In this unventilated and diabolical2 hollow, dreadful indeed were the sufferings in store both for man and beast. Not a drop of fresh water existed within many miles; and, notwithstanding that every human precaution had been taken to secure a supply, by means of skins carried upon camels, the very great extent of most impracticable country to be traversed, which had unavoidably led to the detention4 of nearly all, added to the difficulty of restraining a multitude maddened by the tortures of burning thirst, rendered the provision quite insufficient5; and during the whole of this appalling6 day, with the mercury in the thermometer standing3 at 126 degrees under the shade of cloaks and umbrellas—in a suffocating7 Pandemonium, depressed8 five hundred and seventy feet below the ocean, where no zephyr9 fanned the fevered skin, and where the glare arising from the sea of white salt was most painful to the eyes; where the furnace-like vapour exhaled10, almost choking respiration11, created an indomitable thirst, and not the smallest shade or shelter existed, save such as was afforded, in cruel mockery, by the stunted12 boughs13 of the solitary14 leafless acacia, or, worse still, by black blocks of heated lava15, it was only practicable, during twelve tedious hours, to supply to each of the party two quarts of the most mephitic brick-dust-coloured fluid, which the direst necessity could alone have forced down the parched16 throat, and which, after all, far from alleviating17 thirst, served materially to augment18 its insupportable horrors.
It is true that since leaving the shores of India, the party had gradually been in training towards a disregard of dirty water—a circumstance of rather fortunate occurrence. On board a ship of any description the fluid is seldom very clean, or very plentiful19. At Cape20 Aden there was little perceptible difference betwixt the sea-water and the land water. At Tajúra the beverage21 obtainable was far from being improved in quality by the taint22 of the new skins in which it was transferred from the only well; and now, in the very heart of the scorching23 Teháma, when a copious24 draught25 of aqua pura seemed absolutely indispensable every five minutes, to secure further existence upon earth, the detestable mixture that was at long intervals26 most parsimoniously27 produced, was the very acmé of abomination. Fresh hides stripped from the rank he-goat, besmeared inside as well as out with old tallow and strong bark tan, filled from an impure28 well at Sagállo, tossed, tumbled, and shaken during two entire nights on a camel’s back, and brewed29 during the same number of intervening days under a strong distilling30 heat—poured out an amalgamation31 of pottage of which the individual ingredients of goat’s hair, rancid mutton fat, astringent32 bark, and putrid33 water, were not to be distinguished34. It might be smelt35 at the distance of twenty yards, yet all, native and European, were struggling and quarrelling for a taste of the recipe. The crest-fallen mules36, who had not moistened their cracked lips during two entire days, crowding around the bush, thrust their hot noses into the faces of their masters, in reproachful intimation of their desire to participate in the filthy37 but tantalising decoction; and deterred38 with difficulty from draining the last dregs, they ran frantically39 with open mouths to seek mitigation of their sufferings at the deceptive40 waters of the briny41 lake, which, like those of Goobut el Kharáb, were so intensely salt, as to create smarting of the lips if tasted.
Slowly flapped the leaden wings of Time on that dismal42 day. Each weary hour brought a grievous accession, but no alleviation43, to the fearful torments44 endured. The stagnation45 of the atmosphere continued undiminished; the pangs46 of thirst increased, but no water arrived; and the sun’s despotic dominion47 on the meridian48, appeared to know no termination. At four o’clock, when the heat was nothing abated49, distressing50 intelligence was received that one of the seamen51, who during the preceding night had accompanied the captain of the schooner52-of-war from Goobut el Kharáb, and had unfortunately lost his way, could nowhere be found—the gunner, with six men, having long painfully searched the country side for their lost messmate, but to no purpose; Abroo, the son of whom old Aboo Bekr was justly proud, and who was indeed the flower of his tribe, immediately volunteered to go in quest of the missing sailor, and he subsequently returned with the cheering intelligence that his efforts had been crowned with success. Overwhelmed by heat and thirst, the poor fellow, unable to drag his exhausted53 limbs further, had crept for shelter into a fissure54 of the heated lava, where he had soon sunk into a state of insensibility. Water, and the use of a lancet, with which the young midshipman who heroically accompanied the exploring party had been provided, restored suspended animation55 sufficiently56 to admit of his patient being conveyed on board the “Constance” alive; but, alas57! he never reached Tajúra; neither did one of the brave tars58 who sought their lost comrade under the fierce rays of the sun, nor indeed did any of the adventurous59 expedition, escape without feeling, in after severe illness, the unwholesome influence upon the human constitution of that waste and howling wilderness60.
