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Chapter 4 The Lean Months
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After that hectic1 first week, we had a little time to reflect. Ispent my days on the phone standing2 on the spot in front ofthe house—a scene I had constantly imagined from France—with the walk-in enclosure sloping away in front of medown to the flamingo3 lake (albeit currently populated by onlytwo elderly flamingos4 and a couple of rickety pelicans), andthe tree line merging6 with the perfect rural English vista7 ofrolling hills beyond, stretching like an organic quilt for fivemiles in all directions. The feel-good factor was—as I hadtold myself it would be—immense. But not quite enough tocompensate for the content of those endless rounds ofphone calls. Council officials, advisors8, more lawyers, morebanks and brokers9, but above all, now, creditors10, drip-fedmy ear with increasingly bad news. With my feet plantedfirmly on my favorite spot, the thrilling and invigorating newzoo at my back, my mind raced ahead, scanning thepossibilities and ever-decreasing options before me.
If my friends had been incredulous when I made the—admittedly surreal—announcement that my family and Iwere soon to live in and try to reinvigorate a run-down zoo,their bewilderment was nothing compared with our own inthe first weeks we introduced ourselves to our newneighbors.
Back in France, the children hadn’t quite believed it whenI’d told them what I was trying to do. With the phone stuck tomy ear I was constantly shushing them away, for six months,with the same refrain: “Quiet. Daddy’s trying to buy a zoo.” Icould see that they thought I was deluded—silly Daddymakes us live in a barn in a foreign country and now hethinks he’s buying a zoo. The trouble was, their naiveinsight struck a chord with a great many other people—pretty well everyone I knew—apart from my immediatefamily of brothers, sister, and mum. “I’ve got a really badfeeling about this zoo idea,” one close friend had called toconfide. “Are you still going on about that?” said another.
“Les tigres? Sacré bleu, c’est pas possible!” said the entirevillage, in whose eyes my eccentricity12 had reached newheights. The trouble was that, having finally arrived, insteadof being the smooth transition to spending our prearrangedmortgage on clearly defined objectives, we were crisismanaging on a shoestring13.
But when the children eventually got there, after a coupleof days of tiptoeing wide-eyed around the place, theyadjusted much more quickly and fully14 than I did to the newlife. Katherine brought them over from France after acouple of weeks, stayed for two days of huge culture shock(I already felt like a relatively15 old hand by this stage), andthen had to leave for Italy for two weeks to be with hersister, Alice, who was having her first baby there. At first thechildren were tentative, and frankly16 a little afraid. Iremember leaving them in the office playing with someremaindered stock toys while I cleared rubbish, and as Ilooked in at them through the window they were bothsquare mouthed, howling with fear at being left alone. It wasquite a scary place at first, particularly for them. But theysoon adapted.
When I decided17 to gently break the news to Milo that, oneday, the park would be open and we’d have to share all thiswith hundreds of visitors, he replied, “Yes, but Daddy, they’llpay to come round.” At last that naive11 insight was workingwith me.
My mum’s two domestic cats, Pandit and Jow-jow, bigblack Bengals imported from Surrey, however, took muchlonger to see the wonder in our new life. Could it be thehowling of wolves that troubled them? The bellowing18 ofSolomon, our huge African lion, whose roar has beenknown to strike fear into golfers happily playing their courseover two miles away? Or perhaps it was the time that theyjumped up on a wall to discover the slobbering faces ofthree big brown bears staring back? Exploding into puffballparodies of frightened cats, they shot off back to thehouse at full speed.
Duncan, who had brought the cats down in his car, saidthat their first sighting of an ostrich19 was a uniqueopportunity to watch a process firsthand: their small,complacent brains burst with an overload20 of new stimuli21 asthey desperately22 tried to adjust to the new concept of a birdbigger than a man. “Their necks stretched out as far as I’veever seen them go, and they darted23 their heads from sideto side urgently scanning for as much information as theycould gather from inside the car,” said Duncan. “I sat withthem for a while to let them get used to it, but they were stilljust as agitated25 twenty minutes later, when I took them intothe house.” The twenty or so peacocks who roam thegrounds presented another psychological problem for thecats, who quickly developed a tactic26 of total denial of theexistence of all these unsettlingly large and confidentexamples of a class of creatures they had only ever knownas prey27.
Of all the animals, my favorites initially28 became the threehand-reared Siberian tigers, Blotch29, Stripe, and big Vlad, amale, and at more than three hundred kilos one of thebiggest cats in the country. As I went around the back of thehouse in their enclosure for the first time, all three came upto try to cadge30 a stroke through the fence. No chance!
Tigers don’t growl31 or roar, they chuff, which is a noisethat sounds a bit like blowing a raspberry using just your toplip. But if you chuff at them, they chuff back, and having athree-hundred-kilo cat a foot away trying to be friendly is auniquely uplifting experience.
For Milo and Ella, it was the otters32 that captured theirimagination. Quickly they became smitten34 with thecreatures, who make the most ridiculous squeaky-toynoises whenever you go past. This, naturally, elicitedequally high-pitched squeals35 of delight from the children,who jumped up and down with glee until the otters realizedthey didn’t have any food and scampered36 away.
Sometimes the children do help feed them, but it’s hard tofit in with the routines, which are varied37 to prevent theanimals from habituating. The ferrets, Fidget and Wiggle,however, fit around the children. Katy, our first educationofficer, was getting them used to being handled, and soseveral times a week she fitted them with dinky little ferretharnesses and walked them around the park with Milo andElla.
But it was standing on my favorite spot looking outacross the valley in the first few days that I began to homein on the smell. A terrible odor hung over the park, the smellof rotting carcasses, which I recognized from occasionallyhelping drag them out of enclosures. Operating with a“skeleton crew” for so long, the amount of old bones in withthe carnivores on the park had accumulated so that everyenclosure was littered with rib38 cages, hooves, andmiscellaneous bits of fur and skin, which it seemed werethe root of the problem. Decomposing40 vegetable matterand uncleaned feces from the herbivores surely didn’t help,but in fact the source was more systemic. It was the offalbins.
For food for the carnivores, the park relies on fallen stock— calves43 culled44 by local farmers, stillborn lambs, horsesthat have been hit by cars—brought to us and oftenprepared by the local “knacker” man, Andy Goatman, in our“meat room.” This is basically a concrete loading bay with asink, backing onto a walk-in deep freezer. The carcassesare stripped expertly by Andy, often assisted by butterwouldn’t-melt-in-their-mouths cat keepers Hannah andKelly. To see these two mild-mannered, animal-loving girlsstraddling a giant carcass, boot-deep in entrails,brandishing big, bloodied45 knives and cheerfully chatting asthey shuffle46 a horse’s head into a freezer bin42, was tounderstand fully that we had entered into a different world.
The bits that can’t be fed to the animals—intestines,spines, and general entrails—are classed as Type I Matterand stored in offal bins41, three large stainless47 steel hoppers,which are collected weekly and incinerated by a locallicensed firm. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been paid for quitesome time, and wouldn’t even pick up the phone to uswithout cash up front. The last time the bins were emptiedwas six weeks before we arrived, and the stenchemanating from them was all pervading50. Worse, for Hannahand Kelly, and everyone else who had to work in theyard, were the maggots. These writhing51 white grubs spilledout in a self-dissipating arc around the bins, crawling offtoward the decaying matter around the gullies. Opening thelids of the bins, which I did a few times while helping39 to loadthem, facilitated the distribution of these maggots andopened up a world that Dante would have been proud toconjure. Empty skulls53 swam in a blue-gray fetid mushswarming with larvae55, while the stench entered your bones.
The keepers’ work in these circumstances was truly heroic,though having gradually acclimatized over several yearsthey wore their burden lightly. “This is nothing. It’s muchworse in the summer,” John reassured56 me. Our flimsydomestic-pressure washer was, gratefully, deployed57, but anindustrial version was added to our wish list of essential butunaffordable machinery59.
The dampness didn’t help, coming up through the floor ofthe house via an ancient well—the ancient hand pump forwhich was now, sadly, defunct—to form mini-lakes on theworn topography of the stone floors. Many feet over severalcenturies had eroded60 the stones along the well-usedpathways, and scuffed61 off the softer deposits to createvalleys and dips, which now became tributaries62 and lakesin our living area. Water, and the effects of it, waseverywhere. Overflowing63 cracked gutters64, filled with yearsof mulch from overhanging trees, spread dampness into thewalls. Mildew65 and algae66 blanketed everything outside thehouse with a dank frosting of green grime, symbolizing67, andalso actually indicating, profound decay.
And then there were the rats. “A plague of rats” would notbe an overstatement. Everywhere you looked, even indaylight, big fat, gray rats scurried68 out of sight, andsometimes, arrogantly69, didn’t even bother. Right in front ofyour eyes they would dart24 into an enclosure and steal thefood left out for the monkeys. Satisfyingly, these intrudersreceived a terrible revenge exacted upon them by one ortwo of the enclosed animals, particularly Basil, thecoatimundi (an amiable70 South American climbing animalrelated to the raccoon), whose powerful omnivorous71 jawsspecialized in cracking the skulls of rats unfortunate enoughto get caught in them. But this was an imperfect solution tothe infestation72. Rats carry disease, and also may bepoisoned, if not by us perhaps by a neighboring farm. A fewyears previously73 an otter33 had died from eating a poisonedrat, so we had to tackle the problem carefully. We gotquotes from three different pest-control firms, offering threedifferent methods of gassing and poisoning, but the sheerscale of our problem—at least forty well-established nestsover thirty acres, with a constant supply of food—wasprohibitively expensive to address. Nine thousand poundswas the bottom line for the most thorough and exoticanimal-friendly method, and this was money we simplydidn’t have.
Peter Wearden and others regularly reminded me thateradicating the rats was an urgent requirement for gettingour zoo license49. But they didn’t have to. I like all animals,including rats, particularly the ones in pet shops or those Iworked with at university, studying social learning forchocolate rewards. Lab rats— at least the ones notexposed to vivisectionists—generally lead a happy andfulfilling life solving problems for rewards, and die with asubstantially thicker cortex than their sewer-dwellingbrethren. But wild rats give me the shudders75. In my firstencounter, in a flat in Peckham, I was filled with horror ondiscovering a big, brown, plague-infested rodent76 in akitchen cupboard. And here they were again: in the kitchen,running over my mum’s hand on the stairs one night, andeven once jumping onto her bed. Luckily, Mum’s cats,Pandit and Jow-jow, were also on the bed at the time, andthe resulting commotion77 woke the entire household.
But I doubt they caught it. Those two stupid cats werenuzzling my legs one night as I moved in on some rustlingemanating from a lower kitchen cupboard. With two felinepredators at my feet I felt sure that if I flushed out a rat, theywould catch it. Species-typical pest control. But it didn’twork out like that. I crept stealthily in stocking feet on thehard-tiled floor, positioned myself carefully by the door, triedto attract the attention of the swirling79, purring cats withoutalerting the rat, and then snapped the door open. The ratshot out and glanced off my leg, just as the blissfullyoblivious, moronic81, purring brother cats made anothereyes-shut circumnavigation of my shins. It bolted under thedishwasher (which didn’t work due to the low waterpressure), at least revealing one of their entry points, acircular hole drilled through the two-and-a-half-foot-thickgranite wall to accommodate a flue. John blocked this offwith some balled-up chicken wire, but the rats stilloccasionally came into the house, and the effect wasdepressing. With systemic plumbing82 problems, sporadicelectricity, disapproving83 friends and relatives, creditors, nomoney, responsibility for endangered animals and keepers’
jobs, filth84, decay and the smell of death wafting85 through thegrim weather, the rat infestation probably completed thecircle of psychological siege. It’s fair to say that those firstweeks passed like a dream. A very strange dream filledwith fighting monkeys, severed86 heads, and carrion87 shippedin from local farms—but a dream nevertheless.
But it wasn’t all bad news. For a start, we had the park.
We’d finally overcome all the obstacles, seen andunforeseen, that had stood between us and this (withhindsight) slightly bizarre objective. And for once, DonaldRumsfeld, in the news at the time over the Iraq war, madesense to me: “As we know,” he said, famously, “there areknown knowns—things we know we know. We also knowthere are known unknowns—things we know we don’tknow. But there are also unknown unknowns—things wedon’t know we don’t know.” I knew exactly what he meant,and so far, we had navigated88 our known and unknownunknowns successfully. I only hoped that our strategy ofsending a light force into a difficult operational area wentbetter than his.
In addition, we had got the park against odds89 absolutelystacked against us, against the “better judgment” andexpectation of almost everyone involved. But this feelingwas nothing compared with the invigorating thrill of actuallywalking around the park itself. The huge trees weresheathed with lush moss90 and ancient lichens91 that could onlygrow in an environment with good air quality (and highrainfall), and this pure, clean air filled our nostrils92 and lungs(when the wind was blowing the stench of death the otherway) like a long-lost antidote93 to urbanism and stress.
I felt myself really coming alive as I moved around this—yes—species-typical environment for Homo sapiens.
Merely showing a picture of a tree to an accountant in anoffice block has a small but measurable effect in reducinghis or her blood pressure. Actually moving about amongtrees soothes94 us far more deeply.
