The cub1's development was rapid. He rested for two days, and thenventured forth2 from the cave again. It was on this adventure that he foundthe young weasel whose mother he had helped eat, and he saw to it thatthe young weasel went the way of its mother. But on this trip he did notget lost. When he grew tired, he found his way back to the cave and slept.
And every day thereafter found him out and ranging a wider area.
He began to get accurate measurement of his strength and hisweakness, and to know when to be bold and when to be cautious. Hefound it expedient3 to be cautious all the time, except for the rare moments,when, assured of his own intrepidity4, he abandoned himself to petty ragesand lusts5.
He was always a little demon6 of fury when he chanced upon a strayptarmigan. Never did he fail to respond savagely7 to the chatter8 of thesquirrel he had first met on the blasted pine. While the sight of a moose-bird almost invariably put him into the wildest of rages; for he neverforgot the peck on the nose he had received from the first of that ilk heencountered.
But there were times when even a moose-bird failed to affect him, andthose were times when he felt himself to be in danger from some otherprowling meat hunter. He never forgot the hawk9, and its moving shadowalways sent him crouching10 into the nearest thicket11. He no longer sprawledand straddled, and already he was developing the gait of his mother,slinking and furtive12, apparently13 without exertion14, yet sliding along with aswiftness that was as deceptive15 as it was imperceptible.
In the matter of meat, his luck had been all in the beginning. The sevenptarmigan chicks and the baby weasel represented the sum of his killings17.
His desire to kill strengthened with the days, and he cherished hungryambitions for the squirrel that chattered18 so volubly and always informedall wild creatures that the wolf-cub was approaching. But as birds flew inthe air, squirrels could climb trees, and the cub could only try to crawlunobserved upon the squirrel when it was on the ground.
The cub entertained a great respect for his mother. She could get meat,and she never failed to bring him his share. Further, she was unafraid ofthings. It did not occur to him that this fearlessness was founded uponexperience and knowledge. Its effect on him was that of an impression ofpower. His mother represented power; and as he grew older he felt thispower in the sharper admonishment19 of her paw; while the reproving nudgeof her nose gave place to the slash20 of her fangs21. For this, likewise, herespected his mother. She compelled obedience22 from him, and the older hegrew the shorter grew her temper.
Famine came again, and the cub with clearer consciousness knew oncemore the bite of hunger. The she-wolf ran herself thin in the quest for meat.
She rarely slept any more in the cave, spending most of her time on themeat-trail, and spending it vainly. This famine was not a long one, but itwas severe while it lasted. The cub found no more milk in his mother'sbreast, nor did he get one mouthful of meat for himself.
Before, he had hunted in play, for the sheer joyousness23 of it; now hehunted in deadly earnestness, and found nothing. Yet the failure of itaccelerated his development. He studied the habits of the squirrel withgreater carefulness, and strove with greater craft to steal upon it andsurprise it. He studied the wood-mice and tried to dig them out of theirburrows; and he learned much about the ways of moose-birds andwoodpeckers. And there came a day when the hawk's shadow did not drivehim crouching into the bushes. He had grown stronger and wiser, andmore confident. Also, he was desperate. So he sat on his haunches,conspicuously in an open space, and challenged the hawk down out of thesky. For he knew that there, floating in the blue above him, was meat, themeat his stomach yearned24 after so insistently25. But the hawk refused tocome down and give battle, and the cub crawled away into a thicket andwhimpered his disappointment and hunger.
The famine broke. The she-wolf brought home meat. It was strangemeat, different from any she had ever brought before. It was a lynx kitten,partly grown, like the cub, but not so large. And it was all for him. Hismother had satisfied her hunger elsewhere; though he did not know that itwas the rest of the lynx litter that had gone to satisfy her. Nor did he knowthe desperateness of her deed. He knew only that the velvet-furred kittenwas meat, and he ate and waxed happier with every mouthful.
A full stomach conduces to inaction, and the cub lay in the cave,sleeping against his mother's side. He was aroused by her snarling26. Neverhad he heard her snarl27 so terribly. Possibly in her whole life it was themost terrible snarl she ever gave. There was reason for it, and none knewit better than she. A lynx's lair28 is not despoiled29 with impunity30. In the fullglare of the afternoon light, crouching in the entrance of the cave, the cubsaw the lynx- mother. The hair rippled31 up along his back at the sight. Herewas fear, and it did not require his instinct to tell him of it. And if sightalone were not sufficient, the cry of rage the intruder gave, beginning witha snarl and rushing abruptly32 upward into a hoarse33 screech34, was convincingenough in itself.
The cub felt the prod35 of the life that was in him, and stood up andsnarled valiantly36 by his mother's side. But she thrust him ignominiouslyaway and behind her. Because of the low-roofed entrance the lynx couldnot leap in, and when she made a crawling rush of it the she-wolf sprangupon her and pinned her down. The cub saw little of the battle. There wasa tremendous snarling and spitting and screeching38. The two animalsthreshed about, the lynx ripping and tearing with her claws and using herteeth as well, while the she-wolf used her teeth alone.
Once, the cub sprang in and sank his teeth into the hind37 leg of the lynx.
He clung on, growling39 savagely. Though he did not know it, by the weightof his body he clogged40 the action of the leg and thereby41 saved his mothermuch damage. A change in the battle crushed him under both their bodiesand wrenched42 loose his hold. The next moment the two mothers separated,and, before they rushed together again, the lynx lashed43 out at the cub witha huge fore-paw that ripped his shoulder open to the bone and sent himhurtling sidewise against the wall. Then was added to the uproar44 the cub'sshrill yelp45 of pain and fright. But the fight lasted so long that he had timeto cry himself out and to experience a second burst of courage; and the endof the battle found him again clinging to a hind-leg and furiously growlingbetween his teeth.
The lynx was dead. But the she-wolf was very weak and sick. At firstshe caressed46 the cub and licked his wounded shoulder; but the blood shehad lost had taken with it her strength, and for all of a day and a night shelay by her dead foe47's side, without movement, scarcely breathing. For aweek she never left the cave, except for water, and then her movementswere slow and painful. At the end of that time the lynx was devoured,while the she-wolf's wounds had healed sufficiently48 to permit her to takethe meat-trail again.
The cub's shoulder was stiff and sore, and for some time he limpedfrom the terrible slash he had received. But the world now seemedchanged. He went about in it with greater confidence, with a feeling ofprowess that had not been his in the days before the battle with the lynx.
He had looked upon life in a more ferocious49 aspect; he had fought; he hadburied his teeth in the flesh of a foe; and he had survived. And because ofall this, he carried himself more boldly, with a touch of defiance50 that wasnew in him. He was no longer afraid of minor51 things, and much of histimidity had vanished, though the unknown never ceased to press uponhim with its mysteries and terrors, intangible and ever-menacing.
He began to accompany his mother on the meat-trail, and he saw muchof the killing16 of meat and began to play his part in it. And in his own dimway he learned the law of meat. There were two kinds of life - his ownkind and the other kind. His own kind included his mother and himself.
The other kind included all live things that moved. But the other kind wasdivided. One portion was what his own kind killed and ate. This portionwas composed of the non- killers53 and the small killers. The other portionkilled and ate his own kind, or was killed and eaten by his own kind. Andout of this classification arose the law. The aim of life was meat. Life itselfwas meat. Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The lawwas: EAT OR BE EATEN. He did not formulate54 the law in clear, set termsand moralise about it. He did not even think the law; he merely lived thelaw without thinking about it at all.
He saw the law operating around him on every side. He had eaten theptarmigan chicks. The hawk had eaten the ptarmigan-mother. The hawkwould also have eaten him. Later, when he had grown more formidable, hewanted to eat the hawk. He had eaten the lynx kitten. The lynx-motherwould have eaten him had she not herself been killed and eaten. And so itwent. The law was being lived about him by all live things, and he himselfwas part and parcel of the law. He was a killer52. His only food was meat,live meat, that ran away swiftly before him, or flew into the air, or climbedtrees, or hid in the ground, or faced him and fought with him, or turned thetables and ran after him.
Had the cub thought in man-fashion, he might have epitomised life asa voracious55 appetite and the world as a place wherein ranged a multitudeof appetites, pursuing and being pursued, hunting and being hunted, eatingand being eaten, all in blindness and confusion, with violence and disorder,a chaos56 of gluttony and slaughter57, ruled over by chance, merciless,planless, endless.
But the cub did not think in man-fashion. He did not look at thingswith wide vision. He was single-purposed, and entertained but one thoughtor desire at a time. Besides the law of meat, there were a myriad58 other andlesser laws for him to learn and obey. The world was filled with surprise.
The stir of the life that was in him, the play of his muscles, was anunending happiness. To run down meat was to experience thrills andelations. His rages and battles were pleasures. Terror itself, and themystery of the unknown, led to his living.
And there were easements and satisfactions. To have a full stomach, todoze lazily in the sunshine - such things were remuneration in full for hisardours and toils59, while his ardours and tolls60 were in themselves self-remunerative. They were expressions of life, and life is always happywhen it is expressing itself. So the cub had no quarrel with his hostileenvironment. He was very much alive, very happy, and very proud ofhimself.
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cub
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| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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intrepidity
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| n.大胆，刚勇；大胆的行为 | |
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lusts
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| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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killings
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| 谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发 | |
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chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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admonishment
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| n.警告 | |
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slash
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| vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩 | |
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fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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joyousness
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| 快乐，使人喜悦 | |
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yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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prod
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| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
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valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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yelp
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| vi.狗吠 | |
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caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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killers
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| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
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formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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voracious
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| adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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toils
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| 网 | |
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tolls
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| （缓慢而有规律的）钟声( toll的名词复数 )； 通行费； 损耗； （战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏 | |
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