Chapter 5

'That's a Roosevelt supporter talking," observed Anderson, puteng violently on the cigar. 'Now, we're proceeding¹ from here to a dinner at the Army and Navy Club, in half an hour or so, with some British generals and admirals. We already have the list of the war materials they want. It would strip our armed forces clean. We have to make cabled recommendations to the President within five days. He's already let them have-in addition to these fifty warships³-virtually all our seventy-fivemillimeter field guns, several squadrons of naval⁴ aircraft, half a million nfles, millions of rounds of ammunition-" 'He hasn't given 'em away, General," Benton observed. "The Limeys have paid cash on the barrelhead." "Yes, luckily the Neutrality Act compels that, but still it was a god-damned lie to call the stuff surplus. Surplus! We don't have any surplus! You know that. Fifty destroyers! All this without any authorization⁵ from Congress. All things we're short of. And now Congress is passing a draft law. Our boys will be drilling with broomsticks! There's going to be ati accounting⁷ one day, you know. If the British fold and this stuff winds up in German hands-a possibility to be reckoned with-the accounting Will not be far off -All who have taken part in these transactions, or even advocated them"-here General Anderson turned a belligerent⁹ face at Victor Henry-"I warn you, stand a good chance of hanging from lamp posts on Constitution Avenue." After a silence, Admiral Benton said Mildly, folding his hands over his stomach, "Well, Pug, I've told these gentlemen that I know you, and that any dope you put out is reliable. We've got a big responsibility. We've been handed one hell of a hot potato. So get down to the short hairs. What makes you think the British will keep fighting, after the way the French folded? No horseshit now." "All right, Admiral." To begin with, Victor Henry said, the British had made better use than the French of the time between the wars. He debed their scientific advances, the strength and disposition¹⁰ of the bathe fleet, the fighter control system he had seen at Uxbridge, the figures of German and British plane losses, the morale¹¹ of the fliers, the preparations along the invasion beaches, the Chain Home stations, the production of aircraft. Fitzgerald listened with his eyes closed, his head flung back, his fingers dancing. Benton stared gravely at Pug, pulling at an ear as he had done in a hundred War Plans meetings. Train Anderson, wreathing himself in smoke, also looked hard at Pug, though the glare was fading to a frigid¹² calculating expression. Pug gave as sober and clear an account as he could, but it was an effort. As he plodded¹⁴ through his military facts, Pamela Tudsbury shimmered¹⁵ in his mind's eye, shifting with afterimages of the flight over Berlin. He felt in an undisciplined mood and was hard put to it to keep a respectful tone. "Now wait, Pug, this RDF you're so hot on," Benton interposed, that's nothing but radar¹⁷, isn't it? We've got radar. You were with me aboard the New York for the tests.""We haven't got this kind of radar, sir." Victor Henry described in detail the cavity magnetron. The senior officers began glancing at each other. He added, "And they've even started installing the stuff in their night fighters." General Fitzgerald sat straight up. "Airborne radar? What about the weight problem?" "They've licked it." "Then they've developed somethine new." "They have, General." Fitzgerald turned a serious gaze on Train Anderson, who stubbed out his cigar, observing to the admiral, "Well, I'll say this, your man makes out a case, at least. We've got to come across anyhow, since that's what Mr. Big wants. What we can do is exercise tight control item by item, and that by God we will do. And get trade-offs like that cavity thing, wherever possible." He regarded Henry through half-shut eyes. "Very well. Suppose they do hold out? Suppose Hitler doesn't invade? What's their future? What's their plan? What can they do against a man who controls all Europe?" "Well, I can give you the official line," Victor Henry said. "I've heard it often enough. Hold him back in 1940. Pass him in air power in 1941, with British and American production. Shoot the Luftwaffe out of the skies in 1942 and 1943Bomb their cities and factories to bits if they don't surrender. Invade and conquer in 1944-' 'With what? Ten or fifteen divisions against two hundred?" "Actually, General, I think the idea is simpler. Hang on till we get in." "Now you're talking. But then what?" General Fitzgerald said very quietly, "Why, then we pound Germany from the air, Train, with the bomber¹⁹ fleet we're building. A few months of that, and we land to accept the surrender, if anyone's alive to crawl out of the rubble²⁰." Raising an eyebrow²¹ at Victor Henry, Admiral Benton said, "How's that sound, Pug?" Victor Henry hesitated to answer. "You're dubious²²?" General Fitzgerald observed amiably²³. "General, I've just been out pounding Germany from the air. Twenty-four bombers²⁴ went on the mission. Fifteen returned. Of those, four didn't bomb the right target. Navigation was off, they had operational troubles, there were German decoy fires, and so forth²⁵. Two didn't bomb any target. They got lost, wandered around in the dark, then dropped their bombs in the ocean and homed back on the BBC. In one mission they lost a third of the attacking force.""This business is in its infancy," smiled Fitzgerald. "Twenty-four bombers. Suppose there'd been a thousand, with much heavier payloads? And at that, they did get the gasworks." "Yes, sir. They got the gasworks." "How do you think it's going to go?" General Anderson said brusquely to Henry. "Sir, I think sooner or later a couple of million men will have to land in France and fight the German army." With an unpleasant grunt²⁶, Train Anderson touched his left shoulder. "Land in France, hey? I landed in France in 1918. I got a German bullet through my shoulder in the Argonne. I don't know what that accomplished²⁷. Do you?" Victor Henry did not answer. "Okay." Train Anderson rose. "Let's be on our way, gentlemen. Our British cousins await us." "I'll be right along," Benton said. When the army men were gone he slapped Victor Henry's shoulder. "Well done. These Limeys are holding the fort for us. We've got to help 'em. But Jesus God, they're not bashful in their requestsi The big crunch²⁸ comes when they run out of dollars. They can't even pay for this list of stuff, without selling their last holdings in America. What comes next? It beats me. The boss man will have to figure a way to give 'em stuff. He's a slippery customer and I guess he will. Say, that reminds me-" He reached into a breast pocket and brought out a letter. Victor Henry, in his wife's small handwriting, was the only address on the envelope, which was much thicker than usual. "Thank you, Admiral." The admiral was fumbling²⁹ in his pockets. 'No, there's something else. Damn, I couldn't have-no, here we are. Whew! That's a relief." It was a White House envelope. Pug slipped both letters into his pocket. "Say, Pug, for a gunnery officer you've painted yourself into a peculiar³⁰ corner. That screwball socialist³¹ in the White House thinks a lot of you, which may or may not be a good thing. I'd better mosey along. Rhoda sounded fine when I talked to her, only a little sad." Benton sighed and stood. "They have to put up with a lot, the gals³². Good thing she didn't know about that bomber ride. Now that you're back I sort of envy you. But me, I'm absurdly fond of my ass⁶, Pug. I'm not getting it shot off except in the line of duty.
I commend that thought to you hereafter." Blinker Vance took off big black-rimmed³³ glasses and stepped out from behind his desk to throw an arm around Pug. "Say, I want to hear all about that joyride one of these days, i How did it go with the big brass³⁴?" "All right." "Good. There's a dispatch here for you from Bupers." He peeled a tissue off a clipboard hung on the wall, and handed it to Pug. VICTOR HENRY DETACHED TEMPOPARY DUTY LONDON X RETURN BERLIN UNIIL RELIEVED ON OR ABOUT I NOVEMBER X THEREUPON DETACHED TO PROCEED WASMNGTON HIGHEST AIR pRioRrry X REPORT BUPERS FOR FURTHER REASSIGNMENT X Vance said, "Glad you'll be getting out of Berlin?" "Overjoyed." "Mought you'd be. Transportation tells me they've got a priority to Lisbon available on the fourteenth." "Grab it." "Right." With a knowing little smile, Vance added, "Say, maybe you and that nice little Tudsbury girl can have a farewell dinner with me and Lady Maude tomorrow night." Several times Blinker had asked Victor Henry to join them for dinner. Pug knew and liked Blinker's wife and their six children. Avoiding a censorious tone, he had declined the invitations. Victor Henry knew how commonplace these things were-"Wars and lechery³⁵, nothing else holds fashion'-but he had not felt like endorsing³⁶ Blinker's shack-up. Vance now was renewing the bid, and his smile was reminding Pug that on telephoning the flat, he had found Pamela there. "I'll let you know, Blinker. I'll call you later." "Fine!" Vance's grin broadened at not being turned down. "Lady Maude will be channed, and my God, Pug, she has a fabulous³⁷ wine cellar." Victor Henry returned to the bench in Grosvenor Square. The sun still shone, the flag still waved. But it was just a sticky London evening like any other. The strange brightness was out of the air. The President's hasty pencilled scrawl³⁸ was on a yellow legal sheet this time. PugYour bracing³⁹ reports have been a grand tonic⁴⁰ that I needed. The war news has been so bad, and now the Republicans have gone and put up a fine candidate in Wendel! Willkie! Come November, you just might be working for a new boss. Then youcan slip the chain and get out to sea! Ha hal Thank you especially for alerting us on their advanced radar. The British are sending over a scientific mission in September, with all dieit "wizard war' stuff, as Churchill calls it. Well be very sure to follow that up! There's something heartwarming about Churchill's interest in landing craft, isn't there? Actually he's right, and I've asked for a report from C.N.O. Get as much of their material as you can. FDR Pug stuffed the vigorous scrawl in his pocket like any other note, and opened his wife's letter. It was a strange one. She had just turned on the radio, she wrote, heard an old record of "Three O'Clock in the Morning," and burst out crying. She reminisced about their honeymoon⁴¹, when they had danced so often to that song; about his long absence in 1918; about their good times in Manila and in Panama. With Palmer Kirby, who now kept a small office in New York, she had just driven up to New London to visit Byron-a glorious two-day trip through the early autumn foliage⁴² of Connecticut. Red Tully had told her that Byron was lazy in his written work, but very good in the simulator and in submarine drills. She had asked Byron about the Jewish girl. The way he changed the subject, I think maybe all that is over. He got a peculiar look on his face, but said nary a word. Wouldn't that be a relief 1 YOU know that Janice is pregnant, don't you? You must have heard from them. Those kids didn't waste much time, hey? Like father like son, is all I can say! But the thought of being a GRANDMOTHERIII In a way I'm happy, but in another way it seems like the end of the world! It would have helped a lot if you'd been here when I first got the news. It sure threw me into a spin. I'm not sure I've pulled out of it yet, but I'm trying. Let me give you a piece of advice. The sooner you can come home, the better. I'm all right, but at the moment I could really use a HUSIBAND around. He walked to his flat and telephoned Pamela. "Oh, my dear," she said, "I'm so glad you called. In another quarter of an hour I'd have been gone. I talked to Uxbridge. They're being very broad-minded, If I come back tonight, all is forgiven. They're shorthanded and they expect heavy raids. I must, I really must go back right away." "Of course you must. You're lucky you're not getting shot for desertion," Pug said, as lightly as he could. "I'm not the first offender⁴⁴ at Uxbridge," she laughed. "A W.A.A.F has a certain emotional rope to use up, you know. But this time I've really done He said, 'I'm ever so grateful to you.""You're grateful?" she said. " "Oh, God, don't you know that you've Pulled me through a very bad time? I shall get another special pass in a week, at most. Can we see each other then?" "Pam, I'm leaving day after tomorrow. Going back to Berlin for about a month or six weeks, and then home.... Hello? Pamela?" "I'm still here. You're going day after tomorrow?" "My orders were waiting at the embassy." After a long pause, in which he heard her breathing, she said, "You wouldn't want me to desert for two more days and take what comes. Would you? I'll do it." "It's no way to win a war, Pam." "No, it isn't, Captain. Well. This is an unexpected good-bye, then. But good-bye it is." 'Our paths will cross again." 'Oh, no doubt. But I firmly believe that Ted⁸'s alive and is coming back. I may well be a wife next time we meet. And that will be far more proper and easy all around. All the same, today was one of the happiest of my life, and that's unchangeable now." Victor Henry was finding it difficult to go on talking. The sad, kind tones of this young voice he loved were choking his throat; and there were no words available to his rusty⁴⁶ tongue to tell Pamela what he felt. "I'll never forget, Pamela," he said awkwardly, clearing his throat. "I'll never forget one minute of it." 'Won't you? Good. Neither will I. Some hours weigh against a whole lifetime, don't they? I think they do. Well! Good-bye, Captain Henry, and safe journeyings. I hope you find all well at home." "Good-bye, Pam. I hope Ted makes it." Her voice broke a little. 'Somebody's coming for me. Good-bye." Fatigued⁴⁸ but tensely awake, Victor Henry changed to civilian⁴⁹ clothes and drifted to Fred Fearing's noisy airless hot apartment. A bomb bursting close by earlier in the week had blown in all the windows, which were blocked now with brown plywood. Fearins broadcast, describing his feelings under a shower of glass, had been a great success. "Where's la Tudsbury?" said Fearing, handing Victor Henry a cupful of punch made of gin and some purple canned juice. "Fighting Germans." 'Good show!" The broadcaster did a vaudeville⁵² burlesque⁵³ of the Britishaccent. Pug sat in a corner of a dusty plush sofa under a plywood panel, watching the drinking and dancing, and wondering why he had come here. He saw a tall young girl in a tailored red suit, with long black hair combed behind her ears, give him one glance, then another. With an uncertain smile, at once bold and wistful, the girl approached. "HeHo there. Would you like more punch? You look important and lonesome." "I couldn't be less important. I'd like company more than punch. Please join me." The girl promptly⁵⁴ sat and crossed magnificent silk-shod legs. She was prettier than Pamela, and no more than twenty. 'Let me guess. You're a general. Air Corps⁵⁵. They tend to be younger." "I'm just a Navy captain, a long, long way from home." "I'm Lucy Somerville. My mother would spank⁵⁶ me for speaking first to a strange man. But everything's different in the war, isn't it?" "I'm Captain Victor Henry." "Captain Victor Henry. Sounds so American." She looked at him with impudent⁵⁷ eyes. "I like Americans." "I guess you're meeting quite a few." "Oh, heaps. One nicer than the other." She laughed. "The bombing's perfectly⁵⁸ horrible, but it is exciting, isn't it? Life's never been so exciting. One never knows whether one will be able to get home at night. It makes things interesting. I know girls who take their makeup⁵⁹ and pajamas⁶⁰ along when they go out in the evening. And dear old Mums can't say a word!" The girl's roguish, inviting⁶¹ glance told him that here probably was a random⁶² Hare of passion for the taking. Wartime London was the place, he thought; "nothing else holds fashion. But this girl was Madeline's age, and meant nothing to him; and he had just said a stodgy⁶³, cold, miserable⁶⁴ good-bye to Pamela Tudsbury-He avoided her dancing eyes, and said something dull about the evening news. In a minute or so a strapping⁶⁵ Army lieutenant⁶⁶ approached and offered Lucy Somerville a drink, and she jumped up and was gone. Soon after, Pug left. Alone in the flat, he listened to a Churchill speech and went to bed. The last thing he did before turning out the light was to reread Rhoda's nostalgic, sentimental⁶⁷, and troubled letter. Something shadowy and unpleasant was there between the lines. He guessed she might be having difficulties with Madeline, though the letter did not mention the daughter's name. There was no point in dwelling⁶⁸ on it, he thought.