Howard Frumkin is a professor of Environmental andOccupational Health at the Rollins School of Public Health,in Atlanta, and in between advising local governments onthe use of public spaces, Frumkin researches the effectthat the natural environment has on us. And in metaanalysesof countless95 studies, Frumkin has found that thenatural world has a measurable beneficial effect on humanphysical and mental health. Prisoners in cells facing aprison courtyard, for instance, have 24 percent more sickvisits than those in cells with a view over farmland.
Postoperative patients with a view of trees need less painmedication than patients facing a brick wall, and weredischarged one day earlier.
This all stems from the Pulitzer Prize–winning scientistProfessor E. O. Wilson, founder96 of sociobiology andgeneral god of evolutionary97 thinking. Wilson’s “BiophiliaHypothesis” suggests that as a species we feel reassuredin an environment that the animal within us recognizes. “Itshould come as no great surprise to find that Homosapiens at least still feels an innate98 preference for thenatural environment that cradled us,” says Wilson. Over thelast few hundred thousand years this environment hasmainly been areas of sparse99 woodland, backing ontosavannah, which has probably hardwired us with apreference for this particular kind of setting, the one we“grew up” with. “Early humans found that places with openviews offered better opportunities to find food and avoidpredators,” says Frumkin. “But they needed water to surviveand attract prey, and groups of trees for protection.
Research has shown that people today, given the choice,prefer landscapes that look like this scenario100.”
That was now our scenario. Open spaces, groups oftrees, watering holes stocked with exotic beasts. By someamazing coincidence, it turns out that almost all urbanparks contain precisely101 the ratio of trees to shrubs102 to grassas the African grasslands104 of our ancestry105. Big trees nearby,a scattering106 of shrubs, and open grassland103 into thedistance, with occasional lakes thrown in for goodmeasure. With some small part of your brain you arelooking out for deer on the horizon, or a saber-toothed tigeramongst the trees—no wonder it heightens mentalalertness.
The most amazing thing about our new environment oftrees, open spaces, and lakes was that we actually didhave tigers, lions, and wolves peeping through the foliageat us, giving us precisely that mix our ancestors grew up in.
To be responsible for this uniquely intellectually, physically107,and even spiritually invigorating environment—plus fulfill74 amission to open it up and share it with the public foreducational and conservation purposes (and get a freelunch in our own restaurant when it opened, as part of thedeal)—seemed like a utopian quest.
And so we began to get to know our individual animals.
Ronnie the Brazilian tapir seemed a good place to start.
Ronnie is like a big pig, with the aforementioned wibblynose, and while technically109 regarded as a Class 1dangerous animal—the same category as a lion—is ahuge softy. Keepers showed me photographs of otherkeepers from around the world who had been killed bythese deceptively amiable creatures. Tapir means “strong”
in Indonesian, and though usually placid110, tapirs have areputation for being able to power through chain-link fencesas if they weren’t there. This ability stems from theirdefense strategy against their major predator78, the jaguar111,who hunt them by dropping from the trees and hanging ontothe backs of their necks. Evolution has furnished the tapirwith a large gristle-filled scruff to absorb this bite, and alsoa propensity112 to charge forward through anything in its pathin order to reach water to shake the jaguar off. Now,jaguars113 can also swim, so I have no idea how this strategyeventually plays out, but I suppose trying to fight jaguars ondry land has to be worse. Perhaps Ronnie, shouldSovereign ever get out again and decide to come for him,was planning to crash through his fence to the emu lakeand use his mini-trunk as a snorkel114.
My first lengthy115 encounter with Ronnie was to help checkhis eyes for conjunctivitis, which he definitely had.
Expensive medication from the vet—to whom we werealready indebted by several thousand pounds—was apossibility, but so was bathing his eyes in a mild saltwatersolution, something I had done countless times over manyyears with cats, dogs, and children, with equally effectiveresults. The difference was that none of those creaturescould suddenly decide to kill me if they didn’t like it. ButRonnie was a pussycat. After we slipped him a fewbananas and cooed to him in that way he seemed to elicit,Ronnie went along with his treatment stoically, even thoughhe didn’t like it, blinking and holding his head upright untilI’d sponged the gunk from his eyes and expunged116 thetraces around them. The trick, I learned, was to scratch himon the side of the neck so that he turned his head to theside, or—and this is a secret—to scratch his bum117 until hesat down.
Up close, Ronnie reminded me of a Staffordshire bullterrier, Jasper, I’d had for fifteen years: strong and solid buthopelessly soppy. Jasper was incontrovertibly andirrefutably gay. Early on in his adulthood118 he pushed past abitch in heat to mount one of her male pups from a previouslitter, and thereafter demonstrated a lifelong inclination119 as a“friend of Dorothy.” Ronnie minced120 around his enclosure,which at the time was a narrow strip of almost entirelychurned mud, with periodic access to the enclosure below,which contained a lake where he liked to defecate andmingle with the emus. As an ungulate—one of the clovenhoofedpersuasion—Ronnie didn’t like treading in mud,which got stuck between his toes (Jasper was the samewith snow, and would come limping up to me, paws packedwith ice, which, once cleared, would send him speeding onhis way again). Ronnie didn’t have that option, and hisnarrow strip of an enclosure made it uncomfortable for himto walk around pretty well anywhere, except the hard earthsurrounding his meager121 house. Even a trip down to the emulake, which he was allowed every now and then by meansof a gate at the bottom of his enclosure, was spoiled forhim by the mud on the way there and back. I resolvedstraight away that we would give Ronnie permanent accessto the lake, though this would require planning permissionand relatively expensive new posts and fencing, and was alonger-term solution. Meanwhile, however, a simple answerwas to dismantle122 the fence into the adjacent enclosure,which contained six miniature muntjac deer and wasroughly twice the size of Ronnie’s. These small deer wereapproachable and friendly, and could be left to roam thepublic access walk-in enclosure (containing the flamingoand pelican5 lake), which at the time was populated with agreat gaggle of wild geese, strutting123 Bantam cockerels,and guinea fowl124, who milled noisily, sticking roughly to theirethnic groups within the overall swarming54 population.
I asked Rob and John what they thought of this idea andthey said they’d been waiting to do it for years, and also totake the fence away from the adjacent epic125 turkey oak treeto increase the size of the walk-in by a similar amount. Thisbecame a common theme: thinking of an innovation andfinding that it was already on a wish list but that nobody hadsuggested it. This was basically because none of the sevenstaff we had inherited were used to being consulted—quitethe reverse, in fact: they seem to have been trained to keeptheir mouths shut. I repeatedly reiterated126 that we were allears, but this kind of cultural shift, naturally, takes time tosink in.
When Ronnie was let back into his new, triple-sizeenclosure, he tiptoed around exploring everythingtentatively with his highly motile hooter. He seemeddelighted, almost overawed, and it was a lovely feeling tohave been able to implement127 such a simple but beneficialinnovation. With fewer fences, the whole bottom area of thepark looked better too.
Ronnie’s one mishap128 was when he urinated on a newlypositioned strand129 of electric fence, receiving about seventhousand volts130 (at a very low current) up the stream andprobably into his bladder, via his most sensitive organ. Thepoor bloke apparently131 hopped132 and bucked133 around hispaddock for half a morning, but he learned well from hismistake, as he has never peed incautiously near the fenceagain. In time we would take down the bottom fence and lethim have permanent access to the flamingo lake, whichwould give him an enclosure many times the size of theindustry standard laid down by BIAZA (the British and IrishAssociation of Zoos and Aquaria, formerly134 the ZooFederation) for tapirs. Then we could start thinking aboutgetting him a breeding female—or, if my animal gaydarwas at all reliable, a boyfriend.
The subject of gay animals was one I had raisedtentatively from the start, even with Nick Lindsay as we didour first walk around, and with Peter Wearden and MikeThomas as I’d discussed our plans for the zoo in the earlydays. I’d read about a zoo in Holland that exclusivelyexhibited gay animals, and a recent exhibition at a museumin Oslo claims to have identified 1,500 species wherehomosexuality was clearly apparent—some opportunistic,like the notoriously randy (and highly intelligent) bonobochimpanzee and bottlenose dolphin, while many others pairfor life. Darwinian evolutionary theory has had difficulty withthe topic of homosexuality, and from a sociobiologicalperspective it seems hard to explain. This apparent voidhas left the far-right homophobes and various religiousextremists to be able to declare that it is a “crime againstnature and God.” In fact, theorists have built a compellingargument that a proportion of gay adults in a population—roughly one in seven humans, and about one in tenpenguins, for instance—actually helps with group securityand child rearing, because nonreproductive adults bolsterthe breeding efforts of the group as a whole. Two gay maleflamingos, for instance, have been shown to be able toprotect a larger territory and raise more successful chicks(albeit from pilfered136 eggs) than a heterosexual pair. Thisraises a tricky137 possibility of group, rather than “selfishgene,” selection, but what is undeniable is thathomosexuality exists almost universally across the animalkingdom. Having lived with a gay dog for fifteen years, overthe course of which I met many owners of other gay dogs(roughly 5 to 10 percent of the randomly138 selected caninepopulation of London parks), I am absolutely convinced thathomosexuality has at the very least a strong geneticcomponent, is perfectly139 natural, and nothing to get excitedabout. Unless you’re gay, of course—or a homophobe.
I was encouraged that my proposals for some gay animalexhibits, for educational purposes, were listened to politelyby all the zoo professionals I spoke140 to, including our ownkeepers, and not dismissed out of hand, though a bemusedsmirk often greeted them. But nobody said it couldn’t orshouldn’t be done, and several people were activelyencouraging. I think they thought that if you’re crazy enoughto want to buy a zoo, you’re going to have weird141 ideas. Butas long as the result was educating the public about thenatural world, it was okay.
Coco was another character who took me by surprise.
Coco is a caracara, a large bird of prey with the coloring ofa golden eagle. She stands majestically142, almost haughtily,and her call is a rapid-fire staccato version of the laughingkookaburra, but delivered with an extraordinary head flip143, inwhich her cranium jerks backward suddenly through 180degrees until her throat is exposed to the sky and her eyesare momentarily upside down and pointing backward. Theevolutionary origins of this call are hard to discern, otherthan that it throws the sound out in an arc above her,perhaps reaching a wider audience. All I knew was that itmade my neck ache to watch her do it.
But according to a visiting falconer, Coco was probablythe most intelligent bird in the park; she was once used inthe falconry display, but quickly learned that by ignoring herlure and flying over to the restaurant, she could make abetter144 living cadging145 french fries and sausages. Obviously,this brought her display career to a premature146 conclusion,but she remains147 a socialized and charming presence.
The falconer showed me that if you called her over shewould come to the wire and bow her head to be stroked atthe back of her skull52. I wasn’t surprised that her neckneeded soothing148 with her surely spinally149 maladaptive call,but I was surprised at just how friendly and personable shewas. Birds registered pretty low on my snooty animalintelligence perspective, though crows and some otherbirds have demonstrated problem-solving abilities and tooluse that rivals the higher primates150. This seems to bebecause they can deploy58 their entire brains onto a singleproblem, but the taxonomy of birds—which are among thefew modern descendants of dinosaurs151, and the eponymousinspirers of the term birdbrain—had previously been of littleinterest to me. Peacocks are definitely named for theirbrain size, and chickens and herbivorous birds do seem tobe cursed (or blessed) with a very limited outlook on theworld. But Coco has personality, and as Samuel L.
Jackson said in Pulp153 Fiction, “Personality goes a longway.”
Coco’s dinosaur152 heritage is paradoxically coming hometo roost, as caracaras, though effortless flyers, tend to hunttheir prey by chasing them on the ground, like a mini T. rex,which is why her talons154 are not as pronounced as an owl’sor an eagle’s, who hunt by seizing from above. Cocospends a lot of time walking on the ground in her aviary,with delicate rather than overtly155 predatory feet. But her beakis formidable, curved like an Arabian dagger157 and designedfor plunging158 into the vital parts of other animals. She is araptor, pure and simple, and if you happen to be a smallground-foraging animal, she’ll get you if you stray onto herpatch. I once found her with a severed robin159 in her beak156,chatting animatedly160 about it and looking pretty wild, but shestill came over for a stroke. It was disconcerting venturing adigit through the wire to stroke a bird with bloodiedevidence dangling161 from her beak; should she misinterpretthe stimulus162, I could be down to nine. “Coco’s another onewhere you don’t have to worry about rats getting in,” saidKelly with some pride. “They don’t come out again.” Cocoalso tracks small children who run up and down in front ofher, including my four-year-old Ella. At first I thought thiswas some display of affinity163, but, learning more aboutCoco, Ella probably triggers an interest less benign164.
Kevin also impressed me with an apparent personalitywhere I had expected none. Kevin is a five-foot red-tailedboa constrictor whom we had moved from the unheatedreptile house into the shop, which is heated and located inbetween the offices and the restaurant. Walking past himevery day, I noticed he seemed depressed166, if that’s not tooanthropomorphic. He was certainly lackluster, spending allhis time curled up in his water bowl. Once, while on hold onthe phone with some infernal institution, I asked Robin—thegray-ponytailed graphic167 designer, one of the seven staff wehad inherited with the park—if I could get him out. He gladlyobliged, and gave me a quick course in how to handle him.
