Chapter 34

A band pumped at a lagging march somewhere up the street and Hank felt that lagging beat hammer at his temples in the brassy glare. Maybe he needed a straw hat, he thought, and plucked one from the head of the first passer-by who looked like he had the same head size; the hatless man stared with his mouth open, but seeing the look on Hank’s face remembered he had a better hat at home on the draining-board anyway. Hank rolled the cycle against a pole where a flag hung limp in the windless heat and went into a grocery for a quart of cold beer; he held the paper sack twisted about the bottleneck³ and drank the beer as he worked his way down the sidewalk in the direction of the band music. He tried to smile, but his face felt as baked as the farmers’. Besides, why bother? The hicks look like hicks and the tourists and townspeople keep glancing from left to right, looking for photographers from Life or watching out for exploding torpedoes⁴ from the smart-ass² kids. Everyone, he thought, looks like they’re waiting for something to happen, or pissed because they just missed it. “Oh, just the heat,” he told himself. He’d seen these same faces fixed⁵ with these same looks in every town and city he’d driven through since he’d left New York. “The trouble,” he told himself, “is nothing but the heat, and the World Situation.” Still, the people he met, why were they all either hurrying nervously⁶ to some deal, some big shady deal that they didn’t really believe would ever materialize? or all bitching halfheartedly because that deal had just fallen through? Their alert preoccupation annoyed him. Dammit, he’d just returned from a police action that had taken more lives than the First World War, to find the Dodgers⁷ in a slump⁸, frozen apple pie just like Mom useta make in all the supermarkets, and a sour stench in the sweet land of liberty he’d risked his life defending. Plus an unusual foreign worry on the Average American Guy he’d just saved from the insidious⁹ peril¹⁰ of Communism. What the hell was wrong? There was a kind of bland¹¹ despair and the sky was filled with tinfoil¹². What was wrong with people? He didn’t remember people around Wakonda being so damned watered down, or so revved¹³ up either. “Those boys out West, they got style...grit¹⁴.” But as he pushed his face into the arid¹⁵ American wind and moved through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado without observing any evidence of that style or grit, he had grown more and more uneasy. “The heat, and that muddle¹⁶ overseas”—he tried to diagnose a national malady¹⁷. “That’s really all it is.” (But how come it’s every place I look? from the littlest kid to the oldest rummy?) “And of course the humidity,” he added lamely¹⁸. (But how come I felt like I was going wild with a sort of bloated exasperation¹⁹ and I had to hold in for all I was worth to keep from popping one of those sunstruck faces and yelling wake up, blast your ass, wake up and look around you! Here I am just back from risking my hide in Korea making America safe from the Commies ...Wake up an’ take advantage. I bring this up, this occasional urge to pop somebody and wake them up, because it was one urge I knew I was going to have trouble with now that the kid was back. The urge generally follows that feeling of bloat and exasperation. Like it wasn’t long after I got that bloaty feeling cycling across country that me and some gleef in a bar got into it pretty good. In that town where I met Viv. A big guy, about three sheets gone and me about the same. He made some crack about the military when he saw a drunk soldier on the street outside the bar and I told him if it wasn’t for that soldier out there he’d maybe be over in Siberia right now working off that spongy gut²⁰ instead of sitting with his ugly nose in a beer....He came back with something about me being a typical product of Pentagon propaganda and I said something about his looking like the product of somebody’s bullshit himself and before we knew it we were in a devil of an argument. Now I knew better. I knew even before we got it rolling that this here was the type asshole that subscribed²¹ to magazines like the Nation and Atlantic and probably even read them, and that I didn’t stand a snowball’s chance against him in an argument; but I was too oiled to keep my mouth shut. And it was like it usually is when I get in an argument with somebody who knows more asleep than I do wide awake: I talked myself out on one of these little crickety limbs to no place and ended up hanging out there like a damned fool; with the adrenalin pumping and my mouth flapping its wings to try to fly farther ferchrissakes out instead of retreating back along that same illogical limb I got my dumb ass out on in the first place. So after I’d talked myself out far enough with this guy I got down to doing what I’d been working up to all along.) As he walked down the sidewalk of the small Colorado truck-farming town during fair time, feeling the brass¹ band beat at his ears, his anger mounted with the mercury in the thermometer. His kidneys