He would be home in a couple of months. He fell asleep. Rhoda had slept with Dr. Kirby on the trip to Connecticut. That was the shadowy and unpleasant thing Pug half discerned. Proverbially the cuckold is the last to know his disgrace; no suspicion crossed his mind, though Rhoda's words were incautious and revealing. War not only forces intense new relationships; it puts old ones to the breaking stress. On the very day this paragon⁷⁰ of faithfulness-as his Navy friends regarded him-had received his wife's letter, he had not made love to Pamela Tudsbury, mainly because the girl had decided⁷¹ not to bring him to it. Rhoda had fallen on the way back from New London. It had been unplanned and unforeseen. She would have recoiled⁷² from a cold blooded copulation. The back windows of the little tourist house, where she and Kirby had stopped for tea, looked out on a charming pond where swans moved among pink lily pads in a gray drizzle⁷³. Except for the old lady who served them, they were alone in this quiet relaxing place. The visit to Byron had gone well and the countryside was beautiful. They intended to halt for an hour, then drive on to New York. They talked of their first lunch outside Berlin, of the farewell at Tempelhof Airport, of their mutual⁷⁴ delight at seeing each other in the Waldorf. The time flowed by, their tone grew more intimate. Then Palmer Kirby said, "How wonderfully cosy⁷⁵ this place isle⁷⁶ Too bad we can't stay here." And Rhoda Henry murmured, hardly believing that she was releasing the words from her mouth, "Maybe we could." Maybe we could! Three words, and a life pattern and a character dissolved. The old lady gave them a bedroom, asking no questions. Everything followed: undressing with a stranger, casting aside with her underclothes her modesty⁷⁸ and her much-treasured rectitude, yielding to a torrent⁷⁹ of novel sensations. To be taken by this large demanding man left her throbbing⁸⁰ with animal pleasure. All her thoughts since then went back to that point in time, and there halted. Like a declaration of war, it drew a line across the past and started another era. The oddest aspect of this new life was that it was so much like the old one. Rhoda felt she had not really changed. She even still loved Pug. She was trying to digest all this puzzlement when she wrote to her husband. She did have twinges of silence, but she was surprised to find how bearable these were. In New York, Rhoda and Kirby heard in bright afternoon sunshine the Churchill broadcast which Pug had listened to late at night. Rhoda had chosen well the apartment for Madeline and herself. It faced south, across low brownstones. Sunshine poured in all day through white-draped windows, into a broad living room furnished and decorated in white, peach, and apple green. Photographs of Victor Henry and the boys stood in green frames on a white piano. Few visitors failed to comment on the genteel cheerfulness of the place. "He has lighted a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame, until the vestiges⁸² of Nazi⁸³ tyranny have been burnt out of Europe.... OP Puffing⁸⁴ at his pipe, Kirby slouched in an armchair and stared at the radio. "Marvellous phrasemaker, that man." "Do you think they'll actually hold off the Germans, Palmer?""What does Pug say?" 'He wrote a pessimistic letter when be first arrived there. He hasn't written again." 'Odd. He's been there a while." "Well, I tell myself if anything had happened to him I'd have heard. I do worry." "Naturally." The speech ended. She saw him glance at the watch on his hairy wrist. "When does your plane go?" "Oh, not for a couple of hours." He turned off the radio, strolled to the windows, and looked Out- "This is not a bad view. Radio City, the Empire State Building. Pity that apartment house blocks out the river." "I know what you'd like right now," She said. "What?" "Some tea. It's that time.-Answ,ring his sudden coarse grin with a half-coy, half-brazen smile, she hurriedly added, "I really mean tea, Mr. Palmer Kirby." "MY favorite drink, tea. Lately, anyway." "Don't be horrible, you! Well? Shall I make some?" "Of course. I'd love tea." "I suppose I should swear off it, since it was my downfall. Of all things." She walked toward the kitchen with a sexy sway. "If only I could plead baying been drunk, but I was sober as a minister's wife." He came to the kitchen and watched her Prepare the tea. Palmer Kirby liked to watch her move around, and his eyes on her made Rhoda feel young and fetching as They sat at a low table in the sunshine and she decorously poured tea and passed him buttered bread. The picture could not have been more placid⁸⁵ and respectable. "Almost as good as the tea at Mrs. Murchison's guesthouse," Kirby said. "Almost." "Now never mind! How long will you be in Denver?" "Only overnight Then I have to come to Washington. Our board's going to meet with some British scientists. From the advance papers, they've got some remarkable⁸⁶ stuff. "I'm sure they're surprising the Germans.""So! You'll be in Washington next." "Yes. Got a good reason to go to Washington?" "Oh, dear, Palmer, don't you realize I know everybody in that town, Absolutely everybody. And anybody I don't know, Pug knows.)' He said after a glum⁸⁷ pause, "It's not very satisfactory, is it? I don't see myself as a homewrecker. Especially of a military man serving abroad." "Look, dear, I don't see myself as a scarlet⁸⁸ woman. I've been to church both Sundays since. I don't feel guilty, but I do feel mighty⁸⁹ curious, I'll tell you that." She poured more tea for him. "It must be the war, Palmer. I don't know. With Hitler bestriding Europe and London burning to the ground, all the old ideas seem, I don't know, NUVIAL or something. I Mean conpared to what's real at the moment-the swans out in back at Mrs. Murchison's place-those sweet pink lily pads, the rain, the gray cat-the tea, those funny doughy⁹⁰ cakes-and you and me. That's as far as I've gotten." "I didn't tell you why I'm going to Denver." "No. "There's a buyer for my house. Wants to pay a tremendous price. I've told you about the house." "Yes, it sounds heavenly. Do you really want to let it go?" "I ratite around in it. I've been thinking, and it comes to this. Most of my friends are in Denver. The house is perfect to live in, to entertain in, to have my children and the grandchildren for visits. If I had a wife, I wouldn't sell it." He stopped, looking at her now with serious, large brown eyes filled with worried shyness. The look was itself a proposal of marriage. "What do you think, Rhoda?" -Oh, Palmer! Oh, heavenly days!" Rhoda's eyes brimmed. She was not totally astonished, but the relief was beyond description. This resolved the puzzlement. It had not been a crazy slip, after all, like that foolishness with Kip Tollever, but a grand passion. Grand passions were different. He said, 'That can't really be news to you. We wouldn't have stayed at Mrs. Murchison's if I hadn't felt this way." "Well! Oh, my lord. I'm proud and happy that you should think of me like that. Of course I am. But-Palmer!" She swept her hand almost gaily⁹¹ at the photographs on the piano. "I have friends who've married again in their fifties, Rhoda.
After divorces, some of them, and some are blissfully happy." Rhoda sighed, dashed her fingers to her eyes, and smiled at him. "Is it that you want to make an honest woman of me? That's terribly gallant⁹², but unnecessary." Palmer Kirby leaned forward earnestly, tightening⁹³ his large loose mouth. "Pug Henry is an admirable man. It didn't happen because you're a bad woman. There was a rift⁵¹ in your marriage before we met. There had to be." In a very shaky voice, Rhoda said, "Before I ever knew him, Pug was a Navy fullback. I saw him play in two Army-Navy games. I had a boyfriend who loved those games-let me talk, Palmer, maybe I'll collect myself. He was an aggressive, exciting player, this husky little fellow darting⁹⁴ all over the field. Then, my stars, he BURST on me in Washington. The actual Pug Henry, whose picture had been in the papers and all that. The war was on. He looked dashing in blue and gold, I must say! Well, great heavens, he courted the way he played football. And he was very funny in those days. Pug has a droll⁹⁵ wit, you know, when he bothers to use it. Well, all the boys I went with were just from the old Washington crowd, all in to the same schools, all cut out by the same cookie cutter, you might say. Pug was something different. He still is. For one thing, he's a very carious Christian⁹⁶, and you can bet that took a lot of getting used to! I mean right from the start it was a complicated thing. I mean it didn't seem to interfere⁹⁷ at all with his ROMANCING, if I make myself clear, and yet-well, Pug is altogether unusual and wonderful. I'll always say that. I must bore Pug. I know he loves me, but-the thing is he is so Navy! Why, that man left me standing⁹⁸ at my wedding reception, Palmer, for half an hour, while he drove his commanding officer to catch a train back to Norfolk! That's Victor Henry for you. But in twenty-five years-oh dear, now for the very first time I suddenly feel very, very wretched." Rhoda cried into her handkerchief, her shoulders shaking. He came and sat beside her. When she calmed down, she looked at him and said, "You go along to Denver, but ask yourself this. I've done this to Pug. Wouldn't you be thinking for ever and a day, if by some wild chance you got what you're asking for, that I'd do it to you? Of course you would. Why not?" He stood. "I'll keep that appointment in Denver, Rhoda. But I don't think I'll sell the house." "Oh, sell it! As far as I'm concerned, you go right ahead and sell that house, Palmer. I only think you yourself might regret it one day." "Good-bye, Rhoda. I'll telephone you from Washington. Sorry I missed Madeline this time. Give her my best." He said, glancing at the photographs'on the piano, "I think your kids would like me. Even that strange Byron fellow.""How could they fail to? That isn't the problem." She walked with him to the door. He kissed her like a husband going off on a trip. IEPTEMBERwas crisping the Berlin air and yellowing the leaves when s Pug got back. Compared to London under the blitz, the city looked at peace. Fewer uniforms were in sight, and almost no trucks or tanks. After beating France, Hitler had partially¹⁰⁰ demobilized to free workers for the farms and factories. His remaining soldiers were not loafing around Berlin. Either they were poised¹⁰¹ for invasion on the coast, or they garrisoned¹⁰² France and Poland, or they guarded a thin prudent¹⁰³ line facing the Soviet¹⁰⁴ union. Only the air war showed its traces: round blue-gray snouts of flak guns poking¹⁰⁵ above autumn leaves, flaxen-haired German children in a public square gawking at a downed Wellington. The sight of the forlorn British bomber-a twin of F for Freddie-with its red, white, and blue bull's-eye, gave Pug a sad twinge. He tried and failed to see the wrecked¹⁰⁶ gasworks. Scowling¹⁰⁷ Luftwaffe guards and wooden street barriers cordoned¹⁰⁸ off the disaster. Goering had long ago announced that if a single British bomb ever fell on Berlin, the German people could call him Meyer. The evidence of Meyer's shortcomings was off limits. But Pug wondered how many Germans would have gone there anyway to look. These were weird¹⁰⁹ people. In Lisbon, when he boarded the Lufthansa plane, Germany had then and there smitten¹¹⁰ him: the spotless interior, the heel-clicking steward¹¹¹, the fast service of food and drink, the harsh barking loudspeaker, and his seatmate, a fat be"pectacled blond doctor who clinked wineglasses with him and spoke¹¹³ warmly of the United States and of his sister in Milwaukee. The doctor expressed confidence that America and Germany would always be friends. Hitler and Roosevelt were equally great men and they both wanted peace. He deplored¹¹⁴ the ruthless murder of Berlin civilians¹¹⁵ by British bombers, as contrasted to the Luftwaffe's strict concentration on military targets. The R.A.F, he pointed¹¹⁶ out, painted the underside of their planes with a remarkable black varnish¹¹⁷ that rendered them invisible at night, and constantly changed altitude so that the A.A. batteries had trouble finding the range. That was how they had sneaked¹¹⁸ by. But these petty unfair tricks would avail them nothing. German science would find the answer in a week or two. The war was really over and won. The Luftwaffe was invincible¹¹⁹. The British criminals responsible for dropping bombs on women and little children would soon have to face the bar of ustice. This man was exactly like a London music-hall burlesque German, complete to the squinting¹²⁰ smile and the rolls of fat on his neck. Pug got tired of him. He said dryly that he had just come from London and that the Luftwaffe was getting beaten over England. The man at once froze, turned his back on Pug, and ostentatiously flourished an Italian newspaper with lurid¹²¹ picturesof London on fire. Then when Pug first returned to the Grunewald house, the art museum director who lived next door, a vastly learned little dark man named Dr. Baltzer, rushed over, dragging a game leg, to offer his neighbor a drink and to chat about the imminent¹²² British collapse¹²³. Besides being obliging neighbors, the Baltzers had invited the Henrys to many interesting exhibitions and parties. Mrs. Baltzer had become Rhoda's closest German friend. Tactfully, Pug tried to tell his neighbor that the war wasn't going quite the way Goebbels's newspapers and broadcasters pictured it. At the first hint that the R.A.F was holding its own, the little art expert bristled¹²⁴ and went limping out, forgetting his offer to give Pug a drink. And this was a man who had hinted many times that the Nazis¹²⁵ were vulgar ruffians and that Hitler was a calamity¹²⁶. This was what now made Berlin completely intolerable. The Germans had balled themselves into one tight fist. The little tramp had his one Reich, one people, one leader," that he had so long screeched¹²⁷ for. Victor Henry, a man of discipline, understood and admired the stiff obedient efficiency of these people, but their mindless shutting out of facts disgusted him. It was not only stupid, not only shameless; it was bad warmaking. The "estimate of the situation"-a phrase borrowed by the Navy from Prussian military doctrine¹²⁸-had to start from the facts. When Ernst Grohke telephoned to invite him to lunch shortly after His return, he accepted gladly. Grohke was one of the few German military men he knew who seemed to retain some common sense amid the Nazi delirium¹²⁹. In a restauraiat crowded with uniformed Party officials and high military brass, the submariner griped openly about the war, especially the way Gijring had botched the Battle of Britain. From time to time he narrowed his eyes and glanced over one shoulder and the other, an automatic gesture in Germany when talking war or politics. "We'll still win," he said. "They'll try all the dumb alternatives and then they'll get around to it." "To what?" Pug said. 'Blockade, of course. The old English weapon turned against them. They can't blockade us. We've got the whole European coast open from the Baltic all the way around to Turkey. Even Napoleon never had that. But England's got a negative balance of food and fuel that has to choke her to death. If Goering had just knocked out harbors this summer and sunk sbi, -adding that to the tremendous score our U-boats and magnetic mines have been piling up-England would already be making aproaches through the Swiss and the Swedes." He calmly lifted both hands upward. "No alternative! We're sinking them all across the Atlantic. They don't have the strength to convoy¹³⁰. If they did, our new tactics and torpedoes¹³² would still lick them. Mind you, we started way under strength on U-boats, Victor. But finally denitz convinced Raeder, and Raederconvinced the Fuhrer. After Poland, when England turned down the peace offer, we started laying keels by the dozens. They begin coming off the ways next January. An improved type, a beauty. Then-four, five months, half a milliod tons sunk a month, and phfffi-Churchill kaput. You disagree?" Grohke grinned at him. The small U-boat man wore a well-tailored purplish tweed suit and a clashing yellow bow tie. His face glowed with sunburned, confident good health. "Come on. You don't have to sympathize. We all know your President's sentiments, hen? But you understand the sea and you know the situation." Pug regarded Grohke wryly¹³⁴. He rather agreed with this estimate. "Well, if Goering really will switch to blockade, and if you do have a big new fleet of 'em coming along-but that's a couple of big if's." "You doubt my word?" "I wouldn't blame you for expanding a bit." "You're all right, Victor." Grohke laughed. "Goddamn. But I don't have to expand. You'll see, beginning in January." "Then it may get down to whether we come in." The U-boat man stopped laughing. 'Yes. That's the question. But now your President sneaks¹³⁵ a few old airplanes and ships to England, and he can't even face your Congress with that. Do you think your people will go for sending out American warships to be sunk by U-boats? Roosevelt is a tough guy, but he is afraid of your people." "Well! Ernst Grohke and Victor Henry! The two sea dogs, deciding the war." The banker Wolf Steller was bowing over them, thin sandy hair plastered down, cigarette holder¹³⁶ sucking out of his smile. "Victor, that is a beautiful new suit. Savile Row?" "Yes, as a matter of fact." "Unmistakable. Well, it will be a pleasure to start ordering clothes there again. There are no tailors like the British. I say, how far along are you gentlemen? Come and join us. just a few pleasant chaps at our table." "No thank you, Herr Steller," Pug said. "I must get back to my office quickly." "Of course. I say, Ernst, did you tell Captain Henry you're coming to Abendruh this weekend? Victor's an old Abendrub visitor, you know. By jove! Why don't you come along this time, Victor? Twice lately you've said no, but I'm not proud. You and your old friend Ernst can tell each other big sea lies all weekend! Do say yes. There will be just two or three other spjendid fellows. And some lovely ladies, not all ofthem attached." Under Victor Henry's quick glance, Grohke smiled unnaturally¹³⁸ and said, "Well, that's not a bad idea, is it?" "All right," said the American. It was quite clear to him now what was going on and why Grohke had called him. "Thank you very much." "Grand. Ripping. See you on Friday," said the banker, clapping Victor Henry on the shoulder. After this, the talk of the two naval officers was lame⁸¹ and sparse¹³⁹. Ernst Grohke busied himself with his food, not looking much at Pug. That same afternoon, to Victor Henry's surprise, his yeoman rang him and said Natalie Jastrow was on the line from Siena. "Jehosephat! Put her on." "Hello? Hello? What happened? I was calling Captain Henry in Berlin." The girl's voice was muffled¹⁴⁰ and burbling. "Here I am, Natalie." "Oh, hello! Is Byron all right?" "He's fine." -Oh, what a relief!" The interference on the line stopped. Natalie's voice came clear. "I haven't had a single letter from him since I left. I sent a cable and got no answer. I know how impossible the mail is nowadays, but still I've begun to worry." 'Natalie, he hasn't had any letters from you. He wrote me that. And I'm sure he didn't get your cable. But he's in good shape." "Why, I've been writing once a week. How aggravating¹⁴¹ that is! I miss him so. How's he doing in submarine school?" Outside Victor Henry's window, the guard was changing at the chancellery, with rhythmic¹⁴² boot-thumpings and brisk German barks. Natalie's telephone voice stirred an ache in him. The New York accent was different from Pamela's, but it was a young low girlish voice like hers. 'Scraping by, I gather." Her laugh, too, was much like Pamela's, husky and slightly mocking. 'That sounds right." "Natalie, he expected you back long before this." "I know. There were problems, but they're straightening out. Be sure to tell him I'm fine. Siena's quite charming in wartime, and very peaceful.