“Hold him gently but firmly, be assertive168 but don’t make anysudden movements. Constrictors don’t usually bite, but ifthey do he’ll give you plenty of warning first, darting169 hishead around. If he starts to do that, just stay still, and thenpop him back in the vivarium.” As Robin hung Kevin overmy shoulder and free arm and made sure I wasn’t going topanic— this was the first time I had ever touched a snake—the switch-board on the other end of the phone put methrough. “And try not to let him get round your neck,” saidRobin over his shoulder as he went back to his work. So Ibegan a slightly surreal conversation with someone nodoubt suited and sitting at a desk, while I was wanderingaround draped in a snake whose muscular coils hadinstantly come to life. Kevin’s head naturally probed for thedark warm folds inside my coat, but he also responded well—surprisingly well, I thought, for a reptile165—to having hischin stroked.
The call finished, I continued playing with Kevin, warminghim up under my coat and marveling at the symmetricalperfection of his head and his pure strength as he grippedmy arm. Kevin is strong enough to stop the circulation inyour hand, turning it purple, and if your hands were tiedthere is no doubt he could choke you to death. But hedoesn’t want to. He probably thought I was a tree, hisnatural habitat in the Amazon from which he hangs by hisred tail and drops onto his prey (what with jaguars and boaconstrictors falling from the trees, it sounds like the bestplace to look in the Amazon is up). Kevin’s responsivenessto handling and stroking suggested he thought I was atleast a very friendly tree. And I was surprised that after ourtwenty-minute encounter I felt elated for the rest of the day.
This could just have been the novelty of the experience,or perhaps an echo of Professor E. O. Wilson’s biophilia,our positive physiological170 response to nature. I preferred tothink that it was the latter. DNA171 analysis suggests that dogsbroke off from wolves 130,000 years ago, which meansthey were adapting to human society long before we settleddown and began practicing agriculture. During this timedogs perfected that big-eyed baleful look to help them getaway with chewing up our slippers172 and manipulating us intogiving them strokes and treats. This is something Kevin’slocked features could not do, but we have certainly spent aformative part of our evolution surrounded by responsive,and not so responsive, animals, and I was delighted thatthis warm feeling Kevin had given me was something wewould one day be sharing with the public. Kevin was part ofthe Animal Encounters program, Robin informed me, andneeded socializing as much as possible, to get him used tobeing handled by the children and adults, who, ideally,would be flocking around him at Easter, when we were dueto open. I was only too happy to oblige, and regularly tookKevin over to the house to warm him in front of the fire—inthe only warm room in the house—and introduced him tovisiting friends and relatives. I liked this job.
Our two biggest snakes, both pythons over ten feet long,needed at least two people to handle them, because theycould definitely get the better of you. I made severalattempts to organize a session with these snakes, but inthe fraught173 and hectic first few weeks, interrupting thekeepers’ routines too much seemed frivolous174. Eventually,both snakes were given away to Paignton Zoo, thirty milesaway and a pillar of the zoological community. Having justbuilt a new reptile display, they had nothing to put in it andwere grateful for our donation, which also demonstratedgoodwill on our part and may help to facilitate futurereciprocity. I secretly have my eye on some of theirexpensive flamingos (straight or gay). Scales for feathers.
The big pythons had to go because we had decided toturn the sparse, cold reptile house into a workshop, and thesnakes, along with two four-foot iguanas175, lived there in fourlarge built-in vivariums that could not be moved. Theconcrete floor of the building and big double doors made itideal for the large-scale heavy work that would be requiredto get the zoo back on its feet, and another barn, insulatedand with a dirt floor ripe for installing under-floor heating,was earmarked as a future reptile house. When we had themoney.
The existing workshop was simply unworkable. A cinderblockshack with a leaking, rusted176 corrugated177 iron roof, itwas strewn with miscellaneous clutter178, from elderly brokenpower tools to coils of rusted wire, and many, many otherobjects that were impossible to identify beneath whatseemed like centuries of grime, the kind of rich, brown, oilbasedfilth you get beside railway tracks. And it was ratinfested. A glance inside usually revealed an arrogantrodent or two, safe in the knowledge that before you couldclamber over the detritus179 to get to them, they could begone, having ducked into the impromptu180 tunnels and nooksamong the debris181 that had lain long enough to sheltergenerations of foragers, and providing an important basecamp for raids on the nearby animal food preparationroom. The only tool in the whole workshop that actuallyworked was an old but serviceable bench-mounted anglegrinder, though the lack of electrical supply and the positionof the grinder, at the far end of the room across yards ofgrimy, rusting182 clutter, made it utterly183 impossible to use.
With relish184 we gave instructions to clean out the roomand relocate the workshop to the reptile house, whilerelocating the few reptiles185 to the warmth of the shop. “That’sa bloody186 good idea,” said John, who was now our eighthmember of staff. “I’ve always thought that room would makea good workshop.” A grandson of Ellis Daw, John hadbeen introduced to us by Rob as someone who could fixthe floor in the front kitchen of the house. This was the roomin which Ellis had for several decades stored his buckets ofmackerel and chicks for the herons and jackdaws he fed inthe mornings, the leakage187 from which had permeated188 thejoists from the entrance to the back of the room. That waswhy it stank189 so badly, but the floor was also unsafe, soDuncan immediately commissioned John to rip out thefloor, burn it, and replace it with new, fresh, sweet-smellingwood—which he did within a week. John was a tall,muscular, grinning man of thirty, whose four upper frontteeth were missing and replaced by a dental plate withteeth much shorter than the originals, and whose canineswere unusually long and pointed190. This gave him a strikingvampiric appearance, abetted191 by his posture192, which isunusually erect193. First encountering John in the dank mistwith wolves howling in the background, I seriouslyquestioned what kind of environment I had brought mychildren into.
But John turned out to be one of the most skilled, loyal,and levelheaded employees we could have asked for inthose early days, able to do plumbing, welding, tree work,and carpentry, and also licensed48 for firearms, an invaluableskill on the park, and one we were to draw on several timesin the coming months. When Rob first put him forward, hesaid to me, eyes down, “I’ll tell you now, because you’rebound to find out, that John’s my half-brother.” I had noproblem with this, but it all added to the atmosphere ofsecrecy, with whisperings in the village about “things thathad happened” at the park in the past, and the generalsense that we had moved into the Wicker Man’s backyard.
John, Rob, and Paul, Ellis’s son-in-law, set aboutclearing out the old reptile house and converting it into aworkshop. Again, a big practical change that also had thebenefit of being cheap. The loft194 above was, as most placesin the park, crammed195 with clutter (and rats), but some of itwas salvageable196. Old agricultural tools were put to one sideand two huge workbenches were to be extricated197 andlowered down, when a path had been cleared for them. Iasked John how he was anticipating bringing theseenormous objects to ground level, and he held up amassive pulley wheel in one hand. “Rig this up to the roofjoists, then call for some muscle,” he said. As a reasonablyable-bodied person, I waited for the call, but it never came.
The next time I popped my head around the door, thebenches were down and already coated with tin sheeting,ready for work. I clearly didn’t count as muscle, which, as alifelong hands-on sort of person, came as a bit of a shock. Iwas a director now, and it took a bit of getting used to. Asmall shantytown of sheds and cages containing rabbitsand two ferrets was also cleared and the animals relocatedaround the park. And suddenly we had a workshop and aclear access yard. All we needed now were some tools.
Duncan masterminded the conversion198 of the oldworkshop into a vegetable storeroom. Every day Paul wentoff in the van to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, collecting past-thesell-by-date fruit and vegetables in sufficient quantities toreliably feed every herbivore in the zoo. Previously theproduce had been stored alongside the meat preparationarea, where fallen calves, horses, and occasional sheepwere dismembered by Andy Goatman, the knacker man,and Hannah and Kelly, the cat keepers. The problem wasthat this is illegal, under the secretary of state’s guidelinesfor modern zoos. Total separation between meat andvegetables is essential, to minimize the risk of crosscontamination,and a site visit from the environmentalhealth officer, or worse, an inspector199 from DEFRA couldclose us down before we started. Duncan went into thelegislation in detail, guided by Andy, whose encyclopedicknowledge of legislation around his trade has provedinvaluable many times. A local builder repaired the roof withplastic sheeting at cost, and when the room was finallyemptied, scrubbed, rewired, and illuminated200, it lookedhuge. The back wall, it turned out, was made from localstone. Rob was impressed. “I haven’t seen that wall since Iwas a little kid,” he said. The process of accumulation ofrubbish and subsequent general decline at the park hadbeen long and gradual. But now we were turning back thetide. It was fantastic to be part of it.
The children were almost immediately absorbed into thelocal school, as one of our neighbors who had us over fordrinks turned out to be one of the governors. They instantlytook to the school, which had twenty-seven pupils and wasonly half the size of the school they attended in France. Butthe best news of this period was the arrival of Katherine,who had been winding201 up our affairs in France and thengone on to her sister in Italy. I’d left France around two anda half months before, packing enough clothes for afortnight, in order to help my mum sell her house, and hadn’tseen Katherine, apart from her fleeting202 visit to deliver thechildren to the park, for that entire time. Now she arrived forgood, and it was very much as a force for good that herpresence was felt throughout the park. Her learning curvewas intense, partly through having spoken only French forso long, but also being plunged203 into a hectic, chaoticbusiness environment which she knew nothing about andwhere everyone else was already rushing around with, if notabsolute confidence, then at least a long way down theroad toward discovering what needed to be done. ButKatherine had been supportive of the idea of the zoo from abusiness angle since almost the very beginning. In the firstweek or so back in April, when I had begun to throw myselfinto the negotiations204 wholeheartedly, she had had herdoubts. This was just another of my silly dreams that were adistraction from the daily necessity of earning a living andthe writing of my book. This was her role in our relationship—I was the dreamer, she was the reality check—though Ioften argued that preparing only for the worst could becomeself-fulfilling. But generally she was right, I was wrong, and Iwas glad to have her wisdom to keep me in check.
Buying the zoo was only the second time in our thirteenyears together that I simply overrode205 her—the first beingthe purchase of the French barns, which had involvedselling our cherished London flat. In both cases I had anabsolute certainty of the success of the venture, and wasimpatient to overleap any naysayers, no matter how wellintentioned.
Within a couple of weeks, she confessed tofriends, she could see me acquiring new skills in dealingwith administrative206 problems, which were previously adespised terrain207 for me, and could see that I meantbusiness. She liked this new me—I think she thought thatthe life I’d engineered for myself writing in the sun withdeadlines few and far between was too cushy, particularlyfor someone with my personality (basically lazy). And asusual, she was probably right.
It’s easy to idolize someone if you love them, but, thoughunrepentantly uxorious208, I was not alone in thinking thatKatherine was special. Her background was as a graphicdesigner, which, as with many professions, involves aperiod of proving oneself creatively before moving up theladder into administration. In the world of glossymagazines, this meant becoming an art director. Thoughshe went on to several other titles, ending up at Eve, thewomen’s magazine, on Men’s Health magazine, the glossywhere we met, she was in charge of several staff andfreelancers, as well as a budget, in the mid-1990s, of about£130,000 a year. This was more money than I had evermarshaled, but she did it well and diligently209. “The thingabout Katherine,” a photographer once confided210 to me on arare photo shoot where I was working with her, “is that she’sgood with other people’s money.” Many art directorssuccumb to the surface glamour211 of their industry andoverspend on things like expensive lunches or endless rollsof film for costly212 locations and photographers. Katherinewas different, ordering in sandwiches, partly to keep costsdown but also to keep everyone in the studio, whichcharged by the hour, so they didn’t have to be rounded upafterward. And she nurtured214 new talent. With an unfailingeye she could spot someone just starting out who would goon to greater things, get them cheaply, and then inspiretheir loyalty215, so that they would often work for her in thefuture at reduced rates.
Her management style was simply to set an impeccableexample, which other people felt obliged to follow. Sheworked harder than anyone else, often putting in twelveandfourteen-hour days, which in our early time togetherhad been a source of conflict between us. I, the indolentfreelancer, though churning out work, would often do sofrom my “office” on a laptop on the slopes of Primrose216 Hillwith Jasper, my panting assistant. At the end of the day Istopped and prepared our dinner, for which Katherinewould invariably be late. I never actually left a note saying“Your dinner’s in the dog,” but many times I ferried in mealsto her at 9 or 10 PM to find her doing something likeorganizing spreadsheets for other departments so that theycould comply with new internal accountancy requirements.
“THAT’S NOT YOUR JOB,” I would rant108, but it was a vitalpart of her to take up the slack where other people wereprepared to let it slide.
