'I bludge,
Thou bludgest,
He bludges,
We bludge,
You bludge,
They all bludge.'
He reached under the low table and then seemed to think better of it and moved his hand to the glass of sake, picked it up and poured it down his throat without a swallow.
Bond said mildly, 'Take it easy, Dikko. What's bitten you? And what does this vulgar-sounding colonial expression mean?'
Richard Lovelace Henderson, of Her Majesty3's Australian Diplomatic Corps4, looked belligerently5 round the small crowded bar in a by-street off the Ginza and said out of the corner of his large and usually cheerful mouth that was now turned down in bitterness and anger, 'You stupid pommy bastard6, we've been miked! That bludger Tanaka's miked us! Here, under the table! See the little wire down the leg? And see that wingy over at the bar? Chap with one arm looking bloody7 respectable in his blue suit and black tie? That's one of Tiger's men. I can smell 'em by now. They've been tailing me off and on for ten years. Tiger dresses 'em all like little CIA gentlemen. You watch out for any Jap who's drinking Western and wearing that rig. All Tiger's men.' He grumbled8, 'Damn good mind to go over and call the bastard.'
Bond said, 'Well, if we're being miked, all this'll make sweet reading for Mr Tanaka tomorrow morning.'
'What the hell,' said Dikko Henderson resignedly. 'The old bastard knows what I think of him. Now he'll just have it in writing. Teach him to stop leaning on me. And my friends,' he added, with a blistering9 glance at Bond. 'It's really you he wants to size up. And I don't mind if he hears me saying so. Bludger? Well, hear me now, Tiger! This is the great Australian insult. You can use it anyways.' He raised his voice. 'But in general it means a worthless pervert10, ponce, scoundrel, liar11, traitor12 and rogue13 - with no redeeming14 feature. And I hope your stewed15 seaweed sticks in your gullet at breakfast tomorrow when you know what I think of you.'
Bond laughed. The torrent16 of powerful swear-words had started its ceaseless flow the day before at the airport - Haneda, 'the field of wings'. It had taken Bond nearly an hour to extract his single suitcase from the customs area, and he had emerged fuming17 into the central hall only to be jostled and pushed aside by an excited crowd of young Japanese bearing paper banners that said 'International Laundry Convention'. Bond was exhausted18 from his flight. He let out one single four-letter expletive.
Behind him a big voice repeated the same word and added some more. 'That's my boy! That's the right way to greet the East! You'll be needing all those words and more before you're through with the area.'
Bond had turned. The huge man in the rumpled19 grey suit thrust out a hand as big as a small ham. 'Glad to meet you. I'm Henderson. As you were the only pommy on the plane, I guess you're Bond. Here. Give me that bag. Got a car outside and the sooner we get away from this blankety blank madhouse the better.'
Henderson looked like a middle-aged20 prize fighter who has retired21 and taken to the bottle. His thin suit bulged22 with muscle round the arms and shoulders and with fat round the waist. He had a craggy, sympathetic face, rather stony23 blue eyes, and a badly broken nose. He was sweating freely (Bond was to find that he was always sweating), and as he barged his way through the crowd, using Bond's suitcase as a battering24 ram25, he extracted a rumpled square of terry cloth from his trouser-pocket and wiped it round his neck and face. The crowd parted unresentfully to let the giant through, and Bond followed in his wake to a smart Toyopet saloon waiting in a no-parking area. The chauffeur26 got out and bowed. Henderson fired a torrent of instructions at him in fluent Japanese and followed Bond into the back seat, settling himself with a grunt27. 'Taking you to your hotel first - the Okura, latest of the
Western ones. American tourist got murdered at the Royal Oriental the other day and we don't want to lose you all that soon. Then we'll do a bit of serious drinking. Had some dinner?'
'About six of them, as far as I can remember. J AL certainly takes good care of your stomach.'
'Why did you choose the willow-pattern route? How was the old ruptured28 duck?'
'They told me the bird was a crane. Very dainty. But efficient. Thought I might as well practise being inscrutable before plunging29 into all this.' Bond waved at the cluttered30 shambles31 of the Tokyo suburbs through which they were tearing at what seemed to Bond a suicidal speed. 'Doesn't look the most attractive city in the world. And why are we driving on the left?'
