I Love What You Do for Me, Toyota. That is the new paper banner the company has sent down to hang in the big display window. At times, standing1 at the window, when a cloud dense3 with moisture darkens the atmosphere or an occluding4 truck pulls up past the yew5 hedge for some business at the service doors, Harry6 catches a sudden reflection of himself and is startled by how big he is, by how much space he is taking up on the planet. Stepping out on the empty roadway as Uncle Sam last month he had felt so eerily7 tall, as if his head were a giant balloon float-ing above the marching music. Though his inner sense of himself is of an innocuous passive spirit, a steady small voice, that doesn't want to do any harm, get trapped anywhere, or ever die, there is this other self seen from outside, a six?foot?three ex?athlete weighing two?thirty at the least, an apparition8 wearing a sleek9 gray summer suit shining all over as if waxed and a big head whose fluffy10 shadowy hair was trimmed at Shear11 Joy Hair Styling (unisex, fifteen bucks12 minimum) to rest exactly on the ears, a fear-some bulk with eyes that see and hands that grab and teeth that bite, a body eating enough at one meal to feed three Ethiopians for a day, a shameless consumer of gasoline, electricity, newspa-pers, hydrocarbons13, carbohydrates14. A boss, in a shiny suit. His recent heart troubles have become, like his painfully and expensively crowned back teeth, part of his respectability's full?
blown equipage.
Harry needs a good self?image today, for the lot is going to be visited at eleven by a representative of the Toyota Corporation, a Mr. Natsume Shimada, hitherto manifested only as a careful signature, each letter individually formed, on creamy stiff stationery15 from the American Toyota Motor Sales headquarters in Torrance, California. Word of the financial irregularities anatomized by the two accountants Janice hired under Charlie's direction has filtered upward, higher and higher, as letters from Mid16?Atlantic Toyota in Glen Burnie, Maryland, were succeeded by mail from the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation's offices in Baltimore and then by courteous17 but implacable communications from Torrance itself, signed with what seems an old?fashioned stub?tipped fountain pen by Mr. Shimada, in sky?blue ink.
"Nervous?" Elvira asks, sidling up beside him in a slim seersucker suit. For the hot weather she had her hair cut short behind, exposing sexy dark down at the back of her neck. Did Nelson used to boff her? If Pru wasn't putting out, he had to buff somebody. Unless coke whores were enough, or the kid was secretly gay. Insofar as he can bear to contemplate18 his son's sex life, Elvira seems a little too classy, too neuter to go along with it. But maybe Harry is underestimating the amount of energy in the world: he tends to do that, now that his own is sagging19.
"Not too," he answers. "How do I look?"
"Very imposing20. I like the new suit."
"It's kind of a gray metallic21. They developed the fabric22 while doing the moon shots."
Benny is doing a dance of door?opening and hood23?popping out on the lot with a couple so young they keep looking at each other for confirmation24, both talking at once and then falling silent simultaneously25, paralyzed by their wish not to be tricked out of a single dollar. August sales are on and Toyota is offering thousanddollar rebates26. In the old days you sold only at their list price, no haggling27, take it or leave it, a quality product. Their old purity has been corrupted28 by American methods. Toyota has stooped to the scramble29. "You know," he tells Elvira, "in all the years the lot has been selling these cars I don't recall it ever being visited by an actual Japanese. I thought they all stayed over there in Toyota City enjoying the tea ceremony."
"And the geisha girls," Elvira says slyly. "Like Mr. Uno."
Harry smiles at the topical allusion31. This girl ? woman ? keeps up. "Yeah, he wasn't Numero Uno very long, was he?"
Her earrings32 today are like temple bells, little curved lids of dull silver wired together in trembling oblongs the size of butterfly cocoons33. They shiver with a touch of indignation when she tells him, "It's really Nelson and Lyle should be facing Mr. Shimada."