It's sort of sinking back into the Middle Ages, Byron's got three months to go, hasn't he?" "He finishes in December, if they don't throw him out sooner." Again the laugh. "They won't. Briny¹⁴³ is actually very sure "footed, you know. I'll be back by December. Please write and tell him that. Maybe a letter from you will get through." "It will. I'll write today." It was a small gathering¹⁴⁴ at Abendruh, with no staircase slide. Pug was sorry that Ernst Grohke didn't see the crude elaborate joke, so much to the Teutonic taste. The submariner obviously was ill at ease, and could have used the icebreaker. The other men were a Luftwaffe general and a high official in the foreign ministry¹⁴⁵, company far above Grohke. The five pretty ladies were not wives. Mrs. Stiller was absent. Victor Henry sized all this up as an orgy in the making, to get him hat to his surprise, they went to talk about the British. After dinner, somew to a wood-panelled room where musical instruments were ready, and Steller, the Luftwaffe general, the man from the foreign ministry, and a the banker had redheaded lady played quartets. In Pug's previous visits hown no musical skill, but Steller played first violin quite well. The Luftwaffe general, a very tall dark cadaverous man with sickly hollow eyes, bowed and swayed over the cello¹⁴⁶, drawing forth luscious¹⁴⁷ sounds. Pug had seen this man once before, at a distance at Karinhall in full uniform; he had looked far more formidable then than he did now in his dinner jacket and monocle. The musicians made mistakes, stopped a couple of times, joked stly, and took up the music once more. The foreign ministry man on the second violin, a roly-poly Bavarian with a drooping¹⁴⁸ yellow mustache, was a superb fiddler. It was the best amateur music Pug had ever heard. Grohke sat with the submissiveness of most Germans in the presence of art, drinking a lot of brandy and stifling¹⁴⁹ yawns. After a couple of hours of this, the ladies abruptly¹⁵⁰ said goodnight and left. If there had been a signal, Pug missed it. "Perhaps we might have a nightcap outside," said the banker to Pug, putting his violin carefully in its case. "The evening is warm. Do you like the tone of my Stradivarius? I wish I were worthy¹⁵¹ to play it." The broad stone terrace looked out on a formal garden, a darkly splashing fountain, and the river; beyond that, forest. A smudged orange moon in its last quarter was rising over the trees. In the light of reddishyellow flares¹⁵³ on long iron poles, shadows danced on the house and the flagstone floor. The five sat, and a butler passed drinks. Melodious¹⁵⁴ birds sang in the quiet night, reminding Pug (men) of the nightingales at the British bomber base. "Victor, if you care to talk about England," said Steller from the depths of an easy chair, his face in black shadow, "we would of course be interested." Pug forced a jocular tone. "You mean I have to admit I've been in England?"The banker heavily took up the note. "Ha, ha. Unless you want to get our intelligence people in bad trouble, you'd better." After everybody else laughed, he said, "If you prefer, we'll drop the subject here and now for the weekend. Cur hospitality hasn't got-how do you say it in English?"-he switched from the German they were all speaking-"strings¹⁵⁵ tied to it." But you're in an unusual position, having travelled between the capitals." "Well, if you want me to say youpve shot the R.A.F out of the sky and the British Will quit next week, it might be better to drop it now." In a gloomy bass⁴⁵ voice, the long shadowy form of the general spoke. 'We know we haven't shot the R.A.F out of the sky. 'Speak freely. General jagow is my oldest friend," said Steller. " we were schoolboys together. And Dr. Meusse"-he waved an arm at the foreign ministry man, and a long skeletal shadow arm leaped on the wallgoes back almost that far." 'We say in the Luftwaffe," put in the general, "the red flag is up. That means we all talk straight. We say what we think about the Fuhrer, about Goering, about anything and anybody. And we say the goddamnedest things, I tell you." 'Okay, I like those ground rules," said Victor Henry. "Fire away." 'Would an invasion succeed?" spoke up Dr. Meusse. 'What invasion? Can your navy get you across?" "Why not?" said General jagow in calm professional tones. "Through a corridor barricaded¹⁵⁶ on both sides by mine belts, and cordoned off by U-boats, under an umbrella of Luftwaffe? Is it so much to ask of the Grand Fleet?" Pug glanced at Grohke, who sat glumly¹⁵⁷ swirling¹⁵⁸ brandy in a bell glass. 'You've got a U-boat man here. Ask him about the cordons¹⁵⁹ and the mine belts." With an impatient gesture that flicked¹⁶⁰ brandy into the air, Grohke said, in thick tones, "Very difficult, possibly suicidal, and worst of all, entirely¹⁶¹ unnecessary." General jagow leaned toward Grohke, his monocle glittering in the flare¹⁵² light, his face stiff with anger. Pug exclaimed, "Red flag's up. "So it is," jagow said, with an unforgiving glare at the submariner, who slouched down in darkness. "I agree with him," Pug said. "Part of a landing force might get through-not saying in what shape. There's still the invasion beacheswhich I've seen close on. Which I personally would hate to approach from seaward.""Clearing beach obstacles is a technical task," jagow said, with a swift return to offhand¹⁶² tones. "We have special sappers well trained for that." "General, our marine⁴³ corps has been studying and rehearsing beach assaults intensively for years. It's the toughest attack problem in the book. I don't believe the Webrmacht ever thought about it until a few weeks ago." "German military ingenuity¹⁶³ is not negligible," said Dr. Meusse. "No argument," said Victor Henry. jagow said, "Of course we can't land without wastage. We would take big but endurable losses. Once we obtained a solid lodgment, you might see Churchill fall. The Luftwaffe would fight for the beachhead to the last plane. But I believe the R.A.F would run out of planes first." Victor Henry made no comment. "What is the bombing of London doing to British morale?" Steller asked. "You're making Churchill's job easier. They're fighting mad now. Knocking hell out of London won't win the war. Not in my judgment¹⁶⁴. Not to mention that bombers can fly east as well as west." The general and the banker looked at each other. The general's voice was sepulchral¹⁶⁵. "Would it surprise you if some people here agreed with you?" "Churchill cleverly provoked the Fuhrer by bombing Berlin on the twenty-sixth," said Steller. 'We had to hit back, for morale reasons. The trick worked, but the British people must now pay. There's no political alternative but a big reprisal¹⁶⁶." 'Let's be honest," said Dr. Meusse. "Field Marshal Goering wanted to go after London and try to end it." jagow shook his head. "He knew it was too soon. We all did. It was those six days of bad weather that saved the R.A.F. We needed another week against those airfields¹⁶⁷. But in the long run it will all be the same." Steller said, "They're a brave people. I hate to see them prolong the agony." "They don't seem to mind," Victor Henry said. "By and large, they're having a good time. They think they're going to win." 'There is the weakness," said Dr. Meusse, pulling on his mustache.
"National megalomania. When a people loses touch with reality, it is finished." ' Stiller lit a thick cigar. "Absolutely. The course of this war is fixed¹⁶⁹ now by statistics-That is my department. Would you care to hear them?" "Gladly. Especially if you'll give away some secrets," said Victor Henry, evoking¹⁷⁰ friendly laughter from all the Germans except Grohke. The submariner was sunk in gloom or sleep. "No secrets," said Steller. 'The financial stuff may be a little new to you. But take my word for it, my figures are right." 'I'm sure of that." "Good. England lives at the end of-how would you put it-a revolving¹⁷¹ bucket chain of ships. She always has. This time the buckets are being shot off the chain faster than she can replace them. She started the war with about twenty million tons of shipping¹⁷². Her own, and what she could scrape up elsewhere. That tonnage is disappearing fast. The rate now is-what's the latest?" He spoke condescendingly to Grohke. The submariner covered a yawn. "That figure is secret. Victor must have a damn good idea from what he heard in London." Pug said, 'I have." "All right. Then you know the curve is upward. Nothing else matters in this war. England will soon run out of fuel and food, and that will be that. When her machines stop, and her planes are grounded, and her people are clamoring for food, Churchill will fall. There's no way out." 'Isn't there? My country has a lot of fuel and food-and steel and shipyards too-and we're open for business.)) The banker coldly smiled. -yes, but your Neutrality Act requires that England pay cash for everything. Cash and carry. That is the one sensible thing your people learned from the last war, when England repudiated¹⁷³ her war debts. Roosevelt, Willkie, it doesn't matter now. There isn't a chance-you bear me out on this, Victor-that your Congress will ever make another war loan to England. Will they? " "No." cd All right. Then she is kaput. She started the war with about five billions in foreign exchange. Our intelligence is she's already spent more than four. The planes and supplies and ships she needs right now to keeping will wipe out the last billion or SO like a snowball on a hot stove.
By December the British Empire will be broke. Bankrupt! You see, dear fellow, they got into a war they couldn't fight and couldn't pay for. That is the simple fact. And it was the political genius of the Fuhrer, Victorwhatever you think of him-to foresee this, through all the fog of the future. just as he foresaw that the French wouldn't fight. Staunch leadership brings victory." Steller leaned forward, with a disdainful hand-wave. "Yes, Churchill's words are very eloquent¹⁷⁴, very touching¹⁷⁵, very spiritual. But he was England's worst Chancellor¹⁷⁶ of the Exchequer¹⁷⁷. He hasn't the slightest notion of logical or financial realities. Neither has had. His pretty literary soap bubbles are all going to pop. Then there will be peace." Dr. Meusse put in, "We are sinking ships now at a raic we never reached until the best months of 1917. Do you know that?" "I know that," said Captain Henry. "And as I said to Ernst the other day, that's when we came in." The silence on the terrace lasted a long time. Then Wolf Steller said, "And that is the world tragedy that must not occur now, Victor-Germany and America, the two great anti-Bolshevik powers, going to war. The only victor will be Stalin." The voice of Grohke, coarse and fuddled, issued from the depths of his chair. "It won't happen. It'll all be over too fast. Wait till January, when we get ourselves some U-boats." The weekend proved cold, dull, rainy, and-for Pug-very heavy on music and culture. The five ladies, all in their thirties, all mechanically flirtatious¹⁷⁸, were available for talks for walks, for dancing; and when the rain briefly¹⁷⁹ stopped, for tennis. Pug assumed they were available for the night, too. He had trouble telling them apart. Ernst Grohke slept a lot and left early on Sunday. The other three men had been indifferent to the submariner, though markedly warm and agreeable to Victor Henry. Obviously Grohke had served his purpose. Obviously his telephone call and the encounter with Steller in the restaurant had been arranged. These big shots were incapable¹⁸⁰ of carrying further a pretense¹⁸¹ of cordiality to a German four-striper. an Pug was asked, and he swered, many more questions about his trip to England. Except for one probe by the gaunt Luftwaffe man about the radar stations-which Pug answered with a blank, stupid look-there was no effort to pump hard intelligence out of him. Rather, there seemed to be an effort to pump him full of German politics, philosophy, and poetry. These three old comrades were mightily¹⁸² fond of intellectual talk, and kept pressing on Henry books from Steller's library that came up in conversation. He tried to read them at bedtime. After fifteen minutes, night after night, he fell into deep restful slumber¹⁸³. Germany's strange literature usually had that effect on Victor Henry. He had long since given up trying to understand the fantastic seriousness with which Germans took themselves, their "world-historical" position, and every twist and Turn of their murky¹⁸⁴ history since Charlemagne. From a military standpoint, all this river of ink about German destiny, German culture, German spirituality, Germanophilism, pan-Germanism, and the rest, kept underliningone fact. Here was an industrial people of eighty million that had spent a century uniting itself, talking to itself, rolling up its sleeves to lick the world, and convincing itself that God would hold Germany's coat and cheer it on. That was worth bearing in mind. The sun broke through late Sunday when they were having cocktails¹⁸⁵ on the terrace. Steller offered to show Victor Henry his prize pigs, and walked him a long way down the river to the pens. Here amid a great stink¹⁸⁶, the host told Henry the pedigrees of several remarkably¹⁸⁷ large hairy porkers, lying in muck and hungrily grunting¹⁸⁸. As they strolled back, the banker said, "Have you been badly bored, Victor?" 'y, not in the least," Pug lied. "I know it's been a different sort of weekend. Meusse and jagow are very spiritual fellows. We have been pals¹⁸⁹ forever. jagow was my first real contact with Goering. Before that I was very close to von Papen, who as you know was the Nazis' biggest opponent, until he himself in 1933 saw where destiny was pointing. He actually made Hitler chancellor." Steller idly struck at purple flowering thistles with his heavy black stick, knocking off thier heads. The broken flowers gave off a fresh rank smell. "Jagow thinks the world of you." "He plays a hell of a cello," said Pug, "for a fly-fly boy." "Yes. He is brilliant. But he is not well. Victor, he especially appreciates your willingness to talk about England. Most friendly of you." "I haven't revealed anything. Not intentionally¹⁹⁰." Steller laughed. 'You're an honorable servant of your government. Still, your observations have been illuminating¹⁹¹. What strikes all of us is your sense of honor. Honor is everything to a German. Flattery made Pug Henry uncomfortable. He met it with silence and a dulled look. "If there's anything that General jagow could do for you, I know it would give him pleasure." "That's very kind, but not that I know of." "Installations you might care to visit?" "Well, our air attache would jump at such an invitation." "As you wish. jagow would take a more personal interest in you. "There's one thing, a bit out of the ordinary. Am R.A.F pilot, a good friend of mine, went down in the Channel several weeks ago. Your people might have picked him up."With a wave of the knobby stick, Steller said, "That should be simple to find out. Give jagow this pilot's name, rank, and so forth. You'll have your answer shortly." "I'll be much obliged." "If your friend is a prisoner, you might even be able to visit him." "That would be great." Wolf Steller called him early in October, when Victor Henry had almost forgotten the strange weekend. "Your man is alive." "Who is?" Steller reeled off Gallard's name, rank, and serial¹⁹² number. "He is in France, sdE in a hospital but in good condition. General jagow invites you, as his personal guest, to visit Luftwaffe Headquarters close by. You are invited as a friend, not as an American attache. This telephone call is the only communication there will be. No reciprocity is necessary." After a moment Pug said, "Well, that's good news. The general is mighty kind." "As I told you, you made a hit with him." "I'll have to call you back." "Of course." The charge d'affaires, when Pug told him about this, drooped¹⁹³ his eyes almost shut, leaned back in his chair, and ran his thumb back and forth on his mustache. "The Luftwaffe man wants something of you." "Naturally." "Well, you have my approval. Why not jump at it? You might learn something, and you'll see this flier. Who is he?" "Well-he's engaged to the daughter of a friend of mine." The charge's eyes opened a little wider and he stroked his mustache. Pug felt pressed to add something. "Alistair Tudsbury's daughter, in fact." "Oh, he's Pam's fiance, is he? Lucky boy. Well, by all means go ahead and see how Pam Tudsbury's fiance is," said the charge, with a wisp of irony¹⁹⁴ that did not escape, and that irritated, Victor Henry. The weather was bad. Pug went to Lille by train. Rail travel was surprisingly back to normal in German-ruled Europe. The train left on time and roared through tranquil¹⁹⁵ rainy autumn landscapes. Germany, Belgium, and northern France looked all alike in October mist and drizzle, one large flat plain of farms, evergreens¹⁹⁶, and yellowing trees. The cities looked alike too, hodgepodges of ornate venerable buildings at the center, rimmed by severe modern structures; some were untouched by the war, some were scarred and blotched with rubble. In the crowded restaurant car, amiably chatting Germans, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Belgians, a few with wives, wined and dined amid rich good smells and a cheery clatter¹⁹⁷. Uniformed Wehrmacht officers, at a table apart, glanced with contempt at the civilians and gave the scurrying¹⁹⁸ waiters curt¹⁹⁹ commands. Otherwise it was business as usual under the New Order,except for the absence of Jews. The Jews had been the busiest travellers in Europe, but on this train none were to be seen. In the Berlin-Lille express, the Third Reich looked a good bet to last a thousand years, by right of natural superiority and the ability to run things. Trains headed the other way, jammed with cheerful young troops, gave Victor Henry