Katherine’s presence in the park was galvanizing—notleast for me. She cleared a space in the (would you believecluttered) office, fired up her PowerBook, in those days themost powerful computer at the park, and got down tobusiness. Her roles, we had decided, were as moneymanager (getting a frivolous purchase past Katherine, as Iknew from many years of trying, was physically impossible)and designer. Though we had a capable designer andillustrator in the form of Robin, he had other skills andpredispositions, which we were beginning to unearth217, andKatherine’s unerring eye for simplicity218 and homogeneity, Iknew, would be key to establishing the identity of this zooas something separate from the mishmash of local touristand animal attractions. A well-designed, understated, butslick visual image, homogenous219 throughout the leaflets,staff uniforms, advertising220 material, and even the signagefor the animals, combined with my enthusiasm and that ofthe people we had with us, could make this place into aflagship twenty-first-century enterprise. Suddenly it allseemed not just possible, but inevitable221, and the goals Ihad set for the future of the park loomed222 into the foreground as part of our business and development plans.
As success grew, the collection could be steered223 from itscurrent 5 percent endangered animals toward the ultimateambition of focusing on captive breeding of endangeredspecies for possible reintroduction into the wild, like atGerald Durrell’s Jersey224 Zoo. Free-ranging lion tamarins,rare lemurs, Grevy’s zebras, giraffes, and my personal holygrail, large primates. Bonobo chimpanzees are thesmallest and most intelligent of the great apes, and alsoendangered, but gorillas225 are also clever and endangered,and available to zoos that have the right track record andappropriate facilities. With their habitat under threat andindividuals still being killed for bushmeat or even apparentlysometimes out of sheer spite by psychopaths in Rwandaand the Congo, these big gentle guys urgently need safehavens. And if we played our cards right, one day (in aboutten years) we could provide one.
As an avid227 student of the work of Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh’s work with Kanzi the chimp135 and Dr. PennyPattersons’s research with Koko the gorilla226, I know thesebig animals are capable of self-recognition, empathy, andarguably, humor and self-awareness. This is exactly what Iam most interested in, my genuine “dream scenario,” as mysister Melissa had first described the zoo—looking forlanguage and humor in big apes in your own garden, andcalling it work.
This scenario was still a very long way off, but I feltastonishingly fortunate to be at least on a road that couldlead to it. With Katherine on board, it felt like we could godown that road. I’d always privately228 called her my Born Freelady, after Virginia McKenna in the, for me, seminal229 filmBorn Free, about how Joy and George Adamson rearedand reintroduced Elsa, an abandoned lioness, into thewilds of Africa. That seemed to me like a very good job tohave. They lived in tents and log cabins in tropical sunshine,they were doing fascinating and worthwhile work, and theyhad a Land Rover. With a lion on the top. As a boy I’dalways hoped to do something as exciting and worthwhilewith animals in exotic locations. I could see it was a longshot, but also that I would need a special person to do itwith me, and when I first met Katherine, I knew that I’d foundsomeone who could meet that challenge. If I could createthe appropriate circumstances, I knew she would go with itand be perfect at it, even though it wasn’t, strictly230 speaking,in her initial life plan. After we got together I repeatedlywarned her that one day I would be dragging her offsomewhere exotic to do interesting things with animals.
France was a staging post. Now we had made it to, er,Devon. But the project was perfect, engaging andharnessing her talents as well as mine.
Having Katherine back was the best thing. Our littlefamily unit was functioning again, and here we wereworking together, in an environment in which I was fired upand Katherine was keen to engage as a business venture.
In the absence of having any money to manage, Katherineset about organizing the office and, clutching at straws fromthe past to piece together, designing our logo. One bigproblem with this, however, was that we didn’t yet have aname.
Mike Thomas, the reassuring231 voice of wisdom on thephone, finally materialized at the park, and ended uphelping out considerably232 with this. It was great to meet Mikein the flesh, to shake his hand, and thank him for all his helpin getting the park, without which it quite simply wouldn’thave been possible. Mike and his lovely wife, Jen, had thesolid, comforting air of people who knew what they weretalking about. With his white beard, ready smile, and fadeddenim shirt, Mike looked like a cross between the Britishwildlife TV programmer Bill Oddie and the BBC’s AnimalHospital host, Rolf Harris. In fact Mike’s animal pedigreewas far more impressive than those of these keenamateurs, as we were to find out.
Jen looked like a real “Born Free lady,” someone whocould bottle-feed a baby chimpanzee while getting on withher daily routine unfazed. Mike and Jen had both beenthrough a similar experience to ours, more than a decadebefore, at Newquay Zoo. Now that we had time to chat, Iasked Mike how he had managed taking over Newquaywith no experience of running a zoo, as his backgroundwas in design and teaching. “Oh, I just called Gerry, and hewas very helpful.” Gerry? “Gerald Durrell at Jersey Zoo.
You’ve heard of him, I hope?” Heard of Gerald Durrell? Oneof my heroes, as well as being a superbly evocative writer.
My Family and Other Animals alone has probablyengaged as many people with the natural world as DavidAttenborough. Durrell was the premier233 conservationist ofhis, or possibly any, generation. Founding Jersey Zoo in theteeth of opposition234 from the zoological world, Durrell thenused it to change the center of gravity of that world towardactive conservation, as opposed to simply exhibitinganimals. Astonishingly, captive breeding programs ofendangered species for reintroduction to the wild, and forlearning about their breeding habits to inform ourconservation and management of them in the wild, were stillsometimes actually considered a bad idea as recently asthe 1960s and 1970s.
According to Lord Zuckerman, president of theZoological Society of London, addressing the WorldConference on Captive Breeding of Endangered Speciesheld at London Zoo in July 1976, because extinction235 is partof natural selection we shouldn’t interfere236 but merelydocument the process for the benefit of zoological science.
“Species have always been disappearing,” he said. “Therewill always be rare species.” I remember that year’sfantastic, sticky summer of glam rock, skateboards, andCalifornia sunshine making everything seem perfect, as aneleven-year-old at primary school, happily oblivious80 to thepresident of London Zoo’s almost nihilistic perspective onanimals. But even as a child I would have known he waswrong. I was probably sitting sweating and fidgeting inassembly as Zuckerman addressed the zoologicalcommunity. Gerald Durrell was sitting, writhingapoplectically, in that audience. He was already a man witha zoo, and a man with a mission, and I expect that onhearing those words, from that source in that place, GeraldDurrell would have simply renewed his vows237 to himself forthe thousandth time. When other people simply gave up, hejust dug in deeper. He saw it through, against a lifetime ofpeople telling him it wasn’t possible. He was aconservation giant, a maverick238, and a writer on a grandscale. And now it transpired239 that one of the main guidinglights on our final approach to buy the zoo, Mike Thomas,was a receptacle of Gerald Durrell’s teachings. Wow. I’mnot a religious person, but it did seem like the clouds hadopened up a bit and our flimsy efforts were being endorsedfrom on high.
Mike and Jen helped us a lot in those crucial few weeks,as they had done when they steered us through thenegotiations. This time they were more hands-on, frequentlydriving up from Cornwall to give advice and unpack240 endlessboxes with Mum. One evening, around the old trestle tablein the stone-flagged kitchen, with the dilapidated rustedrange in the background, a legal document needed to beprocessed, which absolutely required us to come up with aname for the park. I have blocked from my mind most of themore depressing suggestions, but many were generated inthe need to find something that echoed the mostly positiveforty-year history and brand recognition of DartmoorWildlife Park, while distancing us from the bad publicity241 ofthe more recent past.
Staying “Dartmoor Wildlife Park” was not a good ideabecause of the previous prosecutions242, and, shall we say,perceptions of it on the part of the wider zoo world and localsuppliers. We needed a relaunch, and quickly. DartmoorZoo was ruled out because all our neighbors had alreadymonopolized that, some would say predictable, format;Exmoor, Paignton, Newquay, and Bristol have already welltested the concept of local area plus Zoo as their title—which works for them. But we wanted to explore newpossibilities. South West Wildlife Park, Dartmoor WildlifeConservation Park, and all sorts of unsuitable horrorssurfaced and floated around before finally being puncturedby Mike, at our kitchen table, almost certainly with a glassof wine in hand. He suggested, “Why don’t you call itDartmoor Zoological Park?” It had continuity with the past,but also a clear reference to serious scientific activity in thefuture. I liked it; we all liked it, and that is the trading namewe entered into Companies House, the official governmentregister of UK companies. I was particularly pleasedbecause, as well as establishing a new identity and ethospointing toward the world of science, this gave us a Z in themiddle of our logo.
Katherine seemed less impressed with thistypographical development, and politely ignored mysuggestions about how the Z could be used at three timesthe size of the D and the P, creating a Zorro-like dash.
Katherine set to work with the brisk certainty of a skilledexpert on home ground. She’d chosen her colors andcollected examples of other logos from successful zoos,we’d discussed the broad outline of the brief, and I watchedher go into her familiar routine of pasting up swatches ofcolors and fonts, fretting243, squinting244 at things from arm’slength, and working to tight print deadlines.
We had a “definite” lender in our sights, and, throughMike, even Gerald Durrell’s vicarious blessing245. DZP, as wenow jauntily246 called ourselves, was going to work.
But in those weeks before the money arrived, thingswere still very strained indeed. The cold, wet winter weatherexacerbated the feelings of despair and unreverseddecline that we were supposed to be addressing. Very littlereal progress could be made because even the smallesttasks required some money. Everything we had or couldborrow from credit cards was used to pay staff wages. Mysmall income from my Guardian247 column and another inGrand Designs magazine was the only actual income forthe park, and nowhere near enough to pay the wages of ournot-so-happy little band.
Staff morale248 worsened, and the uncertainty249 that had beencreeping in was now a full-time250 presence. I spoke to theNFU Mutual251 mortgage company every day, and theirrepresentatives assured me that everything was in hand,but the lawyers were taking their time drawing up thedocuments. The problem was that if they took much longer,the business wouldn’t be there to lend to anymore, andwe’d have to put it back on the market. There was a verytangible feeling that the lawyers behind the scene reallydidn’t care whether this happened or not. They weren’tgoing to be rushed, and if in the meantime the transactionmoved from the active to the receivership pile, it just meantmore paid work for them, or their kind.
Three days before the money finally arrived, a newsecretarial employee on a month’s trial opened up astatement from Lloyds, who had promised us a loan threetimes, only to withdraw the offer each time at the lastminute. In the course of this charade252, Lloyds had set upaccounts in the name of Mee Conservation Ltd. (the nameof our newly formed company), issued checkbooks, andbegun sending us monthly statements. The problem wasthat the statements said things like 0.00, nil253, etc., in rowafter row of austere254 columns, which, to the untrained eye ofsomeone worrying about their job security, looks bad. Thissecretarial wannabe screamed across the office “They’vegot no money. Look! Look!” etc., waving the apparentlyincriminating paper around for everyone to see. The effectwas not calming, and at about eleven that morning anunusually strained Steve, our brand-new curator of animals,visited me in the kitchen of the house, where I had justfinished clearing away breakfast. “I’m really sorry to botheryou,” said Steve, and he clearly was sorry but also deeplyconcerned. “I think you’d better come over to the restaurant.
Everybody is there.” I looked longingly255 at my unsippedcoffee, and headed over with him.
Everybody was indeed there, from Paul the van driver togentle Robin the draftsman, all the keepers, and the newsecretarial tryout, Sarah. They sat in a circle of chairs, armsfolded, with an empty chair for me. It was an uncannymoment, with these normally polite and compliant256 peopleturning into inquisitors, and the unusualness of the situationemphasized its gravity. I wasn’t nervous, but I knew I had toproject myself or be overwhelmed by the sheer weight ofuncertainty in the room. I explained as openly and honestlyas I could about the promised money from the NFU, how Iwas expecting final confirmation257 any day now, that we’dsigned the last of the last documents, and were now justwaiting for lawyers to finish dithering. My frustration258 with thesituation was every bit as intense as theirs, but more so, asI was privy259 to the intricacies of the mechanisms260 ofprocrastination. I told them that I was regularly promised thefunds by a particular date, but that these arrangementswere regularly broken. That previous Monday, for instance,had been a firm promise cast in stone, but had passedwithout even a communication from the bank. I hadn’tbelieved the promise, so I hadn’t told the staff about it, as itwas frustrating261 enough for me without having to apologizefor the bank to everyone else every time they let me down. “Ididn’t tell you about that deadline because I didn’t believe itwould happen,” I said. “I will only believe it when I see themoney in the account—and I do believe that it will come, butwhen, I can’t tell you. But I will tell you when it’s there. Myfeeling is that it will be within the next week. That’s the best Ican say to you.”
I looked around the room. They were all looking intently atme, making economic decisions. Who was this young jokerwho had bought the place without having enough money torun it? Could he be trusted? What were the alternatives?
The secretarial assistant had a question about her ownwages, which I suggested was a separate issue for aprivate meeting. Her end-of-month review was coming up,and it was not going to go well. I looked everyone in the eyein turn and asked if they had any more questions. In the endI think it was John who stood up and said something like,“That seems fair enough.” Other chairs scraped back aspeople got to their feet. The spell was broken. Theinquisition was over. I’d got through by the skin of my teeth.
