During those spring months with Ruth on Summer Street, he used to wonder what it would be like to run to the end of the street, straight as far as the eye could see. In the thirty years since, he has often driven this way, to Brewer1's northwestern edge and beyond, where the highway with its motels (Economy Lodge2, Coronet, Safe Haven) melts into farmland and signs pointing the way to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh begin to appear. One by one the farms and their stone buildings, the bank bams put together with pegs3 and beams and the farmhouses5 built square to the compass with walls two feet thick, are going under to real?estate developments. Two miles beyond the pike to Maiden6 Springs, where the Murketts used to live before they got divorced, there is a fairly new development called Arrowdale after the old Arrowhead Farm that was sold off by the nieces and nephews of the old spinster who lived there so many years and had wanted to leave it to some television evangelist as a kind of salvation7 park, a holy?roller retreat, but whose lawyers kept talking her out of it. Rabbit as these recent years have gone by has watched the bulldozed land lose its raw look and the trees and bushes grow up so it almost seems houses have always been here. The streets curve, as they did in the Murketts' development, but the houses are more ordinary – ranch8 houses and split levels with sides of aluminum9 clapboards and fronts of brick varied10 by flagstone porchlets and unfunctional patches of masonry11 facing. Cement walks traverse small front yards with azaleas not quite in bloom beneath the picture windows. Bark mulch abounds12, and matching porch furniture, and a tyrannical neatness absent in the older more blue?collar towns like Mt. Judge and West Brewer.
Ronnie and Thelma Harrison moved to one of these modest new houses when their three boys grew up and went off. Alex, the oldest, is an electronics engineer somewhere south of San Francisco; the middle boy, Georgie, who had had reading problems in school, is trying to be a dancer and musician in New York City; and their youngest, Ron junior, has stayed in the county, as a part?time construction worker, though he put in two years of college at Lehigh. Thelma doesn't complain about her sons or her house, though to Harry13 they seem disappointing, disappointingly ordinary, for a woman of Thelma's intelligence and, in his experience of her, passion.
Thelma's disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, has cost a fortune over the years, even with the benefits from Ronnie's insurance company's health plan. And it has meant that she has not been able to go back to teaching elementary school when her boys were gone, as she had hoped. Her health has been too erratic16; it has kept her at home, where Harry could usually find her. This noon when he called from a pay phone in Brewer he expected her to answer and she did. He asked ifhe might drive over and she said he might. She didn't sound happy to hear from him, but not distressed17 either: resigned, merely. He leaves the Celica out front at the curving curb18, though usually over the years she opened the garage for him and closed the door electronically from within the kitchen, to hide the evidence. But now that he is as sick as if not sicker than she, he doesn't know how much they still have to conceal19. The neighborhood is empty during the midday, until the buses bring the children home from school. A single whining20 engine is at work somewhere out of sight in Arrowdale, and the air holds a pervasive21 vibration22 and hum of traffic from the Maiden Springs Pike. Also out of sight, some birds are chirping23, raucous24 in their nesting frenzy25, though the development is skimpy on trees. A robin26 hops27 on the bit of lawn beside Thelma's cement walk, and thrashes into the air as Harry approaches. He doesn't remember robins28 as seeming such big fierce birds; this one looked the size of a crow. He climbs two flagstone steps and crosses a little porch; Thelma opens the front door before he can ring the bell.
She seems smaller, and her hair grayer. Her prim29, rather plain face always had a sallow tinge30, and this jaundice has deepened, he can observe through the makeup31 she uses to soften32 her butterfly rash, a reddening the disease has placed like a soreness across her nose and beneath her eyes. Nevertheless, her deeply known presence stirs him. They lightly kiss, when she has closed the door, a long light?blocking green shade pulled down over its central pane33 of bevelled glass. Her lips are cool, and faintly greasy34. She stays a time within his embrace, as if expecting something more to happen, her body relaxed against his in unspeakable confession35.
"You're thin," she says, drawing at last away.
"A little less fat," he tells her. "I've a long way to go before I satisfy the doctors and Janice." It seems only natural to mention Janice, though he had to make his tongue do it. Thelma knows the score, and did from the start. The whole affair was her idea, though he grew used to it over the years, and built it in. Her walk as she moves away from him into the living room seems stiff, a bit of a waddle36; arthritis37 is part of the lupus.
"Janice," she repeats. "How is Wonder Woman?" Once he confided38 that he called Janice that and Thelma has never forgotten. Women don't forget, especially what you wish they would.
