Holcroft's reference to a constable1 and arrest, though scarcely intended to be more than a vague threat, had the effect of clearing the air like a clap of thunder. Jane had never lost her senses, such as she possessed2, and Mrs. Wiggins recovered hers sufficiently3 to apologize to the farmer when he came down to breakfast. "But that Mumpson's hawfully haggravatin', master, as ye know yeself, hi'm a-thinkin'. Vud ye jis tell a body vat4 she is 'here, han 'ow hi'm to get hon vith 'er. Hif hi'm to take me horders from 'er, hi'd ruther go back to the poor-'us."
"You are to take your orders from me and no one else. All I ask is that you go on quietly with your work and pay no attention to her. You know well enough that I can't have such goings on. I want you to let Jane help you and learn her to do everything as far as she can. Mrs. Mumpson can do the mending and ironing, I suppose. At any rate, I won't have any more quarreling and uproar5. I'm a quiet man and intend to have a quiet house. You and Jane can get along very well in the kitchen, and you say you understand the dairy work."
"Vell hi does, han noo hi've got me horders hi'll go right along."
Mrs. Mumpson was like one who had been rudely shaken out of a dream, and she appeared to have sense enough to realize that she couldn't assume so much at first as she anticipated. She received from Jane a cup of coffee, and said feebly, "I can partake of no more after the recent trying events."
For some hours she was a little dazed, but her mind was of too light weight to be long cast down. Jane rehearsed Holcroft's words, described his manner, and sought with much insistence6 to show her mother that she must drop her nonsense at once. "I can see it in his eye," said the girl, "that he won't stand much more. If yer don't come down and keep yer hands busy and yer tongue still, we'll tramp. As to his marrying you, bah! He'd jes' as soon marry Mrs. Wiggins."
This was awful prose, but Mrs. Mumpson was too bewildered and discouraged for a time to dispute it, and the household fell into a somewhat regular routine. The widow appeared at her meals with the air of a meek8 and suffering martyr9; Holcroft was exceedingly brief in his replies to her questions, and paid no heed10 to her remarks. After supper and his evening work, he went directly to his room. Every day, however, he secretly chafed11 with ever-increasing discontent, over this tormenting12 presence in his house. The mending and such work as she attempted was so wretchedly performed that it would better have been left undone13. She was also recovering her garrulousness14, and mistook his toleration and her immunity15 in the parlor16 for proof of a growing consideration. "He knows that my hands were never made for such coarse, menial tasks as that Viggins does," she thought, as she darned one of his stockings in a way that would render it almost impossible for him to put his foot into it again. "The events of last Monday morning were unfortunate, unforeseen, unprecedented17. I was unprepared for such vulgar, barbarous, unheard-of proceedings--taken off my feet, as it were; but now that he's had time to think it all over, he sees that I am not a common woman like Viggins,"--Mrs. Mumpson would have suffered rather than have accorded her enemy the prefix18 of Mrs.,--"who is only fit to be among pots and kettles. He leaves me in the parlor as if a refined apartment became me and I became it. Time and my influence will mellow19, soften20, elevate, develop, and at last awaken21 a desire for my society, then yearnings. My first error was in not giving myself time to make a proper impression. He will soon begin to yield like the earth without. First it is hard and frosty, then it is cold and muddy, if I may permit myself so disagreeable an illustration. Now he is becoming mellow, and soon every word I utter will be like good seed in good ground. How aptly it all fits! I have only to be patient."
She was finally left almost to utter idleness, for Jane and Mrs. Wiggins gradually took from the incompetent22 hands even the light tasks which she had attempted. She made no protest, regarding all as another proof that Holcroft was beginning to recognize her superiority and unfitness for menial tasks. She would maintain, however, her character as the caretaker and ostentatiously inspected everything; she also tried to make as much noise in fastening up the dwelling23 at night as if she were barricading24 a castle. Holcroft would listen grimly, well aware that no house had been entered in Oakville during his memory. He had taken an early occasion to say at the table that he wished no one to enter his room except Jane, and that he would not permit any infringement25 of this rule. Mrs. Mumpson's feelings had been hurt at first by this order, but she soon satisfied herself that it had been meant for Mrs. Wiggins' benefit and not her own. She found, however, that Jane interpreted it literally26. "If either of you set foot in that room, I'll tell him," she said flatly. "I've had my orders and I'm a-goin' to obey. There's to be no more rummagin'. If you'll give me the keys I'll put things back in order ag'in."
"Well, I won't give you the keys. I'm the proper person to put things in order if you did not replace them properly. You are just making an excuse to rummage27 yourself. My motive28 for inspecting is very different from yours."
