At one moment the subject of congratulations amid a press of people, a familiar landscape about him, hills for his horizon, a great plain for his environment; at the next, he is high above the earth, the familiar landmarks1 are almost blotted2 out, the people have disappeared from his sight.
Benny had shaken hands perhaps with five hundred worthy3 souls at Chamonix, had written his name in fifty books, posed for his picture to excited acrobats4 who held quaking cameras, addressed blunt little speeches to the deputies, quaffed5 a stirrup-cup of hot spiced wine, been conscious of an environment of mighty6 mountains and majestic7 peaks, and then, in a flash, the picture was changed, the people had disappeared, the voices were lost to him, the very scene transformed.
He rose a little to the north of the forbidding Aiguille du Géant and experienced just for an instant the sensation that he had not attained8 a sufficient altitude and must strike the dread9 pinnacles10 of the rock. This was an unnecessary alarm, for the ship responded quickly to a touch of the elevating plane, and he cleared the mountain by three hundred feet or more. Then he headed almost due east, as he had been told to do. The wind, capricious ever in the Valley of Chamonix, here became almost boisterous11; and for the first time that day he discovered a vacuum, as it were a whirlpool of the ether, into which he was drawn12, and for a few moments whirled about with a velocity13 which appalled14 him. One less skilful15 might have wrecked16 all at such a moment, and had it been so he would have gone down headlong amid the pinnacles of rock which stand attendant to the famous peak. Benny, however, was always prepared for such a happening as this, and despite that crude sensation of the swift descent he covered his balance almost immediately and put the ship due east again.
He had saved himself, but for how long? The dread mountains, above which he must sail henceforth, would be fertile in such perils17 as this; the valleys he must cross would be death-traps to any but the most vigilant18. Pride in his swift flight to Mont Blanc had seduced19 him to this easy confidence, which might undo20 all if uncorrected. He resolved to apply all the mental concentration of which he was capable to the one purpose of success, and taking the wheel firmly in his hands, he set his eyes toward the great mountains about Zermatt and would heed21 no other spectacle.
It has been said that he was quite ignorant of the Alps, and, truly, a man more familiar with the scene would have better understood the wonder of the deed.
Here below him were the steeps and slopes, the dread arrêtes, the gleaming precipices22 which climbers had dared since Switzerland first called them to her wonders. Observed from that immense altitude he had now attained, the precipices had become but slabs24 of snow, steps in a puny25 wall above which the pinnacles soared; the steeps were but mild hills whereon children should have played; the glaciers26 but silver threads in whitened moraines which pierced the woods. Hotels and huts—he could hardly distinguish one from the other; the valleys were flattened28 out until they resembled the plateaus, and all with such a grotesque29 effect that sometimes the very earth would appear to be turned inside out as it were, the valleys made heights and the heights pressed down to valleys. Going on a little way, a cloud would shut the whole scene from his view, and he would imagine himself in the boundless30 ether, a wanderer apart from all worlds and voyaging toward the Eternal.
Engineers seldom lack imagination, and he of them all had a soul above the mechanics of things material. Despite his desire to accomplish the task he had set himself, this phantasy of the cloud inspired him to wonderful thoughts of life and death and the transit31 of the soul. Let this new science of flight continue, and who could name its limitations? He laughed at the folly32 of the notion, and then remembered that he must breast Zermatt according to the conditions.
Had he lost count of the Matterhorn? He peered down anxiously through the mist, descended33 a little and received the first real fright since the beginning. For a mountain loomed34 suddenly before him; he swung instantly to the left, and was then almost abreast35 of a fearsome precipice23 which suggested the whole measure of that height. The terror of it set him shuddering36. He soared again desperately37, and listened to the beat of his engine as to a message of life or death. Would it fail him? If it did, death must be the end of it. He laughed at his own cowardice38 when the rattle39 of the exhaust made music for his ears again, and the drifting vapour showed him all the wonders of the Riffelberg, as no living man but he had seen it.
Here for the first time he could look down upon the smiling face of Italy, and discern the gentler country between the chain of the Pennines and Biella. Despite the altitude, a warmer breath was breathed upon him from the southern valleys. The vast bulk of Monte Rosa, approached as he swung about to regain40 the Simplon, warned him that the respite41 was but brief, and that all the rigour of the northern range must be faced anew if he would reach Andana. But he was cheered by this break in the vista42 of eternal snows; and bringing his machine about, he searched the wilderness43 of ice below for any sign of those who must observe his passing.