throbbed²² from the long jarring on the cycle. The quart of beer had given him a dull headache. The slow, stumbling, worn-out beat of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was a stinging insult to a man just out of uniform. And when a suntanned stroller in a bar with his flowered shirt unbuttoned to his hairy navel decided²³ to calmly discuss some of the faults of the current foreign policy it was the last straw; (and just like I should of known better than to get into it with a guy who I could tell was bound to beat my ears down with facts and figures, this gleef should of known better than to kept on arguing with some guy who he could tell was eventually going to have to kick the living shit out of him . . .) after ten minutes of discussion Hank found himself cursing that ragged²⁴ red and white and gold high-school band with the lagging beat through the bars of his cell window. (And I ended up the day cooling my heels in the local jug²⁵.) He hollered at the band until he became hoarse²⁶ and self-conscious under the gaze of a crowd of large boys who gathered under his window to watch him; then he retired²⁷ to his cot and plopped down in a cloud of dust that drifted through the beams of sun streaming between the bars. He smiled to himself. Apparently²⁸ he’d made quite a spectacle out there, been the big event of the day. Through the window he could still hear the awed²⁹ story of his fight being told and retold by the fortunate witnesses. Within an hour he had grown six inches and had a terrible scar running across his face, and it had taken ten men to subdue³⁰ his drunken frenzy³¹. (Of course, this feeling doesn’t last long—in fact, my cross-country exasperation was gone as soon as I’d busted³² that guy in Rocky Ford³³, so I didn’t even much mind the little rest with the law; and that’s where Viv and me met for the first time, too, in that jail—but that’s getting off the track . . .) Hank was wakened by a rapping on the bars. The cell was stifling³⁴ and he lay soaked in sweat. The bars undulated grotesquely³⁵ before his eyes for a second, then snapped straight; there stood a cop in khaki sweated dark under both arms; at his side was the tourist Hank had swatted, his face swollen³⁶ and blue under the tan. A girl drifted past behind the two, half-transparent in the heat like some creature glimpsed uncertainly out of the corner of the eye. “Accordin’ to your things,” the cop said, “you just got back from overseas.” Hank nodded, trying to smile, trying to catch another glimpse of that girl. In the limbs of the chinaberry tree beyond the bars a bug³⁷ creaked in the heat. “You were in the Marines,” the tourist informed him, a little nostalgically. “I served in the Pacific during the war ...did you see any combat?” It took Hank perhaps a second to size up what was happening, probably less. He dropped his head. He nodded woefully. He caught the bridge of his nose between thumb and finger and massaged³⁸ it with his eyes closed. How was it? the tourist wanted to know, the Korean fighting? Hank told him he couldn’t talk about it yet. Why me? the tourist asked, as though he might cry, why did you come after me? Hank shrugged³⁹ and brushed his dusty hair back from his eyes. “I guess,” he murmured softly, “it was because you were the biggest one I could find.” He said it for effect, but speaking it—I’m sorry, mister, but you were just right—he realized that the reason wasn’t far from the truth. The cop and the tourist retired to the other side of the room and, after some whispering, returned to announce that charges were being dropped provided Hank apologized and got his danged machine outa town by sundown. As Hank was proclaiming his sorrow he was once again aware of the moving apparition⁴⁰ that slid across the background. Outside, against the white-hot firing-squad wall of the stucco jail, he blinked at the sun and waited. He knew the girl had been intensely aware of him in there. Just like a woman who doesn’t turn at your whistle is aware. That’s a woman you can hustle⁴¹. After a few moments the girl slipped out from the back of the jail and stood beside him, shimmering⁴² against the heat of the stucco wall. She asked if he’d like a place where he could wash up and relax. He asked if she had such a place handy. They made love that night outside town in the straw-filled bed of a pick-up. Their clothes lay nearby on the bank of a muddy pond where an irrigation ditch had been dammed by the town boys for swimming. They could hear the water trickling⁴³ over the top of the dam and the frogs serenading one another across the water. A cottonwood stood nearby, sifting⁴⁴ lint⁴⁵ onto their naked bodies like warm snow. This is Hank’s bell; clear now, clear . . . The pick-up belonged to the girl’s uncle. She had borrowed it to drive to Pueblo⁴⁶ to a movie and had driven to the bar where Hank waited. He had followed her into the fields on his cycle. And as he lay in the sweet-smelling straw beside her, feeling the stars on his bare stomach, had asked for the girl’s story: where was she from? what did she do? what did she like? From