'God knows,' said Henderson moodily32. 'The bloody Japs do everything the wrong way round. Read the old instruction books wrong, I daresay. Light switches go up instead of down. Taps turn to the left. Door handles likewise. Why, they even race their horses clockwise instead of anti-clockwise like civilized33 people. As for Tokyo, it's bloody awful. It's either too hot or too cold or pouring with rain. And there's an earthquake about every day. But don't worry about them. They just make you feel slightly drunk. The typhoons are worse. If one starts to blow, go into the stoutest34 bar you can see and get drunk. But the first ten years are the worst. It's got its point when you know your way around. Bloody expensive if you live Western, but I stick to the back alleys35 and do all right. Really quite exhilarating. Got to know the lingo36 though, and when to bow and take off your shoes and so on. You'll have to get the basic routines straight pretty quickly if you're going to make any headway with the people you've come to see. Underneath37 the stiff collars and striped pants in the government departments, there's still plenty of the old samurai tucked away. I laugh at them for it, and they laugh back because they've got to know my line of patter. But that doesn't mean I don't bow from the waist when I know it's expected of me and when I want something. You'll get the hang of it all right.'
Henderson fired some Japanese at the driver who had been glancing frequently in his driving mirror. The driver laughed and replied cheerfully. 'Thought so,' said Henderson. 'We've got ourselves a tail. Typical of old Tiger. I told him you were staying at the Okura, but he wants to make sure for himself. Don't worry. It's just part of his crafty38 ways. If you find one of his men breathing down your neck in bed tonight, or a girl if you're lucky, just talk to them politely and they'll bow and hiss39 themselves out.'
But a solitary40 sleep had followed the serious drinking in the Bamboo Bar of the Okura, and the next day had been spent doing the sights and getting some cards printed that described Bond as Second Secretary in the Cultural Department of the Australian Embassy. 'They know that's our intelligence side,' said Henderson, 'and they know I'm the head of it and you're my temporary assistant, so why not spell it out for them?' And that evening they had gone for more serious drinking to Henderson's favourite bar, Melody's, off the Ginza, where everybody called Henderson 'Dikko' or 'Dikko-san', and where they were ushered41 respectfully to the quiet corner table that appeared to be his Stammtisch.
And now Henderson reached under the table and, with a powerful wrench42, pulled out the wires and left them hanging. 'I'll give that black bastard Melody hell for this when I get around to it,' he said belligerently. 'And to think of all I've done for the dingo bastard! Used to be a favourite pub of the English Colony and the Press Club layabouts. Had a good restaurant attached to it. That's gone now. The Eyteye cook trod on the cat and spilled the soup and he picked up the cat and threw it into the cooking stove. Of course that got around pretty quick, and all the animal-lovers and sanctimonious43 bastards44 got together and tried to have Melody's licence taken away. I managed to put in squeeze in the right quarter and saved him, but everyone quit his restaurant and he had to close it. I'm the only regular who's stuck to him. And now he goes and does this to me! Oh well, he'll have had the squeeze put on him, I suppose. Anyway, that's the end of the tape so far as T.T.'s concerned. I'll give him hell too. He ought to have learned by now that me and my friends don't want to assassinate45 the Emperor or blow up the Diet or something.' Dikko glared around him as if he proposed to do both those things. 'Now then, James, to business. I've fixed46 up for you to meet Tiger tomorrow morning at eleven. I'll pick you up and take you there. "The Bureau of All-Asian Folkways." I won't describe it to you. It'd spoil it. Now, I don't really know what you're here for. Spate47 of top secret cables from Melbourne. To be deciphered by yours truly in person. Thanks very much! And my Ambassador, Jim Saunderson, good bloke, says he doesn't want to know anything about it. Thinks it'd be even better if he didn't meet you at all. Okay with you? No offence, but he's a wise guy and likes to keep his hands clean. And I don't want to know anything about your job either. That way, you're the only one who gets the powdered bamboo in his coffee. But I gather you want to get some high-powered gen out of Tiger without the CIA knowing anything about it. Right? Well that's going to be a dicey business. Tiger's a career man with a career mind. Although, on the surface, he's a hundred per cent demokorasu, he's a deep one -very deep indeed. The American occupation and the American influence here look like a very solid basis for a total American-Japanese alliance. But once a Jap, always a Jap. It's the same with all the other great nations - Chinese, Russian, German, English. It's their bones that matter, not their lying faces. And all those races have got tremendous bones. Compared with the bones, the smiles or scowls48 don't mean a thing. And time means nothing for them either. Ten years is the blink of a star for the big ones. Get me? So Tiger, and his superiors, who, I suppose, are the Diet and, in the end, the Emperor, will look at your proposition principally from two angles. Is it immediately desirable, today? Or is it a long-term investment? Something that may pay off for the country in ten, twenty years. And, if I were you, I'd stick to that spiel - the long-term talk. These people, people like Tiger, who's an absolutely top man in Japan, don't think in terms of days or months or years. They think in terms of centuries. Quite right, when you come to think of it.'