He had crossed the sloping peak of the Matterhorn by this time, and could espy44 the precipices of the Weisshorn once more. The Valley of Zermatt running down to the pass was but a trench45 in a desolation from which the eyes must shrink. Knowing little of the place, he had few landmarks; but the Gorner Glacier27 was one of them, and he traced it with precision. There he perceived great tendrils of pure ice, bent46 and gnarled as the trunks of trees; black rocks upon which no snow could rest; fathomless47 depths of ice so blue that a magic river should lie beneath them. And there, as elsewhere, the stillness appalled him. He was glad that it was so, for wind was the enemy. Let the weather change, and he might still be defeated. He knew it, and his heart sank at the remembrance.
A great endeavour is chiefly a story of great hopes. This man had dreamed of such an opportunity as this—he knew not in what phase of his calling—but he had dreamed that some day the world would hail him as a victor, and that his name would be known to men. Now it seemed that the moment was at hand. The immensity of his achievement was hardly present to his mind. Sometimes he was almost afraid for himself, saying, "I am jesting with my fellow-men; it is the machine and not the man which counts in the story of the sciences." At other times a great pride in what he had done ran like fire through his veins48. The whole world must know his name to-morrow. If he fell dead then and there upon the black rocks of the Matterhorn, they must still say that he of all living men had first crossed the summit of Mont Blanc. He knew it, and flushed at the knowledge. He had not lived in vain; perchance, should the supreme49 prize be his, he was about to enter upon a new life whose rewards he would not dwell upon. Others had told him so; he was content to believe them.
And so great hopes went with him, and the smallest check upon them could set his heart beating. Of these the most considerable came at the moment when he headed his machine for the twin-peaked Weisshorn. His brother and the abbé had warned him against the currents of the Valley of Zermatt; but so triumphant50 had been his progression to this time that he had forgotten the warnings or derided51 them. Now they returned as an echo to which he must listen. Suddenly, and without any warning at all, he felt himself sinking toward the valley. It was just as though the whole machine dropped rapidly, had lost stability, and would go hurtling down to the abyss as a bird that is shot. In vain he raised his elevating plane to its full capacity. The shell continued its headlong flight, its nose dipped downwards52, its engine raced wildly. Then, as suddenly, he regained53 his balance, went a little way upon an even keel, and discovered that his engine had almost ceased to run. It ebbed54 away as a life that gasps55 for air—sobbed out a requiem57. And that drove him almost mad with terror; for a spell his wit failed him altogether; he sat back in his chair and looked death in the face.
But it was for an instant, no more. There is this in the instinct of a true mechanic, that whatever the emergency, his mind will grasp the meaning of it before the minds of others, and he will be the first to act. Even as death looked him in the face, Benny could say that the engine had ceased to run because the petrol supply had failed. Turning in his seat he lifted the needles valve, and then struck the side of his tank a fierce blow. As swiftly as the engine had failed, as swiftly it took up the drive again. He heard the hum of it; watched the great propeller58 racing59, and then looked ahead of him to regain his course. There had been a margin60 of ten seconds perhaps between salvation61 and the ultimate calamity62. He was as white as the snow beneath him when he understood the truth.
A vast black precipice of rock loomed up the third of a mile away. Unable to see more than its jagged face, Benny swung his machine to port, then soared without a break until he had lost all sense of locality, and the air was so bitterly cold that his very breath turned to ice. Now a great white cloud enveloped63 him. He looked vainly to his compass for help, but the needle oscillated so violently that north and south had no meaning. Descending64 a little way, he discovered that he was circling about Monte Rosa, and that the plains of Italy called him once more. Then despair seized upon him—the despair of a man who wanders by night, lost to all sense of direction, and vainly seeking lights upon a strange horizon.
In a measure this dread had been inspired by the fall. He waited with ear intent for any sound that the engine would fail a second time, and shuddered65 at any variation of its rhythm. When the vista became clear again he was astonished to find that the scene was just as it had been when first he crossed the summit of the Matterhorn. All the great peaks—the Dent66 Blanche, the Rothhorn, the Grand Gorner, the Weissthor—stood in the same relation to his course as when he had set it at the beginning. And at this he took new courage, and with a counsel of prudence67 which sent him eastward68 across the mouth of the valley. He would not enter that trap for the second time; he knew that in altitude lay his salvation.