"Oh, no different. She keeps busy in Florida with all these different groups, she's kind of the baby of our condo, and a shiksa besides. You'd hardly know her, she's so on the ball. Her tennis is terrific, the people who play tell me." He is getting too enthusiastic, he realizes. "But we were happy to leave. It got cold. March was miserable39. At least up here you expect it and have the clothes."
"You never told us about your heart attack." That "us" is a little payback for his mentioning Janice right off: You trail your spouses40 after you like shadows, right into bed; they becloud the sheets.
"It didn't seem worth bragging41 about."
"We heard about it from little Ron, who knows a boy who knows Nelson. The kiddie network. Imagine how I felt, learning about it that way. My lover nearly dies and never tells me."
"How would we, I, whoever, tell you? It's not the kind of thing they have cards for in the drugstore."
In recent years he and Janice have seen less and less of the Harrisons. Rabbit and Ron were Mt. Judge boys together and played on the high?school basketball varsities that, coached by Marty Tothero, were league champions for two out of their three years in senior high. But he has never liked Ronnie: loudmouthed, pushy43, physically44 crude, always playing with himself in the locker45 room, flicking46 towels, giving redbellies, terrorizing the JVs. Women don't mind this kind of prick47 as much as Harry does. Part of Thelma's fascination48 for him has been that she could stand the guy, put up with his sexual tricks and remain outwardly such a prim, plain schoolteacher?type. Not really plain: with her clothes off her body is somehow better than her clothes have led you to expect. The first time they ever slept together, her breasts seemed like a girl's in Playboy ? nipples like perfect little doorbells.
"What can I offer you?" Thelma asks. "Coffee. A beer?"
"Both are no?nos for the new me. Do you have anything like a Diet Coke or Pepsi?" He remembers Judy's little quavering voice singing Coke is it on that long zigzag49 ride into shore.
"Sure. We don't drink much any more ourselves, now that we've resigned from the Flying Eagle."
"You ever coming back?"
"I don't think so. We heard the fees went up again, as you maybe didn't notice, you're so rich, plus the assessment50 for repairs to the two greens close to the road that are always being vandalized. Even three years ago Ronnie figured it was costing him over eighty dollars a round, it wasn't worth it. There's a whole new younger crowd out at the Eagle now that dominates everything. They've changed the tone. It's gotten too yuppie."
"Too bad. I miss playing with old Ronnie."
"Why? You can't stand him, Harry."
"I like beating him."
Thelma nods, as if acknowledging her own contribution to Harry's beating Ronnie. But she can't help it, she loves this man, his soft pale bemusement and cool hard heart, his uncircumcised prick, his offhand51 style, and in her slow dying has not denied herself the pleasure of expressing this love, as much as Harry has been able to bear it. She has kept her strongest feelings contained, and the affair has enriched her transactions with God, giving her something to feel sinful about, to discuss with Him. It seems to explain her lupus, if she's an adulteress. It makes it easier on Him, if she deserves to be punished.
She goes into the kitchen for the soft drinks. Rabbit roams quietly in the living room; in preparation for his visit she has pulled not only the narrow shade on the front door but the wide one on the picture window. He pities the room ? its darkness as if even weak windowlight would penetrate52 her skin and accelerate the destruction of her cells, its hushed funereal53 fussiness54. Wild though she can be, with a streak55 of defiance56 as though daring to be damned, Thelma maintains a conventional local decor. Stuffed flowered chairs with broad wooden arms, plush chocolate?brown sofa with needlepointed scatter57 pillows and yellowing lace antimacassars, varnished58 little knickknack stands and taborets, a footstool on which an old watermill is depicted59, symmetrical lamps whose porcelain60 bases show English hunting dogs in gilded61 ovals, an oppressively patterned muddy neo?Colonial wallpaper, and on every flat surface, fringed runners and semi?precious glass and porcelain elves and parrots and framed photographs of babies and graduating sons and small plates and kettles of hammered copper62 and pewter, objects to dust around but never to rearrange. This front room, but for the television set hulking in its walnut63 cabinet with its powdery gray?green face wearing a toupee64 of doilies and doodads, could have come out of Harry's adolescence65, when he was gingerly paying calls on girls whose mothers came forward from the kitchen, drying their hands on their aprons66, to greet him in motionless stuffed rooms such as this. The houses he has kept with Janice have had in comparison a dishevelled, gappy quality that has nevertheless given him room to breathe. This room is so finished, he feels in it he should be dead. It smells of all the insurance policies Ron sold to buy its furnishings.
