"Now here is something curious." The Revd produces and makes avail?able to the Company his Facsimile of Pennsylvania's Fair Copy of the Field-Journals of Mason and Dixon, "copied without the touch of human hands, by an ingenious Jesuit device, and printed by Mr. Whimbrel, next to The Seneca Maiden1, Philadelphia, 1776."
"Cycles, or if you like, Segments of eleven Days recur3 again and again. Here, in 1766, eleven days after setting out southward from Brandywine, is Mason paus'd at Williamsburg, the southernmost point of his journey,— next day he leaves for Annapolis, and eleven days later departs that City, to return to work upon the Line,— a very Pendulum4. In April, just after crossing the North Mountain, they must wait in the Snow and Rain, from the sixth thro' the sixteenth before resuming. The culmi5?nating Pause, of course, is at the Line's End, between 9 October of '67, when the Chief of the Indians that were with them said he would proceed no farther west than the Warrior6 Path, and the 20th, when the Party, turn?ing their backs for the last time upon the West, began to open the Visto eastward— unto their last Days in America,— " turning the Pages, - from 27 August of '68, when accounts were settl'd and the work was officially over and done with, till 7 September, their last night in Philadelphia before leaving to catch the Halifax Packet at New-York. Again and again, this same rough interval7 continues to appear,— sug?gesting a hidden Root common to all. And Friends, I believe 'tis none but the famous Eleven Missing Days of the Calendar Reform of '52.”
Cries of "Cousin? we beseech8 thee!" and "Poh, Sir!" "Those of us born before that fateful September," observes the Revd, "comprise a generation in all British History uniquely insulted, each Life carrying a chronologick Wound, from the same Parliamentary Stroke. Perhaps we are compell'd, even unknowingly, to seek these Undecamerous Sequences, as areas of refuge that may allow us, if only for a moment, to pretend Life undamaged again. We think of 'our' Time, being held, in whatever Time's equivalent to 'a Place' is, like Eurydice, somehow to be redeem10'd.— Perhaps, as our Indian brothers might re-enact some ancient Adventure, correct in all details, so British of a cer?tain Age seek but to redeem Eleven Days of pure blank Duration, as unalienably their own—
"Pull not such faces, young Ethelmer,— one day, should you keep clear of Fate for that long, you may find yourself recalling some Injus?tice, shared with lads and lasses of your own Day, just as uncalmable, and even yet, unredeem'd."
Mason for a while had presum'd it but a matter of confusing dates, which are Names, with Days, which are real Things. Yet for anyone he met born before '52 and alive after it, the missing Eleven Days arose again and again in Conversation, sooner or later characteriz'd as "brute11 Absence," or "a Tear thro' the fabric12 of Life,"— and the more he wrestl'd with the Question, the more the advantage shifted toward a Belief, as he would tell Dixon one day, "In a slowly rotating Loop, or if you like, Vortex, of eleven days, tangent to the Linear Path of what we imagine as Ordinary Time, but excluded from it, and repeating itself,— without end."
"Hmm. The same eleven days, over and over, 's what tha're saying... ?" "You show, may I add, an unusual Grasp of the matter." "Why then, as it is a periodick Ro-tation, so must it carry, mustn't it, a Vis centrifuga, that might, with some ingenuity13, be detected...? Per?haps9 by finding, in the Realm of Time, where the Loop tries either to increase or decrease its Circumference14, and hence the apparent length of each day in it. Or yet again not rotate at all, the length of the Day then continuing the same,—
"Dixon. Everything rotates.”
"A Vorticist! Lord help us, his Mercy how infrequent!" Emerson, believing Vorticists to be the very Legion of Mischief15, had so instructed ev'ry defenseless young Mind he might reach.
"Very well,— if you must know,— lean closer and mark me,— I have been there, Sir."
"'There,'Sir...?"