He shrugs34. "What can you do? The lawyer got Lyle on the phone finally and the guy just laughed at him. Said he was taking oxygen just to get out of bed and go to the toilet and could die any time. Furthermore he said the disease had spread to his brain and he had no idea what the lawyer was talking about. And he'd had to sell his computer and didn't keep any of the disks. In other words he told the lawyer to ? to go jump in the lake." Suppressing "fuck himself" like that was maybe a way of courting Elvira, he doesn't know. Late in the game as it is, you keep trying. He likes her being so thin ?she makes Pru and even Janice look thick and there is something cool and quiet about her he finds comforting, like a television screen when you can't hear the words, just see the flicker35. "I had to laugh," he says, of Lyle's last communications. "Dying has its advantages."
She asks at his side, "Won't Nelson be home in a week or so?"
"That's the schedule," Harry says. "Summer flies by, doesn't it? You notice it in the evening now. It's still warm but gets dark earlier and earlier. It's a thing you forget from year to year, that latesummer darkness. The cicadas. That smell of baked?out lawns. Except this summer's been so damn rainy ? in my little garden, God, the weeds won't stop growing, and the lettuce36 and broccoli37 are so leggy they're falling over. And the pea vines have spread like Virginia creeper, up over the fence and into the neighbor's yard."
"At least it hasn't been so terribly hot like it was the summer before," Elvira says, "when everybody kept talking about the greenhouse effect. Maybe there is no greenhouse effect."
"Oh, there is," Rabbit tells her, with a conviction he didn't know he had. Across Route 111, above the red hat?shaped roof of the Pizza Hut, a flock of starlings, already migrating south, speckle the telephone wires like a bar of musical notation38. "I won't live to see it," he says, "but you will, and my grandchildren. New York, Philly, their docks will be underwater, once Antarctica starts melting. All of the Jersey39 Shore." Ronnie Harrison and Ruth: what a shit, that guy.
"How is he doing, have you heard much? Nelson."
"He's dropped us a couple of cards of the Liberty Bell. He sounded cheerful. In a way, the kid's been always looking for more structure than we could ever give him, and I guess a rehab program is big on structure. He talks to Pru on the phone, but they don't encourage too much outside contact at this point."
"What does Pru think about everything?" Does Harry imagine it, an edge of heightened interest here, as if the sound on the TV set clicked back in?
"Hard to know what Pru thinks," he says. "I have the impression she was about ready to pack it in, the marriage, before he sent himself off. She and Janice and the kids have been up at the Poconos."
"That makes it lonely for you," Elvira Ollenbach says.
Could this be a feeler? Is he supposed to have her come on over? Have a couple daiquiris in the den2, stroke the dark nape of her neck, see if her pussy40 matches up, up in that slanty spare bedroom where all the old Playboys were stashed41 in the closet when they moved in ? the thought of that wiry young female body seeking to slake42 its appetites on his affects him like the thought of an avalanche43. It would make a wreck44 of his routine. "At my age I don't mind it," he says. "I can watch the TV shows I want. National Geographic45, Disney, World of Nature. When Janice is there she makes us watch all these family situation shows with everybody clowning around in the living room. This Roseanne, I asked her what the hell she sees in it, she told me, `I like her. She's fat and messy and mean, like most of the women in America.' I watch less and less. I try to have just one beer and go to bed early."
The young woman silently offers to move away, back to her cubicle46 in the direction of Paraguay. But he likes her near him, and abruptly47 asks, "You know who I'm sick of hearing about?"
"Who?"
"Pete Rose. 'Djou read in the Standard the other day how he's been in hot water before, in 1980 when he and a lot of the other Phils were caught taking amphetamines and the club traded away Randy Leach48, the only player who admitted to it, and the rest of 'em just brazened it through?"
"I glanced at it. It was a Brewer49 doctor supplying the prescriptions50."