His flight now lay in some part along the Italian frontier. He skirted Monte Rosa and flew straight across the Gorner Grat, kept to the right of the Horner, and henceforth found a kindlier country. Had he persisted he would have come to the lesser69 peaks which fend70 the Simplon Pass; but he swung again before he reached them, and so, with the wind at his back, he headed at last straight for Andana and the goal. Half an hour, he thought, would bring the end, if the weather held and the mists were but local.
The latter was now his only doubt, and he could not shake it off despite the magnitude of his attainment71. He had reached a point where he should have been able to look right up the Valley of the Rhone; but the view was obscured by those banks of white cloud which had drifted in the valley since dawn, and were still to be reckoned with. He entered the first of them, and was subject once more to all the dread and despair which had afflicted72 him at Zermatt. A sense of direction was lost as heretofore; vast shadows appeared to pursue him; he raced his engine that he might escape them, but they pressed on the more. Then, in an instant, the way would be clear, the sun shining brightly, the valley below him a smiling scene to summon him to victory.
It was but such a little way, and victory stood so near. When the cloud enveloped him for the third time that day, he tried to soar above it, and succeeded for a little while; but the vapour was mounting also and it would interpose a curtain between him and the earth, so that direction was alternately lost and found, while he himself became soaked to the skin and began to lose the use of his hands. Now, surely, he thought that he was done for; but still he headed for Andana and the slopes, and said that all must be risked in that final descent. Henceforth, it was a race between the endurance of the man and the machine, and the magnitude of the cloud. He heard an ominous73 misfire in his engine, and shivered as though a cold hand had touched him. The great white sea of vapour below forbade him to see whether he were then above Visp or Sierre; nor did the contour of the valley shape as he had expected. So a woful sense of defeat took possession of him anew; his numbed74 hands permitted the ship to rock horribly; he went down a hundred feet, but feared the walls of the valley; rose again, and reeled in his seat. He was a beaten man by now, hardly able to raise a hand to a lever; the great white sea had done for him, and he knew it.
Here irony75 stepped in, and with a weird76 interposition which would have delighted a cynic. While his machine rolled and sagged77 in the mists a sound of human voices came up to him from below. He thought that he heard cheers, the hooting78 of horns, and the crack of a revolver shot. As swiftly as the sounds arose they died away, and the stillness became supreme. He felt that he must come down whatever the cost. The great prize was lost, and with it the hope of the years. And at this tears of a bitter sorrow welled to the man's eyes. Defeated! Yes, that was the truth, and the world would know the story to-morrow, and forget him in a week. What mattered it that he had done so much? Was not victory his all in all? And he was beat—dead beat—by the cloud which mocked him. Almost with a sob56 he made a last effort and began to come down. The ground below him, emerging suddenly, showed a steep bank of snow with pinewoods above it. There he ran his ship, and as she came to rest he buried his face in his hands and wept aloud.
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1
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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2
blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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3
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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4
acrobats
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| n.杂技演员( acrobat的名词复数 )；立场观点善变的人，主张、政见等变化无常的人 | |
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5
quaffed
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| v.痛饮( quaff的过去式和过去分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽 | |
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6
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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8
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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9
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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12
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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13
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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15
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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17
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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19
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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24
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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25
puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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26
glaciers
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| 冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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glacier
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| n.冰川，冰河 | |
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28
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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30
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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transit
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| n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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33
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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34
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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35
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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36
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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37
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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38
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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39
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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40
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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41
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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42
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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43
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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44
espy
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| v.（从远处等）突然看到 | |
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45
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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46
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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47
fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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48
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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49
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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50
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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51
derided
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| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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53
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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54
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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55
gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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56
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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57
requiem
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| n.安魂曲，安灵曲 | |
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58
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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59
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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60
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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61
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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62
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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63
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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65
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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66
dent
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| n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展 | |
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67
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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68
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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69
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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70
fend
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| v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开 | |
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71
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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72
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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74
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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76
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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77
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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78
hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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