Now I just needed to convince myself. I had been convincedbefore the meeting, and also during it as I’d managed toconvince the others to hang in there. But afterward213, the factthat I had been put in the position where the business wason the absolute brink262 of disintegration263, by a bank, made mequestion whether they really were actually going to come upwith the goods. I had believed Barclays, I had believedLloyds, three times. I’d believed Arbuthnots, the Royal Bankof Scotland, and a host of others who had ultimately, utterlywithout compunction, let us down. I thought about the NFU.
Their contact, Andrew Ruth, was clearly a nice, honest, andconscientious man, but he had no control over thebackroom boys, who in this case were not the riskassessmentteam, but the lawyers.
When institutions behave badly, it’s easy for the littlepeople like us to get caught in the machinery, which will notslow down as it grinds you up, repossesses your house,and sends the bailiffs in to evict264 your children. They arechilling people. All smiles when preparing to lend money,as long as your spread sheets are in order, and you signover all your assets as security. And their expressionsbarely change as they watch the prospect265 of you gettingsnarled up in the small print and everything ebbing266 away.
One problem we encountered was that we weren’tborrowing enough. The amount, £550,000, seemed like alot to me, but apparently that officially made us small fry.
“Anything under a million takes time,” we were told by onebank. “It’s the highest risk sector267 there is.” I toyed franticallybut briefly268 with the idea of asking for three million, but evenmy economically naive brain quickly realized that we wouldencounter spreadsheet difficulties quite quickly going downthat route.
Having eventually found understanding lenders in theNational Farmers’ union was reassuring, but the terribleuncertainty of having money promised but not actuallyavailable lasted for three agonizing269 months and had amassive impact on the business plan, the staff, and theidea of opening for Easter in April. When the NFU finallycame up with the money, on 8 February 2007, our elationwas tainted270 by the knowledge of the unnecessary damagealready done by the delay, caused by our own brother’sactions and the nature of financial institutions, which hadmade our target of opening for the all-important Easterbank holiday virtually impossible.
But far, far worse than this, for me, was the knowledgethat the good news of the money arriving had beencompletely over shadowed by the very worst news of all.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 hectic jdZzk     
adj.肺病的;消耗热的;发热的;闹哄哄的
参考例句:
  • I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
  • The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。
2 standing 2hCzgo     
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。
3 flamingo nsWzxe     
n.红鹳,火烈鸟
参考例句:
  • This is the only species of flamingo in the region,easily recognized by its pink plumage.这是那个地区唯一一种火烈鸟,很容易凭粉红色的羽毛辨认出来。
  • In my family,I am flamingo in the flock of pigeons.在家里,我就像一只被困在鸽笼里的火烈鸟。
4 flamingos 8ff667734ac0706d98599e1f6b6f6f49     
n.红鹳,火烈鸟(羽毛粉红、长颈的大涉禽)( flamingo的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Flamingos stand in a salt lake in Larnaca, Cyprus. 塞浦路斯的拉纳卡市一个盐湖中的火烈鸟。 来自互联网
  • The research started researchers studied greater flamingos and in a bird sanctuary in southern Spain. 研究人员在西班牙南部的一个鸟类保护区对大型火烈鸟进行研究。 来自互联网
5 pelican bAby7     
n.鹈鹕,伽蓝鸟
参考例句:
  • The pelican has a very useful beak.鹈鹕有一张非常有用的嘴。
  • This pelican is expected to fully recover.这只鹈鹕不久就能痊愈。
6 merging 65cc30ed55db36c739ab349d7c58dfe8     
合并(分类)
参考例句:
  • Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
  • To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。
7 vista jLVzN     
n.远景,深景,展望,回想
参考例句:
  • From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去,远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
  • These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路,未来看不到一点儿希望。
8 advisors 9c02a9c1778f1533c47ade215559070d     
n.顾问,劝告者( advisor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:
  • The governors felt that they were being strung along by their advisors. 地方长官感到他们一直在受顾问们的愚弄。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • We will consult together with advisors about her education. 我们将一起和专家商议她的教育事宜。 来自互联网
9 brokers 75d889d756f7fbea24ad402e01a65b20     
n.(股票、外币等)经纪人( broker的名词复数 );中间人;代理商;(订合同的)中人v.做掮客(或中人等)( broker的第三人称单数 );作为权力经纪人进行谈判;以中间人等身份安排…
参考例句:
  • The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司,经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分
10 creditors 6cb54c34971e9a505f7a0572f600684b     
n.债权人,债主( creditor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 naive yFVxO     
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。
12 eccentricity hrOxT     
n.古怪,反常,怪癖
参考例句:
  • I can't understand the eccentricity of Henry's behavior.我不理解亨利的古怪举止。
  • His eccentricity had become legendary long before he died.在他去世之前他的古怪脾气就早已闻名遐尔了。
13 shoestring nizzcE     
n.小额资本;adj.小本经营的
参考例句:
  • In the early years,the business was run on a shoestring.早年,这家店铺曾是小本经营。
  • How can I take the best possible digital pictures on a shoestring budget?怎样用很小投资拍摄最好的数码照片?
14 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
15 relatively bkqzS3     
adv.比较...地,相对地
参考例句:
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
16 frankly fsXzcf     
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。
17 decided lvqzZd     
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。
18 bellowing daf35d531c41de75017204c30dff5cac     
v.发出吼叫声,咆哮(尤指因痛苦)( bellow的现在分词 );(愤怒地)说出(某事),大叫
参考例句:
  • We could hear he was bellowing commands to his troops. 我们听见他正向他的兵士大声发布命令。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He disguised these feelings under an enormous bellowing and hurraying. 他用大声吼叫和喝采掩饰着这些感情。 来自辞典例句
19 ostrich T4vzg     
n.鸵鸟
参考例句:
  • Ostrich is the fastest animal on two legs.驼鸟是双腿跑得最快的动物。
  • The ostrich indeed inhabits continents.鸵鸟确实是生活在大陆上的。
20 overload RmHz40     
vt.使超载;n.超载
参考例句:
  • Don't overload the boat or it will sink.别超载,否则船会沉。
  • Large meals overload the digestive system.吃得太饱会加重消化系统的负担。
21 stimuli luBwM     
n.刺激(物)
参考例句:
  • It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.必需消除或改变正常时并存的刺激。
  • My sweat glands also respond to emotional stimuli.我的汗腺对情绪刺激也能产生反应。
22 desperately cu7znp     
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地
参考例句:
  • He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
  • He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。
23 darted d83f9716cd75da6af48046d29f4dd248     
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔
参考例句:
  • The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了,瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
24 dart oydxK     
v.猛冲,投掷;n.飞镖,猛冲
参考例句:
  • The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
  • Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。
25 agitated dzgzc2     
adj.被鼓动的,不安的
参考例句:
  • His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定,回答全乱了。
  • She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时,她十分焦虑。
26 tactic Yqowc     
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。
27 prey g1czH     
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨
参考例句:
  • Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
  • The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。
28 initially 273xZ     
adv.最初,开始
参考例句:
  • The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
  • Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。
29 blotch qoSyY     
n.大斑点;红斑点;v.使沾上污渍,弄脏
参考例句:
  • He pointed to a dark blotch upon the starry sky some miles astern of us.他指着我们身后几英里处繁星点点的天空中的一朵乌云。
  • His face was covered in ugly red blotches.他脸上有许多难看的红色大斑点。
30 cadge oSTyW     
v.乞讨
参考例句:
  • I managed to cadge a ride with a lorry driver.我求一个卡车司机免费载了我一程。
  • Homeless people forced to cadge in subway stations.无家可归的人们被迫在地铁站里乞讨。
31 growl VeHzE     
v.(狗等)嗥叫,(炮等)轰鸣;n.嗥叫,轰鸣
参考例句:
  • The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫,尾巴也跟着摇摆。
  • The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。
32 otters c7b1b011f1aba54879393a220705a840     
n.(水)獭( otter的名词复数 );獭皮
参考例句:
  • An attempt is being made to entice otters back to the river. 人们正试图把水獭引诱回河里去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Otters are believed to have been on Earth for 90 million years. 水獭被认为存活在地球上已经9千多万年。 来自互联网
33 otter 7vgyH     
n.水獭
参考例句:
  • The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说,竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
  • She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。
34 smitten 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。
35 squeals 4754a49a0816ef203d1dddc615bc7983     
n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫,用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. 铁笼子里传来一阵吱吱的叫声。 来自英汉文学
  • There were squeals of excitement from the children. 孩子们兴奋得大声尖叫。 来自辞典例句
36 scampered fe23b65cda78638ec721dec982b982df     
v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The cat scampered away. 猫刺棱一下跑了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The rabbIt'scampered off. 兔子迅速跑掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
37 varied giIw9     
adj.多样的,多变化的
参考例句:
  • The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
  • The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。
38 rib 6Xgxu     
n.肋骨,肋状物
参考例句:
  • He broke a rib when he fell off his horse.他从马上摔下来折断了一根肋骨。
  • He has broken a rib and the doctor has strapped it up.他断了一根肋骨,医生已包扎好了。
39 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
40 decomposing f5b8fd5c51324ed24e58a14c223dc3da     
腐烂( decompose的现在分词 ); (使)分解; 分解(某物质、光线等)
参考例句:
  • The air was filled with the overpowering stench of decomposing vegetation. 空气中充满了令人难以忍受的腐烂植物的恶臭。
  • Heat was obtained from decomposing manures and hot air flues. 靠肥料分解和烟道为植物提供热量。
41 bins f61657e8b1aa35d4af30522a25c4df3a     
n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 );宽口箱(如面包箱,垃圾箱等)v.扔掉,丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Garbage from all sources was deposited in bins on trolleys. 来自各方的垃圾是装在手推车上的垃圾箱里的。 来自辞典例句
  • Would you be pleased at the prospect of its being on sale in dump bins? 对于它将被陈列在倾销箱中抛售这件事,你能欣然接受吗? 来自辞典例句
42 bin yR2yz     
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件
参考例句:
  • He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
  • He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。
43 calves bb808da8ca944ebdbd9f1d2688237b0b     
n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子,腓;腿肚子( calf的名词复数 );牛犊;腓;小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 );(冰川)崩解;生(小牛等),产(犊);使(冰川)崩解
参考例句:
  • a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
  • The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》
44 culled 14df4bc70f6bf01d83bf7c2929113cee     
v.挑选,剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
  • The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句
45 bloodied f2573ec56eb96f1ea4f1cc51207f137f     
v.血污的( bloody的过去式和过去分词 );流血的;屠杀的;残忍的
参考例句:
  • his bruised and bloodied nose 他沾满血的青肿的鼻子
  • His pants leg was torn and bloodied when he fell. 他跌交时裤腿破了,还染上了血。 来自辞典例句
46 shuffle xECzc     
n.拖著脚走,洗纸牌;v.拖曳,慢吞吞地走
参考例句:
  • I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
  • Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。
47 stainless kuSwr     
adj.无瑕疵的,不锈的
参考例句:
  • I have a set of stainless knives and forks.我有一套不锈钢刀叉。
  • Before the recent political scandal,her reputation had been stainless.在最近的政治丑闻之前,她的名声是无懈可击的。
48 licensed ipMzNI     
adj.得到许可的v.许可,颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
  • Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗?
49 license B9TzU     
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。
50 pervading f19a78c99ea6b1c2e0fcd2aa3e8a8501     
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • an all-pervading sense of gloom 无处不在的沮丧感
  • a pervading mood of fear 普遍的恐惧情绪
51 writhing 8e4d2653b7af038722d3f7503ad7849c     
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • She was writhing around on the floor in agony. 她痛得在地板上直打滚。
  • He was writhing on the ground in agony. 他痛苦地在地上打滚。
52 skull CETyO     
n.头骨;颅骨
参考例句:
  • The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
  • He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去,跌裂了颅骨。
53 skulls d44073bc27628272fdd5bac11adb1ab5     
颅骨( skull的名词复数 ); 脑袋; 脑子; 脑瓜
参考例句:
  • One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中,其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
  • We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白,遍布白色的骷髅!
54 swarming db600a2d08b872102efc8fbe05f047f9     
密集( swarm的现在分词 ); 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:
  • The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
  • The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。
55 larvae w2CxP     
n.幼虫
参考例句:
  • Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
  • The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。
56 reassured ff7466d942d18e727fb4d5473e62a235     
adj.使消除疑虑的;使放心的v.再保证,恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》
57 deployed 4ceaf19fb3d0a70e329fcd3777bb05ea     
(尤指军事行动)使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 ); 施展; 部署; 有效地利用
参考例句:
  • Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
  • The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。
58 deploy Yw8x7     
v.(军)散开成战斗队形,布置,展开
参考例句:
  • The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
  • The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。
59 machinery CAdxb     
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构
参考例句:
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗?
