. Bond slipped from under her head. He put his ear to the door. `Yes?'
`Le conducteur, Monsieur. There has been an accident. Your friend Kerim Bey.'
`Wait,' said Bond fiercely. He fitted the Beretta into its holster and put on his coat. He tore open the door.
`What is it?'
The conductor's face was yellow under the corridor light. `Come.' He ran down the corridor towards the first-class.
Officials were clustered round the open door of the second compartment. They were standing, staring.
The conductor made a path for Bond. Bond reached the door and looked in.
The hair stirred softly on his head. Along the right-hand seat were two bodies. They were frozen in a ghastly death-struggle that might have been posed for a film.
Underneath53 was Kerim, his knees up in a last effort to rise. The taped hilt of a dagger54 protruded55 from his neck near the jugular56 vein57. His head was thrust back and the empty bloodshot eyes stared up at the light. The mouth was contorted into a snarl58. A thin trickle59 of blood ran down the chin.
Half on top of him sprawled60 the heavy body of the M.G.B. man called Benz, locked there by Kerim's left arm round his neck. Bond could see a corner of the Stalin moustache and the side of a blackened face. Kerim's right arm lay across the man's back, almost casually61. The hand ended in a closed fist and the knob of a knife-hilt, and there was a wide stain on the coat under the hand.
Bond listened to his imagination. It was like watching a film. The sleeping Darko, the man slipping quietly through the door, the two steps forward and the swift stroke at the jugular. Then the last violent spasm62 of the dying man as he flung up an arm and clutched his murderer to him and plunged63 the knife down towards the fifth rib10.
This wonderful man who had carried the sun with him. Now he was extinguished, totally dead.
Bond turned brusquely and walked out of sight of the man who had died for him.
He began, carefully, non-committally, to answer questions.
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收听单词发音
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1
buffet
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| n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台 | |
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berths
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| n.（船、列车等的）卧铺( berth的名词复数 )；（船舶的）停泊位或锚位；差事；船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 )；占铺位 | |
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3
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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ripening
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的现在分词 )；熟化；熟成 | |
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glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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disarming
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| adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒 | |
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consulate
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| n.领事馆 | |
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bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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12
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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13
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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flirting
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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wilting
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| 萎蔫 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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ministries
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| （政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期 | |
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transcribed
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| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的过去式和过去分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
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22
sifted
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| v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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23
commiserate
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| v.怜悯，同情 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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premier
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| adj.首要的；n.总理，首相 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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disquiet
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| n.担心，焦虑 | |
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pawns
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| n.（国际象棋中的）兵( pawn的名词复数 )；卒；被人利用的人；小卒v.典当，抵押( pawn的第三人称单数 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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32
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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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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40
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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42
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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43
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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45
collapses
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| 折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下 | |
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46
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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47
platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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48
solicitously
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| adv.热心地，热切地 | |
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49
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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50
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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51
dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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53
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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54
dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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55
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
jugular
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| n.颈静脉 | |
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57
vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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58
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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59
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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60
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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62
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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63
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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