experience he knew that women felt entitled to this type of talk as a kind of payment; he always complied dutifully with halfhearted interest: “What I mean is,” he said, yawning, “is tell me about yourself.” “There’s no need for that,” the girl replied in a contented⁴⁷ voice. Hank waited a while in silence. The girl began humming a simple little tune⁴⁸ while he lay perplexed⁴⁹, wondering if she understood as much as her statement seemed to imply; he decided not. “No. Listen, sweetheart; I’m serious. Tell me, oh . . . what you want out of life.” “What I want.” She sounded amused. “Now, do you really care? I mean come on, there isn’t any need, really; it’s fine just being a man and a woman; it’s fine.” She thought a moment. “Well, look: my aunt took me to Mesa Verde Indian dwellings⁵⁰ one summer when I was sixteen. And at the Indian dances a boy and I kept looking at each other. All during the first part of the dance. The Indians were fat and old and I didn’t truly care who was the bird god or who was the sun god and the boy didn’t either. I think we were both much more beautiful than the dances. I remember I wore Levis and a plaid blouse; and oh, my hair was braided. The boy had very dark skin, foreign I think . . . dark, dark as one of the Indians even. And he had on leather shorts like you see mountain-climbers wear. And the moon was shining. I told my aunt I had to go to the john and I went out on the edge of the cliff and waited till he came. We made love right there on the sandstone. He could have been foreign, you know? . . . Neither of us ever spoke⁵¹ a word.” She rolled her face toward him, pulling her hair back so he could see her dim smile. “So, anyway ...do you really want to know what I want out of life?” “Yeah,” Hank said slowly, beginning to mean it. “Yes, I think I do.” She rolled again to her back and crossed her hands behind her head. “Well...of course I want a home and some kids and like that, all the usual things. . . .” “And the unusual things?” This time she waited a while before she spoke. “I guess . . .” she said slowly, “I want somebody. All I mean to my uncle and aunt is help at the jail and the fruit stand. I want a lot of other unusual things too, like a page-boy cut, and a good sewing machine and a German roller singing canary like I remember my mother had—but mostly, I guess, I want to really mean something to somebody, be something to somebody more’n just a jail cook and a watermelon weigher.” “Like what? What do you want to be?” “Whatever this Somebody wants, I guess.” Not sounding at all like she was guessing. “Dang, now; that don’t sound like much of a ambition to me. What if this Somebody just happens to want a cook an’ a melon tender, then where’d you be?” “He won’t,” she answered. “Who?” Hank asked, with more concern in his voice than he intended. “Who won’t?” “Oh, I don’t know.” She laughed, and again answered his unspoken question. “Just the Somebody. Whoever he someday turns out to be.” Hank was relieved. “Boy, if you ain’t a case: waiting someday to be a something to a Somebody you don’t even know, yet. And, yeah, how about that? How will you know this Somebody when you come across him?” “I won’t know . . .” she said, and sat up to slide over the side of the pick-up, with the quiet and lazy speed of a cat; she stood in the wet sand of the ditch bank, coiling her hair into a loose knot at the back of her head, “. . . he will.” And turned her back to him. “Hey. Where you going?” “It’s all right,” she answered in a whisper, “just in the ditch,” then stepped into the water so delicately that the frogs across the ditch continued singing undisturbed. This is Hank’s bell ringing . . . There was no moon, but the night was bright and clear and the girl’s naked body seemed almost to glow she was so pale. How in the world could she keep so white, Hank wondered, in a country where even the bartenders are baked brown? The girl began humming again. She turned facing the pickup⁵² and stood for a moment facing him, ankle-deep in the pond full of stars and cottonwood fluff, then, still humming, began walking slowly backward. Hank watched her pale body dissolve from the feet upwards⁵³ into the dark as the water grew gradually deeper—her knees, her trim hips⁵⁴ made feminine only by a trimmer waist, her stomach, her dots of nipple—until only her face flickered⁵⁵ bodiless there under the cottonwood. The sight was incredible. “Suck egg mule,” he whispered to himself, “if she ain’t something.” “I like the water,” the girl remarked matter-of-factly, and disappeared altogether without a ripple⁵⁶ and with an effect so eerie⁵⁷ that Hank had to argue with his impulses by reminding himself that the ditch was only four feet or so at the deepest. He stared transfixed at the circling water. He’d never felt himself so hooked by a girl; and while she remained under water he wondered, half amused and half frightened, just which of them had been doing the hustling⁵⁸. And the sky, he noticed, no longer seemed made of tinfoil. He stayed over the next day, meeting the girl’s aunt, who was married to the cop.

1 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

2 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

3 bottleneck   

n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环

参考例句：

• The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
• China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。

4 torpedoes   

鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮

参考例句：

• We top off, take on provisions and torpedoes, and go. 我们维修完，装上给养和鱼雷就出发。
• The torpedoes hit amidship, and there followed a series of crashing explosions. 鱼雷击中了船腹，引起了一阵隆隆的爆炸声。

5 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

6 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

7 dodgers   

n.躲闪者，欺瞒者( dodger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a crackdown on fare dodgers on trains 对火车逃票者的严厉打击
• But Twain, Howells, and James were jeeringly described by Mencken as "draft-dodgers". 不过吐温、豪威尔斯和詹姆斯都是被门肯讥诮地叫做“逃避兵役的人。” 来自辞典例句

8 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

9 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

10 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

11 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。

12 tinfoil   

n.锡纸，锡箔

参考例句：

• You can wrap it up in tinfoil.你可以用锡箔纸裹住它。
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto tinfoil.Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.用大餐勺把刚刚搅拌好的糊糊盛到锡纸上，烘烤9至11分钟，直到变成金黄色。

13 revved   

v.（使）加速( rev的过去式和过去分词 )；（数量、活动等）激增；（使发动机）快速旋转；（使）活跃起来

参考例句：

• The taxi driver revved up his engine. 出租车司机把发动机发动起来。
• The car revved up and roared away. 汽车发动起来，然后轰鸣着开走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 grit   

n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The soldiers showed that they had plenty of grit. 士兵们表现得很有勇气。
• I've got some grit in my shoe.我的鞋子里弄进了一些砂子。

15 arid   

adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的

参考例句：

• These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。

16 muddle   

n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱

参考例句：

• Everything in the room was in a muddle.房间里每一件东西都是乱七八糟的。
• Don't work in a rush and get into a muddle.克服忙乱现象。

17 malady   

n.病，疾病(通常做比喻)

参考例句：

• There is no specific remedy for the malady.没有医治这种病的特效药。
• They are managing to control the malady into a small range.他们设法将疾病控制在小范围之内。

18 lamely   

一瘸一拐地，不完全地

参考例句：

• I replied lamely that I hope to justify his confidence. 我漫不经心地回答说，我希望我能不辜负他对我的信任。
• The wolf leaped lamely back, losing its footing and falling in its weakness. 那只狼一跛一跛地跳回去，它因为身体虚弱，一失足摔了一跤。

19 exasperation   

n.愤慨

参考例句：

• He snorted with exasperation.他愤怒地哼了一声。
• She rolled her eyes in sheer exasperation.她气急败坏地转动着眼珠。

20 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

21 subscribed   

v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意

参考例句：

• It is not a theory that is commonly subscribed to. 一般人并不赞成这个理论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I subscribed my name to the document. 我在文件上签了字。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 throbbed   

抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动

参考例句：

• His head throbbed painfully. 他的头一抽一跳地痛。
• The pulse throbbed steadily. 脉搏跳得平稳。

23 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

24 ragged   

adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的

参考例句：

• A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
• Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。

25 jug   

n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂

参考例句：

• He walked along with a jug poised on his head.他头上顶着一个水罐，保持着平衡往前走。
• She filled the jug with fresh water.她将水壶注满了清水。

26 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

27 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

28 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

29 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 )

参考例句：

• The audience was awed into silence by her stunning performance. 观众席上鸦雀无声，人们对他出色的表演感到惊叹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was awed by the huge gorilla. 那只大猩猩使我惊惧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

30 subdue   

vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制

参考例句：

• She tried to subdue her anger.她尽力压制自己的怒火。
• He forced himself to subdue and overcome his fears.他强迫自己克制并战胜恐惧心理。

31 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

32 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

33 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

34 stifling   

a.令人窒息的

参考例句：

• The weather is stifling. It looks like rain. 今天太闷热，光景是要下雨。
• We were stifling in that hot room with all the windows closed. 我们在那间关着窗户的热屋子里，简直透不过气来。

35 grotesquely   

adv. 奇异地,荒诞地

参考例句：

• Her arched eyebrows and grotesquely powdered face were at once seductive and grimly overbearing. 眉棱棱着，在一脸的怪粉上显出妖媚而霸道。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Two faces grotesquely disfigured in nylon stocking masks looked through the window. 2张戴尼龙长袜面罩的怪脸望着窗外。

36 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

37 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

38 massaged   

按摩，推拿( massage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He massaged her back with scented oil. 他用芳香油按摩她的背部。
• The script is massaged into final form. 这篇稿子经过修改已定稿。

39 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

40 apparition   

n.幽灵，神奇的现象

参考例句：

• He saw the apparition of his dead wife.他看见了他亡妻的幽灵。
• But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.这新出现的幽灵吓得我站在那里一动也不敢动。

41 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。

42 shimmering   

v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The sea was shimmering in the sunlight. 阳光下海水波光闪烁。
• The colours are delicate and shimmering. 这些颜色柔和且闪烁微光。 来自辞典例句

43 trickling   

n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动

参考例句：

• Tears were trickling down her cheeks. 眼泪顺着她的面颊流了下来。
• The engine was trickling oil. 发动机在滴油。 来自《简明英汉词典》

44 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

45 lint   

n.线头；绷带用麻布，皮棉

参考例句：

• Flicked the lint off the coat.把大衣上的棉绒弹掉。
• There are a few problems of air pollution by chemicals,lint,etc.,but these are minor.化学品、棉花等也造成一些空气污染问题，但这是次要的。

46 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

47 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

48 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

49 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

50 dwellings   

n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
• The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》

51 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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

52 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

53 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

54 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

55 flickered   

（通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
• These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。

56 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

57 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

58 hustling   

催促（hustle的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Our quartet was out hustling and we knew we stood good to take in a lot of change before the night was over. 我们的四重奏是明显地卖座的， 而且我们知道在天亮以前，我们有把握收入一大笔钱。
• Men in motors were hustling to pass one another in the hustling traffic. 开汽车的人在繁忙的交通中急急忙忙地互相超车。