"That's right, our own little burg. So that's why he thinks he can bluff51 it through now. Nobody else has to pay for what they do, everybody else gets away with everything. Ollie North, drug dealers53, what with the jails being full and everybody such a bleeding heart anyway. Break the law, burn the flag, who the fuck cares?"
"Don't get yourself upset, Harry," she says, in her maternal54, retreating mode. "The world is full of cheaters."
"Yeah, we should know."
She makes no response at all, having turned her back. Maybe she had been balling Nelson after all.
"I always thought he was an ugly ballplayer, anyway," he feels compelled to say, concerning Rose. "If you have to do it all with hustle55 and grit56, you shouldn't be out there."
Out there, in the dog?days outdoors whose muggy57 alternation of light and shadow flickeringly gives him back his own ominous58 reflection, Harry notices that the refurbished yew hedge ? he had a lawn service replace the dead bushes and renew the bark mulch ? has collected a number of waxpaper pizza wrappers and Styrofoam coffee cups that have blown in from Route 111. He can't have their Japanese visitor see a mess like that. He goes outside, and the hot polluted air, bouncing off the asphalt, takes his breath away. The left side of his ribs59 gives a squeeze. He puts a Nitrostat to melt beneath his tongue before he begins to stoop. The more wastepaper he gathers, the more it seems there is candy wrappers, cigarette?pack cellophane, advertising60 fliers and whole pages of newspaper wrinkled by rain and browned by the sun, big soft?drink cups with the plastic lid still on and the straw still in and the dirty water from melted ice still sloshing around. There is no end of crud in the world. He should have brought out a garbage bag, he has both hands full and can feel his face getting red as he tries to hold yet one more piece of crumpled61 sticky cardboard in his fanned fingers. A limousine62 cracklingly pulls into the lot while Harry is still picking up the trash, and he has to run inside to cram30 it all into the wastebasket in his office. Puffing63, his heart thudding, his metallic?gray suit coat pulling at the buttons, he rushes back across the showroom to greet Mr. Shimada at the entrance, shaking his hand with a hand unwashed of street grit, dried sugar, and still?sticky pizza topping.
Mr. Shimada is an impeccable compact man of about five six, carrying an amazingly thin oxblood?red briefcase64 and wearing a smoke?blue suit with an almost invisible pinstripe, tailored to display a dapper breadth of his gold?linked French cuffs65 and high white collar, on a shirt with a pale?blue body. He looks dense, like a beanbag filled to the corners with buckshot, and in good physical trim, though stocky, with a burnish67 of California tan on his not unfriendly face. "Is very nice meeting you," he says. "Area most nice." He speaks English easily, but with enough of an accent to cost Harry a second's response time answering him.
"Well, not around here exactly," he answers, instantly thinking that this is tactless, for why would Toyota want to locate its franchise68 in an ugly area? "I mean, the farm country is what we're famous for, barns with hex signs and all that." He wonders if he should explain "hex sign" and decides it's not worth it. "Would you like to look around the facility? At the setup?" In case "facility" didn't register. Talking to foreigners really makes you think about the language.
Mr. Shimada slowly, stiffly turns his head and shoulders together, one way and then the other, to take in the showroom. "I see," he smiles. "Also in Torrance I study many photos and froor pran. Oh! Rovely rady!"
Elvira has left her desk and sashays toward their visitor, sucking in her cheeks to make herself look more glamorous69. "Miss Olshima, I mean Mr. Shimada" ?Harry had been practicing the name, telling himself it was like Ramada with shit at the beginning, only to botch it in the crunch70 ? "this is Miss Ollenbach, one of our best sales reps. Representatives."
Mr. Shimada first gives her an instinctive71 little hands?at?the?sides bow. When they shake hands, it's like both of them are trying to knock each other out with their smiles, they hold them so long. "Is good idea, to have both sexes serring," he says to Harry. "More and more common thing."
"I don't know why it took us all so long to think of it," Harry admits.