Dikko Henderson made a wide gesture with his left hand. Bond decided50 that Dikko was getting cheerfully tight. He had found a Palomar pony51 to run with. They must be rare enough in Tokyo. They were both past the eighth flask52 of sake, but Dikko had also laid a foundation of Suntory whisky in the Okura while he'd been waiting for Bond to write out an innocuous cable to Melbourne with the prefix53 'Information-wise', which meant that it was for Mary Goodnight, to announce his arrival and give his current address. But it was all right with Bond that Dikko should be getting plastered. He would talk better and looser and, in the end, wiser that way. And Bond wanted to pick his brains.
Bond said, 'But what sort of a chap is this Tanaka? Is he your enemy or your friend?'
'Both. More of a friend probably. At least I'd guess so. I amuse him. His CIA pals54 don't. He loosens up with me. We've got things in common. We share a pleasure in the delights of samsara - wine and women. He's a great cocks-man. I also have ambitions in that direction. I've managed to keep him out of two marriages. Trouble with Tiger is he always wants to marry 'em. He's paying cock-tax, that's alimony in the Australian vernacular55, to three already. So he's acquired an ON with regard to me. That's an obligation - almost as important in the Japanese way of life as "face". When you have an ON, you're not very, happy until you've discharged it honourably56, if you'll pardon the bad pun. And if a man makes you a present of a salmon57, you mustn't repay him with a shrimp58. It's got to be with an equally larg? salmon - larger if possible, so that then you've jumped the man, and now he has an ON with regard to you, and you're quids in morally, socially and spiritually - and the last one's the most important. Well now. Tiger's ON towards me is a very powerful one, very difficult to discharge. He's paid little slices of it off with various intelligence dope. He's paid off another big slice by accepting your presence here and giving you an interview so soon after your arrival. If you'd been an ordinary supplicant59, -it might have taken you weeks. He'd have given you a fat dose of shikiri-naoshi - that's making you wait, giving you the great stone face. The sumo wrestlers use it in the ring to make an opponent look and feel small in front of the audience. Got it? So you start with that in your favour. He would be predisposed to do what you want because that would remove all his ON towards me and, by his accounting60, stick a whole packet of ON on my back towards him. But it's not so simple as that. All Japanese have permanent ON towards their superiors, the Emperor, their ancestors and the Japanese gods. This they can only discharge by doing "the right thing". Not easy, you'll say. Because how can you know what the higher echelon61 thinks is the right thing? Well, you get out of that by doing what the bottom of the ladder thinks right - i.e. your immediate49 superiors. That passes the buck62, psychologically, on to the , Emperor, and he's got to make his peace with ancestors and gods. But that's all right with him, because he embodies63 all the echelons64 above him, so he can get on with dissecting65 fish, which is his hobby, with a clear conscience. Got it? It's not really as mysterious as it sounds. Much the same routine as operates in big corporations, like ICI or Shell, or in the Services, except with them the ladder stops at the Board of Directors or the Chiefs of Staff. It's easier that way. You don't have to involve the Almighty66 and your great-grandfather in a decision to cut the price of aspirin67 by a penny a bottle.'
'It doesn't sound very demokorasu to me.'