his first solid hint that the invasion-if it had ever been on-might be off. An emissary of General jagow, a rigid¹³ thin lieutenant with extra gold braid on a shoulder, a splotch of ribbons, and a twitching²⁰⁰ eye muscle, met the American naval officer at the station, drove him to a grimy stone building with a facade²⁰¹ of wet statues in the middle of Lille, and left him in a cheerless, windowless little office containing an ink-stained desk and two chairs. The dusty yellow walls had clean squares and oblongs where pictures of French officials had been removed. Behind the desk was a bright new red, white, and black swastika flag, and the popuJar picture of Hitler scowling in his soldier's coat, cowlick falling over one eye, a photo crudely touched up to make him look younger. The room had the loudest-ticking pendulum²⁰² wall clock Pug had ever heard; its face was green and faded with age, The door opened. A helmeted German soldier with a submachine gun tramped in, wheeled at the desk, and crashed his boots to stiff attention. Gallard followed him, his right arm in a sling²⁰³, his face puffy, discolored, and bandaged, and behind him came the lieutenant with the twitching eye. The pilot wore his flying suit, in which large rips were crudely patched up. "Hello, Ted," said Victor Henry. Gallard said, with a look of extreme surprise, "Hello there!" A dressing⁷⁷ on his lower lip and chin muffled his speech. In quick precise German, the lieutenant told Captain Henry that, since British airmen were honor bound by their orders to seize every chance to escape, General jagow could not-to his regret-omit the precaution of an armed guard. There was no time for that. The soldier would not interfere. He had no knowledge of English. He was instructed to shoot at the first move to escape, so the lieutenant begged the gentlemen to avoid any gestures that might confuse him. As to the content of the interview, the general left it wholly to the honor of Captain Henry. If there were no questions, he would now withdraw. "How do I let you know when we're through?" Pug jerked a thumb at the blank-faced soldier. "If I get up and walk toward the door, for instance, that might confuse him." "Very true." The lieutenant inclined his head and his eye twitched²⁰⁴. "Then kindly²⁰⁵ raise the telephone for a few moments and replace it in the cradle. I will then return. Permit me to mention that the general hopes you will join him for lunch at advance headquarters, a drive of forty kilometers from here." As the door closed, Pug pulled out his cigarettes, and lit one for the Pilot. "Ah! God bless you." Gallard inhaled²⁰⁶ the smoke as a man emerging from under water gulpsair. "Does Pam know? Did anybody see me parachute?" "One of your mates claimed he had. She's sure you're alive." 'Good. Now you can tell her." "That'll be a rare pleasure." The wall clock ticked very loudly. Flicking²⁰⁷ the cigarette clumsily with his left hand, Gallard glanced at the guard, who stood like a post, machine gun slanted²⁰⁸ in his white-knuckled hands. The beetling²⁰⁹ line of the German helmet gave the farm-boy face a stern, statuesque look. "Puts a bit of a chill on the small talk, eh?" "He's rather a ripe one," Pug said. The guard, staring straight ahead, was giving off a co -upt unwashed smell in the close little room, though his smooth-shaven face was clean enough. "Rather. I say, this is the surprise of my life. I thought I was in for a rough grilling²¹⁰, or maybe for getting whisked off to Germany. They never told me a thing, except that I'd get shot if I misbehaved. You must have good friends in the Luftwaffe." What do you want me to tell Pamela?" 'Will you be seeing her?" "I don't think so. I'm going back to Washington shortly. I can wire or write her." "There's so much to tell. First of all, I'm all right, more or less. Some burns around the face and neck." He lifted the slung²¹¹ arm. "Luckily the bullet only broke the bone, didn't shatter it. I can't fault the medical attention. The food's been bloody²¹² awful-moldy black bread, vile¹³⁷ margarine with a petroleum²¹³ aftertaste, soup full of rotten potatoes. The other day it mysteriously improved. just in my ward⁴⁷. Last night we had a really passable stew¹¹², through it might have been Lille cats and dogs. Tasted good. I suppose all that was apropos²¹⁴ of your little visit. I'm terribly grateful to you. Really, it's splendid that you've managed to do this, Captain Henry. How is Pam? Tell me about her. When did you last see her? How did she look?" "I saw her several times after you disappeared. She'd come down to London, and I'd take her to dinner and to cheerful places. For a while she was peaky and wouldn't eat. But she was coming around. Practically the last thing she told me was that she expected you back. That she was goidg to wait for you and marry you." The pilot's eyes grew moist, "She's aMarvelous girl, Pamela." He looked around at the guard. "Say, he does smell bad, doesn't he?" Watching the soldier's dull unchanging face, he said in an offhand tone, "Will you look at that face? Explains a lot, doesn't it? Eighty million docile²¹⁵ dangerous swine like this fellow. No wonder Hitler's their leader." There was not a flicker²¹⁶ in the soldier's eyes. "I really don't think he understands English." "Don't count on it," said Pug, dry and fast. "Well, tell her I admit she was right. When I get back I'll take the headquarters job. That's where I belong." He shook his head. "Silly clot⁵⁰ that I am. These jerries were ahead of me and below, Me-ri o's, three sitters-a great chance. But I missed my shot, didn't pull up in time, dove right down between them, and next thing I knew I felt a slam on the shoulder, just like a very hard punch. My engine caught fire. I pulled back hard on my stick and by God it was loose as a broken neck. I looked around and saw I had no tail section. Shot clean off. Well, I released the hood²¹⁷ and the harness pin, and crawled out of there. I don't even remember getting burned, but the flames got to my face, mostly around the mouth. I only felt it when the salt water stung." Gallard sighed and glanced around the room, his dejected eyes coming to rest on the rigid malodorous soldier. "And here I am. What's happening in the war? The Hun doctors say it's practically over. Of course that's a lie." Victor Henry made his account as cheerful as possible. The pilot nodded and brightened. "That's more like it." The clock ticked. The soldier startled them by contorting his face and sneezing twice. Tears ran down his face, but he stood rigid as before. "Ruddy idiotic," said Gallard, 'that you'll walk out of here to lunch with a Luftwaffe general, and I'll still be a prisoner at gunpoint. I suppose You'd better be cracking off." "No hurry. Take a few cigarettes. I'd give you the pack, but Rosebud²¹⁸ might think it was funny business and get confused." "Ha! Rosebud is good. Damned thoughtful of you, sir." Gallard pulled out several cigarettes, and then impulsively²¹⁹ extended the pack toward the soldier. The German's eyes shifted down and up, and he briefly shook his head like a horse driving off Hies. Gallard chain-lit a cigarette. "Look here, I don't know how you've managed this, but thank you. Thank you! It's helped more than you can guess." "Well, it was mainly luck, but I'm glad I tracked you down." With a distorted grin-the left side of Gallard's bandaged mouth seemed frozen-the pilot said, "Of course Pam thinks you can do anything." Pug glanced up at the old clock. The numbers were too faded to read, but the hands werealmost closed at noon. "I guess I'd better not keep the general waiting." "Certainly not, sir." The pilot looked at the guard and added, "Anyway, while I'll never forget Rosebud, he's making me ill." The clock pock-pocked a dozen times while Victor Henry held the telephone receiver up off the hook. He replaced it. "Tell Pam I'll be seeing her," said Gallard, in firm tones implying an intention to escape. 'Be careful." "Trust me for that. I've got a lot to live for, you know. You're elected to be best man, if you're witmn a thousand miles." "If I am, I'll come." Driving through Lille, Pug marked again, as he had in the restaurant car, how German rule had serenely²²⁰ settled in. In the drizzly²²¹ gray streets and boulevards of this large industrial town, the French were going about their business, directed by French policemen, driving French cars with French license²²² plates, amid French shops and billboards²²³. Only here and there an official poster in heavy black German type, a sign on a street or over a building entrance-often containing the word oTEN-and the jarring sight of German soldiers cruising in army cars, reminded one that Hitler was the master of Lille. No doubt the city was being politely and methodically plundered²²⁴. Pug had heard about the techniques: the worthless occupation currency with which the Germans bought up most things, and the meaningless custody²²⁵ receipts given by outright²²⁶ looters. But the process was nowhere visible. The busy pedestrians²²⁷ of Lille looked glum, but Victor Henry had never seen the French when they were not looking glum. Here, as on the train, the New Order appeared good for a thousand years. In a tall LuftwafFe cap, shiny black boots, and a slick blue-gray milary raincoat to it his ankles, the cello player looked taller, leaner, and considerably²²⁸ fiercer. The lieutenant's slavish bows and heel clicks, the scrambling²²⁹ obsequiousness²³⁰ of everybody at headquarters, amply showed that jagow was most high brass. He offered Victor Henry his choice of a decent lunch at a "rather comfortable" chateau²³¹ nearby, commandeered by the Luftwaffe, or a mere¹⁶ bite here at the airfield¹⁶⁸. Nodding approval of Pug's preference, he doffed²³² his raincoat, dropping it from his shoulders without looking around at the lieutenant who caught it. On a cloth-covered table in an inner office, the general and his guest ate soup, trout²³³, veal⁶⁹, cheese, and fruit, all served up in gold-trimmed china by gliding²³⁴, smiling French waiters, with three superb wines. General jagow picked at the food and hardly tasted the wine. Recognizing the cyanosed pallor of heart trouble, Victor Henry made no comment. He was hungry and dug in heartily²³⁵ while the general smoked cigarettes and talked, in a clipped exact German which his lieutenant evidently had been imitating. Often he interrupted himself to cover his mouth and cough carefully.
The United States Navy, jagow said, was the only military machine in the world professionally comparable to the German army. He had visited it as an observer in the thirties, and had brought back to Goering the dive-bombing idea. So the Luftwaffe had developed the Stuka. 'Whether you approve or not," he said with a tired smile, "the success of our blitzkrieg owes a sizable debt to your Navy." "Well, maybe we'll take that bow after the war, General." The American Army, jagow went on with a wry¹³³ nod at Pug's irony, was in no way comparable. The doctrine and practice, like that of all modern armies, derived²³⁶ from German General Staff concepts. But he had noticed an amateurishness²³⁷, a lack of.spirit in the maneuvers²³⁸, and the numbers were pitiful. Essentially²³⁹, the United States was a great sea power, he said, linking the two world oceans. The state of the armed forces reflected that geopolitical fact. That started him on Spengler, who he said had failed, like all too many Germans, to understand the United States. That was the fallacy in 'The Decline of the West. The United States was white Christian Europe again, given a second chance on a rich virgin²⁴⁰ continent. America allied²⁴¹ to a modernized²⁴² orderly Europe could bring on a vast rebirth of the West, a new golden age. At least this was what Pug made out of the general's cloudy high-flown talk, so much like the evening conversations at Aberidruh. Over the coffee-terrible stuff tasting like burned walnut²⁴³ shellsjagow said, "Would you care to have a look at the aerodrome? The weather is rather disagreeable." "I'd like that very much, if one of your aides can spare the time." The weary smile reappeared. "I finished my work on this campaign long ago. The rest is up to the field commanders. I am at your disposal." They drove around the aerodrome in a small closed car, full of the sulphurous fumes²⁴⁴ of German gasoline. In wan² sunlight, from holes of bright blue opening in the low overcast²⁴⁵ sky, stubby Messerschmitt log's stood half-concealed in dispersal bunkers, their painted crosses and swastikas much the worse for wear. It was just like a British fighter base: repair shops, hangars, dispersal huts, crisscrossing air strips, set among peaceful farms, and rolling pastures where herds²⁴⁶ of cows grazed. Fading signs in French showed that this was an expanded base of the defeated French air force. Most of the buildings were raw new structures of wood or cement. Cracked old landing strips stood beside broad fresh ones like autobahns. "You've done all this since June?" said Pug. "Pretty good." jagow for a moment looked like a flattered old man, showing his sparse teeth in a pleased soft grin. "You have the professional eye. The Western newspaper smart alecks want to know why the Luftwaffe waited six precious weeks before commencing the attack. What do they know about logistics?" While Hitler left the operation of the air force strictly²⁴⁸ to Goering, said the general, he hadinsisted on one point which showed his military genius. After the conquest of the Low Countries and northern France, advanced air bases had had to be set up on his orders. Only then would he allow the Luftwaffe to strike at England. Advanced bases would double or triple German air power. The same plane could make two or three times as many attacks in the same number of hours, and-on these shortened runs kilograms of bombs could replace kilograms of gasoline. "The simplest strategic thinking," said jagow, "and the soundest." They visited a dispersal hut, where worn-looking German youngsters, strangely like the R.A.F fighter pilots, lounged in flying suits, ready to go. But when they saw jagow they sprang to attention as the British pilots never had. The hut was roughly built, and the plump simpering pinup girls on the wooden walls, next to mime(more) ographed watch notices and regulations, offered doughy German sexiness rather than the bony Anglo-American variety. Otherwise it was all the same, including the mildewy²⁴⁹ smell of bedding and flying clothes. As jagow's car drove along the field, an air raid siren went off. Pilots came scrambling out of their huts. "Stop the car," he said to the driver, adding to Victor Henry, "A nuisance raid, high level. A sound tactic¹³¹, we must respond and it throws our pilots off balance. But the British pay with a lot of bombers. Flimsy planes, poorly armed. Shall we get out and watch?" Messerschmitt after Messerchmitt wheeled into position and roared off, a steady stream of steep-climbing fighters. "TO Me this is a depressing sight," said jagow, hugging his lean body in the shiny long coat with both arms, as though chilled. "Germans fighting Englishmen. Diamond cut diamond. It is civil war in the West, plain suicidal foolishness. The English could have a decent honorable peace tomorrow. That bulldog Churchill is counting on one thing and one thing only-American help." "General, he's counting on the courage of his people and the quality of his air force." "Captain Henry, if Roosevelt cut off all help and told Churchill he wanted to mediate²⁵⁰ a peace, how long would this war go on?" "But that's impossible. "Very true, because your President is surrounded by Morgenthals, Frankfurters, and Lehmans." General jagow held up a long skinny hand in a long gray glove as Pug started to protest. "I am not a Nazi. I came into the Luftwaffe from the army. Don't ever think anti-Semitism is aGerman problem. Ah over EuroPe the attitude toward the Jews is exactly the same. The Fuhrer has been realistic in spelling it out, that's all. Some of his Party followers²⁵¹ have committed silly excesses. But you can't indict²⁵² a whole people for the crudeness of a few. Those American Jews around Roosevelt make the same mistake that our Nazi fanatics²⁵³ do.n "General jagow," Pug broke in earnestly, "You can't make a greater mistake than to believe that the Jews are behind our hostility²⁵⁴ to Hitler's regime." He was hoping to penetrate²⁵⁵ this hardened German obsession²⁵⁶ just once. Jagow was unusually intelligent. "A lot of our people deeply admire the Germans. I do. But some things Hitler has done are unforgivable to any American." "Things Hitler has done!" jagow sighed, his eyes heavy and sad. "I'll tell you something that may amaze you, Captain. When we took Poland, It was we Germans who stopped the Poles from murdering the jews-They took our arrival as a signal to let loose. It was like open season on Jews! The atrocities²⁵⁷ were unbelievable. Yes, our Wehrrnacht had to step in and shield the Jews from the Poles." The general coughed hard. "I am not pretending we love the Jews. I don't claim they should love us. 1 re tr gi all actually understand the Morgenthals. But they' a c y wrong. The United States must not allow a war to the death between England and Germany. We are all one civilization. We are the West. If we fight it out among ourselves we'll go down before Asiatic Bolshevism. There will be barbaric darkness for a thousand years." jagow fell silent, his hollow, somewhat feverish²⁵⁸ eyes boring at Pug. Then he put out a long stiff finger. 'If there were only a few strong advisers²⁵⁹ to give your President this viewpoint! But those advisers who aren't Jewish are of British descent. It's a damnable situation. We'll beat the British, Captain Henry. We have the power. We never intended to fight them. The Fuhrer could have built a thousand submarines and strangled England in three months. He never emphasized U-boats. You know that. What do we gain by such a victory? We only crush our finest natural ally." "Well, General, you attacked Poland when she was England's ally. You made the deal with Stalin. Those things are done." "They were forced on us." Behind a gloved hand, jagow coughed long and genteelly. 