Until little more than a century ago, it was illegal for any Wallachian child to frequent a German or Hungarian school; while at that same period the Wallachian clergy5 were compelled to carry the Calvinistic bishop6 on their shoulders to and from his church, whenever he thought fit to exact their services. Still more inhuman7 was a law which continued in force up to the end of the sixteenth century, ordaining8 that each Wallachian out of the district of Poplaka, in the neighborhood of Hermanstadt, who injured a tree, if only by peeling off the bark, was to be forthwith hung up to the same tree. “Should, however, the culprit remain undiscovered,” prescribes the law, “then shall the community of Poplaka be bound to deliver up for execution some other Wallachian in his place.”
The faults of the Roumanians are the faults of all slaves. Like all{174} serfs, they are lazy, not being yet accustomed to work for themselves, nor caring to work for a master; they have acquired cunning and deceit as the only weapons wherewith to meet tyranny and oppression. Sometimes, when goaded9 to passion, the Roumanian forgets himself, and his eyes flash fiercely on his tormentor10; but the gaze is instantly corrected, and the eyes lowered again to their habitual11 expression of abject12 humility13.
Occasionally they have cast off the yoke14 and taken cruel revenge on their real or imaginary oppressors, as in 1848, when, instigated15 and stirred up by Austrian agents, they rose against their masters the Hungarian noblemen, and perpetrated atrocities16 as numerous as disgusting. They pillaged17 the country houses, setting everything on fire, and put the nobles to death with many torturing devices, crucifying some and burying others up to the neck, cutting off tongues and plucking out eyes, as a diabolical18 fancy suggested.
This was all the more surprising, as the bond between serfs and masters had always been of a most peaceful and patriarchal character, and it was to his Hungarian landlord that the Wallachian had been always accustomed to turn for counsel or assistance. True, the serf was forced to pay certain tithes19 to his master; but in return, whenever the crops failed, the master himself was obliged to sustain the serf, and provide him with corn out of his own granaries.
A Hungarian lady related to me a very horrible instance of cruelty which had happened on the property of a near relation of her own in the revolution of 1848. This gentleman, one of the most generous and humane20 landlords, did not usually reside at his country place, but had spent much time in foreign travel, and was unknown to most of his people, which, however, did not prevent them from resolving on his death. Hearing of the riots which had broken out on his estate, the nobleman was hastening to the spot; and the excited peasantry, informed of his impending21 arrival, prepared to receive him with scythes23 and pickaxes.
The servants of the household had all fled the neighborhood at the first alarm; but there remained behind at the chateau24 the foster-daughter of the gentleman, a girl of sixteen, who, brought up with the family, was warmly attached to her benefactor25, whom she called father. Shutting herself up in a turret-room, she tremblingly awaited the dénouement of the fearful drama which was being enacted26 around her. From her window she could overlook the road by which her{175} foster-father was expected to arrive, and she stood thus all day at her post, straining her eyes for what she feared to see, and praying God to keep her benefactor away.
Twilight27 had set in, and the moon began to rise, when a solitary28 rider was at last descried29 coming down the neighboring hill. The poor girl’s heart sank within her, for she knew that this could be no other than her father; and even had she doubted it, the wild-beast roar which broke from the peasants at the sight of their long-expected prey30 destroyed all remnant of hope. As in a horrible nightmare, she saw them advance towards the horseman in a black, heaving mass, like a crawling thunder-cloud, broken here and there by the sinister31 gleam of a sharpened scythe22. Paralyzed with horror, she yet was unable to look away, and no merciful fainting-fit came to spare her the sight of any of the horrible details which followed: how the hapless rider was surrounded and speedily overpowered; how a dreadful scuffle ensued; and after an interval32 which seemed like an eternity33, how something was hoisted34 up at the end of a long pole—something round in shape and ghastly in hue—the head of her beloved benefactor!
By-and-by she was roused from her grief by the loud voices of rioters approaching, and presently the front door being shaken and forced in with a resounding35 crash, the bloody36 wretches37 proceeded to overrun the house, and ransack38 the larders39 and cellar, laying hands on whatever viands40 they could discover. In the large vaulted41 hall they began the carouse42, seated round the banqueting-table, and on a platter in the centre was placed the head of their victim.
Two of the peasants who had been searching the upper apartments now appeared on the scene, dragging between them a convulsively trembling girl, who looked ready to die with terror. “They had found her up-stairs in the turret,” they explained, “sobbing like a fool, and calling out for her father, like a suckling whelp that has lost its dam.”
“The old man’s daughter!” shouted one of the revellers; “let us cut off her head as well—they will look fine together on the platter!”
“No,” said another; “she is not worth killing43, she is half dead already. Let her look at her dear father, since it is for him she is crying;” and raising the dish from the table, he held it in horrible proximity44 to her shrinking face.
The poor girl tightly closed her eyes in order to escape the dreadful sight, but her persecutors were not inclined to let her off so easily.{176} Maddened alike by blood and drink, they grasped her roughly, and seizing her long black eyelashes on either side, by main force they compelled her to raise her eyelids45 and fix her swimming eyes on the gory46 head.
At first she could distinguish nothing for the blinding tears which obscured her vision, but suddenly the mist cleared away, and the cry she then uttered was so sharp and piercing that it re-echoed again from the vaulted roof, and caused the drinkers to pause for a minute, glass in hand. Lucky it was for her and hers that the dull ear of the tipsy murderers had failed to distinguish the meaning of that cry aright; for in moments of intense emotion widely different feelings are apt to resemble each other in expression, so that joy may be mistaken for grief, and hope for despair—and it was hope, not despair, which had given that piercing sharpness to her voice, for the ghastly grinning head before her was the head of a stranger!
The joyful47 exclamation48 rising to her lips was checked just in time, as her dazed brain began to recognize the urgency of the situation. She must not undeceive these men, who were exulting49 over the death of their landlord. Her father was not dead, it is true, but neither was the danger yet past, and his safety might depend on keeping up the delusion50 a little longer. By good-luck her confusion passed unnoticed by the semi-tipsy revellers, who presently had no more thought but for their bumpers51, so that the young girl, enabled to creep away unobserved, was ultimately the means of saving the nobleman’s life by sending a messenger to warn him of his danger.
The man who had been executed in his place turned out to be a gentleman from some neighboring district, who in the dusk had taken a wrong turn on the road, thus occasioning the mistake which cost him his life.
Many such instances of cruelty, of which the Roumanians made themselves guilty in the year ’48, have deprived them of the sympathy to which they might have laid claim as a suffering and oppressed race; but people who have a thorough knowledge of the Roumanian character, and are able to estimate correctly all the influences brought to bear on them at that time, do not hesitate to affirm that these people were far more sinned against than sinning, and cannot be held responsible for the atrocities they perpetrated. Even Hungarian nobles, themselves the greatest sufferers by all that occurred during{177} the revolution, are wont52 to speak of them with a sort of pitying commiseration53, as of poor misguided creatures led astray by unscrupulous agents, and wholly incapable54 of comprehending the heinousness55 of their behavior.
An amusing illustration has been given of the ignorance of these revolutionary peasants in 1848. Some of them, having broken into a nobleman’s mansion56, discovered a packet of old letters in a drawer, and believing these to be patents of nobility, they proceeded to burn them in front of the portrait of one of the family ancestors, exclaiming, tauntingly57, “See, proud lord, how thy family becomes once more as ignoble58 as we ourselves are!”
Few races possess in such a marked degree the blind and immovable sense of nationality which characterizes the Roumanians: they hardly ever mingle59 with the surrounding races, far less adopt manners and customs foreign to their own; and it is a remarkable60 fact that the seemingly stronger-minded and more manly61 Hungarians are absolutely powerless to influence them even in cases of intermarriage. Thus the Hungarian woman who weds62 a Roumanian husband will necessarily adopt the dress and manners of his people, and her children will be as good Roumanians as though they had no drop of Magyar blood in their veins63; while the Magyar who takes a Roumanian girl for his wife will not only fail to convert her to his ideas, but himself, subdued64 by her influence, will imperceptibly begin to lose his nationality. This is a fact well known and much lamented65 by the Hungarians themselves, who live in anticipated apprehension66 of seeing their people ultimately dissolving into Roumanians. This singular tenacity67 of the Roumanians to their own manners and customs is doubtless due to the influence of their religion, which teaches them that any deviation68 from their own established rules is sinful—which, as I have said before, is the whole pivot69 of Roumanian thought and action.
In some districts where an attempt was made in the time of Maria Theresa to replace the Greek popas by other clergymen belonging to the united faith, the inhabitants simply absented themselves from all church attendance or reception of the sacraments; and there are instances on record of villages whose churches remained closed for over thirty years, because the people could not be induced to accept the change.
As to that portion of the Transylvanian Roumanians which in 1698 consented to embrace the united faith, their separation from{178} their schismatic brethren is but a skin-deep one after all, having no influence whatsoever71 on their customs and superstitions72, or on the strong bond of nationality which holds them all together.
It is a notable fact that among all Oriental races the ideas of religion and nationality are inextricably bound together. So with the Roumanians, whose language has no other word wherewith to express religion or confession73 but lege, law—obviously derived74 from the Latin lex.
The deeply inrooted sense of Roumanian nationality has, moreover, received fresh stimulus75 in the comprehension which of late years has been slowly but surely dawning on the minds of these people—that they are a nation like other nations, with a right to be governed by a monarch76 of their own choice, instead of being bandied about, backward and forward, changing masters at each European treaty. There is no doubt that the bulk of Roumanians living to-day in Hungary and Transylvania consider themselves to be serving in bondage77, and covertly78 gaze over the frontier for their real monarch; and who can blame them for so doing? In the many Roumanian hovels I have visited in Transylvania, I have frequently come across the portrait of the King of Roumania hung up in the place of honor, but never once that of his Austrian Majesty79. Old wood-cuts representing Michel the Brave, the great hero of the Roumanians, and of the rebel Hora,[31] are also pretty sure to be found adorning80 the walls of many a hut. It is likewise by no means uncommon81 to see village taverns82 bearing such titles as, “To the King of Roumania,” or “To the United Roumanian Kingdom,” etc.
A little incident which, taking place under my eyes, impressed me very strongly at the time, helped me to understand this feeling more clearly than I had done before. Two Roumanian generals engaged in some business regarding the regulation of the frontier, being at Hermanstadt for a few days, paid visits to the principal Austrian{179} military authorities, and were the object of much courteous83 attention. One evening the Austrian commanding general had ordered the military band to play in honor of his Roumanian confrères, and seated along with them on the promenade84, we were listening to the music. Presently two or three private soldiers passing by stopped in front of us to stare at the foreign uniforms. Apparently85 their curiosity was not easily satisfied, for after five minutes had elapsed they still remained standing86, as though rooted to the spot, and other soldiers had joined them as well, till the group soon numbered above a dozen heads.
Being engaged in conversation, I did not at the moment pay much attention to this circumstance, but happening to turn round again some minutes later, I was surprised to see that the spectators had become doubled and quadrupled in the mean time, and were steadily87 increasing every minute. Little short of a hundred soldiers were now standing in front of us, all gazing intently. Why were they staring thus strangely? what were they looking at? I asked myself confusedly, but luckily checked the question rising to my lips, when it suddenly struck me that all these men had swarthy complexions88, and each one of them a pair of dark eyes, and simultaneously89 I remembered that the infantry90 regiment91 whose uniform they wore was recruited from Roumanian villages round Hermanstadt.
They were perfectly92 quiet and submissive-looking, betraying no sign of outward excitement or insubordination; but their expression was not to be mistaken, and no attentive93 observer could have failed to read its meaning aright. It was at their own generals they were gazing in that hungry, longing70 manner; and deep down in every dusky eye, piercing through a thick layer of patience, stupidity, apathy94, and military discipline, there smouldered a spark of something vague and intangible, the germ of a sort of fire which has often kindled95 revolutions and sometimes overturned kingdoms.
Heaven alone knows what was passing in the clouded brain of these poor ignorant men as they stood thus gaping96 and staring, in the intensity97 of their rapt attention! Visions of glory and freedom perchance, dreams of peace and of prosperity; dim far-off pictures of unattainable happiness, of a golden age to come, and an Arcadian state of things no more to be found on the dull surface of this weary world!
The Austrian generals tried not to look annoyed, the Roumanian generals strove not to look elated, and the English looker-on endeavored{180} (I trust somewhat more successfully) to conceal98 her amusement at the serio-comicality of the situation, which one and all we tacitly ignored with that exquisite99 hypocrisy100 characterizing well-bred persons of every nation.
点击收听单词发音
1 cringing | |
adj.谄媚,奉承 | |
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2 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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3 persecuted | |
(尤指宗教或政治信仰的)迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 ); 烦扰,困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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4 adverse | |
adj.不利的;有害的;敌对的,不友好的 | |
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5 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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6 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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7 inhuman | |
adj.残忍的,不人道的,无人性的 | |
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8 ordaining | |
v.任命(某人)为牧师( ordain的现在分词 );授予(某人)圣职;(上帝、法律等)命令;判定 | |
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9 goaded | |
v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 );激励;(用尖棒)驱赶;驱使(或怂恿、刺激)某人 | |
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10 tormentor | |
n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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11 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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12 abject | |
adj.极可怜的,卑屈的 | |
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13 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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14 yoke | |
n.轭;支配;v.给...上轭,连接,使成配偶 | |
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15 instigated | |
v.使(某事物)开始或发生,鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 atrocities | |
n.邪恶,暴行( atrocity的名词复数 );滔天大罪 | |
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17 pillaged | |
v.抢劫,掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 diabolical | |
adj.恶魔似的,凶暴的 | |
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19 tithes | |
n.(宗教捐税)什一税,什一的教区税,小部分( tithe的名词复数 ) | |
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20 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
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21 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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22 scythe | |
n. 长柄的大镰刀,战车镰; v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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23 scythes | |
n.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的名词复数 )v.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24 chateau | |
n.城堡,别墅 | |
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25 benefactor | |
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
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26 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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28 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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29 descried | |
adj.被注意到的,被发现的,被看到的 | |
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30 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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31 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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32 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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33 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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34 hoisted | |
把…吊起,升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35 resounding | |
adj. 响亮的 | |
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36 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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37 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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38 ransack | |
v.彻底搜索,洗劫 | |
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39 larders | |
n.(家中的)食物贮藏室,食物橱( larder的名词复数 ) | |
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40 viands | |
n.食品,食物 | |
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41 vaulted | |
adj.拱状的 | |
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42 carouse | |
v.狂欢;痛饮;n.狂饮的宴会 | |
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43 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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44 proximity | |
n.接近,邻近 | |
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45 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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46 gory | |
adj.流血的;残酷的 | |
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47 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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48 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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49 exulting | |
vi. 欢欣鼓舞,狂喜 | |
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50 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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51 bumpers | |
(汽车上的)保险杠,缓冲器( bumper的名词复数 ) | |
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52 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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53 commiseration | |
n.怜悯,同情 | |
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54 incapable | |
adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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55 heinousness | |
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56 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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57 tauntingly | |
嘲笑地,辱骂地; 嘲骂地 | |
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58 ignoble | |
adj.不光彩的,卑鄙的;可耻的 | |
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59 mingle | |
vt.使混合,使相混;vi.混合起来;相交往 | |
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60 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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61 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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62 weds | |
v.嫁,娶,(与…)结婚( wed的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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64 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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65 lamented | |
adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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67 tenacity | |
n.坚韧 | |
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68 deviation | |
n.背离,偏离;偏差,偏向;离题 | |
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69 pivot | |
v.在枢轴上转动;装枢轴,枢轴;adj.枢轴的 | |
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70 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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71 whatsoever | |
adv.(用于否定句中以加强语气)任何;pron.无论什么 | |
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72 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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73 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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74 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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75 stimulus | |
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物 | |
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76 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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77 bondage | |
n.奴役,束缚 | |
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78 covertly | |
adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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79 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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80 adorning | |
修饰,装饰物 | |
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81 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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82 taverns | |
n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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83 courteous | |
adj.彬彬有礼的,客气的 | |
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84 promenade | |
n./v.散步 | |
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85 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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86 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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87 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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88 complexions | |
肤色( complexion的名词复数 ); 面色; 局面; 性质 | |
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89 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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90 infantry | |
n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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91 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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92 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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93 attentive | |
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的 | |
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94 apathy | |
n.漠不关心,无动于衷;冷淡 | |
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95 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
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96 gaping | |
adj.口的;张口的;敞口的;多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 );张开,张大 | |
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97 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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98 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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99 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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100 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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