"So tell me about it," Thelma says, returning with a round painted tray holding along with the two tall glasses of sparkling dark soft drink two matching small bowls of nuts. She sets the tray down on a glass?topped coffee table like an empty long picture frame.
He tells her, "For one thing, I'm not supposed to have stuff like that ? salted nuts. Macadamia nuts yet! The worst thing for me, and they cost a fortune. Thel, you're wicked."
He has embarrassed her; her jaundiced skin tries to blush. Her basically thin face today looks swollen67, perhaps from the cortisone she takes. "Ronnie buys them. They just happened to be around. Don't eat them if you can't, Harry. I didn't know. I don't know how to act with you, it's been so long."
"A couple won't kill me," he reassures68 her, and to be polite takes a few macadamia nuts into his fingers. Nuggets, they are like small lightweight nuggets with a fur of salt. He especially loves the way, when he holds one in his mouth a few seconds and then gently works it between his crowned molars, it breaks into two halves, the surface of the fissure69 as smooth to the tongue as glass, as baby skin. "And cashews, too," he says. "The second?worst thing for me. Dry?roasted yet."
"I seem to remember you like dry?roasted."
"There's a lot I bet you seem to remember," he says, taking a tasteless sip70 of his Diet Coke. First they take the cocaine71 out, then the caffeine, and now the sugar. He settles back with a small hand-ful of cashews; dry?roasted, they have a little acid sting to them, the tang of poison that he likes. He has taken the rocking chair, painted black with stencilled72 red designs and a red?and?yellow flat pillow tied in place, to sit in, and she the plush brown sofa, not sinking into it but perching on the edge, her knees together and touching73 the raised edge of the coffee table. They have made love on that sofa, which was not long enough to stretch out on but long enough if both parties kept their knees bent74. In a way he preferred it to one of the beds, since she seemed to feel guiltier and less free with herself in a real bed, a bed her family used, and her unease would spread to him. Moving the table, he could kneel beside the sofa and have the perfect angle for kissing her cunt. On and on, deeper into her darkness where things began to shudder75 and respond, it got to be an end in itself. He loved it when she would clamp his face between her damp thighs76 like a nut in a nutcracker and come. He wondered if a man ever got his neck broken that way.
A shadow has crossed Thelma's face, a flinching77 as if he has consigned78 her to merely remembering, to the sealed and unre-peatable past like the photographs on the silent television set. But he had meant it more comfortably, settling in his rocker opposite the one person who for these last ten years has given him nothing but what he needed. Sex. Soul food.
"You too," she says, her eyes lowered to the items on the tray, which she hasn't touched, "have things to remember, I hope."
"I just was. Remembering. You seem sad," he says, accusing, for his presence should make her glad, in spite of all.
"You don't seem quite you yet. You seem ? more careful."
"Jesus, you'd be too. I'll have some more macadamia nuts, if that'll please you." He eats them one by one and between bouts79 of chewing and feeling their furry80 nuggets part so smoothly81 in his mouth tells her about his heart attack ? the boat, the Gulf82, little Judy, the lying on the beach feeling like a jellyfish, the hospital, the doctors, their advice, his attempts to follow it. "They're dying to cut into me and do a bypass. But there's this less radical83 option they can do first and I'm supposed to see a guy up here at St. Joseph's about having it done this spring. It's called an angio-plasty. There's a balloon on the end of a catheter a yard long at least they thread up into your heart from a cut they make just under your groin, the artery84 there. I had it done kind of in Florida but instead of a balloon it was a bunch of dyes they put in to see what my poor old ticker actually looked like. It's a funny experi-ence: it doesn't exactly hurt but you feel very funny, demoralized like, while it's being done and terrible for days afterward85. When they put the dye in, your chest goes hot like you're in an oven. Deep, it feels too deep. Like having a baby but then no baby, just a lot of computerized bad news about your coronary arteries86. Still, it beats open?heart, where they saw through your sternum for starters" ? he touches the center of his chest and thinks of Thelma's breasts, their nipples so perfect to suck, waiting behind her blouse, waiting for him to make his move ? "and then run all your blood through a machine for hours. I mean, that machine is you, for the time being. It stops, you die. A guy I play golf with down there had a quadruple and a valve replacement87 and a pacemaker while they were at it and he says he's never been the same, it was like a truck ran over him and then backed up. His swing, too, is terrible; he's never got it back. But enough, huh? What about you? How's your health?"