Mason is gesturing vigorously with his Thumb, at the Eye, much wider than its partner, that he uses for Observation.— "Tho' I've ever tried not to recollect16 any more than I must,— at least not till a zealously17 inquisi?tive Partner insists upon knowing,— yet the fact is that at Midnight of September second, in the unforgiven Year of 'Fifty-two, I myself did stumble, daz'd and unprepared, into that very Whirlpool in Time,— finding myself in September third, 1752, a date that for all the rest of England, did not exist,— Tempus Incognitum."
"Eeh..."
"Don't say it,— I didn't believe it myself. Not until it happen'd, that is,— no Discomfort18 to it, only a little light-headedness. At the Stroke of the Hour, whilst I continued into the Third, there came an instant Trans-halation of Souls, leaving a great human Vacuum, as ev'ryone else mov'd on to the Fourteenth of September."
"Not sure what that means, of course "
"You'd have felt it as a lapse19 of consciousness, perhaps. Yet soon
enough I discover'd how alone 'twas possible to be, in the silence that
flow'd, no louder than Wind, from the Valleys and across those Hill-
villages, where, instead of Populations, there now lay but the mute
Effects of their Lives,— Ash-whiten'd Embers that yet gave heat, food
left over from the last Meals of September Second, publick Clocks frozen
for good at midnight between the Second and the day after,— tho' some?
where else, in the World which had jump'd ahead to the Fourteenth, they
continued to tick onward20, to be re-wound, to run fast or slow, carrying on
with the ever-Problematick Lives of the Clocks
"Alone in the material World, Dixon, with eleven days to myself. What would you have done?"
"Had a Look in The Jolly Pitman, perhaps...?"
A look of forbearance. "Aye, as my first thoughts were of The George in Stroud,...yet 'twas the absence of Company, that most preoccupied21
me,— seeking which, in some Desperation, before the Sun rose, I set out. Reasoning that if I had been so envortic'd, why so might others— breaking off abruptly22, a word or two shy (Dixon by now feels certain) of some fatal confidence, that Rebekah would have stood at the heart of.
Young Charles was to reason eventually, that the pain of separation had lain all upon his side, for she was to bid him good morrow upon the fourteenth, as she had good night upon the second, without a seam or a lurch24, appearing to have no idea he'd been away cycling through eleven days without her. Nor had whatever he liv'd through in that Loop, caus'd any perceptible change in the Youth she kiss'd hello "the very next day" in the High Street in Stroud, brazen25 as a Bell.
Meanwhile there he was, alone, with the better part of a Fortnight before he'd be hooking up again with his Betroth'd, as smoothly26 as if he'd never been gone,— and, Damme, he would be off. "Were there yet Horses about?" Dixon wishes to know.
"Animals whose Owners knew them, made the Transition along with them, to the fourteenth. 'Most all the dogs, for example. Fewer Cats, but plenty nonetheless. Any that remain'd by the third of September were wild Creatures, or stray'd into the Valley,— perhaps, being ownerless, disconnected as well from Calendars. I found one such Horse, a Horse no one would have known, as well as two Cows unmilk'd and at large. I rode past miles of Crops untended, Looms27 still'd and water-wheels turning to no avail, Apples nearly ripe, Waggons28 half-laded, the Weld not yet a-bloom, nor the Woad-mills a-stink, till at length from the last ridge-line, there lay crystalline Oxford29, as finely etch'd as my Eyes, better in those days, could detect, nor holding a thread of Smoak in it anywhere—"
"You were making for Oxford... ?"
"Aye, with some crack'd notion I'd find Bradley there— Being a young Bradleyolator, as were all Lens-fellows of that Day, especially 'round Gloucestershire...tho' later, in my Melancholy30, I might see more vividly31 his all-too-earthly connections with Macclesfield and Chester?field, and beyond them, looming32 in the mephitic Stench, Newcastle and Mr. Pelham. At that Moment, in my Innocence33, I believ'd that Bradley, our latter-day Newton, insatiately curious, must have calculated his way into this Vortex,— with the annoying Question of why he should, kept beyond the Gates of conscious Entertainment.”