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。
60 eroded f1d64e7cb6e68a5e1444e173c24e672e     
adj. 被侵蚀的,有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句:
  • The cliff face has been steadily eroded by the sea. 峭壁表面逐渐被海水侵蚀。
  • The stream eroded a channel in the solid rock. 小溪在硬石中侵蚀成一条水道。
61 scuffed 6f08ab429a81544fbc47a95f5c147e74     
v.使磨损( scuff的过去式和过去分词 );拖着脚走
参考例句:
  • I scuffed the heel of my shoe on the stonework. 我的鞋跟儿给铺好的石头磨坏了。
  • Polly dropped her head and scuffed her feet. 波莉低下头拖着脚走开了。 来自辞典例句
62 tributaries b4e105caf2ca2e0705dc8dc3ed061602     
n. 支流
参考例句:
  • In such areas small tributaries or gullies will not show. 在这些地区,小的支流和冲沟显示不出来。
  • These tributaries are subsequent streams which erode strike valley. 这些支流系即为蚀出走向谷的次生河。
63 overflowing df84dc195bce4a8f55eb873daf61b924     
n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的,充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
  • The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。
64 gutters 498deb49a59c1db2896b69c1523f128c     
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地
参考例句:
  • Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
  • They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来,以后就在街头长大。
65 mildew 41oyq     
n.发霉;v.(使)发霉
参考例句:
  • The interior was dark and smelled of mildew.里面光线很暗,霉味扑鼻。
  • Mildew may form in this weather.这种天气有可能发霉。
66 algae tK6yW     
n.水藻,海藻
参考例句:
  • Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
  • Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。
67 symbolizing 35105848014d5f7a01e1597bc72da8e8     
v.象征,作为…的象征( symbolize的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • This symbol later evolved into a common hieroglyphic symbolizing victory. 这幕场景后来逐渐演化为象征胜利的普通象形文字。 来自时文部分
  • Mooncakes reunion, is symbolizing the Mid-Autumn festival will feed. 月饼象征着团圆,是中秋佳节必食之品。 来自互联网
68 scurried 5ca775f6c27dc6bd8e1b3af90f3dea00     
v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She said goodbye and scurried back to work. 她说声再见,然后扭头跑回去干活了。
  • It began to rain and we scurried for shelter. 下起雨来,我们急忙找地方躲避。 来自《简明英汉词典》
69 arrogantly bykztA     
adv.傲慢地
参考例句:
  • The consular porter strode arrogantly ahead with his light swinging. 领事馆的门房提着摇来晃去的灯,在前面大摇大摆地走着。
  • It made his great nose protrude more arrogantly. 这就使得他的大鼻子更加傲慢地翘起来。
70 amiable hxAzZ     
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的
参考例句:
  • She was a very kind and amiable old woman.她是个善良和气的老太太。
  • We have a very amiable companionship.我们之间存在一种友好的关系。
71 omnivorous eI9xA     
adj.杂食的
参考例句:
  • Brown bears are omnivorous,eating anything that they can get their paws on.棕熊是杂食性动物,抓到什么吃什么。
  • Man is an omnivorous animal.人是肉类与蔬菜均食用的动物。
72 infestation infestation     
n.侵扰,蔓延
参考例句:
  • The premises were treated for cockroach infestation.因蟑螂成灾,这些房屋集中进行了灭蟑活动。
  • Parts of California are suffering from an infestation of oriental fruit flies.加利福尼亚的部分地区正遭受东方果蝇的大肆侵袭。
73 previously bkzzzC     
adv.以前,先前(地)
参考例句:
  • The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
  • Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
74 fulfill Qhbxg     
vt.履行,实现,完成;满足,使满意
参考例句:
  • If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了,你就要履行你的诺言。
  • This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。
75 shudders 7a8459ee756ecff6a63e8a61f9289613     
n.颤动,打颤,战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动
参考例句:
  • It gives me the shudders. ((口语))它使我战栗。 来自辞典例句
  • The ghastly sight gave him the shudders. 那恐怖的景象使他感到恐惧。 来自辞典例句
76 rodent DsNyh     
n.啮齿动物;adj.啮齿目的
参考例句:
  • When there is a full moon,this nocturnal rodent is careful to stay in its burrow.月圆之夜,这种夜间活动的啮齿类动物会小心地呆在地洞里不出来。
  • This small rodent can scoop out a long,narrow tunnel in a very short time.这种小啮齿动物能在很短的时间里挖出一条又长又窄的地道来。
77 commotion 3X3yo     
n.骚动,动乱
参考例句:
  • They made a commotion by yelling at each other in the theatre.他们在剧院里相互争吵,引起了一阵骚乱。
  • Suddenly the whole street was in commotion.突然间,整条街道变得一片混乱。
78 predator 11vza     
n.捕食其它动物的动物;捕食者
参考例句:
  • The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
  • Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴,它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。
79 swirling Ngazzr     
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
80 oblivious Y0Byc     
adj.易忘的,遗忘的,忘却的,健忘的
参考例句:
  • Mother has become quite oblivious after the illness.这次病后,妈妈变得特别健忘。
  • He was quite oblivious of the danger.他完全没有察觉到危险。
81 moronic pENxO     
a.低能的
参考例句:
  • He came down here to find investors for that moronic club of his. 他来这里给他那个白痴俱乐部找投资人。
  • My best friend is so moronic sometimes. Yesterday he ran my foot over with his car! 有时候我最好的朋友可真是个二百五(十三点)。昨天他居然用他的车来压我的脚!
82 plumbing klaz0A     
n.水管装置;水暖工的工作;管道工程v.用铅锤测量(plumb的现在分词);探究
参考例句:
  • She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
  • They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
83 disapproving bddf29198e28ab64a272563d29c1f915     
adj.不满的,反对的v.不赞成( disapprove的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • Mother gave me a disapproving look. 母亲的眼神告诉我她是不赞成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Her father threw a disapproving glance at her. 她父亲不满地瞥了她一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
84 filth Cguzj     
n.肮脏,污物,污秽;淫猥
参考例句:
  • I don't know how you can read such filth.我不明白你怎么会去读这种淫秽下流的东西。
  • The dialogue was all filth and innuendo.这段对话全是下流的言辞和影射。
85 wafting 9056ea794d326978fd72c00a33901c00     
v.吹送,飘送,(使)浮动( waft的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • But that gentle fragrance was clearly wafting from the window. 但那股淡淡的香气,却分明是从母亲的窗户溢出的。 来自互联网
  • The picture-like XueGuo, wafting dense flavor of Japan, gives us a kind of artistic enjoyment. 画一般的雪国,飘溢着浓郁的日本风情,给人以美的享受。 来自互联网
86 severed 832a75b146a8d9eacac9030fd16c0222     
v.切断,断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 );断,裂
参考例句:
  • The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
87 carrion gXFzu     
n.腐肉
参考例句:
  • A crow of bloodthirsty ants is attracted by the carrion.一群嗜血的蚂蚁被腐肉所吸引。
  • Vultures usually feed on carrion or roadkill.兀鹫通常以腐肉和公路上的死伤动物为食。
88 navigated f7986e1365f5d08b7ef8f2073a90bf4e     
v.给(船舶、飞机等)引航,导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 );(从海上、空中等)横越;横渡;飞跃
参考例句:
  • He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》
89 odds n5czT     
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?
90 moss X6QzA     
n.苔,藓,地衣
参考例句:
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
91 lichens 8ba13422ddec8ecf73fb1d0cb20f495f     
n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The only plants to be found in Antarctica are algae, mosses, and lichens. 在南极洲所发现的植物只有藻类、苔藓和地衣。 来自辞典例句
  • Litmus: Mixture of coloured organic compounds obtained from several species of lichens. 石蕊:从几种地衣类植物中获取的带色有机化合物的混合物。 来自互联网
92 nostrils 23a65b62ec4d8a35d85125cdb1b4410e     
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
  • The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。
93 antidote 4MZyg     
n.解毒药,解毒剂
参考例句:
  • There is no known antidote for this poison.这种毒药没有解药。
  • Chinese physicians used it as an antidote for snake poison.中医师用它来解蛇毒。
94 soothes 525545df1477f31c55d31f4c04ec6531     
v.安慰( soothe的第三人称单数 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦
参考例句:
  • Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. 恐惧使人痛心,爱使痛苦减轻。 来自互联网
  • His loe celebrates her victories and soothes her wounds. 他的爱庆祝她的胜利,也抚平她的创伤。 来自互联网
95 countless 7vqz9L     
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的
参考例句:
  • In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
  • I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。
96 Founder wigxF     
n.创始者,缔造者
参考例句:
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
97 evolutionary Ctqz7m     
adj.进化的;演化的,演变的;[生]进化论的
参考例句:
  • Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
  • These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。
98 innate xbxzC     
adj.天生的,固有的,天赋的
参考例句:
  • You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
  • Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。
99 sparse SFjzG     
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。
100 scenario lZoxm     
n.剧本,脚本;概要
参考例句:
  • But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
  • This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。
101 precisely zlWzUb     
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地
参考例句:
  • It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
  • The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。
102 shrubs b480276f8eea44e011d42320b17c3619     
灌木( shrub的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The gardener spent a complete morning in trimming those two shrubs. 园丁花了整个上午的时间修剪那两处灌木林。
  • These shrubs will need more light to produce flowering shoots. 这些灌木需要更多的光照才能抽出开花的新枝。
103 grassland 0fCxG     
n.牧场,草地,草原
参考例句:
  • There is a reach of grassland in the distance.远处是连绵一片的草原。
  • The snowstorm swept the vast expanse of grassland.暴风雪袭击了辽阔的草原。
104 grasslands 72179cad53224d2f605476ff67a1d94c     
n.草原,牧场( grassland的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Songs were heard ringing loud and clear over the grasslands. 草原上扬起清亮激越的歌声。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Grasslands have been broken and planted to wheat. 草原已经开垦出来,种上了小麦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
105 ancestry BNvzf     
n.祖先,家世
参考例句:
  • Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
  • He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。
106 scattering 91b52389e84f945a976e96cd577a4e0c     
n.[物]散射;散乱,分散;在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的;分散在不同范围的;广泛扩散的;(选票)数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式);散布;驱散
参考例句:
  • The child felle into a rage and began scattering its toys about. 这孩子突发狂怒,把玩具扔得满地都是。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The farmers are scattering seed. 农夫们在播种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
107 physically iNix5     
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律
参考例句:
  • He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服,心绪也很乱。
  • Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。
108 rant 9CYy4     
v.咆哮;怒吼;n.大话;粗野的话
参考例句:
  • You can rant and rave at the fine,but you'll still have to pay it.你闹也好,骂也好,罚金还是得交。
  • If we rant on the net,the world is our audience.如果我们在网络上大声嚷嚷,全世界都是我们的听众。
109 technically wqYwV     
adv.专门地,技术上地
参考例句:
  • Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说,这是最先进的设备。
  • The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说,西红柿是一种水果,尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。
110 placid 7A1yV     
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。
111 jaguar JaPz8     
n.美洲虎
参考例句:
  • He was green with envy when he saw my new Jaguar car.看见我那辆美洲虎牌新车,他非常妒忌。
  • Should you meet a jaguar in the jungle,just turn slowly,walk away.But slowly,never look back.你在丛林中若碰上美洲虎,就慢慢转身走开,可一定要慢,切莫回头看。
112 propensity mtIyk     
n.倾向;习性
参考例句:
  • He has a propensity for drinking too much alcohol.他有酗酒的倾向。
  • She hasn't reckoned on his propensity for violence.她不曾料到他有暴力倾向。
113 jaguars bfbd1a0f0e813aff8928cf4c7a6394d1     
n.(中、南美洲的)美洲虎( jaguar的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Jaguars are largely nocturnal creatures. 美洲虎基本上是夜行动物。 来自辞典例句
  • Jaguars (Panthera onca) once ranged from southern South America to theUnited States. 美洲虎曾经分布在北美洲南部和美洲南部。 来自互联网
114 snorkel vFszk     
n.泳者所戴的通气管,潜水艇的吸、排气装置
参考例句:
  • With a snorkel,however,a diver can stay under water for quite a long time.潜水员携带一根通气管就可以在水下呆很长时间。
  • I did buy a mask and fins and a snorkel.我买了面镜、蛙鞋和一个呼吸管。
115 lengthy f36yA     
adj.漫长的,冗长的
参考例句:
  • We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
  • The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。
116 expunged ee3001293da3b64410c9f61b4dde7f24     
v.擦掉( expunge的过去式和过去分词 );除去;删去;消除
参考例句:
  • Details of his criminal activities were expunged from the file. 他犯罪活动的详细情况已从档案中删去。
  • His name is expunged from the list. 他的名字从名单中被除掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
117 bum Asnzb     
n.臀部;流浪汉,乞丐;vt.乞求,乞讨
参考例句:
  • A man pinched her bum on the train so she hit him.在火车上有人捏她屁股,她打了那人。
  • The penniless man had to bum a ride home.那个身无分文的人只好乞求搭车回家。
118 adulthood vKsyr     
n.成年,成人期
参考例句:
  • Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
  • Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。
119 inclination Gkwyj     
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好
参考例句:
  • She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
  • I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。
120 minced e78bfe05c6bed310407099ae848ca29a     
v.切碎( mince的过去式和过去分词 );剁碎;绞碎;用绞肉机绞(食物,尤指肉)
参考例句:
  • He minced over to serve us. 他迈着碎步过来招待我们。
  • A young fop minced up to George and introduced himself. 一个花花公子扭扭捏捏地走到乔治面前并作了自我介绍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
121 meager zB5xZ     
adj.缺乏的,不足的,瘦的
参考例句:
  • He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
  • The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火,开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。
122 dismantle Vtlxa     
vt.拆开,拆卸;废除,取消
参考例句:
  • He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助,拆除这批弹头。
  • The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动,于是,我决定把它拆开。
123 strutting 2a28bf7fb89b582054410bf3c6bbde1a     
加固,支撑物
参考例句:
  • He, too, was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle. 他也是非常自大,在城堡里大摇大摆地走。
  • The pompous lecturer is strutting and forth across the stage. 这个演讲者在台上趾高气扬地来回走着。
124 fowl fljy6     
n.家禽,鸡,禽肉
参考例句:
  • Fowl is not part of a traditional brunch.禽肉不是传统的早午餐的一部分。
  • Since my heart attack,I've eaten more fish and fowl and less red meat.自从我患了心脏病后,我就多吃鱼肉和禽肉,少吃红色肉类。
125 epic ui5zz     
n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的
参考例句:
  • I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗,而写了这个小故事。
  • They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。
126 reiterated d9580be532fe69f8451c32061126606b     
反复地说,重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯,我一定要知道你的休假日期,"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后,波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。
127 implement WcdzG     
n.(pl.)工具,器具;vt.实行,实施,执行
参考例句:
  • Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划,除非你能完成这项计划。
  • The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。
128 mishap AjSyg     
n.不幸的事,不幸;灾祸
参考例句:
  • I'm afraid your son had a slight mishap in the playground.不好了,你儿子在操场上出了点小意外。
  • We reached home without mishap.我们平安地回到了家。
129 strand 7GAzH     
vt.使(船)搁浅,使(某人)困于(某地)
参考例句:
  • She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
  • The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。
130 volts 98e8d837b26722c4cf6887fd4ebf60e8     
n.(电压单位)伏特( volt的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The floating potential, Vf is usually only a few volts below ground. 浮置电势Vf通常只低于接地电位几伏。 来自辞典例句
  • If gamma particles are present, potential differences of several thousand volts can be generated. 如果存在γ粒子,可能产生几千伏的电位差。 来自辞典例句
131 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
132 hopped 91b136feb9c3ae690a1c2672986faa1c     
跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 ); 单足蹦跳; 齐足(或双足)跳行; 摘葎草花
参考例句:
  • He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
  • He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车,向市区开去。
133 bucked 4085b682da6f1272318ebf4527d338eb     
adj.快v.(马等)猛然弓背跃起( buck的过去式和过去分词 );抵制;猛然震荡;马等尥起后蹄跳跃
参考例句:
  • When he tried to ride the horse, it bucked wildly. 当他试图骑上这匹马时,它突然狂暴地跃了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The plane bucked a strong head wind. 飞机顶着强烈的逆风飞行。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
134 formerly ni3x9     
adv.从前,以前
参考例句:
  • We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
  • This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。
135 chimp WXGza     
n.黑猩猩
参考例句:
  • In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
  • The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。
136 pilfered 06647dc80ef832c8e64a82fd11a3bfcc     
v.偷窃(小东西),小偷( pilfer的过去式和过去分词 );偷窃(一般指小偷小摸)
参考例句:
  • Oh, I remember. Lost, pilfered, short-shipped or something. 噢,我想起来了,是有关遗失、被盗、短缺之类的事。 来自商贸英语会话
  • The pilfered was let off with some good advice. 小偷经教育后释放。 来自互联网
137 tricky 9fCzyd     
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的
参考例句:
  • I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手,你能帮我吗?