"How do I look?" She sips88 the Coke but leaves all the nuts in their twin bowls for him. The pattern imitates sampler stitch, squarish flowers in blue and pink.
"Good to me," he lies. "A little pale and puffy but we all do at the end of winter."
"I'm losing it, Harry," Thelma tells him, looking up until he meets her eyes. Eyes muddier than Pru's but also what they call hazel, eyes that have seen him all over, that know him as well as a woman's can. A wife fumbles89 around with you in the dark; a mistress you meet in broad daylight, right on the sofa. She used to tease him about his prick wearing a bonnet90, with the foreskin still on. "My kidneys are worse and the steroid dose can't go any higher. I'm so anemic I can hardly drag around the house to do the work and have to take naps every afternoon ? you're right in the middle of my nap time, as a matter of fact." He makes an instinctive91 motion, tightening92 his hands on the chair arms to pull himself up, and her voice lifts toward anger. "No. Don't go. Don't you dare. For God's sake. I don't see you at all for nearly six months and then you're up here a week before you bother to call."
"Thelma, she's around, I can't just wander off. I was getting reacclimated. I have to take it more easy on myself now."
"You've never loved me, Harry. You just loved the fact that I loved you. I'm not complaining. It's what I deserve. You make your own punishments in life, I honest to God believe that. You get exactly what you deserve. God sees to it. Look at my hands. I used to have pretty hands. At least I thought they were pretty. Now half the fingers ? look at them! Deformed93. I couldn't even get my wedding ring off if I tried now."
He looks, leaning forward so the rocker tips under him, to examine her extended hands. The knuckles94 are swollen and shiny, and some of the segments with the fingernails go off at a slight angle, but he wouldn't have noticed without her calling his attention to it. "You don't want to get your wedding ring off" he tells her. "As I remember, you and Ronnie are stuck together with glue. You even eat the glue sometimes, I seem to remember your telling me."
Her hands have made Thelma angry and he is fighting back, as if she blames her hands on him. She says, "You always minded that, that I was a wife to Ronnie, along with serving you whenever it suited. But who were you to mind that, stuck fast to Janice and her money? I never tried to take you away from her, though it would have been easy at times."
"Would it?" He rocks back. "I don't know, something about that little mutt still gets to me. She won't give up. She never really figured out how the world is put together but she's still working at it. Now she's got the idea she wants to be a working girl. She's signed up at the Penn State annex95 over on Pine Street for those courses you have to take to get a real?estate broker's license96. At Mt. Judge High I don't think she ever got over a C, even in home ec. Come to think of it, I bet she flunked97 home ec., the only girl in the history of the school."
Thelma grudgingly98 smiles; her sallow face lights up in her shadowy living room. "Good for her," she says. "If I had my health, I'd be getting out myself. This being a homemaker ? they sold us a bill of goods, back there in home ec."
"How is Ronnie, by the way?"
"The same," she says, with a note of that languid, plaintive99 music the women of the county inject into their saga100 of their stoic101 days. "Not hustling102 so hard for the new customers now, coasting along on the old. He's out from under the children's educations, so his only financial burden is me and the doctor bills. Not that he wouldn't be willing to pay for little Ron to finish up at Lehigh if he wanted; it's been a disappointment, his becoming a kind of hippie the way he has. The funny thing was he was the cleverest of the three at school. Things just came too easy to him, I guess."
Harry has heard this before. Thelma's voice is dutiful and deliberately103 calm, issuing small family talk when both know that what she wants to discuss is her old issue, that flared104 up a minute ago, ofwhether he loves her or not, or why at least he doesn't need her as much as she does him. But their relationship at the very start, the Caribbean night they first slept together, was established with her in pursuit of him, and all the years since, of hidden meetings, of wise decisions to end it and thrilling abject105 collapses106 back into sex, have not disrupted the fundamental pattern of her giving and his taking, of her fearing their end more than he, and clinging, and disliking herself for clinging, and wanting to punish him for her dislike, and him shrugging and continuing to bask42 in the sun of her love, that rises every day whether he is there or not. He can't believe it, quite, and has to keep testing her.
"These kids," he says, taking a bluff108 tone as if they are making small talk in public instead of enjoying this stolen intimacy109 behind drawn110 shades in Arrowdale, "they break your heart. You ought to see Nelson when he's down there in Florida and has to live with me a little. The poor kid was jumping out of his skin."