'Of course it isn't, you dumb bastard. For God's sake, get it into your head that the Japanese are a separate human species. They've only been operating as a civilized people, in the debased sense we talk about it in the West, for fifty, at the most a hundred years. Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tartar. Scratch a Japanese and you'll find a samurai - or what he thinks is a samurai. Most of this samurai stuff is a myth, like the Wild West bunk68 the Americans are brought up on, or your knights69 in shining armour70 at King Arthur's court. Just because people play baseball and wear bowler71 hats doesn't mean they're quote civilized unquote. Just to show you I'm getting rather tight -not drunk, mark you-I'd add that the UN are going to reap the father and mother of a whirlwind by quote liberating72 unquote the colonial peoples. Give 'em a thousand years, yes.
But give 'em ten, no. You're only taking away their blowpipes and giving them machine guns. Just you wait for the first one to start crying to high heaven for nuclear fission73. Because they must have quote parity74 unquote with the lousy colonial powers. I'll give you ten years for that to happen, my friend. And when it does, I'll dig myself a deep hole in the ground and sit in it.'
Bond laughed. 'That also doesn't sound very demokorasu?
' "I fornicate upon thy demokorasu" as brother Hemingway would have said. I stand for government by an elite75.' Dikko Henderson downed his ninth pint76 of sake. 'And voting graded by each individual's rating in that elite. And one tenth of a vote for my government if you don't agree with me!'
'For God's sake, Dikko! Plow77 in hell did we get on to politics? Let's go and get some food. I'll agree there's a certain aboriginal78 common sense in what you say…'
'Don't talk to me about the aborigines! What in hell do you think you know about the aborigines? Do you know that in my country there's a move afoot, not afoot, at full gallop79, to give the aborigines the vote? You pommy poofter. You give me any more of that liberal crap and I'll have your balls for a bow-tie.'
Bond said mildly, 'What's a poofter?'
'What you'd call a pansy. No,' Dikko Henderson got to his feet and fired a string of what sounded like lucid80 Japanese at the man behind the bar, 'before I condemn81 you utterly82, we'll go and eat eels83-place where you can get a serious bottle of plonk to match. Then we'll go to "The House of Total Delight". After that, I will give you my honest verdict, honestly come by.'
Bond said, 'You're a no-good kangaroo bum84, Dikko. But I like eels. As long as they're not jellied. I'll pay for them and for the later relaxation85. You pay for the rice wine and the plonk, whatever that is. Take it easy. The wingy at the bar has an appraising86 look.'
'I come to appraise87 Mr Richard Lovelace Henderson, not to bury him.' Dikko Henderson produced a wad of thousand yen88 notes and began counting them out for the waiter. 'Not yet, that is.' He walked, with careful majesty, up to the bar and addressed himself to the large Negro in a plum-coloured coat behind it. 'Melody, be ashamed of yourself!' Then he led the way, with massive dignity, out of the bar.
点击收听单词发音
1 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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2 savagely | |
adv. 野蛮地,残酷地 | |
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3 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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4 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
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5 belligerently | |
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6 bastard | |
n.坏蛋,混蛋;私生子 | |
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7 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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8 grumbled | |
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声 | |
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9 blistering | |
adj.酷热的;猛烈的;使起疱的;可恶的v.起水疱;起气泡;使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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10 pervert | |
n.堕落者,反常者;vt.误用,滥用;使人堕落,使入邪路 | |
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11 liar | |
n.说谎的人 | |
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12 traitor | |
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
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13 rogue | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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14 redeeming | |
补偿的,弥补的 | |
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15 stewed | |
adj.焦虑不安的,烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 );煨;思考;担忧 | |
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16 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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17 fuming | |
愤怒( fume的现在分词 ); 大怒; 发怒; 冒烟 | |
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18 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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19 rumpled | |
v.弄皱,使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20 middle-aged | |
adj.中年的 | |
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21 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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22 bulged | |
凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 ); 充满; 塞满(某物) | |
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23 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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24 battering | |
n.用坏,损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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25 ram | |
(random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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26 chauffeur | |
n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机;v.为…开车 | |
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27 grunt | |
v.嘟哝;作呼噜声;n.呼噜声,嘟哝 | |
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28 ruptured | |
v.(使)破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 );(使体内组织等)断裂;使(友好关系)破裂;使绝交 | |
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29 plunging | |
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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30 cluttered | |
v.杂物,零乱的东西零乱vt.( clutter的过去式和过去分词 );乱糟糟地堆满,把…弄得很乱;(以…) 塞满… | |
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31 shambles | |
n.混乱之处;废墟 | |
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32 moodily | |
adv.喜怒无常地;情绪多变地;心情不稳地;易生气地 | |
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33 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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34 stoutest | |
粗壮的( stout的最高级 ); 结实的; 坚固的; 坚定的 | |
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35 alleys | |
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径 | |
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36 lingo | |
n.语言不知所云,外国话,隐语 | |
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37 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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38 crafty | |
adj.狡猾的,诡诈的 | |
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39 hiss | |
v.发出嘶嘶声;发嘘声表示不满 | |
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40 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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41 ushered | |
v.引,领,陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42 wrench | |
v.猛拧;挣脱;使扭伤;n.扳手;痛苦,难受 | |
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43 sanctimonious | |
adj.假装神圣的,假装虔诚的,假装诚实的 | |
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44 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 | |
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45 assassinate | |
vt.暗杀,行刺,中伤 | |
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46 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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47 spate | |
n.泛滥,洪水,突然的一阵 | |
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48 scowls | |
不悦之色,怒容( scowl的名词复数 ) | |
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49 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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50 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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51 pony | |
adj.小型的;n.小马 | |
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52 flask | |
n.瓶,火药筒,砂箱 | |
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53 prefix | |
n.前缀;vt.加…作为前缀;置于前面 | |
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54 pals | |
n.朋友( pal的名词复数 );老兄;小子;(对男子的不友好的称呼)家伙 | |
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55 vernacular | |
adj.地方的,用地方语写成的;n.白话;行话;本国语;动植物的俗名 | |
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56 honourably | |
adv.可尊敬地,光荣地,体面地 | |
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57 salmon | |
n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的 | |
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58 shrimp | |
n.虾,小虾;矮小的人 | |
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59 supplicant | |
adj.恳求的n.恳求者 | |
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60 accounting | |
n.会计,会计学,借贷对照表 | |
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61 echelon | |
n.梯队;组织系统中的等级;v.排成梯队 | |
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62 buck | |
n.雄鹿,雄兔;v.马离地跳跃 | |
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63 embodies | |
v.表现( embody的第三人称单数 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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64 echelons | |
n.(机构中的)等级,阶层( echelon的名词复数 );(军舰、士兵、飞机等的)梯形编队 | |
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65 dissecting | |
v.解剖(动物等)( dissect的现在分词 );仔细分析或研究 | |
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66 almighty | |
adj.全能的,万能的;很大的,很强的 | |
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67 aspirin | |
n.阿司匹林 | |
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68 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
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69 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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70 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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71 bowler | |
n.打保龄球的人,(板球的)投(球)手 | |
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72 liberating | |
解放,释放( liberate的现在分词 ) | |
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73 fission | |
n.裂开;分裂生殖 | |
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74 parity | |
n.平价,等价,比价,对等 | |
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75 elite | |
n.精英阶层;实力集团;adj.杰出的,卓越的 | |
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76 pint | |
n.品脱 | |
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77 plow | |
n.犁,耕地,犁过的地;v.犁,费力地前进[英]plough | |
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78 aboriginal | |
adj.(指动植物)土生的,原产地的,土著的 | |
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79 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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80 lucid | |
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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81 condemn | |
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑 | |
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82 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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83 eels | |
abbr. 电子发射器定位系统(=electronic emitter location system) | |
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84 bum | |
n.臀部;流浪汉,乞丐;vt.乞求,乞讨 | |
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85 relaxation | |
n.松弛,放松;休息;消遣;娱乐 | |
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86 appraising | |
v.估价( appraise的现在分词 );估计;估量;评价 | |
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87 appraise | |
v.估价,评价,鉴定 | |
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88 yen | |
n. 日元;热望 | |
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