  • He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题,只做了个笼统的表述。
138 randomly cktzBM     
adv.随便地,未加计划地
参考例句:
  • Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内,分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
  • Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句
139 perfectly 8Mzxb     
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。
140 spoke XryyC     
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。
141 weird bghw8     
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。
142 majestically d5d41929324f0eb30fd849cd601b1c16     
雄伟地; 庄重地; 威严地; 崇高地
参考例句:
  • The waters of the Changjiang River rolled to the east on majestically. 雄伟的长江滚滚东流。
  • Towering snowcapped peaks rise majestically. 白雪皑皑的山峰耸入云霄。
143 flip Vjwx6     
vt.快速翻动;轻抛;轻拍;n.轻抛;adj.轻浮的
参考例句:
  • I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书,看来似乎很有趣。
  • Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。
144 abetter 999d32cd84e6e0159dd404f8e529edb1     
n.教唆者,怂恿者
参考例句:
  • Make them SMAART goals andand you'll have abetter chance of attaining them. 制定SMAART目标,那么你实现这些目标的机会将更大。 来自互联网
  • Betty beat abit of butter to make abetter butter. 贝蒂敲打一小块奶油要做一块更好的奶油面。 来自互联网
145 cadging 4b6be4a1baea3311da0ddef68105ef25     
v.乞讨,乞得,索取( cadge的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • He's always cadging meals from his friends. 他总吃朋友的便宜饭。 来自互联网
  • He is always cadging a few dollars. 他总是只能讨得几块钱。 来自互联网
146 premature FPfxV     
adj.比预期时间早的;不成熟的,仓促的
参考例句:
  • It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue.预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早。
  • The premature baby is doing well.那个早产的婴儿很健康。
147 remains 1kMzTy     
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。
148 soothing soothing     
adj.慰藉的;使人宽心的;镇静的
参考例句:
  • Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
  • His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。
149 spinally 5550200f6467125b3fe5a93be4157b33     
adv.在脊骨方面,压着脊骨
参考例句:
150 primates 9536f12c27d026e37c108bd6fc53dbba     
primate的复数
参考例句:
  • Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
  • Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。
151 dinosaurs 87f9c39b9e3f358174d58a584c2727b4     
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西
参考例句:
  • The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
152 dinosaur xuSxp     
n.恐龙
参考例句:
  • Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
  • He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
153 pulp Qt4y9     
n.果肉,纸浆;v.化成纸浆,除去...果肉,制成纸浆
参考例句:
  • The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
  • The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。
154 talons 322566a2ccb8410b21604b31bc6569ac     
n.(尤指猛禽的)爪( talon的名词复数 );(如爪般的)手指;爪状物;锁簧尖状突出部
参考例句:
  • The fingers were curved like talons, but they closed on empty air. 他的指头弯得像鹰爪一样,可是抓了个空。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命
  • The tiger has a pair of talons. 老虎有一对利爪。 来自辞典例句
155 overtly pmlz1K     
ad.公开地
参考例句:
  • There were some overtly erotic scenes in the film. 影片中有一些公开色情场面。
  • Nietzsche rejected God's law and wrote some overtly blasphemous things. 尼采拒绝上帝的律法,并且写了一些渎神的作品。
156 beak 8y1zGA     
n.鸟嘴,茶壶嘴,钩形鼻
参考例句:
  • The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
  • This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。
157 dagger XnPz0     
n.匕首,短剑,剑号
参考例句:
  • The bad news is a dagger to his heart.这条坏消息刺痛了他的心。
  • The murderer thrust a dagger into her heart.凶手将匕首刺进她的心脏。
158 plunging 5fe12477bea00d74cd494313d62da074     
adj.跳进的,突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发,生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》
159 robin Oj7zme     
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟
参考例句:
  • The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
  • We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟,知道春天要到了。
160 animatedly 832398ed311043c67bec5ccd36d3d468     
adv.栩栩如生地,活跃地
参考例句:
  • Tanya Livingston was talking animatedly with a group of passengers. 坦妮亚·利文斯顿谈笑风生地和一群旅客在一起说着话。 来自辞典例句
  • Then, man-hour case became the tool that the political party struggles animatedly. 于是,工时案就活生生地成了政党斗争的工具。 来自互联网
161 dangling 4930128e58930768b1c1c75026ebc649     
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口
参考例句:
  • The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果,那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
  • The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上,摇晃着他们的双腿。
162 stimulus 3huyO     
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物
参考例句:
  • Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
  • Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。
163 affinity affinity     
n.亲和力,密切关系
参考例句:
  • I felt a great affinity with the people of the Highlands.我被苏格兰高地人民深深地吸引。
  • It's important that you share an affinity with your husband.和丈夫有共同的爱好是十分重要的。
164 benign 2t2zw     
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。
165 reptile xBiz7     
n.爬行动物;两栖动物
参考例句:
  • The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
  • So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以,你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。
166 depressed xu8zp9     
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的
参考例句:
  • When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
  • His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。
167 graphic Aedz7     
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的
参考例句:
  • The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。
168 assertive De7yL     
adj.果断的,自信的,有冲劲的
参考例句:
  • She always speaks an assertive tone.她总是以果断的语气说话。
  • China appears to have become more assertive in the waters off its coastline over recent years.在近些年,中国显示出对远方海洋的自信。
169 darting 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
170 physiological aAvyK     
adj.生理学的,生理学上的
参考例句:
  • He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
  • Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。
171 DNA 4u3z1l     
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸
参考例句:
  • DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
172 slippers oiPzHV     
n. 拖鞋
参考例句:
  • a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
  • He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋,倒在床上。
173 fraught gfpzp     
adj.充满…的,伴有(危险等)的;忧虑的
参考例句:
  • The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
  • There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的!
174 frivolous YfWzi     
adj.轻薄的;轻率的
参考例句:
  • This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
  • He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。
175 iguanas becb3e0ccfa8d9d8482868d87293bcc6     
n. 美洲蜥蜴 名词iguana的复数形式
参考例句:
  • Galapagos land iguanas belong to the genus Conolophus, of which there are currently three recognised species. 加拉帕戈斯陆栖鬣蜥属于鬣蜥属,其中目前得到确认的有三个物种。
  • Feral cats in the region could be eating eggs and young iguanas, Gentile speculates. 这一区域的野猫可能正在吃鬣蜥蛋及其幼崽,金泰尔猜测。
176 rusted 79e453270dbdbb2c5fc11d284e95ff6e     
v.(使)生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝,它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了,需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》
177 corrugated 9720623d9668b6525e9b06a2e68734c3     
adj.波纹的;缩成皱纹的;波纹面的;波纹状的v.(使某物)起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词)
参考例句:
  • a corrugated iron roof 波纹铁屋顶
  • His brow corrugated with the effort of thinking. 他皱着眉头用心地思考。 来自《简明英汉词典》
178 clutter HWoym     
n.零乱,杂乱;vt.弄乱,把…弄得杂乱
参考例句:
  • The garage is in such a clutter that we can't find anything.车库如此凌乱,我们什么也找不到。
  • We'll have to clear up all this clutter.我们得把这一切凌乱的东西整理清楚。
179 detritus J9dyA     
n.碎石
参考例句:
  • Detritus usually consists of gravel, sand and clay.岩屑通常是由砂砾,沙和粘土组成的。
  • A channel is no sooner cut than it chokes in its own detritus.一个河道刚被切割了不久,很快又被它自己的碎屑物质所充塞。
180 impromptu j4Myg     
adj.即席的,即兴的;adv.即兴的(地),无准备的(地)
参考例句:
  • The announcement was made in an impromptu press conference at the airport.这一宣布是在机场举行的临时新闻发布会上作出的。
  • The children put on an impromptu concert for the visitors.孩子们为来访者即兴献上了一场音乐会。
181 debris debris     
n.瓦砾堆,废墟,碎片
参考例句:
  • After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
  • Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上,导致蛀牙。
182 rusting 58458e5caedcd1cfd059f818dae47166     
n.生锈v.(使)生锈( rust的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • There was an old rusting bolt on the door. 门上有一个生锈的旧门闩。 来自辞典例句
  • Zinc can be used to cover other metals to stop them rusting. 锌可用来涂在其他金属表面以防锈。 来自辞典例句
183 utterly ZfpzM1     
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。
184 relish wBkzs     
n.滋味,享受,爱好,调味品;vt.加调味料,享受,品味;vi.有滋味
参考例句:
  • I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
  • I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。
185 reptiles 45053265723f59bd84cf4af2b15def8e     
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
186 bloody kWHza     
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。
187 leakage H1dxq     
n.漏,泄漏;泄漏物;漏出量
参考例句:
  • Large areas of land have been contaminated by the leakage from the nuclear reactor.大片地区都被核反应堆的泄漏物污染了。
  • The continuing leakage is the result of the long crack in the pipe.这根管子上的那一条裂缝致使渗漏不断。
188 permeated 5fe75f31bda63acdd5d0ee4bbd196747     
弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 ); 遍布; 渗入; 渗透
参考例句:
  • The smell of leather permeated the room. 屋子里弥漫着皮革的气味。
  • His public speeches were permeated with hatred of injustice. 在他对民众的演说里,充满了对不公正的愤慨。
189 stank d2da226ef208f0e46fdd722e28c52d39     
n. (英)坝,堰,池塘 动词stink的过去式
参考例句:
  • Her breath stank of garlic. 她嘴里有股大蒜味。
  • The place stank of decayed fish. 那地方有烂鱼的臭味。
190 pointed Il8zB4     
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。
191 abetted dbe7c1c9d2033f24403d54aea4799177     
v.教唆(犯罪)( abet的过去式和过去分词 );煽动;怂恿;支持
参考例句:
  • He was abetted in the deception by his wife. 他行骗是受了妻子的怂恿。
  • They aided and abetted in getting the police to catch the thief. 他们协助警察抓住了小偷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
192 posture q1gzk     
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势
参考例句:
  • The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
  • He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣,摆出一副打架的架势。
193 erect 4iLzm     
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的
参考例句:
  • She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头,把背挺得笔直。
  • Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。
194 loft VkhyQ     
n.阁楼,顶楼
参考例句:
  • We could see up into the loft from bottom of the stairs.我们能从楼梯脚边望到阁楼的内部。
  • By converting the loft,they were able to have two extra bedrooms.把阁楼改造一下,他们就可以多出两间卧室。
195 crammed e1bc42dc0400ef06f7a53f27695395ce     
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)
参考例句:
  • He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
  • All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。
196 salvageable salvageable     
adj. 可抢救的(可打捞的)
参考例句:
  • Tank wrecks found on maps are no longer salvageable. 地图上自带的坦克残骸将不能被轴心国工兵回收。
  • Their marriage was not salvageable. 他们的婚姻已不可挽回。
197 extricated d30ec9a9d3fda5a34e0beb1558582549     
v.使摆脱困难,脱身( extricate的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The meeting seemed to be endless, but I extricated myself by saying I had to catch a plane. 会议好象没完没了,不过我说我得赶飞机,才得以脱身。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She extricated herself from her mingled impulse to deny and guestion. 她约束了自己想否认并追问的不可明状的冲动。 来自辞典例句
198 conversion UZPyI     
n.转化,转换,转变
参考例句:
  • He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
  • Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。
199 inspector q6kxH     
n.检查员,监察员,视察员
参考例句:
  • The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
  • The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。
200 illuminated 98b351e9bc282af85e83e767e5ec76b8     
adj.被照明的;受启迪的
参考例句:
  • Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
  • the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市
201 winding Ue7z09     
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈
参考例句:
  • A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
  • The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。
202 fleeting k7zyS     
adj.短暂的,飞逝的
参考例句:
  • The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
  • Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝,于是让自已尽情地享受。
203 plunged 06a599a54b33c9d941718dccc7739582     
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
204 negotiations af4b5f3e98e178dd3c4bac64b625ecd0     
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过
参考例句:
  • negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
  • Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。
205 overrode b2666cf2ea7794a34a2a8c52cb405255     
越控( override的过去式 ); (以权力)否决; 优先于; 比…更重要
参考例句:
  • The chairman overrode the committee's objections and signed the agreement. 主席不顾委员会的反对,径行签署了协议。
  • The Congress overrode the President's objection and passed the law. 国会不顾总统的反对,通过了那项法令。
206 administrative fzDzkc     
adj.行政的,管理的
参考例句:
  • The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
  • He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。
207 terrain sgeyk     
n.地面,地形,地图
参考例句:
  • He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
  • He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。
208 uxorious NiKwy     
adj.宠爱妻子的
参考例句:
  • There are those who regard him as the uxorious spouse of a beautiful wife.有些人认为他是一个宠爱美貌妻子的丈夫。
  • His friends laughed at him because he was so uxorious and submissive to his wife's desires.他的朋友们嘲笑他,因为他溺爱妻子到了百依百顺的程度。
209 diligently gueze5     
ad.industriously;carefully
参考例句:
  • He applied himself diligently to learning French. 他孜孜不倦地学法语。
  • He had studied diligently at college. 他在大学里勤奋学习。
210 confided 724f3f12e93e38bec4dda1e47c06c3b1     
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的过去式和过去分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等)
参考例句:
  • She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
  • He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露,他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
211 glamour Keizv     
n.魔力,魅力;vt.迷住
参考例句:
  • Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
  • The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。
212 costly 7zXxh     
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的
参考例句:
  • It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
  • This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用,左不过贵了些。
213 afterward fK6y3     
adv.后来;以后
参考例句:
  • Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏,然后吃饭。
  • Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来,这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
214 nurtured 2f8e1ba68cd5024daf2db19178217055     
养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 ); 培育; 滋长; 助长
参考例句:
  • She is looking fondly at the plants he had nurtured. 她深情地看着他培育的植物。
  • Any latter-day Einstein would still be spotted and nurtured. 任何一个未来的爱因斯坦都会被发现并受到培养。
215 loyalty gA9xu     
n.忠诚,忠心
参考例句:
  • She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
  • His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。
216 primrose ctxyr     
n.樱草,最佳部分,
参考例句:
  • She is in the primrose of her life.她正处在她一生的最盛期。
  • The primrose is set off by its nest of green.一窝绿叶衬托着一朵樱草花。
217 unearth 2kLwg     
v.发掘,掘出,从洞中赶出
参考例句:
  • Most of the unearth relics remain intact.大多数出土文物仍保持完整无损。
  • More human remains have been unearthed in the north.北部又挖掘出了更多的人体遗骸。
218 simplicity Vryyv     
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯
参考例句:
  • She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
  • The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。
219 homogenous NrkzVM     
adj.同类的,同质的,纯系的
参考例句:
  • Japan is a wealthy,homogenous,developed nation with a stable political system.日本是一个富裕的同质型发达国家,政治体制稳定。
  • My family is very homogenous and happy.我们这个家庭很和睦很幸福。
220 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
221 inevitable 5xcyq     
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的
参考例句:
  • Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
  • The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。
222 loomed 9423e616fe6b658c9a341ebc71833279     
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
参考例句:
  • A dark shape loomed up ahead of us. 一个黑糊糊的影子隐隐出现在我们的前面。
  • The prospect of war loomed large in everyone's mind. 战事将起的庞大阴影占据每个人的心。 来自《简明英汉词典》
223 steered dee52ce2903883456c9b7a7f258660e5     
v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 );操纵;控制;引导
参考例句:
  • He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
  • The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
224 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
225 gorillas a04bd21e2b9b42b0d71bbb65c0c6d365     
n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 );暴徒,打手
参考例句:
  • the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
  • Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》
226 gorilla 0yLyx     
n.大猩猩,暴徒,打手
参考例句:
  • I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
  • A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。
227 avid ponyI     
adj.热心的;贪婪的;渴望的;劲头十足的
参考例句:
  • He is rich,but he is still avid of more money.他很富有,但他还想贪图更多的钱。
  • She was avid for praise from her coach.那女孩渴望得到教练的称赞。
228 privately IkpzwT     
adv.以私人的身份,悄悄地,私下地
参考例句:
  • Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
  • The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。
229 seminal Qzrwo     
adj.影响深远的;种子的
参考例句:
  • The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
  • The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。
230 strictly GtNwe     
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。
231 reassuring vkbzHi     
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的
参考例句:
  • He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
  • With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。
232 considerably 0YWyQ     
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。
233 premier R19z3     
adj.首要的;n.总理,首相
参考例句:
  • The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
  • He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。
234 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
235 extinction sPwzP     
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种
参考例句:
  • The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
  • The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。
236 interfere b5lx0     
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。
237 vows c151b5e18ba22514580d36a5dcb013e5     
誓言( vow的名词复数 ); 郑重宣布,许愿
参考例句:
  • Matrimonial vows are to show the faithfulness of the new couple. 婚誓体现了新婚夫妇对婚姻的忠诚。
  • The nun took strait vows. 那位修女立下严格的誓愿。
238 maverick 47Ozg     
adj.特立独行的;不遵守传统的;n.持异议者,自行其是者
参考例句:
  • He's a maverick.He has his own way of thinking about things.他是个特异独行的人。对事情有自己的看法。
  • You're a maverick and you'll try anything.你是个爱自行其是的人,样样事情都要尝试一下。
239 transpired eb74de9fe1bf6f220d412ce7c111e413     
(事实,秘密等)被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 ); 泄露; 显露; 发生
参考例句:
  • It transpired that the gang had had a contact inside the bank. 据报这伙歹徒在银行里有内应。
  • It later transpired that he hadn't been telling the truth. 他当时没说真话,这在后来显露出来了。
240 unpack sfwzBO     
vt.打开包裹(或行李),卸货
参考例句:
  • I must unpack before dinner.我得在饭前把行李打开。
  • She said she would unpack the items later.她说以后再把箱子里的东西拿出来。
241 publicity ASmxx     
n.众所周知,闻名;宣传,广告
参考例句:
  • The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
  • He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事,只当它是一种宣传手法。
242 prosecutions 51e124aef1b1fecefcea6048bf8b0d2d     
起诉( prosecution的名词复数 ); 原告; 实施; 从事
参考例句:
  • It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
  • Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来,政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
243 fretting fretting     
n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的
参考例句:
  • Fretting about it won't help. 苦恼于事无补。
  • The old lady is always fretting over something unimportant. 那位老妇人总是为一些小事焦虑不安。
244 squinting e26a97f9ad01e6beee241ce6dd6633a2     
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。
245 blessing UxDztJ     
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿
参考例句:
  • The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
  • A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。
246 jauntily 4f7f379e218142f11ead0affa6ec234d     
adv.心满意足地;洋洋得意地;高兴地;活泼地
参考例句:
  • His straw hat stuck jauntily on the side of his head. 他那顶草帽时髦地斜扣在头上。 来自辞典例句
  • He returned frowning, his face obstinate but whistling jauntily. 他回来时皱眉蹙额,板着脸,嘴上却快活地吹着口哨。 来自辞典例句
247 guardian 8ekxv     
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者
参考例句:
  • The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
  • The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。
248 morale z6Ez8     
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。
249 uncertainty NlFwK     
n.易变,靠不住,不确知,不确定的事物
参考例句:
  • Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
  • After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后,压力开始产生影响了。
250 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
251 mutual eFOxC     
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。
252 charade WrmzH     
n.用动作等表演文字意义的字谜游戏
参考例句:
  • You must not refine too much upon this charade.你切不可过分推敲这个字谜。
  • His poems,despite their dignity and felicity,have an air of charade.他的诗篇虽然庄严巧妙,却有猜迷之嫌。
253 nil 7GgxO     
n.无,全无,零
参考例句:
  • My knowledge of the subject is practically nil.我在这方面的知识几乎等于零。
  • Their legal rights are virtually nil.他们实际上毫无法律权利。
254 austere GeIyW     
adj.艰苦的;朴素的,朴实无华的;严峻的
参考例句:
  • His way of life is rather austere.他的生活方式相当简朴。
  • The room was furnished in austere style.这间屋子的陈设都很简单朴素。
255 longingly 2015a05d76baba3c9d884d5f144fac69     
adv. 渴望地 热望地
参考例句:
  • He looked longingly at the food on the table. 他眼巴巴地盯着桌上的食物。
  • Over drinks,he speaks longingly of his trip to Latin America. 他带着留恋的心情,一边喝酒一边叙述他的拉丁美洲之行。
256 compliant oX8zZ     
adj.服从的,顺从的
参考例句:
  • I don't respect people who are too compliant.我看不起那种唯命是从,唯唯诺诺的人。
  • For years I had tried to be a compliant and dutiful wife.几年来,我努力做一名顺从和尽职尽职的妻子。
257 confirmation ZYMya     
n.证实,确认,批准
参考例句:
  • We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
  • We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前,我们需要书面确认。
258 frustration 4hTxj     
n.挫折,失败,失效,落空
参考例句:
  • He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
259 privy C1OzL     
adj.私用的;隐密的
参考例句:
  • Only three people,including a policeman,will be privy to the facts.只会允许3个人,其中包括一名警察,了解这些内情。
  • Very few of them were privy to the details of the conspiracy.他们中很少有人知道这一阴谋的详情。
260 mechanisms d0db71d70348ef1c49f05f59097917b8     
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用
参考例句:
  • The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
261 frustrating is9z54     
adj.产生挫折的,使人沮丧的,令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧
参考例句:
  • It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间,真令人懊恼。
  • It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》
262 brink OWazM     
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿
参考例句:
  • The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
  • The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。
263 disintegration TtJxi     
n.分散,解体
参考例句:
  • This defeat led to the disintegration of the empire.这次战败道致了帝国的瓦解。
  • The incident has hastened the disintegration of the club.这一事件加速了该俱乐部的解体。
264 evict eihzS     
vt.驱逐,赶出,撵走
参考例句:
  • The lessor can evict the lessee for failure to pay rent.出租人可驱逐不付租金的承租人。
  • The government always says it's for the greater good when they evict farmers from their land.当政府把农民从他们的土地赶出去的时候,总是号称是为了更大众的利益。
265 prospect P01zn     
n.前景,前途;景色,视野
参考例句:
  • This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
  • The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。
266 ebbing ac94e96318a8f9f7c14185419cb636cb     
(指潮水)退( ebb的现在分词 ); 落; 减少; 衰落
参考例句:
  • The pain was ebbing. 疼痛逐渐减轻了。
  • There are indications that his esoteric popularity may be ebbing. 有迹象表明,他神秘的声望可能正在下降。
267 sector yjczYn     
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形
参考例句:
  • The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
  • The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
268 briefly 9Styo     
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。
269 agonizing PzXzcC     
adj.痛苦难忍的;使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦;折磨(agonize的ing形式)
参考例句:
  • I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
  • his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死
270 tainted qgDzqS     
adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏
参考例句:
  • The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
  • He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》


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