Thelma makes an annoyed motion with her hands. "Harry, you're not actually God, it just feels that way to you. Do you real-ly think Nelson was jumpy because of you?"
"Why else?"
She knows something. She hesitates, but cannot resist, perhaps, a bit of revenge for his taking her always for granted, for his being in Pennsylvania a week before calling. "You must know about Nelson. My boys say he's a cocaine addict111. They've all used it, that generation, but Nelson they tell me is really hooked. As they say, the drug runs him, instead of him just using the drug."
Harry has rocked back as far as the rocker will take him with-out his shoes leaving the rug and remains112 in that position so long that Thelma becomes anxious, knowing that this man isn't sound inside and can have a heart attack. At last he rocks forward again and, gazing at her thoughtfully, says, "That explains a lot." He fishes in the side pocket of his tweedy gray sports coat for a small brown bottle and deftly113 spills a single tiny pill into his hand and puts it in his mouth, under his tongue. There is a certain habitu-ated daintiness in the gesture. "Coke takes money, doesn't it?" he asks Thelma. "I mean, you can go through hundreds. Thousands."
She regrets her telling him, now that the satisfaction is past of shocking him, of waking him up to her existence once again. She is still at heart too much a schoolteacher; she enjoys administering a lesson. "I can't believe Janice doesn't know and hasn't discussed it with you, or that Nelson's wife hasn't come to you both."
"Pru's pretty close?mouthed," he says. "I don't see them that much. Even when we're all in the county, it's on opposite sides of Brewer. Janice is over there at her mother's old place a fair amount, but not me. She owns it, I don't."
"Harry, don't look so stunned114. It's all just rumor115, and really is his business, his and his family's. We all do things our parents wouldn't approve of, and they know it, and don't want to know, if you follow me. Oh, Harry, damn it! Now I've made you sad, when I'm dying to make you happy. Why don't you like me to make you happy? Why have you always fought it?"
"I haven't. I haven't fought it, Thel. We've had great times. It's just, we've never been exactly set up for a lot of happiness, and now -"
"Now, dear?"
"Now I know how you've been feeling all these years."
She wants for him to explain, but he can't he is suddenly aficted by tact116. She prompts, "Mortal?"
"Yeah. Close to it. I mean, things wearing thin so you sort of look right through them."
"Including me."
"Not you. Cut it out, making me jump through this same fucking hoop117 all the time. Why do you think I'm here?"
"To make love. To screw me. Go ahead. I mean come ahead. Why do you think I answered the door?" She has leaned forward across the table, her knees white where they press against the edge, and her face has taken on that melting crazy look women get at the decision to go with it, to fuck in spite of all, which frightens him now because it suggests a willing slide down into death.
"Wait. Thel. Let's think about this." On cue, the nitroglycerin has worked its way through and he gets that tingle118. He sits back, suppressing it. "I'm supposed to avoid excitement."
She asks, amused somehow by the need to negotiate, "Have you made love with Janice?"
"Once or twice maybe. I kind of forget. You know, it's like brushing your teeth at night, you forget if you did or didn't."
She takes this in, and decides to tease him. "I made up Alex's old bed for us."
"You didn't use to like to use real beds."
"I've become very liberated," she says, smiling, extracting what pleasure she can out of his evasions119.
He is tempted120, picturing Thelma in bed naked, her tallowy willing body, her breasts that have nursed three boy babies and two men at least but look virginal and rosy121 like a baby's thumbtips, not bumply and chewed and dark like Janice's, her buttocks glassy in texture122 and not finely gritty like Janice's, her pubic hair reddish and skimpy enough to see the slit123 through unlike Janice's opaque124 thick bush, and her shameless and matter?of?fact mouth, Thelma's, her frank humorous hunger, amused at being caught in the trap of lust125 over and over, not holding it against him all these years of off and on, in and out. But then he thinks of Ronnie who knows where that obnoxious126 prick's prick has been, Rabbit can't believe he's as faithful as Thelma thinks he is, not from the way he used to carry on in the locker room, not from the way he was screwing Ruth before Harry was, and cashing in Cindy that time in the Caribbean ? and of AIDS. That virus too small to imagine travelling through our fluids, even a drop or two of saliva127 or cunt slime, and unlocking our antibodies with its little picks, so that our insides lose their balance and we topple into pneumonia128, into starvation. Love and death, they can't be pried129 apart any more. But he can't tell Thelma that. It would be spitting in her wide?open face.