"Did you find him there?"
"I found Something...not sure what. What surpriz'd me was the sen?sible Residue34 of Sin that haunted the place,— of a Gravity, withal, unconfronted, unaton'd for, lying further than simple Jacobite Persis?tence.... I'd of course collected, in some dim way, that Bradley had advis'd Macclesfield,— his great Benefactor35, after all, perhaps even in partial return upon Milord's Investment,— as to ways of finding the mov?able Feasts and holy Days and so forth36, under the New Style,— and that Macclesfield had taken credit for the philosophical37 labor38, as Chester?field for the Witticisms39 and Bonhomie, that it took eventually to bring the Calendar Act into Law. Yet, though Bradley seldom sought Acclaim40, pre?ferring to earn it, neither would he refuse credit due him, unless there were reason to keep Silence,— such as the unexpected depth of his com?plicity in an Enterprise so passionately41 fear'd and hated by most of the People."
Both reach for the coffee at the same time, Dixon elaborately deferring42 to Mason's over-riding need for any Antistupefacient to hand.
"I don't know that in the entire Cycle I caught a Wink43 of Slumber,— 'twere but a Devourer44 of precious Time, when all the Knowledge of Worlds civiliz'd and pagan, late and ancient, lay open to my Questions."
"Yet I guess I know this Tale,— 'tis the German fellow,— Faust isn't it?"
"But that he, at least, was able to live in the plenary World,— I, alas45, was alone."
"Eeh...?"
"Well,...as it turn'd out, not alone, exactly...."
"I knew it,— some Milk-maid, out on a tryst46, eeh! am I near it? stray'd too close to the Vortex? Whoosh47! Pail inverted48, Skirts a-flying,— So! how'd it go?"
"Pray you.— 'Twas something I never saw,— certainly not Mr. Bod-ley's Librarian, Mr. Wild,— and they were more than one. After Night-Fall, as I burn'd Taper49 'pon Taper wantonly, only just succeeding in pushing back the gloom about me, would I hear Them rustling50, ever beyond the circle of light, as if foraging51 among the same ancient Leaves as I."
"Mice, or Rats, maybe...?”
"Too deliberate. They seem'd to wish to communicate."
"And this was down among those Secret Shelves, where none but the Elect may penetrate52?"
"You know about that?"
"Of course,— Emerson gave us a brief inventory53. Aristotle on Com?edy, always wanted to read thah',— all the good bits that Thomas left out of the Infancy54 Gospel... ? Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hypatia... ?"
"What sav'd me," impassively on, "was hunger,— an abrupt23 passage of indecipherable Latin returning my attention at last from lighted Page to empty Stomach. I recall'd that Pantries and Wine-cellars all over the Town lay open to my Hungers,— apprehensive55, light-headed, I rush'd from the Library, too a-tremble to keep a taper lit, up ladders creaking in the absolute Dark, down corridors of high bookshelves,— Presences lay everywhere in Ambuscado. I dared not lift my eyes to what all too palpa?bly waited, pois'd, upon the ancient Ceilings, wing'd, fatal— Then! a sudden great whir at my face,— scientifickally no doubt a Bat, tho' at the moment something far less readily nam'd,— provoking a cry of Fear, as at last I broke out into the open air of a Quadrangle, yellow in the Moonlight...."
"Wait! that's it! The Moon,— "
"Indeed, among any amateur Astronomer's first questions. How should the Moon behave, seen from inside this Vortex?"
"And, and?"
"Ever full,— ever fix'd upon the Meridian56." An insincere Chuckle57. "Yes, eleven days of Light remorseless, to be fac'd alone in a city of Gothickal Structures, that might or might not be inhabited, whilst from all directions came flights of the dark Creatures I hop'd were only... Bats."
"Tha don't mean,— "
"As the Timbres58, nearly Human, of the ceaseless Howling I hop'd
came only from.. .Dogs "
"Not,— "
"Oh, and more.— 'Twas as if this Metropolis59 of British Reason had been abandon'd to the Occupancy of all that Reason would deny. Malev?olent shapes flowing in the Streets. Lanthorns spontaneously going out. Men roaring, as if chang'd to Beasts in the Dark. A Carnival60 of Fear.
Shall I admit it? I thrill'd. I felt that if I ran fast enough, I could gain alti?tude, and fly. I would become one of them. I could hide beneath Eaves as
well as any. I could creep in the Shadows. I could belong to the D——l,
— anything, inside this Vortex, was possible. I could shriek61 inside Churches. I could smash ev'ry Window in a Street. Make a Druidick Bon?fire of the Bodleian. At some point, however, without Human prey62, the Evil Appetite must fail, and I became merely Melancholy again."
"Thee abandon'd thy Studies of the Ancient Secrets? For a mere63 Tick?ling of thy Sensorium, done with how swiftly... ? Mason,— dear Mason."
"In fact," Mason unmirthfully, "I was prevented from ever returning. Exil'd from the Knowledge. As I cross'd into the Courtyard before Duke Humfrey's, I encounter'd a Barrier invisible, which I understood I might cross if I will'd, tho' at the Toll64 of such Spiritual Unease, that one Step past it was already too far. What that Influence was, I cannot say. Per?haps an Artifact of the Vortex. Perhaps an Infestation65 of certain Beings Invisible. I receiv'd, tho' did not altogether hear, from somewhere, a dis?tinct Message that the Keys and Seals of Gnosis within were too danger?ous for me. That I must hold out for the Promises of Holy Scripture66, and forget about the Texts I imagin'd I'd seen."
"Tha didn't want to hear thah', I guess?"
Mason seizes, cradles, and hefts his Abdominal67 Spheroid. "Meditat?ing upon bodily Resurrection, I arriv'd at the idea of this being resur?rected, and without delay proceeded to a Bacchic interlude, in which you'd not be interested, being too prolong'd, and besides, too personal."
"Well...now...?"
"Gone was the Chance that might have chang'd my Life. It lay at the Eye of that Vortex,— to cross the Flow of Time surrounding it, was I oblig'd to aim a bit upstream, or toward the Past, in order to maintain a radial course to the Center—"
"And there, whilst with Taurean stubbornness tha kept at i'...?"
"Well now, odd as it may seem, soon as I'd penetrated68 the Barrier, I understood my Holiday was over,— I tried to pull back, but too late,— I
was in the vortickal Emprise.... To my Relief, some, at least, of the dark
Presences that had caus'd me such Apprehension69, prov'd to be the Wraiths70 of those who had mov'd ahead instantly to the Fourteenth, haunting me not from the past but from the Future,— drawing closer, ever closer, until,— First I heard the voices of the Town, then at the edges of my Vision, Blurs71 appear'd, and Movement, which went sud?denly a-whirl, streaking72 in to surround me, as in the mesh73 of prolong'd Faces, only hers stood firm.— And when I join'd her again, before I could think of what to say, she kiss'd me and declar'd,— 'Somebody got in late last night.'
"The only proof I had that 'twas not a Dream was the Bite I receiv'd whilst in my Noctambulation of the City.—
"This Life," runs the moral he is able by now to draw for Dixon, "is like the eleven days,— a finite Period at whose end, she and I, having separated for a while, will be together again. Meanwhile must I travel alone, in a world as unreal as those empty September dates were to me then...."
" 'Bite,' Mason?"
"Nothing, nothing. Likely a Dog."
"How likely?"
"What else? If the People of Stroud, pursuing ordinary Lives eleven days ahead of me, could 'morphose to such sinister74 Beings, why not their Dogs?"
"Show me."
"Well that was the rum thing, Dixon, for about ten minutes later,—
"Eeh! I am the Sniffer sniff'd, as Parker said when he put his Head in the Bear's Den2...?”