"Good idea take time," the other man says, curbing72 his smile a little, letting an admonitory sternness tug73 downward his rather full yet flat lips. Harry remembers from his boyhood in World War II how very cruel the Japanese were to their prisoners on Bataan. The first thing you heard about them, after Pearl Harbor, was that they were ridiculously small, manning tiny submarines and planes called Zeros, and then, as those early Pacific defeats rolled in, that they were fanatic74 in the service of their Emperor, robot?monkeys that had to be torched out of their caves with flame?throwers. What a long way we've come since then. Harry feels one of his surges of benevolence75, of approval of a world that isn't asking for it. Mr. Shimada seems to be asking Elvira if she prays.
"Play tennis, you mean?" she asks back. "Yes, as a matter of fact. Whenever I can. How did you know?"
His flat face breaks into twinkling creases76 and, quick as a monkey, he taps her wrist, where a band of relative pallor shows on her sunbrowned skin. "Sweatband," he says, proudly.
"That's clever," Elvira says. "You must play, too, in California. Everybody does."
"All free time. Revel77 five, hoping revel four."
"That's fabulous," she comes back, but a sideways upward glance at Harry asks how much longer she has to be a geisha girl.
"Good fetch, no backhand," Mr. Shimada tells her, demonstrating.
"Turn your back to the net, and take the racket back low," Elvira tells him, also demonstrating. "Hit the ball out front, don't let it play you."
"Talk just as pro," Mr. Shimada tells her, beaming.
No doubt about it, Elvira is impressive. You can see how rangy and quick she would be on the court. Harry is beginning to relax. When the phantom78 tennis lesson is over, he takes their guest on a quick tour through the office space and through the shelved tunnel of the parts department, where Roddy, the Assistant Parts Manager, a viciously pretty youth with long lank79 hair he keeps flicking80 back from his face, his face and hands filmed with gray grease, gives them a dirty white?eyed look. Harry doesn't introduce them, for fear of besmirching81 Mr. Shimada with a touch of grease. He leads him to the brass82?barred door of the rackety, cavernous garage, where Manny, the Service Manager Harry had inherited from Fred Springer fifteen years ago, has been replaced by Arnold, a plump young man with an advanced degree from voke school, where he was taught to wear washable coveralls that give him the figure of a Kewpie doll, or a snowman. Mr. Shimada hesitates at the verge83 of the echoing garage ?men's curses cut through the hammering of metal on metal ? and takes a step backward, asking, "Emproyee moraru good?"
This must be "morale84." Harry thinks of the mechanics, their insatiable gripes and constant coffee breaks and demands for ever more costly85 fringe benefits, and their frequent hungover absences on Monday and suspiciously early departures on Friday, and says, "Very good. They clear twenty?two dollars an hour, with bonuses and benefits. The first job I ever took, when I was fifteen, I got thirty?five cents an hour."
Mr. Shimada is not interested. "Brack emproyees, are any? I see none."
"Yeah, well. We'd like to hire more, but it's hard to find qualified86 ones. We had a man a couple years ago, had good hands and got along with everybody, but we had to let him go finally because he kept showing up late or not showing up at all. When we called him on it, he said he was on Afro?American time." Harry is ashamed to tell him what the man's nickname had been ? Blackie. At least we don't still sell Black Sambo dolls with nigger lips like they do in Tokyo, he saw on 60 Minutes this summer.
"Toyota strive to be fair?practices emproyer," says Mr. Shimada. "Wants to be good citizen of your pruraristic society. In prant in Georgetown, Kentucky, many bracks work. Not just assembry line, executive positions."
"We'll work on it," Rabbit promises him. "This is a kind of conservative area, but it's coming along."
"Very pretty area."
"Right."
Back in the showroom, Harry feels obliged to explain, "My son picked these colors for the walls and woodwork. My son Nelson. I would have gone for something a little less, uh, choice, but he's been the effective manager here, while I've been spending half the year in Florida. My wife loves the sun down there. She plays tennis, by the way. Loves the game."