'We are a strange people, Captain Henry, hard for others to understand. We are very generous, very naive²⁶⁰. Always we are reaching for the stars. To others we seem insensitive and arrogant²⁶¹. Our English cousins are every bit as arrogant, I assure you. Ah, but what a manner theycultivated! They despise their Jews. They keep them out of the clubs where power is concentrated, and the banks, and all vital positions. But they act politely to them. We admitted the Jews to all our very highest circles, until they swarmed²⁶² in and threatened to take over entirely. But we showed our feelings. That's the difference. The German is all feeling, all Faustian striving. Appeal to his honor, and he will march or fly or sail to his death with a happy song. That is our naivete, yes, our primitivism. But it is a healthy thing. America too has its own naivete, the primitive²⁶³ realism of the frontier, the cowboys. What does it all add up to? We need friends in the United States to explain that there are two sides to this war, and that the only solution is peace in the West, unity²⁶⁴ in the West, an alliance in the West that can control the world.-Ah, look there. The British markanship is rather hard on the French livestock²⁶⁵, but that's about all." On a distant hill, huge inverted²⁶⁶ pyramids of dirt splashed high in the air amid flame and smoke, and cows galloped²⁶⁷ clumsily around. The general glanced at his watch. "I have a little conference at headquarters. If you can stay for dinner, there is a very pleasant restaurant in Lille-"-'I have to return to Berlin, General. I can't express my gratitude²⁶⁸, but-" Up went the glove. "Please. To talk to an American, a professional military man, who shows some understanding of our situation, is literally²⁶⁹ good for my health." Messerschmitts were landing in the rain when jagow turned Victor Henry over to his lieutenant at the entrance to the headquarters building. "If we can be of further service in the matter of Flight Lieutenant Gallard, let us know," jagow said, stripping off a glove to offer a damp cold hand. "Auf Wiedersehen, Captain Henry. If I have been of any small service, all I ask is this. Wherever duty takes you, remember there are two sides to the war, and that on both sides there are men of honor. The ornately molded and carved ceilings in Wolf Steller's bank seemed forty feet high. It was after hours, A few clerks worked silently behind the grilles. The footsteps of the two men on the red marble floor echoed and re-echoed under the high vault²⁷⁰, like the tramp of a platoon. "It is a little gloomy here now," said Steller, "but very private. This way, Victor." They passed through a sizable conference room into a small richly furnished office, with a blaze of paintings crowding the walls; little though he knew, Henry recognized two Picassos and a Renoir. 'So, you go so soon," Steller said, gesturing to a heavy maroon²⁷¹ leather couch. "Did you expect this?" "Well, I thought my relief would be along in a couple of weeks. But when I got back from Lille, here he was, waiting.""Of course you are anxious to be reunited with your very beautiful wife." Victor Henry said, with a glance at the larger Picasso, a gruesomely distorted woman in flaring²⁷² colors, "I thought modern art was frowned on in the Third Reich." Steller smiled. "It has not gone down in value. The field marshal has one of the great collections of the world. He is a very civilized²⁷³ man. He knows these things will change." 'They will?" "Most assuredly, once the war is over. We are a nation under siege, Victor. Nerves get frayed²⁷⁴, a mood of extremism prevails. That will die away. Europe will be a wonderful place to live. Germany will be the pleasantest place of all. What do you say to a glass of sherry?" "That'll be fine. Thanks." Steller poured from a heavy crystal decanter. "What do we drink to? I daresay you won't drink to the victory of Germany." With a tart¹⁸ grin Pug said, "We're neutral, you know" "Ah, yes. Ah, Victor, if only you were! How gladly we would settle for that! Well, to an honorable peace?" "Sure. To an honorable peace." They drank. "Passable?" "Fine. I'm no expert on wines." "It's supposed to be the best sherry in Europe." "It's certainly very good." The banker settled in an armchair and lit a of the floor lamp his scalp glistened²⁷⁵ pink through little trip to Lille was a success, hen?" "Yes, I'm obliged to you and the general." "Please. By the ordinary rules, such a thing would be not only unusual but utterly²⁷⁶ impossible. Among men of honor, there are special rules." Steller heaved an audible sigh. "Well, Victor, I didn't ask you to give me some time just to offer you sherry." "I didn't suppose so." "You're a military man. There are special conversations that sometimes have to be forgotten, obliterated²⁷⁷ without a trace. In German we have a special phrase for these most delicatematters. 'under four eyes." "I've heard the phrase." "What transpires²⁷⁸ next is under four eyes." Victor Henry, intensely curious at this point, felt there was nothing to do but let the banker talk on. What might be coming next, he could not imagine; his best guess was a wispy²⁷⁹ peace feeler at second hand from Goering, to convey to the President. 'You had a conversation with Gregor jagow about the course of the war. About the tragic²⁸⁰ absurdity²⁸¹ of this fratricidal conflict between Germany and England." Pug nodded. "Did his ideas make sense to you?" "Frankly²⁸², we don't study geopolitics in the Navy. At least we don't call it that. So I'm not up on Spengler and so forth." 'You're an American pragmatist," said Steller with a smile. "I'm a gunnery expert misplaced in diplomacy²⁸³, and hoping the hell to get out of it." "I believe you. The man of honor wants to serve in the field." "I'd like to do what I'm trained for." "You do agree that American help, and expectation of far greater help, is what is keeping England in the war?" 'Partly. They just don't feel like quitting. They think they'll win. "With American help." "Well, they think they'll get it." "then what stands between the whole Western world and an honlong cigar. In the light his thin Hat hair. "Your orable peace-which you and I just drank to-is Churchill's reliance on help from Roosevelt." Pug took a few moments to answer. 'Maybe, but what's an honorable peace? Churchill would want to depose²⁸⁴ Hitler. Hitler would want to depose Churchill. Both those gentlemen are equally firmly in the saddle, and both really represent the national will. So there you are." "You are going back to serve as naval aide to President Roosevelt." Steller said this with a slight interrogative note. Pug's face registered no surprise. 'I'm going back to the Bureau of Personnel for reassignment." The banker's smile was tolerant and assured. Well, our intelligence usually gets these things right. Now, Victor, let me have my say, and don't break in until I've finished. That's all I ask. All right?""All right." The banker puffed²⁸⁵ twice at his cigar. "Men of honor talk among themselves, Victor, in a special language. I'm addressing you now in that vocabulary. 'nese are matters of incredible delicacy²⁸⁶. In the end, beneath the words there must be a spiritual kinship, With you, Gregor jagow and I have felt that kinship. You have been impeccably correct, but unlike so many people at the American embassy, you don't regard Germans as cannibals. You have treated us as human beings like yourself. So did your delightful²⁸⁷ and beautiful wife. It has been noticed, I assure you. That you sympathize with England is only natural. I do myself. I love England. I spent two years at Oxford²⁸⁸. "Now, you heard what Gregor said about the Jewish influence around your President. I know you have to deny it, but it is a very serious fact of this war. We must live with it and do what we can about it." Pug tried to speak. Steller held up a rigid palm. "You said you would hear me out, Victor. In the circumstances, we need friends in Washington. Not to use undue²⁸⁹ influence, as the Jews do so shamelessly. Simply to present the other side. Roosevelt is a visi man of very broad on, He can be made to see that American interest requires a graft²⁹⁰ honorable peace in the West. For one thing, only such a development can free him to handle Japan. Do you supPose we give a damn about japan? That new pact²⁹¹ is all a comedy to keep the Russians worried and quiet. -Now, Victor-and remember this is under four eyes-we do have such friends. Not many. A few. Patriotic²⁹² Americans, who see the realities of the war instead of the propaganda of the Jews-and of Churchill, who is just an adventurous²⁹³ megalomaniac and has never been anything else. We hope you'll be another such friend." Victor Henry regretted that he had drunk up the glass of sherry rather fast. The conversation was taking a turn which needed sharp handling. He leaned forward. "Let me go on," said the banker, waving the cigar at him. "You know of my connection with Hermann Goering. To me he is a great figure of European history. His practical grasp of affairs and his energy still astound²⁹⁴ me. The Fuhrer-well, the Fuhrer is different, he operates on a plane above all of us, a plane of prophecy, of grand dreams. The engineer at the throttle²⁹⁵ is Goering. Nothing in Germany escapes him. Nothing happens that he does not approve and know about. You Americans with your Puritan bias²⁹⁶ think him a bit of a sultan. But we Germans love opera and opulence²⁹⁷. It's a weakness. The field marshal knows that andplays to it. Of course, he thoroughly²⁹⁸ enjoys himself, too. Why not? His zest²⁹⁹ for life is Faustian, Rabelaisian. 'Victor, Hermann Goering has established in Switzerland some anonymous³⁰⁰, untraceable bank accounts. His resources are enormous. These bank accounts, after the war, will be the rewards of Germany's honorable friends, who have said the right word in the right place for her when it mattered. It is nothing like espionage³⁰¹, where you pay some sneaking³⁰² wretch⁹⁹ for papers or information he hands over. This is simple gratitude among men of honor, a sharing of benefits in the day of victory. If our friends want the accounts, they will be there. If they don't-" Steller shrugged³⁰³ and sat back. "I've said my piece, Victor. And after you've said yours, this conversation will be as if it never existed." It was one of the few occasions in Victor Henry's life when he was taken totally by surprise. "That's interesting," he said. "Extremely interesting." After a measurable pause he went on, "Well! First, please tell me, if you can, what made you, or General jagow, or Field Marshal Goering, think that I might be receptive to this approach. That's highly important to me, and to this whole matter, I assure you." "My dear chap, the Washington picture is vital, and you're enroute to Washington. The day American supplies to England are shut off, we've won the war. We've got it won now, really, but England is just hanging on, hoping for she doesn't know what. She'll be flat broke in three or four months, and if your Neutrality Act holds, that's the end. Now Victor, the field marshal remembers your interesting visit with the banker GianelliHis purpose now is exactly what Roosevelt's was then, to avoid further useless bloodshed. He thinks you can help, and General jagow is confident that you will." Stiller gave Pug his most ingratiating smile, crinkling his eyes almost shut. "As for me, I know your exquisite³⁰⁴ wife is a very sympathetic and friendly woman. My guess is that she has always reflected your real feelings, more than your correct words. I trust I'm right." Victor Henry nodded. "I see. That's a clear answer, Herr Steller. Here's mine, under four eyes. Please tell Field Marshal Goering, for me, to stick his Swiss bank account up his fat ass." Blue smoke wreathed around Steller's shocked face. His eyes went wide and glassy, his face became dark red from his striped collar to his hair, and his scalp reddened too, His teeth showed in an ugly smile. "I remind you, Captain Henry," he said in a new slow singsong tone, "that you have not left the Third Reich yet. You are still in Berlin. Field Marshal Hermann Goering is second here only to the Fuhrer." "I'm an officer in the United States Navy. Unless I misunderstood you, or you want to withdraw it"-Victor Henry's voice hardened almost to a bark-you've asked me, in his name, to commit treason for money."The banker's nasty smile faded. In a placating³⁰⁵ tone, with a soft look, spreading out his hands, he said, "My dear Victor, how can you take it in that way? I beg you, think! The highest officers in the American armed forces blatantly³⁰⁶ and openly advocate help for England all the time. What I asked of you was just to present both sides, when the occasion arose, for the sake of American security and for peace." 'Yes, as a man of honor. I heard you. I really believe you meant it. General jagow said you Germans were a difficult people to understand. That is the truth. I'm giving up. My assignment here is over." Victor Henry knew he had hit too hard, but he had reacted as he did in a ball game, on instinct and impulse. He stood, and the banker got to his feet too. 'See here, old top," Steller said gently, 'we Germans are at war, surrounded by foes³⁰⁷. If the United States is ever in such a situation-and history takes strange turns-you may one day. make an approach like this to a man you respect, and find it as difficult as I have. I think your response has been naive and wrong. Your phrasing was coarse. SuE, the spiritual quai ity was there. It was an honorable reaction. I have absolutely no hard feelings. I trust you have none. I place a high value on your goodll, Victor. And we did have good times at Abendruh, didn't we?" Smiling, Seller held out his smooth thin clean hand. Pug turned on his heel and walked out of the room. Out of the loudly echoing bank he walked, nodding at the door attendanes deep bow. In the warm sunlit Berlin evening, on the sidewalk outside, beautiful German children surrounded a one-legged man on a crutch³⁰⁸, who was selling pink paper dolls that danced on strings. Victor Henry walked several blocks at a pace that made his heart pound. The first new thought that came to him was that, with his grossly insulting words and acts, he might have murdered Ted Gallard. (from WORLD EMPIRE LOST) The Falling Crown The winter and spring between the Battle of Britain and our attack on the Soviet union stand in popular history as a breathing spell. Actually, in these eight months the axis³⁰⁹ of the war changed, for the British Empire as a reality left the stage of history. In 1939, this momentous³¹⁰ event lay shrouded³¹¹ in the future. A proper name for this war might well be "The War of the British Succession," for the real question that was fought out was this: after the collapse of the British Empire, which would drag with it all European colonialism, what shape was the new world order to take, and under whose rule? This historic turn, and this momentous issue, Adolf Hitler foresaw. He inspired and mobilized Germany to rise and dare all to seize the falling crown. The feats³¹² that our nation performed against odds³¹³ will someday be justly treated in history,when passions die and the stain of certain minor³¹⁴ 'be seen in perspective. MeantimehistorianswriteasthoughonlythestrugglesoftheAll(excesses) ies(can) were heroic, as though we Germans were a species of metal monster incapable of bleeding, freezing, or hungering, and therefore deserving of no credit for our vast victories. As Hitler said, the winning side writes the history. Yet, in their praise of their own arduous³¹⁵ successes, the Allies despite themselves honor us, the nation that almost won the British succession, against a combination of all the industrial nations in the world except feeble Italy and far-off impoverished³¹⁶ Japan. For all of Hitler's military mistakes, and they were many and serious, my professional judgment remains³¹⁷ that the German armed forces would have won the war, and world empire, but for one historical accident. His real opponent, roduced by fate at this point in time, was an even craftier³¹⁸ and more ruthless political genius, with more sober military judgment and greater material means for industrialized warfare³¹⁹: Franklin D. Roosevelt. The nation this man led was in no way comparable to the German people in military valor³²⁰, as test after test in the field eventually showed. But that did not matter. This great manipulator so managed the war that other nations bled themselves almost to death, so as to hand his country the rule of the earth on a silver platter. The United States of America, today the troubled master of the world, lost fewer men in the entire war than Germany expended³²¹ in any one of half a dozen campaigns. Almost twenty million soldiers, sailors, and airmen perished in the Second World War. Of these, America in four years of global war lost about three hundred thousand on all fronts including her war with Japan! For this almost bloodless conquest of the earth, which has no parallel in all history, the American people can thank that enigmatic, still shrouded figure, the Augustus of the industrial age, the Dutch-descended millionaire cripple, Roosevelt. Franklin D. Roosevelt's world conquest still goes unrecognized. In the present historical writings on the war, he is granted nothing like the stature³²² he will one day have. There is little doubt that he wanted it that way. The Augustan ruler, a recurring³²³ figure in history, seizes the realities of power under a mask of the humble³²⁴, benign³²⁵, humanitarian³²⁶ citizen, Nobody since the emperor Augustus ever managed this as Franklin Roosevelt did. Even Augustus was not as sonctimonious, for in those days the Christian vocabulary of humility³²⁷ and humaneness³²⁸ was not in vogue³²⁹ to lend such depths to hypocrisy³³⁰. Roosevelt's Feat²⁴⁷ In his successful waging of the Second World War, Franklin Roosevelt made no major military mistakes. That is a record not matched by any world conqueror³³¹ since Julius Caesar. His slogan of "unconditional³³² surrender" was widely called a blunder, by commentators³³³ as diverse as Goebbels and Eisenhower. I do not agree, and in its place, I will take up that stricture and challenge it. Our propaganda office called him a tool of the Jews, but of course that was the silliest bosh.