On her own she sees he isn't up to it. She asks, "Another Coke?" He has drunk it all, he sees, and consumed without thinking both the little bowls of fatty, sodium130?soaked nuts.
"No. I ought to run. But let me sit here a little longer. Being with you is such a relief."
"Why? It seems I make claims, like all the others."
A little lightning of pain flickers131 across his chest, narrowing his scope of breath. Claims lie heavy around him, squeezing. Now a sexually unsatisfied mistress, another burden. But he lies, "No you don't. You've been all gravy132, Thel. I know it's cost you, but you've been terrific."
"Harry, please. Don't sound so maudlin133. You're still young. What? Fifty?five? Not even above the speed limit."
"Fifty?six two months ago. That's not old for some guys ? not for a stocky little plug?ugly like Ronnie, he'll go forever. But if you're the height I am and been overweight as long, the heart gets tired of lugging134 it all around." He has developed, he realizes, an image of his heart as an unwilling135 captive inside his chest, a galley136 slave or one of those blinded horses that turn a mill wheel. He feels that Thelma is looking at him in a new way ? clinically, with a detached appraising137 look far distant from the melting crazy look. He has forfeited138 something by not fucking her: he has lost full rank, and she is moving him out, without even knowing it. Fair enough. With her lupus, he moved her out a long while ago. If Thelma had been healthy, why wouldn't he have left Janice for her in this last decade? Instead he used all the holes she had and then hustled139 back into whatever model Toyota he was driving that year and back to Janice in her stubborn, stupid health. What was there about Janice? It must be religious, their tie, it made so little other sense.
Two ailing140 old friends, he and Thelma sit for half an hour, talking symptoms and children, catching141 up on the fate of common acquaintances ? Peggy Fosnacht dead, Ollie down in New Orleans she heard, Cindy Murkett fat and unhappy working in a boutique in the new mall out near Oriole, Webb married for the fourth time to a woman in her twenties and moved from that fancy modern house in Brewer Heights with all his home carpentry to an old stone farmhouse4 in the south of the county, near Galilee, that he has totally renovated142.
"That Webb. Anything he wants to do, he does. He really knows how to live."
"Not really. I was never as impressed with him as you and Janice were. I always thought he was a smartass know?it?all."
"You think Janice was impressed?"
Thelma is slightly flustered143, and avoids his eye. "Well, there was that one night at least. She didn't complain, did she?"
"Neither did I," he says gallantly144, though what he chiefly remembers is how tired he was the next morning, and how weird145 golf seemed, with impossible jungle and deep coral caves just off the fairway. Janice got Webb, and Ronnie sweet Cindy. Thelma told Harry that night she had loved him for years.
She nods in sarcastic146 acknowledgment of the compliment, and says, returning to an earlier point in their conversation, "About being mortal ? I suppose it affects different people different ways, but for me there's never been a thinning out. Being alive, no matter how sick I feel, feels absolute. You're absolutely alive and when you're not you'll be absolutely something else. Do you and Janice ever go to church?"
Not too surprised, since Thelma has always been religious in her way, it goes with her conventional decor and secretive sexiness, he answers, "Rarely, actually. The churches down there have this folksy Southern thing. And most of our friends happen to be Jewish."
"Ronnie and I go every Sunday now. One of these new denominations147 that goes back to fundamentals. You know ? we're lost, and we're saved."
"Oh yeah?" These marginal sects148 depress Harry. At least the moldy149 old denominations have some history to them.
"I believe it, sometimes," she says. "It helps the panic, when you think of all the things you'll never do that you always thought vaguely150 you might. Like go to Portugal, or get a master's degree."
"Well, you did some things. You did Ronnie, and me, me up brown I'd say, and you did raise three sons. You might get to Portugal yet. They say it's cheap, relatively151. The only country over there I've ever wanted to go to is Tibet. I can't believe I won't make it. Or never be a test pilot, like I wanted to when I was ten. As you say, I still think I'm God."
"I didn't mean that unkindly. It's charming, Harry."
"Except maybe to Nelson."
"Even to him. He wouldn't want you any different."
"Here's a question for you, Thel. You're smart. What ever happened to the Dalai Lama?"
In her clinical appraising mood, nothing should surprise her, but Thelma laughs. "He's still around, isn't he? In fact, hasn't he been in the news a little, now that the Tibetans are rioting again? Why, Harry? Have you become a devotee of his? Is that why you don't go to church?"