Mr. Shimada beams. His lips seem flattened87 as if by pressing up against glass, and his eyeglasses, their squarish gold rims89, seem set exceptionally tight against his eyes. "We know Nelson Angstrom," he says. He has trouble with the many consonants90 of the last name, making it "Ank?a?stom." "A most famous man at Toyota company."
A constriction91 in Harry's chest and a watery92 looseness below his belt tell him that they have arrived, after many courtesies, at the point of the visit. "Want to come into my office and sit?"
"With preasure."
"Anything one of the girls could get you? Coffee? Tea? Not like your tea, of course. Just a bag of Lipton's -"
"Is fine without." Rather unceremoniously, he enters Harry's office and sits on the vinyl customer's chair, with padded chrome arms, facing the desk. He sets his wonderfully thin briefcase on his lap and lightly folds his hands upon it, showing two dazzling breadths of white cuff66. He waits for Harry to seat himself behind the desk and then begins what seems to be a prepared speech. "Arways," he says, "we in Japan admire America. As boy during Occupation, rooked way up to big GI soldiers, their happy easygo ways. Enemy soldiers, but not bad men. Powerful men. Our Emperor's advisers93 have red him down unfortunate ways, so General MacArthur, he seemed to us as Emperor had been, distant and first?rate. We worked hard to do what he suggest rebuild burned cities, learn democratic ways. Japanese very humble94 at first in regard to America. You know Toyota story. At first, very modest, then bigger, we produce a better product for the rittle man's money, yes? You ask for it, we got it, yes?"
"Good slogan," Harry tells him. "I like it better than some of the recent ones've been coming down."
But Mr. Shimada does not expect to be even slightly interrupted. His burnished95, manicured hands firmly flatten88 on the thin oxblood briefcase and he inclines his upper body forward to make his voice clear. "Nevertheress, these years of postwar, Japanese, man and woman, have great respect for United States. Rike big brother. But in recent times big brother act rike rittle brother, always cry and comprain. Want many favors in trade, saying Japanese unfair competition. Why unfair? Make something, cheaper even with duty and transportation costs, people rike, people buy. American way in old times. But in new times America make nothing, just do mergers96, do acquisitions, rower taxes, raise national debt. Nothing comes out, all goes in ? foreign goods, foreign capital. America take everything, give nothing. Rike big brack hole."
Mr. Shimada is proud of this up?to?date analogy and of his unanswerable command of English. He smiles to himself and opens, with a double snap as startling as a gunshot, his briefcase. From it he takes a single sheet of stiff creamy paper, sparsely97 decorated with typed figures. "According to figures here, between November '88 and May '89 Springer Motors fail to report sale of nine Toyota vehicles totarring one hundred thirty?seven thousand four hundred at factory price. This sum accumurating interest come to as of this date one hundred forty?five thousand eight hundred." With one of his reflexive, half?suppressed bows, he hands the paper across the desk.
Harry covers it with his big hand and says, "Yeah, well, but it's accountants we hired reported all this to you. It's not as if Springer Motors as a company is trying to cheat anybody. It's a screwy ? an unusual ? situation that developed and that's being corrected. My son had a drug problem and hired a bad egg as chief accountant and together they ripped us all off. The Brewer Trust, too, in another scam ? they had a dead mutual98 friend buying cars, would you believe it? But listen: my wife and I ? technically99 she's the owner here ? we have every intention of paying Mid?Atlantic Toyota back every penny we owe. And I'd like to see, sometime, how you're computing100 that interest."
Mr. Shimada leans back a bit and makes his briefest speech. "How soon?"
Harry takes a plunge101. "End of August." Three weeks away. They might have to take out a bank loan, and Brewer Trust is already on their case. Well, let Janice's accountants work it out if they're so smart.
Mr. Shimada blinks, behind those lenses embedded102 in his flat face, and seems to nod in concord103. "End of August. Interest computed104 at twelve per cent monthly compounded as in standard TMCC loan." He snaps shut his briefcase and balances it on its edge beside his chair. He gazes obliquely105 at the framed photographs on Harry's desk: Janice, when she still had bangs, in a spangly long dress three or four years ago, about to go off to the Valhalla Village New Year's Eve party, a flashlit color print Fern Drechsel took with a Nikkomat Bernie had just given her for a Hanukkah present and that came out surprisingly well, Janice's face in anticipation106 of the party looking younger than her years, a bit overexposed and out of focus and starry107?eyed; Nelson's highschool graduation picture, in a blazer and necktie but his hair down to his shoulders, long as a girl's; and, left over from Nelson's tenure108 at this desk, a framed black?and?white posed school photo of Harry in his basketball uniform, holding the ball above his shining right shoulder as if to get off a shot, his hair crewcut, his eyes sleepy, his tank top stencilled109 MJ.
Mr. Shimada's less upright posture110 in the chair indicates a new, less formal level of discourse111. "Young people now most interesting," he decides to say. "Not scared of starving as through most human history. Not scared of atom bomb as until recently. But scared of something ? not happy. In Japan, too. Brue jeans, rock music not make happiness enough. In former times, in Japan, very simple things make men happy. Moonright on fish pond at certain moment. Cricket singing in bamboo grove112. Very small things bring very great feering. Japan a rittle ireand country, must make do with very near nothing. Not rike endless China, not rike U.S. No oiru wells, no great spaces. We have only our people, their disciprine. Riving now five years in Carifornia, it disappoints me, the rack of disciprine in people of America. Many good qualities, of course. Good tennis, good hearts. Roads of fun. I have many most dear American friends. Always they aporogize to me for Japanese internment113 camps in Frankrin Roosevelt days. Always I say to them, surprised, `Was war!' In war, people need disciprine. Not just in war. Peace a kind of war also. We fight now not Americans and British but Nissan, Honda, Ford114. Toyota agency must be a prace of disciprine, a prace of order."
Harry feels he must interrupt, he doesn't like the trend of this monologue115. "We think this agency is. Sales have been up eight per cent this summer, bucking116 the national trend. I'm always saying to people, `Toyota's been good to us, and we've been good to Toyota."'
"No more, sorry," Mr. Shimada says simply, and resumes: "In United States, is fascinating for me, struggle between order and freedom. Everybody mention freedom, all papers terevision anchor people everybody. Much rove and talk of freedom. Skateboarders want freedom to use beach boardwalks and knock down poor old people. Brack men with radios want freedom to selfexpress with super jumbo noise. Men want freedom to have guns and shoot others on freeways in random117 sport. In Carifornia, dog shit much surprise me. Everywhere, dog shit, dogs must have important freedom to shit everywhere. Dog freedom more important than crean grass and cement pavement. In U.S., Toyota company hope to make ireands of order in ocean of freedom. Hope to strike proper barance between needs of outer world and needs of inner being, between what in Japan we call giri and ninjó." He leans forward and, with a flash of wide white cuff, taps the page of figures on Harry's desk. "Too much disorder118. Too much dog shit. Pay by end of August, no prosecution119 for criminal activities. But no more Toyota franchise at Singer Motors."
"Springer," Harry says automatically. "Listen," he pleads. "No one feels worse about my son's falling apart than I do."
Now it is Mr. Shimada who interrupts; his own speech, with whatever beautiful shadows in Japanese it was forming in his mind, has whipped him up. "Not just son," he says. "Who is father and mother of such son? Where are they? In Frorida, enjoying sunshine and tennis, while young boy prays games with autos. Nelson Ank?a?stom too much a boy still to be managing Toyota agency. He roses face for Toyota company." This statement tugs120 his flat lips far down, in a pop?eyed scowl121.