1 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。

2 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

3 warships   

军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只

参考例句：

• The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后，敌舰退出了海战。
• The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。

4 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

5 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

6 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。

7 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

8 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

9 belligerent   

adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者

参考例句：

• He had a belligerent aspect.他有种好斗的神色。
• Our government has forbidden exporting the petroleum to the belligerent countries.我们政府已经禁止向交战国输出石油。

10 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

11 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

12 frigid   

adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的

参考例句：

• The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间。
• She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

13 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

14 plodded   

v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作）

参考例句：

• Our horses plodded down the muddy track. 我们的马沿着泥泞小路蹒跚而行。
• He plodded away all night at his project to get it finished. 他通宵埋头苦干以便做完专题研究。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 shimmered   

v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The sea shimmered in the sunlight. 阳光下海水闪烁着微光。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A heat haze shimmered above the fields. 田野上方微微闪烁着一层热气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

17 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

18 tart   

adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇

参考例句：

• She was learning how to make a fruit tart in class.她正在课上学习如何制作水果馅饼。
• She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。

19 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

20 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

21 eyebrow   

n.眉毛，眉

参考例句：

• Her eyebrow is well penciled.她的眉毛画得很好。
• With an eyebrow raised,he seemed divided between surprise and amusement.他一只眉毛扬了扬，似乎既感到吃惊，又觉有趣。

22 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

23 amiably   

adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地

参考例句：

• She grinned amiably at us. 她咧着嘴向我们亲切地微笑。
• Atheists and theists live together peacefully and amiably in this country. 无神论者和有神论者在该国和睦相处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

24 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

26 grunt   

v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝

参考例句：

• He lifted the heavy suitcase with a grunt.他咕噜着把沉重的提箱拎了起来。
• I ask him what he think,but he just grunt.我问他在想什麽，他只哼了一声。

27 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

28 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

29 fumbling   

n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理

参考例句：

• If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。
• If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。

30 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

31 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

32 gals   

abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. 这时，吉姆手里提着一个锡皮桶，嘴中唱着“布法罗的女娃们”蹦蹦跳跳地从大门口跑出来。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• An' dey thinks dey wants mousy lil gals wid bird's tastes an' no sense at all. 他们想要的是耗子般的小姑娘，胃口小得像雀子，一点儿见识也没有。 来自飘（部分）

33 rimmed   

adj.有边缘的，有框的v.沿…边缘滚动；给…镶边

参考例句：

• Gold rimmed spectacles bit deep into the bridge of his nose. 金边眼镜深深嵌入他的鼻梁。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Trees rimmed the pool. 水池的四周树木环绕。 来自《简明英汉词典》

34 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。

35 lechery   

n.好色；淫荡

参考例句：

• When they are idle,they indulge themselves into comfort,lechery,crapulence and gluttony.他们闲散时，就沉溺于安乐、纵欲、暴饮、暴食。
• His lechery made him the enemy of every self-respecting husband and father in the county.他的好色放浪使他成为全县所有自尊自重的丈夫和父亲的公敌。

36 endorsing   

v.赞同( endorse的现在分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• Yet Communist leaders are also publicly endorsing religion in an unprecedented way. 不过，共产党领导层对宗教信仰的公开认可也是以前不曾有过的。 来自互联网
• Connecticut Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman is endorsing Republican Senator John McCain. 康涅狄格州独立派参议员约瑟夫。列波曼将会票选共和议员约翰。麦凯恩。 来自互联网

37 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

38 scrawl   

vt.潦草地书写；n.潦草的笔记，涂写

参考例句：

• His signature was an illegible scrawl.他的签名潦草难以辨认。
• Your beautiful handwriting puts my untidy scrawl to shame.你漂亮的字体把我的潦草字迹比得见不得人。

39 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

40 tonic   

n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的

参考例句：

• It will be marketed as a tonic for the elderly.这将作为老年人滋补品在市场上销售。
• Sea air is Nature's best tonic for mind and body.海上的空气是大自然赋予的对人们身心的最佳补品。

41 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

42 foliage   

n.叶子，树叶，簇叶

参考例句：

• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
• Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。

43 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

44 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

45 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

46 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。

47 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

48 fatigued   

adj. 疲乏的

参考例句：

• The exercises fatigued her. 操练使她感到很疲乏。
• The President smiled, with fatigued tolerance for a minor person's naivety. 总统笑了笑，疲惫地表现出对一个下级人员的天真想法的宽容。

49 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

50 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

51 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

52 vaudeville   

n.歌舞杂耍表演

参考例句：

• The standard length of a vaudeville act was 12 minutes.一个杂耍节目的标准长度是12分钟。
• The mayor talk like a vaudeville comedian in his public address.在公共演讲中，这位市长讲起话来像个歌舞杂耍演员。

53 burlesque   

v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿

参考例句：

• Our comic play was a burlesque of a Shakespearean tragedy.我们的喜剧是对莎士比亚一出悲剧的讽刺性模仿。
• He shouldn't burlesque the elder.他不应模仿那长者。

54 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

55 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

56 spank   

v.打，拍打(在屁股上)

参考例句：

• Be careful.If you don't work hard,I'll spank your bottom.你再不好好学习，小心被打屁股。
• He does it very often.I really get mad.I can't help spank him sometimes.他经常这样做。我很气愤。有时候我忍不住打他的屁股。

57 impudent   

adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的

参考例句：

• She's tolerant toward those impudent colleagues.她对那些无礼的同事采取容忍的态度。
• The teacher threatened to kick the impudent pupil out of the room.老师威胁着要把这无礼的小学生撵出教室。

58 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

59 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

60 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

61 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

62 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

63 stodgy   

adj.易饱的；笨重的；滞涩的；古板的

参考例句：

• It wasn't easy to lose puppy fat when Mum fed her on stodgy home cooking.母亲给她吃易饱的家常菜，她想减掉婴儿肥可是很难。
• The gateman was a stodgy fellow of 60.看门人是个六十岁的矮胖子。

64 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

65 strapping   

adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• He's a strapping lad—already bigger than his father. 他是一个魁梧的小伙子——已经比他父亲高了。
• He was a tall strapping boy. 他是一个高大健壮的小伙子。

66 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

67 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

68 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

69 veal   

n.小牛肉

参考例句：

• She sauteed veal and peppers,preparing a mixed salad while the pan simmered.她先做的一道菜是青椒煎小牛肉，趁着锅还在火上偎着的机会，又做了一道拼盘。
• Marinate the veal in white wine for two hours.把小牛肉用白葡萄酒浸泡两小时。

70 paragon   

n.模范，典型

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• Man is the paragon of animals.人是万物之灵。

71 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。

72 recoiled   

v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• She recoiled from his touch. 她躲开他的触摸。
• Howard recoiled a little at the sharpness in my voice. 听到我的尖声，霍华德往后缩了一下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

73 drizzle   

v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨

参考例句：

• The shower tailed off into a drizzle.阵雨越来越小，最后变成了毛毛雨。
• Yesterday the radio forecast drizzle,and today it is indeed raining.昨天预报有小雨，今天果然下起来了。

74 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

75 cosy   

adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的

参考例句：

• We spent a cosy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。
• It was so warm and cosy in bed that Simon didn't want to get out.床上温暖而又舒适，西蒙简直不想下床了。

76 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

77 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

78 modesty   

n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素

参考例句：

• Industry and modesty are the chief factors of his success.勤奋和谦虚是他成功的主要因素。
• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。

79 torrent   

n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发

参考例句：

• The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
• Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。

80 throbbing   

a. 跳动的,悸动的

参考例句：

• My heart is throbbing and I'm shaking. 我的心在猛烈跳动，身子在不住颤抖。
• There was a throbbing in her temples. 她的太阳穴直跳。

81 lame   

adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的

参考例句：

• The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍。
• I don't believe his story.It'sounds a bit lame.我不信他讲的那一套。他的话听起来有些靠不住。

82 vestiges   

残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不

参考例句：

• the last vestiges of the old colonial regime 旧殖民制度最后的残余
• These upright stones are the vestiges of some ancient religion. 这些竖立的石头是某种古代宗教的遗迹。

83 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

84 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

85 placid   

adj.安静的，平和的

参考例句：

• He had been leading a placid life for the past eight years.八年来他一直过着平静的生活。
• You should be in a placid mood and have a heart-to- heart talk with her.你应该心平气和的好好和她谈谈心。

86 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

87 glum   

adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的

参考例句：

• He was a charming mixture of glum and glee.他是一个很有魅力的人，时而忧伤时而欢笑。
• She laughed at his glum face.她嘲笑他闷闷不乐的脸。

88 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

89 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

90 doughy   

adj.面团的，苍白的，半熟的；软弱无力

参考例句：

• The cake fell; it's a doughy mess. 蛋糕掉在地上，粘糊糊的一团。 来自互联网
• Soon the mixture was doughy. 很快，混合物成了面团状。 来自互联网

91 gaily   

adv.欢乐地，高兴地

参考例句：

• The children sing gaily.孩子们欢唱着。
• She waved goodbye very gaily.她欢快地挥手告别。

92 gallant   

adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的

参考例句：

• Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。
• These gallant soldiers will protect our country.这些勇敢的士兵会保卫我们的国家的。

93 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

94 darting   

v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句

95 droll   

adj.古怪的，好笑的

参考例句：

• The band have a droll sense of humour.这个乐队有一种滑稽古怪的幽默感。
• He looked at her with a droll sort of awakening.他用一种古怪的如梦方醒的神情看着她.

96 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

97 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

98 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。

99 wretch   

n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人

参考例句：

• You are really an ungrateful wretch to complain instead of thanking him.你不但不谢他，还埋怨他，真不知好歹。
• The dead husband is not the dishonoured wretch they fancied him.死去的丈夫不是他们所想象的不光彩的坏蛋。

100 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

101 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

102 garrisoned   

卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned with two regiments. 该镇有两团士兵驻守。
• A hundred soldiers were garrisoned in the town. 派了一百名士兵在城里驻防。

103 prudent   

adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的

参考例句：

• A prudent traveller never disparages his own country.聪明的旅行者从不贬低自己的国家。
• You must school yourself to be modest and prudent.你要学会谦虚谨慎。

104 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

105 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

106 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

107 scowling   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There she was, grey-suited, sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. 她就在那里，穿着灰色的衣服，漂亮的脸上显得严肃而忧郁。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Scowling, Chueh-hui bit his lips. 他马上把眉毛竖起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

108 cordoned   

v.封锁，用警戒线围住( cordon的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the area until the bomb was defused. 警方封锁了这个地区直到炸弹被拆除为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。 来自《简明英汉词典》

109 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

110 smitten   

猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• From the moment they met, he was completely smitten by her. 从一见面的那一刻起，他就完全被她迷住了。
• It was easy to see why she was smitten with him. 她很容易看出为何她为他倾倒。

111 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

112 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

113 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。

114 deplored   

v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They deplored the price of motor car, textiles, wheat, and oil. 他们悲叹汽车、纺织品、小麦和石油的价格。 来自辞典例句
• Hawthorne feels that all excess is to be deplored. 霍桑觉得一切过分的举动都是可悲的。 来自辞典例句

115 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

116 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

117 varnish   

n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰

参考例句：

• He tried to varnish over the facts,but it was useless.他想粉饰事实，但那是徒劳的。
• He applied varnish to the table.他给那张桌子涂上清漆。

118 sneaked   

v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。

119 invincible   

adj.不可征服的，难以制服的

参考例句：

• This football team was once reputed to be invincible.这支足球队曾被誉为无敌的劲旅。
• The workers are invincible as long as they hold together.只要工人团结一致，他们就是不可战胜的。

120 squinting   

斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看

参考例句：

• "More company," he said, squinting in the sun. "那边来人了，"他在阳光中眨巴着眼睛说。
• Squinting against the morning sun, Faulcon examined the boy carefully. 对着早晨的太阳斜起眼睛，富尔康仔细地打量着那个年轻人。

121 lurid   

adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的

参考例句：

• The paper gave all the lurid details of the murder.这份报纸对这起凶杀案耸人听闻的细节描写得淋漓尽致。
• The lurid sunset puts a red light on their faces.血红一般的夕阳映红了他们的脸。

122 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

123 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

124 bristled   

adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

125 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

126 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

127 screeched   

v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• She screeched her disapproval. 她尖叫着不同意。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The car screeched to a stop. 汽车嚓的一声停住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

128 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

129 delirium   

n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋

参考例句：

• In her delirium, she had fallen to the floor several times. 她在神志不清的状态下几次摔倒在地上。
• For the next nine months, Job was in constant delirium.接下来的九个月，约伯处于持续精神错乱的状态。

130 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

131 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

132 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。

133 wry   

adj.讽刺的；扭曲的

参考例句：

• He made a wry face and attempted to wash the taste away with coffee.他做了个鬼脸，打算用咖啡把那怪味地冲下去。
• Bethune released Tung's horse and made a wry mouth.白求恩放开了董的马，噘了噘嘴。

134 wryly   

adv. 挖苦地，嘲弄地

参考例句：

• Molly smiled rather wryly and said nothing. 莫莉苦笑着，一句话也没说。
• He smiled wryly, then closed his eyes and gnawed his lips. 他狞笑一声，就闭了眼睛，咬着嘴唇。 来自子夜部分

135 sneaks   

abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋（网球鞋）v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• Typhoid fever sneaks in when sanitation fails. 环境卫生搞不好，伤寒就会乘虚而入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Honest boys scorn sneaks and liars. 诚实的人看不起狡诈和撒谎的人。 来自辞典例句

136 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

137 vile   

adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的

参考例句：

• Who could have carried out such a vile attack?会是谁发起这么卑鄙的攻击呢？
• Her talk was full of vile curses.她的话里充满着恶毒的咒骂。

138 unnaturally   

adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地

参考例句：

• Her voice sounded unnaturally loud. 她的嗓音很响亮，但是有点反常。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her eyes were unnaturally bright. 她的眼睛亮得不自然。 来自《简明英汉词典》

139 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

140 muffled   

adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己）

参考例句：

• muffled voices from the next room 从隔壁房间里传来的沉闷声音
• There was a muffled explosion somewhere on their right. 在他们的右面什么地方有一声沉闷的爆炸声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

141 aggravating   

adj.恼人的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• How aggravating to be interrupted! 被打扰，多令人生气呀！
• Diesel exhaust is particularly aggravating to many susceptible individuals. 许多体质敏感的人尤其反感柴油废气。

142 rhythmic   

adj.有节奏的，有韵律的

参考例句：

• Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
• Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。

143 briny   

adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋

参考例句：

• The briny water is not good for the growth of the trees.海水不利于这种树木的生长。
• The briny air gave a foretaste of the nearby sea.咸空气是快近海的前兆。

144 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

145 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

146 cello   

n.大提琴

参考例句：

• The cello is a member of the violin family.大提琴是提琴家族的一员。
• She plays a melodious cello.她拉着一手悦耳的大提琴。

147 luscious   

adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的

参考例句：

• The watermelon was very luscious.Everyone wanted another slice.西瓜很可口，每个人都想再来一片。
• What I like most about Gabby is her luscious lips!我最喜欢的是盖比那性感饱满的双唇！

148 drooping   

adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词

参考例句：

• The drooping willows are waving gently in the morning breeze. 晨风中垂柳袅袅。
• The branches of the drooping willows were swaying lightly. 垂柳轻飘飘地摆动。

149 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。

150 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

151 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

152 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

153 flares   

n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开

参考例句：

• The side of a ship flares from the keel to the deck. 船舷从龙骨向甲板外倾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation. 他是火爆性子，一点就着。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

154 melodious   

adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的

参考例句：

• She spoke in a quietly melodious voice.她说话轻声细语，嗓音甜美。
• Everybody was attracted by her melodious voice.大家都被她悦耳的声音吸引住了。

155 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

156 barricaded   

设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守

参考例句：

• The police barricaded the entrance. 警方在入口处设置了路障。
• The doors had been barricaded. 门都被堵住了。

157 glumly   

adv.忧郁地，闷闷不乐地；阴郁地

参考例句：

• He stared at it glumly, and soon became lost in thought. 他惘然沉入了瞑想。 来自子夜部分
• The President sat glumly rubbing his upper molar, saying nothing. 总统愁眉苦脸地坐在那里，磨着他的上牙，一句话也没有说。 来自辞典例句

158 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

159 cordons   

n.警戒线，警戒圈( cordon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Demonstrators attacked police cordons with sticks and assorted missiles. 示威者用棍棒和各种投射物向警察的封锁线进攻。 来自辞典例句

160 flicked   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
• I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。

161 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

162 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。

163 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

164 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

165 sepulchral   

adj.坟墓的，阴深的

参考例句：

• He made his way along the sepulchral corridors.他沿着阴森森的走廊走着。
• There was a rather sepulchral atmosphere in the room.房间里有一种颇为阴沉的气氛。

166 reprisal   

n.报复，报仇，报复性劫掠

参考例句：

• There is no political alternative but a big reprisal.政治上没有旁的选择只能是大规模报复。
• They bombed civilian targets in reprisal.他们炮轰平民目标作为报复。

167 airfields   

n.（较小的无建筑的）飞机场( airfield的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For several days traffic fromthe Naples airfields was partially interrupted. 那不勒斯机场的对外交通部分地停顿了数天。 来自辞典例句
• We have achieved a great amount of destruction at airfields and air bases. 我们已把机场和空军基地大加破坏。 来自辞典例句

168 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

169 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。

170 evoking   

产生，引起，唤起( evoke的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Some occur in organisms without evoking symptoms. 一些存在于生物体中，但不发生症状。
• Nowadays, the protection of traditional knowledge is evoking heat discussion worldwide. 目前，全球都掀起了保护传统知识的热潮。

171 revolving   

adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
• The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。

172 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

173 repudiated   

v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务）

参考例句：

• All slanders and libels should be repudiated. 一切诬蔑不实之词，应予推倒。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The Prime Minister has repudiated racist remarks made by a member of the Conservative Party. 首相已经驳斥了一个保守党成员的种族主义言论。 来自辞典例句

174 eloquent   

adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的

参考例句：

• He was so eloquent that he cut down the finest orator.他能言善辩，胜过最好的演说家。
• These ruins are an eloquent reminder of the horrors of war.这些废墟形象地提醒人们不要忘记战争的恐怖。

175 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

176 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

177 exchequer   

n.财政部；国库

参考例句：

• In Britain the Chancellor of the Exchequer deals with taxes and government spending.英国的财政大臣负责税务和政府的开支。
• This resulted in a considerable loss to the exchequer.这使国库遭受了重大损失。

178 flirtatious   

adj.爱调情的，调情的，卖俏的

参考例句：

• a flirtatious young woman 卖弄风情的年轻女子
• Her flirtatious manners are intended to attract. 她的轻浮举止是想引人注意。 来自《简明英汉词典》

179 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

180 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

181 pretense   

n.矫饰，做作，借口

参考例句：

• You can't keep up the pretense any longer.你无法继续伪装下去了。
• Pretense invariably impresses only the pretender.弄虚作假欺骗不了真正的行家。

182 mightily   

ad.强烈地；非常地

参考例句：

• He hit the peg mightily on the top with a mallet. 他用木槌猛敲木栓顶。
• This seemed mightily to relieve him. 干完这件事后，他似乎轻松了许多。

183 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。

184 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

185 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句

186 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。

187 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

188 grunting   

咕哝的，呼噜的

参考例句：

• He pulled harder on the rope, grunting with the effort. 他边用力边哼声，使出更大的力气拉绳子。
• Pigs were grunting and squealing in the yard. 猪在院子里哼哼地叫个不停。

189 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

参考例句：

• We've been pals for years. 我们是多年的哥们儿了。
• CD 8 positive cells remarkably increased in PALS and RP(P CD8+细胞在再生脾PALS和RP内均明显增加(P 来自互联网

190 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

191 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。

192 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

193 drooped   

弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。
• The flowers drooped in the heat of the sun. 花儿晒蔫了。

194 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

195 tranquil   

adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的

参考例句：

• The boy disturbed the tranquil surface of the pond with a stick. 那男孩用棍子打破了平静的池面。
• The tranquil beauty of the village scenery is unique. 这乡村景色的宁静是绝无仅有的。

196 evergreens   

n.常青树，常绿植物，万年青( evergreen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The leaves of evergreens are often shaped like needles. 常绿植物的叶常是针形的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pine, cedar and spruce are evergreens. 松树、雪松、云杉都是常绿的树。 来自辞典例句

197 clatter   

v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声

参考例句：

• The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
• Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。

198 scurrying   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We could hear the mice scurrying about in the walls. 我们能听见老鼠在墙里乱跑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We were scurrying about until the last minute before the party. 聚会开始前我们一直不停地忙忙碌碌。 来自辞典例句

199 curt   

adj.简短的，草率的

参考例句：

• He gave me an extremely curt answer.他对我作了极为草率的答复。
• He rapped out a series of curt commands.他大声发出了一连串简短的命令。

200 twitching   

n.颤搐

参考例句：

• The child in a spasm kept twitching his arms and legs. 那个害痉挛的孩子四肢不断地抽搐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My eyelids keep twitching all the time. 我眼皮老是跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

201 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

202 pendulum   

n.摆，钟摆

参考例句：

• The pendulum swung slowly to and fro.钟摆在慢慢地来回摆动。
• He accidentally found that the desk clock did not swing its pendulum.他无意中发现座钟不摇摆了。

203 sling   

vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓

参考例句：

• The boy discharged a stone from a sling.这个男孩用弹弓射石头。
• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。

204 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》

205 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

206 inhaled   

v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. 她合上双眼，深深吸了一口气。
• Janet inhaled sharply when she saw him. 珍妮特看到他时猛地吸了口气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

207 flicking   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• He helped her up before flicking the reins. 他帮她上马，之后挥动了缰绳。
• There's something flicking around my toes. 有什么东西老在叮我的脚指头。

208 slanted   

有偏见的； 倾斜的

参考例句：

• The sun slanted through the window. 太阳斜照进窗户。
• She had slanted brown eyes. 她有一双棕色的丹凤眼。

209 beetling   

adj.突出的，悬垂的v.快速移动( beetle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I last saw him beetling off down the road. 我上次见到他时，他正快步沿路而去。
• I saw you beetling off early at the party. 我见到你早早从宴会中离开。 来自辞典例句

210 grilling   

v.烧烤( grill的现在分词 )；拷问，盘问

参考例句：

• The minister faced a tough grilling at today's press conference. 部长在今天的记者招待会上受到了严厉的盘问。
• He's grilling out there in the midday sun. 他在外面让中午火辣辣的太阳炙烤着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

211 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

212 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

213 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

214 apropos   

adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于

参考例句：

• I thought he spoke very apropos.我认为他说得很中肯。
• He arrived very apropos.他来得很及时。

215 docile   

adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的

参考例句：

• Circus monkeys are trained to be very docile and obedient.马戏团的猴子训练得服服贴贴的。
• He is a docile and well-behaved child.他是个温顺且彬彬有礼的孩子。

216 flicker   

vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现

参考例句：

• There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
• At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。

217 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

218 rosebud   

n.蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女

参考例句：

• At West Ham he was thought of as the rosebud that never properly flowered.在西汉姆他被认为是一个尚未开放的花蕾。
• Unlike the Rosebud salve,this stuff is actually worth the money.跟玫瑰花蕾膏不一样，这个更值的买。

219 impulsively   

adv.冲动地

参考例句：

• She leant forward and kissed him impulsively. 她倾身向前，感情冲动地吻了他。
• Every good, true, vigorous feeling I had gathered came impulsively round him. 我的一切良好、真诚而又强烈的感情都紧紧围绕着他涌现出来。

220 serenely   

adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地

参考例句：

• The boat sailed serenely on towards the horizon.小船平稳地向着天水交接处驶去。
• It was a serenely beautiful night.那是一个宁静美丽的夜晚。

221 drizzly   

a.毛毛雨的(a drizzly day)

参考例句：

• This section of the country is drizzly in the winter. 该国的这一地区在冬天经常细雨蒙蒙。
• That region is drizzly in winter. 那个地区冬天常下小雨。

222 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

223 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

224 plundered   

掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Many of our cultural treasures have been plundered by imperialists. 我国许多珍贵文物被帝国主义掠走了。
• The imperialists plundered many valuable works of art. 帝国主义列强掠夺了许多珍贵的艺术品。

225 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

226 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

227 pedestrians   

n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Several pedestrians had come to grief on the icy pavement. 几个行人在结冰的人行道上滑倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pedestrians keep to the sidewalk [footpath]! 行人走便道。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

228 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

229 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

230 obsequiousness   

媚骨

参考例句：

• He became rebarbative and prickly and spiteful; I find his obsequiousness repellent. 他变得令人讨厌、易发怒，怀有恶意；我发现他的奉承令人厌恶。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was free from all sycophancy or obsequiousness in the face of the reactionary ruling class. 他在反动统治阶级面前没有丝毫的奴颜与媚骨。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

231 chateau   

n.城堡，别墅

参考例句：

• The house was modelled on a French chateau.这房子是模仿一座法国大别墅建造的。
• The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn.那府第便径自腾起大火燃烧下去。

232 doffed   

v.脱去，（尤指）脱帽( doff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He doffed his hat. 他脱掉帽子。 来自互联网
• The teacher is forced to help her pull next pulling again mouth, unlock button, doffed jacket. 老师只好再帮她拉下拉口，解开扣子，将外套脱了下来。 来自互联网

233 trout   

n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属)

参考例句：

• Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
• We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。

234 gliding   

v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的

参考例句：

• Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
• The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。

235 heartily   

adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很

参考例句：

• He ate heartily and went out to look for his horse.他痛快地吃了一顿，就出去找他的马。
• The host seized my hand and shook it heartily.主人抓住我的手，热情地和我握手。

236 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

237 amateurishness   

n.amateurish（业余的）的变形

参考例句：

• The greater the failures became, the more obstinately his incurable amateurishness came to the fore. 失败越大，他那种不可救药的“行家”习性就越顽固地显示出来。 来自辞典例句

238 maneuvers   

n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He suspected at once that she had been spying upon his maneuvers. 他立刻猜想到，她已经侦察到他的行动。 来自辞典例句
• Maneuvers in Guizhou occupied the Reds for four months. 贵州境内的作战占了红军四个月的时间。 来自辞典例句

239 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

240 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

241 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

242 modernized   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的过去式和过去分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• By 1985 the entire railway network will have been modernized. 等到1985年整个铁路网就实现现代化了。
• He set about rebuilding France, and made it into a brilliant-looking modernized imperialism. 他试图重建法国，使它成为一项表面华丽的现代化帝业。

243 walnut   

n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色

参考例句：

• Walnut is a local specialty here.核桃是此地的土特产。
• The stool comes in several sizes in walnut or mahogany.凳子有几种尺寸，材质分胡桃木和红木两种。

244 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

245 overcast   

adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天

参考例句：

• The overcast and rainy weather found out his arthritis.阴雨天使他的关节炎发作了。
• The sky is overcast with dark clouds.乌云满天。

246 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

247 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

248 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

249 mildewy   

adj.发霉的

参考例句：

250 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

251 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

252 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

253 fanatics   

狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The heathen temple was torn down by a crowd of religions fanatics. 异教徒的神殿被一群宗教狂热分子拆除了。
• Placing nukes in the hands of baby-faced fanatics? 把核弹交给一些宗教狂热者手里？

254 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

255 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

256 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

257 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

258 feverish   

adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的

参考例句：

• He is too feverish to rest.他兴奋得安静不下来。
• They worked with feverish haste to finish the job.为了完成此事他们以狂热的速度工作着。

259 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

260 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

261 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

262 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

263 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

264 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

265 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

266 inverted   

adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Only direct speech should go inside inverted commas. 只有直接引语应放在引号内。
• Inverted flight is an acrobatic manoeuvre of the plane. 倒飞是飞机的一种特技动作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

267 galloped   

（使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事

参考例句：

• Jo galloped across the field towards him. 乔骑马穿过田野向他奔去。
• The children galloped home as soon as the class was over. 孩子们一下课便飞奔回家了。

268 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

269 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

270 vault   

n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室

参考例句：

• The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。

271 maroon   

v.困住，使（人）处于孤独无助之境；n.逃亡黑奴；孤立的人；酱紫色，褐红色；adj.酱紫色的，褐红色的

参考例句：

• Five couples were marooned in their caravans when the River Avon broke its banks.埃文河决堤的时候，有5对夫妇被困在了他们的房车里。
• Robinson Crusoe has been marooned on a desert island for 26 years.鲁滨逊在荒岛上被困了26年。

272 flaring   

a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的

参考例句：

• A vulgar flaring paper adorned the walls. 墙壁上装饰着廉价的花纸。
• Goebbels was flaring up at me. 戈塔尔当时已对我面呈愠色。

273 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

274 frayed   

adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His shirt was frayed. 他的衬衫穿破了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The argument frayed their nerves. 争辩使他们不快。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

275 glistened   

v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Pearls of dew glistened on the grass. 草地上珠露晶莹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Her eyes glistened with tears. 她的眼里闪着泪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

276 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

277 obliterated   

v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭

参考例句：

• The building was completely obliterated by the bomb. 炸弹把那座建筑物彻底摧毁了。
• He began to drink, drank himself to intoxication, till he slept obliterated. 他一直喝，喝到他快要迷糊地睡着了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

278 transpires   

（事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的第三人称单数 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生

参考例句：

• Let's wait and see what transpires. 我们等着瞧会发生什么事吧。
• This new machine sometimes transpires a lot of hot vapor. 这部机器有时排出大量的热气。

279 wispy   

adj.模糊的；纤细的

参考例句：

• Grey wispy hair straggled down to her shoulders.稀疏的灰白头发披散在她肩头。
• The half moon is hidden behind some wispy clouds.半轮月亮躲在淡淡的云彩之后。

280 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

281 absurdity   

n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论

参考例句：

• The proposal borders upon the absurdity.这提议近乎荒谬。
• The absurdity of the situation made everyone laugh.情况的荒谬可笑使每个人都笑了。

282 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

283 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

284 depose   

vt.免职；宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The witness is going to depose.证人即将宣誓做证。
• The emperor attempted to depose the Pope.皇帝企图废黜教皇。

285 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

参考例句：

• He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟，狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了，便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

286 delicacy   

n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴

参考例句：

• We admired the delicacy of the craftsmanship.我们佩服工艺师精巧的手艺。
• He sensed the delicacy of the situation.他感觉到了形势的微妙。

287 delightful   

adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的

参考例句：

• We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
• Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。

288 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

289 undue   

adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的

参考例句：

• Don't treat the matter with undue haste.不要过急地处理此事。
• It would be wise not to give undue importance to his criticisms.最好不要过分看重他的批评。

290 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

291 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

292 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

293 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

294 astound   

v.使震惊，使大吃一惊

参考例句：

• His practical grasp of affairs and his energy still astound me.他对事物的实际掌握和他充沛的精力实在使我惊异。
• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance.过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。

295 throttle   

n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压

参考例句：

• These government restrictions are going to throttle our trade.这些政府的限制将要扼杀我们的贸易。
• High tariffs throttle trade between countries.高的关税抑制了国与国之间的贸易。

296 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

297 opulence   

n.财富，富裕

参考例句：

• His eyes had never beheld such opulence.他从未见过这样的财富。
• He owes his opulence to work hard.他的财富乃辛勤工作得来。

298 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

299 zest   

n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣

参考例句：

• He dived into his new job with great zest.他充满热情地投入了新的工作。
• He wrote his novel about his trip to Asia with zest.他兴趣浓厚的写了一本关于他亚洲之行的小说。

300 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

301 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

302 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

303 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》

304 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

305 placating   

v.安抚，抚慰，使平静( placate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She pulled her face into a placating and childlike expression. 于是她装出一副稚气的想要和解的样子来。 来自飘（部分）
• Uncle Peter's voice came as from a far distance, plaintive, placating. 彼得大叔这时说话了，他的声音犹如自一个遥远的地方起来，既带有哀愁又给人以安慰。 来自飘（部分）

306 blatantly   

ad.公开地

参考例句：

• Safety guidelines had been blatantly ignored. 安全规章被公然置之不顾。
• They walked grandly through the lobby, blatantly arm in arm, pretending they were not defeated. 他们大大方方地穿过门厅，故意炫耀地挎着胳膊，假装他们没有被打败。

307 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

308 crutch   

n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱

参考例句：

• Her religion was a crutch to her when John died.约翰死后，她在精神上依靠宗教信仰支撑住自己。
• He uses his wife as a kind of crutch because of his lack of confidence.他缺乏自信心，总把妻子当作主心骨。

309 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

310 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。

311 shrouded   

v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密

参考例句：

• The hills were shrouded in mist . 这些小山被笼罩在薄雾之中。
• The towers were shrouded in mist. 城楼被蒙上薄雾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

312 feats   

功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance. 过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。
• His heroic feats made him a legend in his own time. 他的英雄业绩使他成了他那个时代的传奇人物。

313 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

314 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

315 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

316 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

317 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

318 craftier   

狡猾的，狡诈的( crafty的比较级 )

参考例句：

• It's time I should take my craftier head to my more worldly pillow. 我也该让我这副比较世故的头脑休息休息了。
• Third, regulators need to be craftier when estimating the hit that capital must absorb. 第三，监管者在估计资本应包含哪些内容时应该讲究技巧。

319 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

320 valor   

n.勇气，英勇

参考例句：

• Fortitude is distinct from valor.坚韧不拔有别于勇猛。
• Frequently banality is the better parts of valor.老生常谈往往比大胆打破常规更为人称道。

321 expended   

v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽

参考例句：

• She expended all her efforts on the care of home and children. 她把所有精力都花在料理家务和照顾孩子上。
• The enemy had expended all their ammunition. 敌人已耗尽所有的弹药。 来自《简明英汉词典》

322 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

323 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

324 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

325 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

326 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

327 humility   

n.谦逊，谦恭

参考例句：

• Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
• His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。

328 humaneness   

n.深情，慈悲

参考例句：

• That is the second level of humaneness, and is in accord with principle. 这是仁爱的第二层发挥，合理合宜。 来自互联网
• After Zai Yu left, Confucius said, "Zai Yu is truly lacking in humaneness. " 等宰予走后，孔子就评论说﹕[宰予真是不仁啊！ 来自互联网

329 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

330 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

331 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。

332 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。

333 commentators   

n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》