He stands, not liking107 being teased about this. "I've always kind of identified with him. He's about my age, I like to keep track of the guy. I have a gut152 feeling this'll be his year." As he stands there, the rocking chair on the rebound153 taps his calves154 and his medications make him feel lightheaded. "Thanks for the nuts," he says. "There's a lot we could still say."
She stands too, stiffly fighting the plushy grip of the sofa, and with her arthritic155 waddle steps around the table, and places her body next to his, her face at his lapel. She looks up at him with that presumptuous156 solemnity of women you have fucked. She urges him, "Believe in God, darling. It helps."
He squirms, inside. "I don't not believe."
"That's not quite enough, I fear. Harry, darling." She likes the sound of "darling." "Before you go, let me see him at least."
"See who?"
"Him, Harry. You. With his bonnet."
Thelma kneels, there in her frilled and stagnant157 dim living room, and unzips his fly. He feels the clinical cool touch of her fingers and sees the gray hairs on the top of her head, radiating from her parting; his heart races in expectation of her warm mouth as in the old days.
But she just says, "Just lovely," and tucks it back, half hard, into his jockey shorts, and rezips his fly and struggles to her feet. She is a bit breathless, as if from a task of housework. He embraces her and this time it is he who clings.
"The reason I haven't left Janice and never can now," he confesses, suddenly near tears, maudlin as she said, "is, without her, I'm shit. I'm unemployable. I'm too old. All I can be from here on in is her husband."
He expects sympathy, but perhaps his mention of Janice is one too many. Thelma goes dead, somehow, in his arms. "I don't know," she says.
"About what?"
"About your coming here again."
"Oh let me," he begs, perversely158 feeling at last in tune14 with this encounter and excited by her. "Without you, I don't have a life."
"Maybe Nature is trying to tell us something. We're too old to keep being foolish."
"Never, Thelma. Not you and me."
"You don't seem to want me."
"I want you, I just don't want Ronnie's little bugs159."
She pushes at his chest to free herself. "There's nothing wrong with Ronnie. He's as safe and clean as I am."
"Yeah, well, that goes without saying, the way you two carry on. That's what I'm afraid of. I tell you, Thelma, you don't know him. He's a madman. You can't see it, because you're his loyal wife."
"Harry, I think we've reached a point where the more we say, the worse it'll get. Sex isn't what it used to be, you're right about that. We must all be more careful. You be careful. Keep brushing your teeth, and I'll brush mine."
It isn't until he is out on Thelma's curved walk, the door with its pulled curtain and bevelled glass shut behind him, that he catches her allusion160 to toothbrushing. Another slam at him and Janice. You can't say anything honest to women, they have minds like the FBI. The robin is still there, on the little lawn. Maybe it's sick, all these animals around us have their diseases too, their histories of plague. It gives Rabbit a beady eye and hops a bit away in Thelma's waxy161 April grass but disdains162 to take wing. Robin, hop15. The bold yellow of dandelions has come this week to join that of daffodils and forsythia. Telltale. Flowers attracting bees as we attract each other. Our signals. Smells. If only he were back in her house he'd fuck her despite all the danger. Instead he finds safety inside his gray Celica; as he glides163 away the stillness of Arrowdale is broken by the return of the lumbering164 yellow school buses, and their release, at every corner of the curved streets, of shrilly165 yelling children.
收听单词发音 |
1
brewer
|
|
| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
lodge
|
|
| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
pegs
|
|
| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
farmhouse
|
|
| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
farmhouses
|
|
| n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
maiden
|
|
| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
salvation
|
|
| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
ranch
|
|
| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
aluminum
|
|
| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
masonry
|
|
| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
abounds
|
|
| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
harry
|
|
| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
tune
|
|
| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
hop
|
|
| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
erratic
|
|
| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
distressed
|
|
| 痛苦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
curb
|
|
| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
whining
|
|
| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
pervasive
|
|
| adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
vibration
|
|
| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
chirping
|
|
| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
raucous
|
|
| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
robin
|
|
| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
hops
|
|
| 跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
robins
|
|
| 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） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
prim
|
|
| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
makeup
|
|
| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
soften
|
|
| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
pane
|
|
| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
greasy
|
|
| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
confession
|
|
| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
waddle
|
|
| vi.摇摆地走；n.摇摆的走路(样子) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
arthritis
|
|
| n.关节炎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
confided
|
|
| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
spouses
|
|
| n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
bragging
|
|
| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的现在分词 )；大话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
bask
|
|
| vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
pushy
|
|
| adj.固执己见的，一意孤行的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
physically
|
|
| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
locker
|
|
| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
flicking
|
|
| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
prick
|
|
| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
fascination
|
|
| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
zigzag
|
|
| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
assessment
|
|
| n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
offhand
|
|
| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
penetrate
|
|
| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
funereal
|
|
| adj.悲哀的；送葬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
fussiness
|
|
| [医]易激怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
streak
|
|
| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
scatter
|
|
| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
varnished
|
|
| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
depicted
|
|
| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
porcelain
|
|
| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
gilded
|
|
| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
walnut
|
|
| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
toupee
|
|
| n.假发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
adolescence
|
|
| n.青春期，青少年 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
aprons
|
|
| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
swollen
|
|
| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
reassures
|
|
| v.消除恐惧或疑虑，恢复信心( reassure的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
fissure
|
|
| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
sip
|
|
| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
cocaine
|
|
| n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
stencilled
|
|
| v.用模板印（文字或图案）( stencil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
thighs
|
|
| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
flinching
|
|
| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
consigned
|
|
| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
bouts
|
|
| n.拳击（或摔跤）比赛( bout的名词复数 )；一段（工作）；（尤指坏事的）一通；（疾病的）发作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
furry
|
|
| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
smoothly
|
|
| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
radical
|
|
| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
artery
|
|
| n.干线，要道；动脉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
afterward
|
|
| adv.后来；以后 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
arteries
|
|
| n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
replacement
|
|
| n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
sips
|
|
| n.小口喝，一小口的量( sip的名词复数 )v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
fumbles
|
|
| 摸索，笨拙的处理( fumble的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
bonnet
|
|
| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
instinctive
|
|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
tightening
|
|
| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
deformed
|
|
| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
knuckles
|
|
| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
annex
|
|
| vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
license
|
|
| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
flunked
|
|
| v.( flunk的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）（考试、某学科的成绩等）不及格；评定（某人）不及格；（因不及格而） 退学 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
grudgingly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
plaintive
|
|
| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
saga
|
|
| n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
stoic
|
|
| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
hustling
|
|
| 催促（hustle的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
deliberately
|
|
| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
Flared
|
|
| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
abject
|
|
| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
collapses
|
|
| 折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
liking
|
|
| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
bluff
|
|
| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
intimacy
|
|
| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
addict
|
|
| v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
deftly
|
|
| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
stunned
|
|
| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
rumor
|
|
| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
tact
|
|
| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
hoop
|
|
| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
tingle
|
|
| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
evasions
|
|
| 逃避( evasion的名词复数 )； 回避； 遁辞； 借口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
rosy
|
|
| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
texture
|
|
| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
slit
|
|
| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
opaque
|
|
| adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
lust
|
|
| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
obnoxious
|
|
| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
saliva
|
|
| n.唾液，口水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
pneumonia
|
|
| n.肺炎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
pried
|
|
| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
sodium
|
|
| n.（化）钠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
flickers
|
|
| 电影制片业； （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
gravy
|
|
| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
maudlin
|
|
| adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
lugging
|
|
| 超载运转能力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
unwilling
|
|
| adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
galley
|
|
| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
appraising
|
|
| v.估价( appraise的现在分词 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
forfeited
|
|
| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
hustled
|
|
| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
ailing
|
|
| v.生病 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
renovated
|
|
| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
flustered
|
|
| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
gallantly
|
|
| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
weird
|
|
| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
sarcastic
|
|
| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
denominations
|
|
| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
sects
|
|
| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
moldy
|
|
| adj.发霉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
relatively
|
|
| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
gut
|
|
| n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
rebound
|
|
| v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
calves
|
|
| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
arthritic
|
|
| adj.关节炎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
presumptuous
|
|
| adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
stagnant
|
|
| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
perversely
|
|
| adv. 倔强地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
bugs
|
|
| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
allusion
|
|
| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
waxy
|
|
| adj.苍白的；光滑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
disdains
|
|
| 鄙视，轻蔑( disdain的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
glides
|
|
| n.滑行( glide的名词复数 )；滑音；音渡；过渡音v.滑动( glide的第三人称单数 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
lumbering
|
|
| n.采伐林木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
shrilly
|
|
| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |