Santos was a huge colored man, naked except for his swimming trunks, with pectoral muscles the size of dinner plates. Bond said, ?What should I expect to see at this time of night? Any big fish about??
Santos grinned. ?Usual harbor stuff, sah. Some barracuda perhaps. Mebbe a shark. But they's lazy an' overfed with the refuse an muck from de drains. Dey won't trouble you-less you bleedin' that is. They'll be night-crawlin' things on the bottom-lobster, crab10, mebbe a small pus-feller or two. The bottom's mostly seagrass on bits o' iron from wrecks11 an plenty of bottle and suchlike. Mucky, if you get me, sah. But the water's clear and you'll be hokay with this moon and the lights from the Disco to guide you. Tek you bout9 twelve, fifteen minute, I'da say. Funny ting. I been lookin' for an hour and dere's no watchman on deck an no one in the wheelhouse. An the bit o' breeze should hide you bubbles. Coulda give you an oxygen rebreather, but ah doan like dem tings. Them dangerous.?
?All right, let's go then. See you in about half an hour.? Bond felt for the knife at his waist, shifted the webbing, and put the mouthpiece between his teeth. He turned on the air and, his fins12 slapping on the muddy sand, walked down and into the water. There he bent14 down, spat15 into his mask to prevent it steaming up, washed it out, and adjusted it. Then he walked slowly on, getting used to the breathing. By the end of the wharf he was up to his ears. He quietly submerged and launched himself forward into an easy leg crawl, his hands along his flanks.
The mud shelved steeply and Bond kept on going down, until, at about forty feet, he was only a few inches above the bottom. He glanced at the big luminous16 figures on the dial of his watch-12:10. He untensed himself and put his legs into an easy, relaxed rhythm.
Through the roof of small waves the pale moonlight flickered17 on the gray bottom, and the refuse-motor tires, cans, bottles-cast black shadows. A small octopus18, feeling his shock wave, turned from dark brown to pale gray and squeezed itself softly back into the mouth of the oil-drum that was its home. Sea flowers, the gelatinous polyps that grow out of the sand at night, whisked down their holes as Bond's black shadow touched them. Other tiny night things puffed20 thin jets of silt21 out of their small volcanoes in the mud as they felt the tremor22 of Bond's passage, and an occasional hermit23 crab snapped itself back into its borrowed shell. It was like traveling across a moon landscape, on and under which many mysterious creatures lived minute lives. Bond watched it all, carefully, as if he had been an underwater naturalist24. He knew that was the way to keep nerves steady under the sea-to focus the whole attention on the people who lived there and not try to probe the sinister25 gray walls of mist for imaginary monsters.
The rhythm of his steady progress soon became automatic, and while Bond, keeping the moon at his right shoulder, held to his course, his mind reached back to Domino. So she was the sister of the man who probably highjacked the plane! Probably even Largo26, if Largo was in fact involved in the plot, didn't know this. So what did the relationship amount to? Coincidence. It could he nothing else. Her whole manner was so entirely27 innocent. And yet it was one more thin straw to add to the meager28 pile that seemed in some indeterminate way to be adding up to Largo's involvement. And Largo's reaction at the word ?spectre.? That could he put down to Italian superstition-or it could not. Bond had a deadly feeling that all these tiny scraps29 amounted to the tip of an iceberg-a few feet of ice pinnacle30, with, below, a thousand tons of the stuff. Should he report? Or shouldn't he? Bond's mind boiled with indecision. How to put it? How to grade the intelligence so that it would reflect his doubts? How much to say and how much to leave out?
The extrasensory antennae31 of the human body, the senses left over from the jungle life of millions of years ago, sharpen unconsciously when man knows that he is on the edge of danger. Bond's mind was concentrating on something far away from his present risks, but beneath his conscious thoughts his senses were questing for enemies. Now suddenly the alarm was sounded by a hidden nerve-Danger! Danger! Danger!
Bond's body tensed. His hand went to his knife and his head swiveled sharply to the right-not to the left or behind him. His senses told him to look to the right.
A big barracuda, if it is twenty pounds or over, is the most fearsome fish in the sea. Clean and straight and malevolent32, it is all hostile weapon, from the long snarling33 mouth in the cruel jaw34 that can open like a rattlesnake's to an angle of ninety degrees, along the blue and silver steel of the body to the lazy power of the tail fin13 that helps to make this fish one of the five fastest sprinters in the sea. This one, moving parallel with Bond, ten yards away just inside the wall of gray mist that was the edge of visibility, was showing its danger signals. The broad lateral35 stripes showed vividly-the angry hunting sign-the gold and black tiger's eye was on him, watchful36, incurious, and the long mouth was open half an inch so that the moonlight glittered on the sharpest row of teeth in the ocean-teeth that don't bite at the flesh, teeth that tear out a chunk37 and swallow and then hit and scythe38 again.
Bond's stomach crawled with the ants of fear and his skin tightened39 at his groin. Cautiously he glanced at his watch. About three more minutes to go before he was due to come up with the Disco .
He made a sudden turn and attacked fast toward the great fish, flashing his knife in fast offensive lunges. The giant barracuda gave a couple of lazy wags of its tail and when Bond turned back on his course it also turned and resumed its indolent, sneering40 cruise, weighing him up, choosing which bit-the shoulder, the buttock, the foot-to take first.
Bond tried to recall what he knew about big predator42 fish, what he had experienced with them before. The first rule was not to panic, to be unafraid. Fear communicates itself to fish as it does to dogs and horses. Establish a quiet pattern of behavior and stick to it. Don't show confusion or act chaotically43. In the sea, untidiness, ragged44 behavior, mean that the possible victim is out of control, vulnerable. So keep to a rhythm. A thrashing fish is everyone's prey45. A crab or a shell thrown upside down by a wave is offering its underside to a hundred enemies. A fish on its side is a dead fish. Bond trudged46 rhythmically47 on, exuding48 immunity49.
Now the pale moonscape changed. A meadow of soft seagrass showed up ahead. In the deep, slow currents it waved languidly, like deep fur. The hypnotic motion made Bond feel slightly seasick50. Dotted sparsely51 in the grass were the big black footballs of dead sponges growing out of the sand like giant puffballs-Nassau's only export until a fungus52 had got at them and had killed the sponge crop as surely as myxomatosis has killed rabbits. Bond's black shadow flickered across the breathering lawn like a clumsy bat. To the right of his shadow, the thin black lance cast by the barracuda moved with quiet precision.
A dense53 mass of silvery small fry showed up ahead, suspended in midstream as if they had been bottled in aspic. When the two parallel bodies approached, the mass divided sharply, leaving wide channels for the two enemies, and then closing behind them into the phalanx they adopted for an illusory protection. Through the cloud of fish Bond watched the barracuda. It moved majestically54 on, ignoring the food around it as a fox creeping up on the chicken run will ignore the rabbits in the warren. Bond sealed himself in the armor of his rhythm, transmitting to the barracuda that he was a bigger, a more dangerous fish, that the barracuda must not be misled by the whiteness of the flesh.
Amongst the waving grass, the black barb55 of the anchor looked like another enemy. The trailing chain rose from the bottom and disappeared into the upper mists. Bond followed it up, forgetting the barracuda in his relief at hitting the target and in the excitement of what he might find.
Now he swam very slowly, watching the white explosion of the moon on the surface contract and define itself. Once he looked down. There was no sign of the barracuda. Perhaps the anchor and chain had seemed inimical. The long hull56 of the ship grew out of the upper mists and took shape, a great Zeppelin in the water. The folded mechanism57 of the hydrofoil looked ungainly, as if it did not belong. Bond clung for a moment to its starboard flange58 to get his bearings. Far down to his left, the big twin screws, bright in the moonlight, hung suspended, motionless but somehow charged with thrashing speed. Bond moved slowly along the hull toward them, staring upward for what he sought. He drew in his breath. Yes, it was there, the ridge59 of a wide hatch below the water line. Bond groped over it, measuring. About twelve feet square, divided down the center. Bond paused for a moment, wondering what was inside the closed doors. He pressed the switch of the Geiger counter and held the machine against the steel plates. He watched the dial of the meter on his left wrist. It trembled to show the machine was alive, but it registered only the fraction Leiter had told him to expect from the hull. Bond switched the thing off. So much for that. Now for home.
The clang beside his ear and the sharp impact against his left shoulder were simultaneous. Automatically, Bond sprang back from the hull. Below him the bright needle of the spear wavered slowly down into the depths. Bond whirled. The man, his black rubber suit glinting like armor in the moonlight, was pedaling furiously in the water while he thrust another spear down the barrel of the CO2 gun. Bond hurled60 himself toward him, flailing61 at the water with his fins. The man pulled back the loading lever and leveled the gun. Bond knew he couldn't make it. He was six strokes away. He stopped suddenly, ducked his head, and jackknifed down. He felt the small shock wave of the silent explosion of gas and something hit his foot. Now! He soared up below the man and scythed62 upward with his knife. The blade went in. He felt the black rubber against his hand. Then the butt41 of the gun hit him behind the ear and a white hand came down and scrabbled at his airpipe. Bond slashed63 wildly with the knife, his hand moving with terrifying slowness through the water. The point ripped something. The hand let go of the mask, but now Bond couldn't see. Again the butt of the gun crashed down on his head. Now the water was full of black smoke, heavy, stringy stuff that clung to the glass of his mask. Bond backed painfully, slowly away, clawing at the glass. At last it cleared. The black smoke was coming out of the man, out of his stomach. But the gun was coming up again slowly, agonizingly, as if it weighed a ton, and the bright sting of the spear showed at its mouth. Now the webbed feet were hardly stirring, but the man was sinking slowly down to Bond's level. Suspended straight in the water, he looked like one of those little celluloid figures in a Ptolemy jar that rise and fall gracefully64 with pressure on the rubber top to the jar. Bond couldn't get his limbs to obey. They felt like lead. He shook his head to clear it, but still his hands and flippers moved only half consciously, all speed gone. Now he could see the bared teeth round the other man's rubber mouthpiece. The gun was at his head, at his throat, at his heart. Bond's hands crept up his chest to protect him while his flippers moved sluggishly65, like broken wings, below him.
And then, suddenly, the man was hurled toward Bond as if he had been kicked in the back. His arms spread in a curious gesture of embrace for Bond and the gun tumbled slowly away between them and disappeared. A puff19 of black blood spread out into the sea from behind the man's back and his hands wavered out and up in vague surrender while his head twisted on his shoulders to see what had done this to him.
And now, a few yards behind the man, shreds66 of black rubber hanging from its jaws67, Bond saw the barracuda. It was lying broadside on, seven or eight feet of silver and blue torpedo68, and round its jaws there was a thin mist of blood, the taste in the water that had triggered its attack.
Now the great tiger's eye looked coldly at Bond and then downward at the slowly sinking man. It gave a horrible yawning gulp69 to rid itself of the shreds of rubber, turned lazily three-quarters on, quivered in all its length, and dived like a bolt of white light. It hit the man on the right shoulder with wide-open jaws, shook him once, furiously, like a dog with a rat, and then backed away. Bond felt the vomit70 rising in his gorge71 like molten lava72. He swallowed it down and slowly, as if in a dream, began swimming with languid, sleepy strokes away from the scene.
Bond had not gone many yards when something hit the surface to his left and the moonlight glinted on a silvery kind of egg that turned lazily over and over as it went down. It meant nothing to Bond, but two strokes later, he received a violent blow in the stomach that knocked him sideways. It also knocked sense into him, and he began to move fast through the water, at the same time planing downward toward the bottom. More buffets73 hit him in quick succession, but the grenades were bracketing the blood patch near the ship's hull and the shock waves of the explosions became less.
The bottom showed up-the friendly waving fur, the great black toadstools of the dead sponges and the darting74 shoals of small fish fleeing with Bond from the explosions. Now Bond swam with all his strength. At any moment a boat would be got over the side and another diver would go down. With any luck he would find no traces of Bond's visit and conclude that the underwater sentry75 had been killed by shark or barracuda. It would be interesting to see what Largo would report to the harbor police. Difficult to explain the necessity for an armed underwater sentry for a pleasure yacht in a peaceful harbor!
Bond trudged on across the shifting seagrass. His head ached furiously. Gingerly he put up a hand and felt the two great bruises76. The skin felt intact. But for the cushion of water, the two blows with the butt of the gun would have knocked him out. As it was, he still felt half stunned77 and when he came to the end of the seagrass and to the soft white moon landscape with its occasional little volcano puffs78 from the sea worms he felt as if he was on the edge of delirium79. Wild commotion80 at the edge of his field of vision shocked him out of the semi-trance. A giant fish, the barracuda, was passing him. It seemed to have gone mad. It was snaking wildly along, biting at its tail, its long body curling and snapping back in a jackknife motion, its mouth opening wide and shutting again in spasms81. Bond watched it hurtle away into the gray mist. He felt somehow sorry to see the wonderful king of the sea reduced to this hideous82 jiggling automaton83. There was something obscene about it, like the blind weaving of a punchy boxer84 before he finally crashes to the canvas. One of the explosions must have crushed a nerve center, wrecked85 some delicate balance mechanism in the fish's brain. It wouldn't last long. A greater predator than itself, a shark, would note the signs, the loss of symmetry that is suicide in the sea. He would follow for a while until the spasms slackened. Then the shark would make a short jabbing run. The barracuda would react sluggishly and that would be the end-in three great grunting86 bites, the head first and then the still jerking body. And the shark would cruise quietly on, its sickle87 mouth trailing morsels88 for the black and yellow pilot fish below his jaws and perhaps for the remora or two, the parasites89 that travel with the great host, that pick the shark's teeth when it is sleeping and the jaws are relaxed.
And now there were the gray-slimed motor tires, the bottles, the cans, and the scaffolding of the wharf. Bond slid over the shelving sand and knelt in the shallows, his head down, not capable of carrying the heavy aqualung up the beach, an exhausted90 animal ready to drop.
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1 wharf | |
n.码头,停泊处 | |
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2 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
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3 constable | |
n.(英国)警察,警官 | |
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4 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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5 snarl | |
v.吼叫,怒骂,纠缠,混乱;n.混乱,缠结,咆哮 | |
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6 strap | |
n.皮带,带子;v.用带扣住,束牢;用绷带包扎 | |
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7 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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8 tenor | |
n.男高音(歌手),次中音(乐器),要旨,大意 | |
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9 bout | |
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛 | |
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10 crab | |
n.螃蟹,偏航,脾气乖戾的人,酸苹果;vi.捕蟹,偏航,发牢骚;vt.使偏航,发脾气 | |
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11 wrecks | |
n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 );(事故中)遭严重毁坏的汽车(或飞机等);(身体或精神上)受到严重损伤的人;状况非常糟糕的车辆(或建筑物等)v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 );使(船舶)失事,使遇难,使下沉 | |
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12 fins | |
[医]散热片;鱼鳍;飞边;鸭掌 | |
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13 fin | |
n.鳍;(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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14 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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15 spat | |
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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16 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
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17 flickered | |
(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 octopus | |
n.章鱼 | |
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19 puff | |
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气 | |
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20 puffed | |
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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21 silt | |
n.淤泥,淤沙,粉砂层,泥沙层;vt.使淤塞;vi.被淤塞 | |
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22 tremor | |
n.震动,颤动,战栗,兴奋,地震 | |
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23 hermit | |
n.隐士,修道者;隐居 | |
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24 naturalist | |
n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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25 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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26 largo | |
n.广板乐章;adj.缓慢的,宽广的;adv.缓慢地,宽广地 | |
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27 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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28 meager | |
adj.缺乏的,不足的,瘦的 | |
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29 scraps | |
油渣 | |
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30 pinnacle | |
n.尖塔,尖顶,山峰;(喻)顶峰 | |
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31 antennae | |
n.天线;触角 | |
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32 malevolent | |
adj.有恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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33 snarling | |
v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的现在分词 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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34 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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35 lateral | |
adj.侧面的,旁边的 | |
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36 watchful | |
adj.注意的,警惕的 | |
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37 chunk | |
n.厚片,大块,相当大的部分(数量) | |
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38 scythe | |
n. 长柄的大镰刀,战车镰; v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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39 tightened | |
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧 | |
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40 sneering | |
嘲笑的,轻蔑的 | |
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41 butt | |
n.笑柄;烟蒂;枪托;臀部;v.用头撞或顶 | |
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42 predator | |
n.捕食其它动物的动物;捕食者 | |
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43 chaotically | |
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44 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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45 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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46 trudged | |
vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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47 rhythmically | |
adv.有节奏地 | |
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48 exuding | |
v.缓慢流出,渗出,分泌出( exude的现在分词 );流露出对(某物)的神态或感情 | |
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49 immunity | |
n.优惠;免除;豁免,豁免权 | |
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50 seasick | |
adj.晕船的 | |
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51 sparsely | |
adv.稀疏地;稀少地;不足地;贫乏地 | |
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52 fungus | |
n.真菌,真菌类植物 | |
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53 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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54 majestically | |
雄伟地; 庄重地; 威严地; 崇高地 | |
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55 barb | |
n.(鱼钩等的)倒钩,倒刺 | |
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56 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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57 mechanism | |
n.机械装置;机构,结构 | |
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58 flange | |
n.边缘,轮缘,凸缘,法兰 | |
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59 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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60 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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61 flailing | |
v.鞭打( flail的现在分词 );用连枷脱粒;(臂或腿)无法控制地乱动;扫雷坦克 | |
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62 scythed | |
v.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63 slashed | |
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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64 gracefully | |
ad.大大方方地;优美地 | |
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65 sluggishly | |
adv.懒惰地;缓慢地 | |
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66 shreds | |
v.撕碎,切碎( shred的第三人称单数 );用撕毁机撕毁(文件) | |
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67 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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68 torpedo | |
n.水雷,地雷;v.用鱼雷破坏 | |
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69 gulp | |
vt.吞咽,大口地吸(气);vi.哽住;n.吞咽 | |
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70 vomit | |
v.呕吐,作呕;n.呕吐物,吐出物 | |
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71 gorge | |
n.咽喉,胃,暴食,山峡;v.塞饱,狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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72 lava | |
n.熔岩,火山岩 | |
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73 buffets | |
(火车站的)饮食柜台( buffet的名词复数 ); (火车的)餐车; 自助餐 | |
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74 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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75 sentry | |
n.哨兵,警卫 | |
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76 bruises | |
n.瘀伤,伤痕,擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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77 stunned | |
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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78 puffs | |
n.吸( puff的名词复数 );(烟斗或香烟的)一吸;一缕(烟、蒸汽等);(呼吸或风的)呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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79 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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80 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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81 spasms | |
n.痉挛( spasm的名词复数 );抽搐;(能量、行为等的)突发;发作 | |
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82 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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83 automaton | |
n.自动机器,机器人 | |
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84 boxer | |
n.制箱者,拳击手 | |
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85 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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86 grunting | |
咕哝的,呼噜的 | |
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87 sickle | |
n.镰刀 | |
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88 morsels | |
n.一口( morsel的名词复数 );(尤指食物)小块,碎屑 | |
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89 parasites | |
寄生物( parasite的名词复数 ); 靠他人为生的人; 诸虫 | |
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90 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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