Hopelessly Harry argues, "You want the sales staff young, to attract the young customers. Nelson'll be thirty?three in a couple months." He thinks it would be a waste of breath, and maybe offensive, to explain to Mr. Shimada that at that same age Jesus Christ was old enough to be crucified and redeem122 mankind. He makes a final plea: "You'll lose all the good will. For thirty years the people of Brewer have known where to come to buy Toyotas. Out here right on Route One One One."
"No more," Mr. Shimada states. "Too much dog shit, Mr. Ank?strom." His third try and he almost has it. You got to hand it to them. "Toyota does not enjoy bad games prayed with its ploduct." He picks up his slim briefcase and stands. "You keep invoice123. Many more papers to arrive. Most preasant if regretful visit, and good talk on topics of general interest. Perhaps you would be kind to discuss with rimo driver best way to find Route Four Two Two. Mr. Krauss has agency there."
"You're going to see Rudy? He used to work here. I taught him all he knows."
Mr. Shimada has stiffened124, in that faintly striped smoky?blue suit. "Good teacher not always good parent."
"If Rudy's going to be the only Toyota in town, he ought to get rid of Mazda. That Wankel engine never really worked out. Too much like a squirrel cage."
Harry feels lightheaded, now that the ax has fallen. Anticipation is the worst; letting go has its pleasant side. "Good luck with Lexus, by the way," he says. "People don't think luxury when they think Toyota, but things can change."
"Things change," says Mr. Shimada. "Is world's sad secret." Out in the showroom, he asks, "Rovely rady?" Elvira with her clicking brisk walk traverses the showroom floor, her earrings doing a dance along the points of her jaw125. Their visitor asks, "Could prease have business card, in case of future reference?" She digs one out of her suit pocket, and Mr. Shimada accepts it, studies it seriously, bows with his hands at his side, and then, to strike a jocular American note, imitates a tennis backhand.
"You've got it," she tells him. "Take it back low."
He bows again and, turning to Harry, beams so broadly his eyeglass frames are lifted by the creasing126 of his face. "Good ruck with many probrems. Perhaps before too rate should buy Rexus at dealer52 price." This is, it would seem, a little Japanese joke.
Harry gives the manicured hand a gritty squeeze. "Don't think I can afford even a Corolla now," he says and, in a reflex of good will really, manages a little bow of his own. He accompanies his visitor outdoors to the limousine, whose black driver is leaning against the fender eating a slice of pizza, and a cloud pulls back from the sun; a colorless merciless dog?day brilliance127 makes Harry wince128; all joking falls away and he abruptly feels fragile and ill with loss. He cannot imagine the lot without the tall blue TOYOTA sign, the glinting still lake of well?made cars in slightly bitter Oriental colors. Poor Janice, she'll be knocked for a loop. She'll feel she's let her father down.