"Shouldn't wonder if you was sorry some day," the girl had remarked, and so the matter had dropped and been forgotten.
Holcroft solaced29 himself with the fact that Jane and Mrs. Wiggins served his meals regularly and looked after the dairy with better care than it had received since his wife died. "If I had only those two in the house, I could get along first-rate," he thought. "After the three months are up, I'll try to make such an arrangement. I'd pay the mother and send her off now, but if I did, Lemuel Weeks would put her up to a lawsuit30."
April days brought the longed-for plowing31 and planting, and the farmer was so busy and absorbed in his work that Mrs. Mumpson had less and less place in his thoughts, even as a thorn in the flesh. One bright afternoon, however, chaos32 came again unexpectedly. Mrs. Wiggins did not suggest a volatile33 creature, yet such, alas34! she was. She apparently35 exhaled36 and was lost, leaving no trace. The circumstances of her disappearance37 permit of a very matter-of-fact and not very creditable explanation. On the day in question she prepared an unusually good dinner, and the farmer had enjoyed it in spite of Mrs. Mumpson's presence and desultory38 remarks. The morning had been fine and he had made progress in his early spring work. Mrs. Wiggins felt that her hour and opportunity had come. Following him to the door, she said in a low tone and yet with a decisive accent, as if she was claiming a right, "Master, hi'd thank ye for me two weeks' wages."
He unsuspectingly and unhesitatingly gave it to her, thinking, "That's the way with such people. They want to be paid often and be sure of their money. She'll work all the better for having it."
Mrs. Wiggins knew the hour when the stage passed the house; she had made up a bundle without a very close regard to meum or tuum, and was ready to flit. The chance speedily came.
The "caretaker" was rocking in the parlor and would disdain39 to look, while Jane had gone out to help plant some early potatoes on a warm hillside. The coast was clear. Seeing the stage coming, the old woman waddled40 down the lane at a remarkable41 pace, paid her fare to town, and the Holcroft kitchen knew her no more.
That she found the "friend" she had wished to see on her way out to the farm, and that this friend brought her quickly under Tom Watterly's care again, goes without saying.
As the shadows lengthened42 and the robins43 became tuneful, Holcroft said, "You've done well, Jane. Thank you. Now you can go back to the house."
The child soon returned in breathless haste to the field where the farmer was covering the potato pieces she had dropped, and cried, "Mrs. Wiggins's gone!"
Like a flash the woman's motive in asking for her wages occurred to him, but he started for the house to assure himself of the truth. "Perhaps she's in the cellar," he said, remembering the cider barrel, "or else she's out for a walk."
"No, she aint," persisted Jane. "I've looked everywhere and all over the barn, and she aint nowhere. Mother haint seen her, nuther."
With dreary44 misgivings45, Holcroft remembered that he no longer had a practical ally in the old Englishwoman, and he felt that a new breaking up was coming. He looked wistfully at Jane, and thought, "I COULD get along with that child if the other was away. But that can't be; SHE'D visit here indefinitely if Jane stayed."
When Mrs. Mumpson learned from Jane of Mrs. Wiggins' disappearance, she was thrown into a state of strong excitement. She felt that her hour and opportunity might be near also, and she began to rock very fast. "What else could he expect of such a female?" she soliloquized. "I've no doubt but she's taken things, too. He'll now learn my value and what it is to have a caretaker who will never desert him."
Spirits and courage rose with the emergency; her thoughts hurried her along like a dry leaf caught in a March gale46. "Yes," she murmured, "the time has come for me to act, to dare, to show him in his desperate need and hour of desertion what might be, may be, must be. He will now see clearly the difference between these peculiar47 females who come and go, and a respecterble woman and a mother who can be depended upon--one who will never steal away like a thief in the night."
She saw Holcroft approaching the house with Jane; she heard him ascend48 to Mrs. Wiggins' room, then return to the kitchen and ejaculate, "Yes, she's gone, sure enough."
"Now, ACT!" murmured the widow, and she rushed toward the farmer with clasped hands, and cried with emotion, "Yes, she's gone; but I'm not gone. You are not deserted49. Jane will minister to you; I will be the caretaker, and our home will be all the happier because that monstrous50 creature is absent. Dear Mr. Holcroft, don't be so blind to your own interests and happiness, don't remain undeveloped! Everything is wrong here if you would but see it. You are lonely and desolate51. Moth7 and rust52 have entered, things in unopened drawers and closets are molding and going to waste. Yield to true female influence and--"
Holcroft had been rendered speechless at first by this onslaught, but the reference to unopened drawers and closets awakened53 a sudden suspicion. Had she dared to touch what had belonged to his wife? "What!" he exclaimed sharply, interrupting her; then with an expression of disgust and anger, he passed her swiftly and went to his room. A moment later came the stern summons, "Jane, come here!"
"Now you'll see what'll come of that rummagin'," whimpered Jane. "You aint got no sense at all to go at him so. He's jes' goin' to put us right out," and she went upstairs as if to execution.
"Have I failed?" gasped54 Mrs. Mumpson, and retreating to the chair, she rocked nervously55.
"Jane," said Holcroft in hot anger, "my wife's things have been pulled out of her bureau and stuffed back again as if they were no better than dishcloths. Who did it?"
The child now began to cry aloud.
"There, there!" he said, with intense irritation56, "I can't trust you either."
"I haint--touched 'em--since you told me--told me--not to do things on the sly," the girl sobbed57 brokenly; but he had closed the door upon her and did not hear.
He could have forgiven her almost anything but this. Since she only had been permitted to take care of his room, he naturally thought that she had committed the sacrilege, and her manner had confirmed this impression. Of course, the mother had been present and probably had assisted; but he had expected nothing better of her.
He took the things out, folded and smoothed them as carefully as he could with his heavy hands and clumsy fingers. His gentle, almost reverent58 touch was in strange contrast with his flushed, angry face and gleaming eyes. "This is the worst that's happened yet," he muttered. "Oh, Lemuel Weeks! It's well you are not here now, or we might both have cause to be sorry. It was you who put these prying59, and for all I know, thieving creatures into my house, and it was as mean a trick as ever one man played another. You and this precious cousin of yours thought you could bring about a marriage; you put her up to her ridiculous antics. Faugh! The very thought of it all makes me sick."
"Oh, mother, what shall I do?" Jane cried, rushing into the parlor and throwing herself on the floor, "he's goin' to put us right out."
"He can't put me out before the three months are up," quavered the widow.
"Yes, he can. We've been a-rummagin' where we'd no bizniss to be. He's mad enough to do anything; he jes' looks awful; I'm afraid of him."
"Jane," said her mother plaintively60, "I feel indisposed. I think I'll retire."
"Yes, that's the way with YOU," sobbed the child. "You get me into the scrape and now you retire."
Mrs. Mumpson's confidence in herself and her schemes was terribly shaken. "I must act very discreetly61. I must be alone that I may think over these untoward62 events. Mr. Holcroft has been so warped63 by the past female influences of his life that there's no counting on his action. He taxes me sorely," she explained, and then ascended64 the stairs.
"Oh! Oh!" moaned the child as she writhed65 on the floor, "mother aint got no sense at all. What IS goin' to become of me? I'd ruther hang about his barn than go back to Cousin Lemuel's or any other cousin's."
Spurred by one hope, she at last sprung up and went to the kitchen. It was already growing dark, and she lighted the lamp, kindled66 the fire, and began getting supper with breathless energy.
As far as he could discover, Holcroft was satisfied that nothing had been taken. In this respect he was right. Mrs. Mumpson's curiosity and covetousness67 were boundless68, but she would not steal. There are few who do not draw the line somewhere.
Having tried to put the articles back as they were before, he locked them up, and went hastily down and out, feeling that he must regain69 his self-control and decide upon his future action at once. "I will then carry out my purposes in a way that will give the Weeks tribe no chance to make trouble."
As he passed the kitchen windows he saw Jane rushing about as if possessed, and he stopped to watch her. It soon became evident that she was trying to get his supper. His heart relented at once in spite of himself. "The poor, wronged child!" he muttered. "Why should I be so hard on her for doing what she's been brought up to do? Well, well, it's too bad to send her away, but I can't help it. I'd lose my own reason if the mother were here much longer, and if I kept Jane, her idiotic70 mother would stay in spite of me. If she didn't, there'd be endless talk and lawsuits71, too, like enough, about separating parent and child. Jane's too young and little, anyway, to be here alone and do the work. But I'm sorry for her, I declare I am, and I wish I could do something to give her a chance in the world. If my wife was only living, we'd take and bring her up, disagreeable and homely72 as she is; but there's no use of my trying to do anything alone. I fear, after all, that I shall have to give up the old place and go--I don't know where. What is to become of her?"
收听单词发音 |
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constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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garrulousness
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immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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prefix
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| n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面 | |
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mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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barricading
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| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的现在分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
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infringement
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| n.违反；侵权 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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rummage
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| v./n.翻寻，仔细检查 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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solaced
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| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
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lawsuit
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| n.诉讼，控诉 | |
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plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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volatile
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| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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waddled
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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warped
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| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kindled
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| （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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67
covetousness
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68
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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69
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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70
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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71
lawsuits
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| n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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72
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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