1 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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2 den | |
n.兽穴;秘密地方;安静的小房间,私室 | |
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3 recur | |
vi.复发,重现,再发生 | |
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4 pendulum | |
n.摆,钟摆 | |
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5 culmi | |
达到 | |
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6 warrior | |
n.勇士,武士,斗士 | |
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7 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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8 beseech | |
v.祈求,恳求 | |
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9 haps | |
n.粗厚毛披巾;偶然,机会,运气( hap的名词复数 ) | |
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10 redeem | |
v.买回,赎回,挽回,恢复,履行(诺言等) | |
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11 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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12 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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13 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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14 circumference | |
n.圆周,周长,圆周线 | |
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15 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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16 recollect | |
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得 | |
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17 zealously | |
adv.热心地;热情地;积极地;狂热地 | |
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18 discomfort | |
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便 | |
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19 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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20 onward | |
adj.向前的,前进的;adv.向前,前进,在先 | |
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21 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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22 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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23 abrupt | |
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的 | |
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24 lurch | |
n.突然向前或旁边倒;v.蹒跚而行 | |
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25 brazen | |
adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
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26 smoothly | |
adv.平滑地,顺利地,流利地,流畅地 | |
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27 looms | |
n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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28 waggons | |
四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 ); 铁路货车; 小手推车 | |
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29 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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30 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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31 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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32 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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33 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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34 residue | |
n.残余,剩余,残渣 | |
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35 benefactor | |
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
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36 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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37 philosophical | |
adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的 | |
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38 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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39 witticisms | |
n.妙语,俏皮话( witticism的名词复数 ) | |
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40 acclaim | |
v.向…欢呼,公认;n.欢呼,喝彩,称赞 | |
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41 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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42 deferring | |
v.拖延,延缓,推迟( defer的现在分词 );服从某人的意愿,遵从 | |
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43 wink | |
n.眨眼,使眼色,瞬间;v.眨眼,使眼色,闪烁 | |
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44 devourer | |
吞噬者 | |
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45 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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46 tryst | |
n.约会;v.与…幽会 | |
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47 whoosh | |
v.飞快地移动,呼 | |
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48 inverted | |
adj.反向的,倒转的v.使倒置,使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 taper | |
n.小蜡烛,尖细,渐弱;adj.尖细的;v.逐渐变小 | |
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50 rustling | |
n. 瑟瑟声,沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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51 foraging | |
v.搜寻(食物),尤指动物觅(食)( forage的现在分词 );(尤指用手)搜寻(东西) | |
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52 penetrate | |
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
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53 inventory | |
n.详细目录,存货清单 | |
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54 infancy | |
n.婴儿期;幼年期;初期 | |
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55 apprehensive | |
adj.担心的,恐惧的,善于领会的 | |
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56 meridian | |
adj.子午线的;全盛期的 | |
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57 chuckle | |
vi./n.轻声笑,咯咯笑 | |
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58 timbres | |
n.音色,音品( timbre的名词复数 ) | |
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59 metropolis | |
n.首府;大城市 | |
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60 carnival | |
n.嘉年华会,狂欢,狂欢节,巡回表演 | |
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61 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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62 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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63 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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64 toll | |
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟) | |
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65 infestation | |
n.侵扰,蔓延 | |
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66 scripture | |
n.经文,圣书,手稿;Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》,《圣经》中的一段 | |
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67 abdominal | |
adj.腹(部)的,下腹的;n.腹肌 | |
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68 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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69 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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70 wraiths | |
n.幽灵( wraith的名词复数 );(传说中人在将死或死后不久的)显形阴魂 | |
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71 blurs | |
n.模糊( blur的名词复数 );模糊之物;(移动的)模糊形状;模糊的记忆v.(使)变模糊( blur的第三人称单数 );(使)难以区分 | |
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72 streaking | |
n.裸奔(指在公共场所裸体飞跑)v.快速移动( streak的现在分词 );使布满条纹 | |
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73 mesh | |
n.网孔,网丝,陷阱;vt.以网捕捉,啮合,匹配;vi.适合; [计算机]网络 | |
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74 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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