But the longest day must close at last, and the great luminary61 had at length run his fiery62 and tyrannical course. String after string of loaded camels, wearied with the passage of the rugged63 defile64 of Rah Eesah, were with infinite difficulty urged down the last steep declivity65, and at long intervals, as the shadows lengthened66, made their tardy67 appearance upon the desert plain; those carrying water, tents, and the greater portion of the provisions most required, being nevertheless still in the rear when the implacable orb68 went down, shorn of his last fierce ray. The drooping69 spirits of all now rose with the prospect70 of speedy departure from so fearful a spot. The commander of the friendly schooner, which had proved of such inestimable service, but whose protecting guns were at length to be withdrawn71, shortly set out on his return to the vessel72 with the last despatches from the Embassy, after bidding its members a final farewell; and in order to obtain water, any further deprivation73 of which must have involved the dissolution of the whole party, no less than to escape from the pestilential exhalations of the desolate74 lake, which, as well during the night as during the day, yielded up a blast like that curling from a smith’s forge—withering to the human frame—it was resolved as an unavoidable alternative, to leave the baggage to its fate, and to the tender mercies of guides and camel-drivers, pushing forward as expeditiously75 as possible to Goongoonteh, a cleft76 in the mountains that bound the opposite shore, wherein water was known to be abundant. Pursuant to this determination, the European escort, with the servants, followers77, horses, and mules, were held in readiness to march so soon as the moon should rise above the gloomy lava hills, sufficiently to admit of the path being traced which leads beyond the accursed precincts of a spot, fitly likened by the Danákil to the infernal regions.
Dismal, deadly, and forbidding, but deeply interesting in a geological point of view, its overwhelming and paralysing heat precluded78 all possibility of minute examination, and thus researches were of necessity confined to the general character of the place. Latitude79, longitude80, and level were however accurately81 determined82 (These will be found in the Appendix, Number One), and many were the theories ventured, to account for so unusual a phenomenon. Obviously the result of earthquake and volcanic83 eruption—a chaos84 vomited85 into existence by
“Th’ infuriate hill that shoots the pillar’d flame,”
Dame86 Nature must indeed have been in a most afflicting87 throe to have given birth to a progeny88 so monstrous89; and there being no locality to which the most vivid fancy could assign aught that ever bore the name of wealth or human population, little doubt can exist that the sea must have been repelled90 far from its former boundaries. The oviform figure of the bowl, hemmed91 in on three sides by volcanic mountains, and on the fourth by sheets of lava, would at the first glance indicate the site of an extensive crater92, whose cone93 having fallen into a subterranean94 abyss, had given rise to the singular appearance witnessed. But it is a far more probable hypothesis that the Bahr Assál, now a dead sea, formed at some very remote period a continuation of the Gulf95 of Tajúra, and was separated from Goobut el Kharáb by a stream of lava six miles in breadth, subsequently upheaved by subterranean action, and now forming a barrier, which, from its point of greatest elevation96, where the traces of many craters97 still exist, gradually slopes eastward98 towards the deep waters of the bay, and westward99 into the basin of the Salt Lake. Whilst no soundings are found in the estuary100 of Tajúra, Goobut el Kharáb gives one hundred and fifteen fathoms101, or six hundred and ninety feet; and premising the depression of the lake to have been formerly102 correspondent therewith, one hundred and twenty feet may be assumed as its present depth. To this it has been reduced by the great annual evaporation103 that must take place—an evaporation decreasing every year as the salt solution becomes more intensely concentrated, and evinced by the saline incrustation on the surface no less than by a horizontal efflorescence, in strata104, at a considerable height on the face of the circumjacent rocks.
In the lapse105 of years, should the present order of things continue undisturbed from below, the water win probably disappear altogether, leaving a field of rock salt, which, when covered in by the débris washed down from the adjacent mountains, will form an extensive dep?t for the supply of Danákil generations yet unborn; and the shocks of earthquakes being still occasionally felt in the neighbourhood, it seems not improbable—to carry the speculation106 still further—that Goobut el Kharáb, divided only by a narrow channel from the Bay of Tajúra, will, under subterranean influence, be, in due process of time, converted into a salt lake, in no material respect dissimilar from the Bahr Assál—another worthy107 type of the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
点击收听单词发音
1 pandemonium | |
n.喧嚣,大混乱 | |
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2 diabolical | |
adj.恶魔似的,凶暴的 | |
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3 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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4 detention | |
n.滞留,停留;拘留,扣留;(教育)留下 | |
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5 insufficient | |
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的 | |
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6 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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7 suffocating | |
a.使人窒息的 | |
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8 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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9 zephyr | |
n.和风,微风 | |
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10 exhaled | |
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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11 respiration | |
n.呼吸作用;一次呼吸;植物光合作用 | |
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12 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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13 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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14 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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15 lava | |
n.熔岩,火山岩 | |
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16 parched | |
adj.焦干的;极渴的;v.(使)焦干 | |
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17 alleviating | |
减轻,缓解,缓和( alleviate的现在分词 ) | |
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18 augment | |
vt.(使)增大,增加,增长,扩张 | |
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19 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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20 cape | |
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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21 beverage | |
n.(水,酒等之外的)饮料 | |
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22 taint | |
n.污点;感染;腐坏;v.使感染;污染 | |
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23 scorching | |
adj. 灼热的 | |
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24 copious | |
adj.丰富的,大量的 | |
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25 draught | |
n.拉,牵引,拖;一网(饮,吸,阵);顿服药量,通风;v.起草,设计 | |
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26 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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27 parsimoniously | |
ad.过工节俭地;吝啬小气地 | |
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28 impure | |
adj.不纯净的,不洁的;不道德的,下流的 | |
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29 brewed | |
调制( brew的过去式和过去分词 ); 酝酿; 沏(茶); 煮(咖啡) | |
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30 distilling | |
n.蒸馏(作用)v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )( distilled的过去分词 );从…提取精华 | |
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31 amalgamation | |
n.合并,重组;;汞齐化 | |
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32 astringent | |
adj.止血的,收缩的,涩的;n.收缩剂,止血剂 | |
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33 putrid | |
adj.腐臭的;有毒的;已腐烂的;卑劣的 | |
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34 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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35 smelt | |
v.熔解,熔炼;n.银白鱼,胡瓜鱼 | |
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36 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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37 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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38 deterred | |
v.阻止,制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 frantically | |
ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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40 deceptive | |
adj.骗人的,造成假象的,靠不住的 | |
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41 briny | |
adj.盐水的;很咸的;n.海洋 | |
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42 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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43 alleviation | |
n. 减轻,缓和,解痛物 | |
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44 torments | |
(肉体或精神上的)折磨,痛苦( torment的名词复数 ); 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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45 stagnation | |
n. 停滞 | |
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46 pangs | |
突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 ); 悲痛 | |
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47 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
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48 meridian | |
adj.子午线的;全盛期的 | |
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49 abated | |
减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
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50 distressing | |
a.使人痛苦的 | |
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51 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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52 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
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53 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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54 fissure | |
n.裂缝;裂伤 | |
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55 animation | |
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作 | |
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56 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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57 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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58 tars | |
焦油,沥青,柏油( tar的名词复数 ) | |
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59 adventurous | |
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 | |
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60 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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61 luminary | |
n.名人,天体 | |
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62 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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63 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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64 defile | |
v.弄污,弄脏;n.(山间)小道 | |
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65 declivity | |
n.下坡,倾斜面 | |
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66 lengthened | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 tardy | |
adj.缓慢的,迟缓的 | |
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68 orb | |
n.太阳;星球;v.弄圆;成球形 | |
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69 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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70 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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71 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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72 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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73 deprivation | |
n.匮乏;丧失;夺去,贫困 | |
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74 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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75 expeditiously | |
adv.迅速地,敏捷地 | |
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76 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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77 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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78 precluded | |
v.阻止( preclude的过去式和过去分词 );排除;妨碍;使…行不通 | |
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79 latitude | |
n.纬度,行动或言论的自由(范围),(pl.)地区 | |
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80 longitude | |
n.经线,经度 | |
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81 accurately | |
adv.准确地,精确地 | |
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82 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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83 volcanic | |
adj.火山的;象火山的;由火山引起的 | |
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84 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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85 vomited | |
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86 dame | |
n.女士 | |
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87 afflicting | |
痛苦的 | |
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88 progeny | |
n.后代,子孙;结果 | |
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89 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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90 repelled | |
v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 );使厌恶;排斥;推开 | |
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91 hemmed | |
缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 ); 包围 | |
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92 crater | |
n.火山口,弹坑 | |
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93 cone | |
n.圆锥体,圆锥形东西,球果 | |
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94 subterranean | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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95 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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96 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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97 craters | |
n.火山口( crater的名词复数 );弹坑等 | |
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98 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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99 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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100 estuary | |
n.河口,江口 | |
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101 fathoms | |
英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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102 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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103 evaporation | |
n.蒸发,消失 | |
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104 strata | |
n.地层(复数);社会阶层 | |
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105 lapse | |
n.过失,流逝,失效,抛弃信仰,间隔;vi.堕落,停止,失效,流逝;vt.使失效 | |
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106 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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107 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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