收听单词发音 |
1
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
den
|
|
| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
occluding
|
|
| adj.[医]牙合的，咬合的v.堵塞( occlude的现在分词 )；阻隔；吸收（气体） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
yew
|
|
| n.紫杉属树木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
harry
|
|
| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
eerily
|
|
| adv.引起神秘感或害怕地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
apparition
|
|
| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
sleek
|
|
| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
fluffy
|
|
| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
shear
|
|
| n.修剪，剪下的东西，羊的一岁；vt.剪掉，割，剥夺；vi.修剪，切割，剥夺，穿越 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
bucks
|
|
| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
hydrocarbons
|
|
| n.碳氢化合物，烃( hydrocarbon的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
carbohydrates
|
|
| n.碳水化合物，糖类( carbohydrate的名词复数 )；淀粉质或糖类食物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
stationery
|
|
| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
mid
|
|
| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
courteous
|
|
| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
contemplate
|
|
| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
sagging
|
|
| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
imposing
|
|
| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
metallic
|
|
| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
fabric
|
|
| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
hood
|
|
| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
confirmation
|
|
| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
simultaneously
|
|
| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
rebates
|
|
| n.退还款( rebate的名词复数 )；回扣；返还（退还的部份货价）；折扣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
haggling
|
|
| v.讨价还价( haggle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
corrupted
|
|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
scramble
|
|
| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
cram
|
|
| v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
allusion
|
|
| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
earrings
|
|
| n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
cocoons
|
|
| n.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
shrugs
|
|
| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
flicker
|
|
| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
lettuce
|
|
| n.莴苣；生菜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
broccoli
|
|
| n.绿菜花，花椰菜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
notation
|
|
| n.记号法，表示法，注释；[计算机]记法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
jersey
|
|
| n.运动衫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
pussy
|
|
| n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
stashed
|
|
| v.贮藏( stash的过去式和过去分词 )；隐藏；藏匿；藏起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
slake
|
|
| v.解渴，使平息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
avalanche
|
|
| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
geographic
|
|
| adj.地理学的，地理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
cubicle
|
|
| n.大房间中隔出的小室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
leach
|
|
| v.分离，过滤掉；n.过滤；过滤器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
brewer
|
|
| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
prescriptions
|
|
| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
bluff
|
|
| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
dealer
|
|
| n.商人，贩子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
dealers
|
|
| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
maternal
|
|
| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
hustle
|
|
| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
grit
|
|
| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
muggy
|
|
| adj.闷热的；adv.（天气）闷热而潮湿地；n.（天气）闷热而潮湿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
ominous
|
|
| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
ribs
|
|
| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
advertising
|
|
| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
crumpled
|
|
| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
limousine
|
|
| n.豪华轿车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
puffing
|
|
| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
briefcase
|
|
| n.手提箱，公事皮包 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
cuffs
|
|
| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
cuff
|
|
| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
burnish
|
|
| v.磨光；使光滑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
franchise
|
|
| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
glamorous
|
|
| adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
crunch
|
|
| n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
instinctive
|
|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
curbing
|
|
| n.边石，边石的材料v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
tug
|
|
| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
fanatic
|
|
| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
benevolence
|
|
| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
creases
|
|
| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
revel
|
|
| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
phantom
|
|
| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
lank
|
|
| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
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： |
|
|
|
|
81
besmirching
|
|
| v.弄脏( besmirch的现在分词 )；玷污；丑化；糟蹋（名誉等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
verge
|
|
| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
morale
|
|
| n.道德准则，士气，斗志 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
qualified
|
|
| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
flattened
|
|
| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
flatten
|
|
| v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
rims
|
|
| n.（圆形物体的）边( rim的名词复数 )；缘；轮辋；轮圈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
consonants
|
|
| n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
constriction
|
|
| 压缩； 紧压的感觉； 束紧； 压缩物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
watery
|
|
| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
advisers
|
|
| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
burnished
|
|
| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
mergers
|
|
| n.（两个公司的）合并( merger的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
sparsely
|
|
| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
technically
|
|
| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
computing
|
|
| n.计算 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
embedded
|
|
| a.扎牢的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
concord
|
|
| n.和谐；协调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
computed
|
|
| adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
obliquely
|
|
| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
anticipation
|
|
| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
starry
|
|
| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
tenure
|
|
| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
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： |
|
|
|
|
110
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
discourse
|
|
| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
grove
|
|
| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
internment
|
|
| n.拘留 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
Ford
|
|
| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
monologue
|
|
| n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
bucking
|
|
| v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
random
|
|
| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
disorder
|
|
| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
prosecution
|
|
| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
tugs
|
|
| n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
scowl
|
|
| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
redeem
|
|
| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
invoice
|
|
| vt.开发票；n.发票，装货清单 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
stiffened
|
|
| 加强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
jaw
|
|
| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
creasing
|
|
| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的现在分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 挑檐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
brilliance
|
|
| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
wince
|
|
| n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |