Chapter 81

Geese arriving always catches a man by surprise some way. Probably because they’re gone so long and last such a short piece when they do show back up; a couple weeks is about all the passing ever takes, a dang short time compared to how long it takes a lot of other things to pass, short enough I would of never in a hundred years imagined I could get tired of hearing their honking¹. It just wouldn’t of seemed possible. It’d be like imagining getting tired of the rhododendron flowers in the dozen days they bloom every year, or like getting tired of that one magic day of silver thaw² we have every dozen years that turns the dirty old world all the way from rusty³ tow-chains and the needles on the long-leaf pine to a bright, tinkling⁴ crystal. . . . Now how could a man get drug with that kind of short-term treat? That first flock passed on up the river and I decided⁵ it was time for me to move on too. The only reason I’d stayed out on the embankment as long as I had was to cool off a little after Evenwrite and this Draeger’d put my nose out of joint⁶ coming out and asking me sweet as you please if I wouldn’t consider breaking my contract with WP, so’s not to be a mean old man to the union . . . right out and asking, then Evenwrite for chrissakes acting⁷ like he was disappointed I didn’t say yes! It made me see red for a minute there. I was even scared for a minute that Floyd and me was on our way to locking horns right on that catwalk, and I tell you: to be honest about it I was in no particular mood nor condition for another hassle, not the day right after my fight in the Snag with Big Newton, anyway.... sometimes a great notion I rounded up my paraphernalia⁸ and took it out to the tool-house. Between there and the house I heard another couple smallish flocks. And after I was up in bed and the lights was out, I heard a fair sized bunch. The advance guard, I figured; first ones to be shooed down from Washington by the storm. The main of them from Canada won’t be making it through till around Thursday or Friday at the soonest, was what I figured, and went off to sleep. But around one or two that night—Monday morning, actually—one by Jesus of a flock went over! In the thousands, it sounded like. And I decided then, well, maybe they was all shooed out at the same time. Too bad. That means they’ll pass through all in a bunch this year, be all gone in a night or so . . . because that is at least half the geese in the world going over up there right now. But I was wrong again; they went over at that rate, in that size flock or better, night after night after steady night, from that first Monday in November dang near to Thanksgiving. Gave me some bad nights. Like that first week when Evenwrite decided to declare whole-hog war on us with pickets⁹ and midnight sabotagings and what-all, and I needed whatever few hours of rest I could grab in the sack, and I’d be laying there, about to drop off when a flock’d come by so loud and so low they’d lift me right up off the bed. Yet and all, after a week of them hollering, I was still a little sorry when Joby finally got woke up enough to their presence ( Joby could sleep through the presence of a full-scale artillery¹⁰ attack, I swear if he couldn’t!) to come down to breakfast all hot to kill us a honker for supper. “No lie, Hank; there was a tremendous big flock went over... just a tremendous big flock.” I told him I’d been laying in bed all week trying to go to sleep with big flocks going over just as tremendous. “Well, then, there you go! Don’t you reckon you laid awake listening to enough of ’em to earn the eating of one?” He went to hopping¹¹ around the kitchen in his sock feet, holding his hands at each side of his head. “Oh yeah, Hankus; I thought a long time about it, and today is the day: a wind like that wind last night, see now, is bound to scatter¹² some of the flocks, what 468 ken¹³ kesey do you think? Yeah, boy, I bet there’s dozens of poor old lonely geese out there this morning, flying up an’ down. ...Huh, what do you think?” He turned to grin at me from across the kitchen, still shifting from foot to foot and holding his hands against the side of his head in that excited, little-kid way he had. ( Joe stands there looking . . .) He knew how I felt about shooting geese; even if I’d never come out and said so, he knew I didn’t care for seeing them killed. ( Joe stands there looking at me. Worried about something more than taking a shotgun to work. Something’s funny.) Not that I’ve ever had much patience with the kind of pantywaist who says, “Oh, how can you kill the cute little deer? How can you be such a brute¹⁴ and a coward?” ...I don’t have much respect for this sort of do-good thinking because it’s always seemed to me a whole lot more cowardly for a man to have nothing to do with the meat he eats except picking it up out of a supermarket meat section all sliced and boned and wrapped in cellophane, looking about as much like a pig or a cute little lamb as a potato does. ...I mean, if you’re going to eat another living creature, I figure you at least should know he was once living, and that somebody had to kill the poor devil and chop him up . . . (Viv comes in from upstairs. Joe looks quick at her, then back at me.) But people never think that way about hunting; it’s always “brute and coward” the hunters are called, by some Eastern prick¹⁵ who thinks pheasants are found under glass, plucked and already full of stuffing. (Something’s funny . . .) “What do you think, Hank?” Joby asked again. I took a seat, kidding him by dragging it out. I told him that one thing I thought was that he looked like he was standing¹⁶ on the foul¹⁷ line about to take a free throw with his noggin, the way he was holding his head. He took his hands down. “I mean about taking along a shotgun?” he wailed¹⁸. “Sure, why not,” I told him. “You ain’t disturbed one single honker feather in twenty years of hunting, so I don’t suppose I’ll have to be doing any retrieving¹⁹ today.” And he said, “You wait an’ see ...I got a feeling ...” sometimes a great notion Well, as it turned out, like it usually did with Joby’s predictions, it wasn’t his day after all: we didn’t see goose one all that day. It wasn’t my day either: that was the day Evenwrite spiked²⁰ our logs and tore a six-hundred-dollar two-way carriage saw to pieces for me. Matter of fact it wasn’t even Evenwrite’s day: that breakdown²¹ gave the excuse I’d been waiting for, a good reason to move the mill crew to the woods. I didn’t tell them then, though. I let them go on home the rest of that day, figuring to start them Monday. They weren’t going to be red-hot for it. So everybody came out sucking hind²² tit that day, except that honker Joby’d sworn to kill for supper; wherever he was, he got off easy. At the supper table that night Joe explained what had went haywire with his prediction. “The mist was too thick for good visibility. I hadn’t allowed for the mist.” “Always my trouble ex-actly.” The old man put in his two bits’ worth. “I’d allow for the wind an’ the drop, but sonofagun if I was ever able to allow for that mist!” We razzed Joby about that a while. He said okay, just wait till tomorrow...“Tomorrow mornin’, if I read the signals correct, it’s gonna be colder! Yeah . . . wind enough tonight to scatter the flock, cold enough in the morning to keep down the mist. . . . Tomorrow is the day I bag my honker!” It was cold enough that next day, all right, cold enough to freeze your balls off, but it still wasn’t Joby’s day. That cold kept off the mist but it kept the geese huddled²³ someplace to keep warm, too. There had been honking all night, but we didn’t even hear a goose that day. It got colder. By night it was cold enough it even showed signs of clearing. When I told Viv to give the relatives a call and have them all drop out for Sunday dinner the next day, I told her she better mention to them all to put in some anti-freeze, the way the mercury was going down. I damn sure didn’t want any of them not making it out to the meeting; they all had a pretty good idea what was coming, anyway, that I was planning to tell them we were moving everybody to woods work, “An’ knowing how much a lot of them hate outdoor work,” I told her, “I know better’n to give any of them the chance to miss the meeting by saying their radiator²⁴ froze up. . . . I’d at least like to get enough cars parked at the 470 ken kesey landing over there to let that damned Evenwrite know what he’s up against.” After lunch that Sunday me and Joby took the guns and hiked to the slough²⁵ to see if any of the geese had lit in down there. I got a load of widgeons, but that was all we saw. We got back to the house about four, and when I rounded the barn and looked across at the landing I could barely believe my eyes: there was cars packed over there thicker than I’d seen in years and more coming. Most of the Stampers within fifty miles showed up, whether they were connected with the lumber²⁶ end of the business or not. I was surprised to see so many turn out on such short notice, and a lot more surprised than that at what a friendly, easy-going mood they were all in. That’s what really floored me! I knew they must have a notion of some kind what I was up to, but they all acted like maybe they was tired of mill work anyhow and looking forward to a little stretch out in the good old fresh air. Even the weather took a turn toward an easy-going mood: the rain eased down a lot, even though the mercury had come up a good deal since morning. And the sun was showing through now and then the way it will sometimes at the start of the wet season, shooting all of a sudden between two clouds so the hills sparkle like they was sprinkled with sugar. By dark the rain had quit and I could occasionally make out a piece of the soggy moon. The wind laid down and bugs²⁷ started showing up with the people. Nobody asked what the meeting was all about, so I didn’t say anything. We all just hung around on the porch while people showed up, talking hounds and recalling great hunting nights of the past and whittling²⁸ white strips from the kindling²⁹ near the woodpile; the ones that didn’t whittle³⁰ stood at the screened wall watching the children spin each other around on the tire swing Joe’d made in the toolshed out of the rain. I went out and plugged in the big three-hundred-watt porch light, and the men standing on the bank near the incline cast shadows all the way across the river against that cut stone embankment above the railroad. Every time another car full of new arrivals swung onto the gravel³¹ across the way those shadows would kind of fold over it to see who it was just showed up. sometimes a great notion “It’s Jimmy! Ye gods if it ain’t,” the shadows would holler across. “Jimmy, oh Jimmy ...that you?” A voice would come floating back. “Somebody gonna come over here an’ tote me across, or do I wade³²?” Then one of us would get up and ramble³³ down the planks³⁴ to the boat and pick up the newcomer, bring him back to stand around the porch to talk hounds and whittle and guess at the next car that stopped. “Who you think this time? Martin? Hey, Martin, that you?” I just stood around enjoying it. The voices stretched like the shadows, becoming huge across the water as it got darker. It made me think of the way it used to be on Christmas and other get-togethers when us kids would sit in the porch windows and listen to the men laugh and lie and holler across the water. Back when the shadows were always big and the mood always seemed easy-going. They kept coming. Everybody was all grins and greeting. Nobody asked what was up, and I didn’t volunteer the information. I even held off starting the meeting, waiting to see if any stragglers were showing up, I told people, but really because I hated to get around to business and foul up the whole evening. But after a while it got me so curious I went upstairs to ask Viv what she might of said over the phone to get so many people out in such a good mood. The kid was there, laying belly³⁵ down on her couch, stripped to the waist; Viv was working at the big cloudy blue welt below his right shoulderblade where he’d got tagged a day or so before. (The room is hot, full of the stink³⁶ of wintergreen. It reminds me of a locker³⁷ room. . . . “How’s the back, bub?” I say. “I don’t know,” he says. His cheek is on his arm with his face turned toward the wall. “Better, I guess. Until Viv began her ministerings and massagings I had given it up as a complete loss; now I think I might salvage³⁸ the spine³⁹.” “Well,” I tell him, “you keep on the bounce out there you won’t be gettin’ bopped by springbacks.” He don’t answer. I can’t think of anything else to say for a minute. The room is tight and strange. “Tomorrow . . . anyway, bub, tomorrow we’ll have a good number of extra men up there, so you can 472 ken kesey take it pretty easy. You can maybe do some driving till it quits paining,” I say. I unbutton my jacket, wondering why is it always so hot in a room when he’s in it? Maybe he’s got thin blood...) I walked over and asked Viv, “Chicken, can you remember what you said when you called the kinfolks last night?” She looked up at me, lifting her eyebrows⁴⁰ the way she would when something puzzled her, made her eyes look big enough to fall into. (She’s got on Levis and the green and yellow striped jersey⁴¹ pullover that someway puts me in mind of bam trees on a sunny fall morning. Her hands are red from the analgesic⁴². Lee’s back is red . . .) “Golly, hon,” she said, thinking. “I can’t remember exactly. Just what you asked me to say, I think: that they all should come out about suppertime because you had a few things to go over since this breakdown. And to check about the antifreeze . . .” “How many calls did you make?” “Oh, four or five, I guess. Orland’s wife ...Netty ... Lou...and asked them to make some calls. Why?” “If you’d been downstairs in the last hour you’d know why; we got every shirttail cousin in the country down there. And all of them acting like it was their personal birthday party they were attending.” “Every one?” That got her. She raised up off her knees, wiping hair off her forehead with the back of her arm. “I didn’t get groceries enough for more than fifteen or so ...how many do you mean by every one?” “A good forty or fifty, counting kids.” This really brought her to her tiptoes. “Fifty?” she said. “We’ve never had fifty people, even on Christmas!” “I know, but we do now. And all of them happy as clams— that’s what I can’t explain . . .” Then Lee said, “I can explain it.” “Explain which?” I asked him. “How come they’re all here? Or how come they’re all so happy?” “Both.” He was laid face to the wall on that day-bed affair of Viv’s. (He scratches the wall with his fingernail.) “It’s because,” sometimes a great notion he said, without turning over, “they are all under the impression that you have sold the business—” “Sold it?” “That’s right,” he went on, “and as stockholders—” “Stockholders?” “Yeah, Hank. Didn’t you tell me that you made each man that ever worked for you a stockholder? In order to—” “But sold it? What a minute. What are you talking about sold it? Where did you hear about this?” “Grissoms’. Last night.” (He never moves, laying there turned to the wall. I can’t see his face. His voice sounds like it could come from any place in the room.) “What the hell are you talking about!” (I want to grab him and roll him toward me so bad my hands are shaking.) “If I remember correctly,” he said, “Floyd Evenwrite and this other cat—” “Draeger?” “Draeger, yes, came up in a boat to visit you last night with—” “Nobody was out here last night! Wait—” “—with an offer to purchase the whole business with union funds, and the help of some of the local businessmen—” “Wait. Hell’s bells, I see now...them bastards⁴³!” “—and that you drove a hard bargain and got a good price.” “Them snake-bellied bastards! Yeah, I see now. This Draeger musta thought of this—Evenwrite ain’t got the brains. . . .” I stormed around a while, pretty hacked⁴⁴ off, then turned back to where Lee was still laid facing the wall. For some reason this hacked me off more than ever. (He hasn’t so much as twitched⁴⁵ a muscle. Damn. Viv’s got it so hot in here with the electric heater humming. And that smell of wintergreen. Damn. I want to throw ice water on him. I want him to yell, get excited, wake up, come to life. . . .) “Why in the shit,” I said to him, “didn’t you let me know about this before now?” “I guess,” he said, “I presumed that if you had sold the business you would probably already know about it.” “But what if I hadn’t?” 474 ken kesey “You would be just as apt, it seems to me, to know that, too.” “Hell’s bells!” Viv reached out and touched my arm. “What’s the trouble, honey?” she asked. The only thing I could say was “Hell’s tinkling bells!” and stormed around the room some more. What could I tell her? (Lee is turned to the wall, tracing the edge of his shadow with a matchstick. I don’t know.) What could I tell any of them? “What is it, honey?” Viv asked again. “Nothing,” I said. “Nothing. ...But just what does a man think of somebody who’s supposed to be giving him a big red apple and puts him to work pruning⁴⁶ the apple tree instead? Huh?” I walked to the door and opened it a little and listened, then I came back. (I can hear them down there waiting. It’s so hot in here, and that smell . . .) “Huh? How would you feel toward somebody who’d pull such a dirty switch on you?” (I just don’t know. He just lies there. That electric heater purring.) “No, Evenwrite don’t have the sense for something like this. . . .” (I just want to wake him up. It’s so mothering hot . . .) It’s this Draeger....” (Or I want to lie down myself. I don’t know.) Finally, after I’d fumed⁴⁷ and fretted⁴⁸ enough, I did what I’d known from the first I was going to do: I went out in the hall to the stairwell and hollered for Joe Ben to come up a minute. “Whatsay?” I heard him holler from the back porch where the kids were. “Never mind whatsay, just get up here!” I met him out in the hall and we went into the office. He was eating the pumpkin⁴⁹ seeds hollowed from the jack-o’lantern, all big-eyed and curious about me calling him. He was wearing a necktie for the occasion, a big blue silk affair he’d had since high school with a hand-painted picture of a duck on it that he was real proud of; the tie was all twisted around and two buttons were off his white shirt from roughhousing outside with the kids. Just to look at him, standing there in that godawful tie and a pumpkin-seed hull⁵⁰ stuck to his lip and his hand in his shirt front fingering his navel, it tickled⁵¹ me so that it took the edge off my mood. And anyhow, now that I had him up here, what was it I wanted from him? I don’t exactly know what good I thought he could do with that bunch sometimes a great notion down there, but now that he was there I could see what good he could do me. “You know,” I said to him, “when we seen them cars, an’ I told you that I was damned if I was able to understand such a turn-out?” He nodded. “Yeah; an’ I told you that it was the ee-on charge the atmosphere gets when it’s cold, puts people in a better mood.” “Ion,” I corrected him, and went on. “But I don’t think that fully⁵² accounts for it.” I walked over to the desk and got out the pint⁵³ I keep in there for bookkeeping work. “No, not completely,” I said. “Yeah? What else?” I took a little sip⁵⁴ and offered him the bottle.

1 honking   

v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Cars zoomed helter-skelter, honking belligerently. 大街上来往车辆穿梭不停，喇叭声刺耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Flocks of honking geese flew past. 雁群嗷嗷地飞过。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

3 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

4 tinkling   

n.丁当作响声

参考例句：

• I could hear bells tinkling in the distance. 我能听到远处叮当铃响。
• To talk to him was like listening to the tinkling of a worn-out musical-box. 跟他说话，犹如听一架老掉牙的八音盒子丁冬响。 来自英汉文学

5 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。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 paraphernalia   

n.装备；随身用品

参考例句：

• Can you move all your paraphernalia out of the way?你可以把所有的随身物品移开吗？
• All my fishing paraphernalia is in the car.我的鱼具都在汽车里。

9 pickets   

罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Five pickets were arrested by police. 五名纠察队员被警方逮捕。
• We could hear the chanting of the pickets. 我们可以听到罢工纠察员有节奏的喊叫声。

10 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

11 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

12 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

13 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

14 brute   

n.野兽，兽性

参考例句：

• The aggressor troops are not many degrees removed from the brute.侵略军简直象一群野兽。
• That dog is a dangerous brute.It bites people.那条狗是危险的畜牲，它咬人。

15 prick   

v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛

参考例句：

• He felt a sharp prick when he stepped on an upturned nail.当他踩在一个尖朝上的钉子上时，他感到剧烈的疼痛。
• He burst the balloon with a prick of the pin.他用针一戳，气球就爆了。

16 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

17 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

18 wailed   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句

19 retrieving   

n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Ignoring all, he searches the ground carefully for any cigarette-end worth retrieving. 没管打锣的说了什么，他留神的在地上找，看有没有值得拾起来的烟头儿。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Retrieving the nodules from these great depths is no easy task. 从这样的海底深渊中取回结核可不是容易的事情。 来自辞典例句

20 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

21 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

22 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

23 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

24 radiator   

n.暖气片，散热器

参考例句：

• The two ends of the pipeline are connected with the radiator.管道的两端与暖气片相连接。
• Top up the radiator before making a long journey.在长途旅行前加满散热器。

25 slough   

v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃

参考例句：

• He was not able to slough off the memories of the past.他无法忘记过去。
• A cicada throws its slough.蝉是要蜕皮的。

26 lumber   

n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动

参考例句：

• The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
• They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。

27 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 whittling   

v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Inflation has been whittling away their savings. 通货膨胀使他们的积蓄不断减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is whittling down the branch with a knife to make a handle for his hoe. 他在用刀削树枝做一把锄头柄。 来自《简明英汉词典》

29 kindling   

n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• There were neat piles of kindling wood against the wall. 墙边整齐地放着几堆引火柴。
• "Coal and kindling all in the shed in the backyard." “煤，劈柴，都在后院小屋里。” 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

30 whittle   

v.削（木头），削减；n.屠刀

参考例句：

• They are trying to whittle down our salaries.他们正着手削减我们的薪水。
• He began to whittle away all powers of the government that he did not control.他开始削弱他所未能控制的一切政府权力。

31 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

32 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

33 ramble   

v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延

参考例句：

• This is the best season for a ramble in the suburbs.这是去郊区漫游的最好季节。
• I like to ramble about the street after work.我下班后在街上漫步。

34 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

35 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

36 stink   

vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• The stink of the rotten fish turned my stomach.腐烂的鱼臭味使我恶心。
• The room has awful stink.那个房间散发着难闻的臭气。

37 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

38 salvage   

v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救

参考例句：

• All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
• The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。

39 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

40 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

41 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

42 analgesic   

n.镇痛剂；adj.止痛的

参考例句：

• The hospital advised an analgesic for chest and shoulder pains.医院建议用止痛药治疗胸部和肩部疼痛。
• Aspirin is a mild analgesic.阿司匹林是药性平和的止痛药。

43 bastards   

私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙

参考例句：

• Those bastards don't care a damn about the welfare of the factory! 这批狗养的，不顾大局！ 来自子夜部分
• Let the first bastards to find out be the goddam Germans. 就让那些混账的德国佬去做最先发现的倒霉鬼吧。 来自演讲部分

44 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

45 twitched   

vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her lips twitched with amusement. 她忍俊不禁地颤动着嘴唇。
• The child's mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. 这小孩的嘴抽动着，像是要哭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

46 pruning   

n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分

参考例句：

• In writing an essay one must do a lot of pruning. 写文章要下一番剪裁的工夫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A sapling needs pruning, a child discipline. 小树要砍，小孩要管。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

47 fumed   

愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• He fumed with rage because she did not appear. 因为她没出现，所以他大发雷霆。
• He fumed and fretted and did not know what was the matter. 他烦躁，气恼，不知是怎么回事。

48 fretted   

焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的

参考例句：

• The wind whistled through the twigs and fretted the occasional, dirty-looking crocuses. 寒风穿过枯枝，有时把发脏的藏红花吹刮跑了。 来自英汉文学
• The lady's fame for hitting the mark fretted him. 这位太太看问题深刻的名声在折磨着他。

49 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

50 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

51 tickled   

（使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• We were tickled pink to see our friends on television. 在电视中看到我们的一些朋友，我们高兴极了。
• I tickled the baby's feet and made her laugh. 我胳肢孩子的脚，使她发笑。

52 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

53 pint   

n.品脱

参考例句：

• I'll have a pint of beer and a packet of crisps, please.我要一品脱啤酒和一袋炸马铃薯片。
• In the old days you could get a pint of beer for a shilling.从前，花一先令就可以买到一品脱啤酒。

54 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。