Part 3 Chapter 11

But the phone, once it is connected, still doesn't ring. The days go by empty. The Golds next door are back in Framingham. Bernie and Fern Drechsel are up north bouncing between their two daughters' houses, one in Westchester County and the other still in Queens, and their son's lovely home in Princeton and a cot-tage he has in Manahawkin. The Silbersteins have a place in North Carolina they go to from April to November. Once when Harry¹ asked Ed why they didn't go back to Toledo, Ed looked at him with that smartass squint³ and asked, "You ever been to Toledo?" The Valhalla dining room is spooky ? empty tables and an echoing click of silver on china and Bingo only once a week. The golf course has noisy foursomes on it early in the morning, waking Harry up with the moon still bright in the sky ? younger men, local Deleon business types who buy cut?rate off?season memberships ? and then the fairways from ten to about four bake in the mid⁵?nineties heat, deserted⁶ but for the stray dog cutting diagonally across or the cats scratching in the sand traps. When Harry one morning gets up his nerve for a round by himself, planning to take a cart, he discovers the pro⁷ shop has lost his golf shoes. The kid at the counter ? the pro and assistant pro are both still up north at country clubs that don't close down until late October says he's sure they're somewhere, it's just that this time of year there's a different system.

 

The only other person in the fourth?floor corridor who seems to be here is the crazy woman in 402, Mrs. Zabritski, a widow with wild white hair, pinned up by two old tortoise?shell combs that just add to the confusion. The Golds have told him she survived one of the concentration camps when a girl. She looks at Harry as if he's crazy too, to be here.

 

He explains to her one day, since they meet at the elevator and she looks at him funny, "I had this sudden impulse to come down early this year. My wife's just starting up in the real?estate business and I got bored hanging around the house."

 

Mrs. Zabritski's little neckless head is screwed around at an angle on her shoulder, as if she's bracing⁸ an invisible telephone against her ear. She stares up at him furiously, her lips baring her long false teeth in a taut⁹ oval that reminds him of that Batman logo you saw everywhere this summer. Her eyes have veiny¹⁰ reds to them, stuck hot and round in their skeletal sockets¹¹, that wasting?away look Lyle had. "It's hell," the tiny old lady seems to pronounce, her lips moving stiffly, trying to keep her teeth in.

 

"It's what? What is?"

 

"This weather," she says. "Your wife -" She halts, her lips working.

 

"My wife what?" Rabbit tries to curb¹² his tendency to shout, since hearing doesn't seem to be one of her problems, regardless of that pained way her head is cocked.

 

"Is a cute little thing," she finishes, but looks angry saying it. Her hair sticks up in wisps as if it was moussed and abandoned.

 

"She'll be down soon," he almost shouts, embarrassed as much by his secrets, his hopeful lies, as by her dwarfish¹³ warped¹⁴ craziness. This is the kind of woman he's ended up with, after Mary Ann and then Janice and Ruth's silky?sack heaviness and Peggy Fosnacht's splayed eyes and Jill's adolescent breasts and stoned compliance¹⁶ and Thelma with her black casket and Pru glowing dimly in the dark like a tough street in blossom, not to mention that tired whore in Texas with the gritty sugar in her voice and that other paid lay in his life, a girl he once in a great while remembers, at a Verity¹⁷ Press outing in the Brewer¹⁸ Polish?American Club, she was skinny and had a cold and kept her bra and sweater on, there in this room off to the side, where she was waiting on a mattress¹⁹ like a kind of prisoner, young, her belly²⁰ and thighs²¹ sweaty from the cold she had but pure and pale, a few baby?blue veins²² where the skin molded around the pelvic bones, her pussy²³ an oldfashioned natural dark ferny triangle, flourishing, not shaved at the sides to suit a bathing suit the way you see in the skin magazines. You paid the guy who stood outside the door, ten dollars for ten minutes, he hadn't shaved very recently, Rabbit assumed he was her brother, or maybe her father. He assumed the girl was Polish because of the name of the club, she might have been eighteen, Mrs. Zabritski would have been that age after getting out of the concentration camp, smooth?skinned, lithe²⁴, a young survivor²⁵. What time does to people; her face is broken into furrows²⁶ that crisscross each other like a checkerboard of skin.

 

"She should wait," Mrs. Zabritski says.

 

"I'll tell her you said so," he says loudly, fighting the magnetism²⁷ sucking at him out of the unspoken fact that she is a woman and he is a man and both are alone and crazy, a few doors apart in this corridor like a long peach?colored chute glinting with silver lines in the embossed wallpaper. All his life seems to have been a journey into the bodies of women, why should his journey end now? Say she was eighteen when the war ended, he was twelve, she is only six years older. Sixty?two. Not so bad, can still work up some juice. Beu Gold is older, and sexy.

 

He tries to watch TV but it makes him restless. The last of the summer reruns are mixed in with previews of new shows that don't look that much different: families, laugh tracks, zany dropins, those three?sided living?room sets with the stairs coming down in the background like in Cosby, and front doors on the right through which the comical good?natured grandparents appear, bearing presents and presenting problems. The door is on the right in Cosby and on the left in Roseanne. That fat husband's going to have his cardiovascular problems too. TV families and your own are hard to tell apart, except yours isn't interrupted every six minutes by commercials and theirs don't get bogged²⁹ down into nothingness, a state where nothing happens, no skit³⁰, no zany visitors, no outburst on the laugh track, nothing at all but boredom³¹ and a lost feeling, especially when you get up in the morning and the moon is still shining and men are making noisy bets on the first tee.

 

At first he thinks Janice has tried so hard to reach him those four days before the phone got connected on Thursday that she's lost faith in their old number. Then he begins to accept her silence as a definite statement. I'll never forgive you. O.K., he'll be damned if he'll call her. Dumb mutt. Rich bitch. Working girl yet. Thinks she's so fucking hot running everybody's lives with those accountants and lawyers Charlie put her on to, he's known her so drunk she couldn't get herself to the bathroom to pee. The few times Harry has weakened, impulsively³³, usually around four or five when he can't stand the sound of the golf games beginning up again and it's still hours to dinner, the telephone in the little limestone³⁴ house in Penn Park rings and rings without an answer. He hangs up in a way relieved. Nothingness has a purity. Like running. He showed her he still had some kick in his legs and now she's showing him she can still be stubborn. Her silence frightens him. He fights off images of some accident she might have, slipping in the bathtub or driving the Camry off the road, having had too much to drink over at Nelson's or at some Vietnamese restaurant with Charlie, without him knowing. Police frogmen finding her drowned in the back seat like that girl from Wilkes?Barre twenty years ago. But no, he'd be notified, if anything were to happen, somebody would call him, Nelson or Charlie or Benny at the lot, if there still is a lot. Each day down here, events in Pennsylvania seem more remote. His whole life seems, as he rotates through the empty condo rooms, each with its view across the parallel fairways to a wilderness³⁶ of Spanish?tile roofs, to have been unreal, or no realer than the lives on TV shows, and now it's too late to make it real, to be serious, to reach down into the earth's iron core and fetch up a real life for himself.

 

The local air down here this time of year is full of violence, as if the natives are on good behavior during the winter season. Hurricane alarms (Gabrielle packs punch), head?on car crashes, masked holdups at Publix. The day after Labor³⁷ Day, lightning kills a young football player leaving the field after practice; the story says Florida has more deaths by lightning than any other state. In Cape³⁸ Coral, a Hispanic police officer is charged with beating his cocker spaniel to death with a crowbar. Sea turtles are dying by the thousands in shrimp³⁹ nets. A killer⁴¹ called Petit whose own mother says he looks like Charles Manson is pronounced mentally fit to stand trial. That Deion Sanders is still making the front page of the Fort Myers News?Press: one day he knocks in four runs and a homer playing baseball for the Yankees, the next he signs for millions to play football for the Atlanta Falcons⁴², and the very next he's being sued by the auxiliary⁴³ cop he hit last Christmas at that shopping mall, and on Sunday he bobbles a punt return for the Falcons but runs it back for a touchdown anyway, the only man in human history to hit a home run and score a touchdown in pro ball the same week.

 

Deion has

right stuff

 

Enjoy it while he can. He calls himself Prime Time and is always on the TV news wearing sunglasses and gold chains. Rabbit watches that big kid Becker beat Lendl in the U.S. Tennis Open final and gets depressed⁴⁵, Lendl seemed old and tired and stringy, though he's only twenty?eight.

 

He talks to nobody, except for Mrs. Zabritski when she catches him in the hall, and the teenage Florida?cracker⁴⁶ salesclerks when he buys his food and razor blades and toilet paper, and the people who feel obliged to make chitchat, the other retirees, in the Valhalla dining room; they always ask about Janice so it gets to be embarrassing and he more and more just heats up something frozen and stays in the condo, ransacking⁴⁷ the cable channels for something worthy⁴⁸ to kill time with. In his solitude⁴⁹, his heart becomes his companion. He listens to it, tries to decipher its messages. It has different rhythms at different times of the day, a thorrumph thorrumph sluggish⁵⁰ slightly underwater beat in the morning, and toward evening, when the organism gets tired and excited at once, a more skittish⁵¹ thudding, with the accent on the first beat and grace notes added, little trips and pauses now and then. It twinges when he gets up out of bed and then again when he lies down and whenever he thinks too hard about his situation, having set himself adrift like this. He could have gone over that night and faced the music but how much music is a man supposed to face? So he and Pru did fuck, once. What are we put here in the first place for? These women complain about men seeing nothing but tits and ass² when they look at them but what are we supposed to see? We've been programmed to tits and ass. Except guys like Slim and Lyle, the tits got left out of their program. One thing he knows is if he had to give parts of his life back the last thing he'd give back is the fucking, even that sniffly girl in the PolishAmerican Club, she hardly said two words, and wiped her nose with a handkerchief while he was on top of her, but nevertheless she showed him something, a flourishing bush, and took him in, where it mattered. A lot of this other stuff you're supposed to be grateful for isn't where it matters. When he gets up from the deep wicker chair indignantly ? he can't stand Cheers now that Shelley Long is gone, that guy with the Cro?Magnon brow he never did like ? and goes into the kitchen to refill his bowl of Keystone Corn Chips, which not all of the stores down here carry but you can get over at the Winn Dixie on Pindo Palm Boulevard, Harry's heart confides⁵² to him a dainty little gallop⁵³, the kind of lacy riff the old swing drummers used to do, hitting the rims⁵⁴ as well as the skins and ending with a tingling⁵⁵ pop off the high hat, the music of his life. When this happens he gets an excited, hurried, full feeling in his chest. It doesn't hurt, it's just there, muffled⁵⁶ inside that mess inside himself he doesn't like to think about, just like he never cared for rare roast beef, as it used to come on the take?out subs from the Chuck Wagon⁵⁷ across Route 111 before it became the Pizza Hut. Any sudden motion now, he feels a surge of circulation, a tilt⁵⁸ of surprise in the head that makes one leg feel shorter than the other for a second. And the pains, maybe he imagines it, but the contractions⁵⁹ of the bands across his ribs⁶⁰, the feeling of something having been sewn there from the inside, seems to cut deeper, more burningly, as though the thread the patch was sewn with is growing thicker, and red hot. When he turns off the light at night, he doesn't like feeling his head sink back onto a single pillow, his head seems sunk in a hole then, it's not that he can't breathe exactly, he just feels more comfortable, less full, if he has his head up on the two pillows and lies facing the ceiling. He can turn on his side but his old way of sleeping, flat on his stomach with his feet pointing down over the edge, has become impossible; there is a nest of purple slithering half?dead thoughts he cannot bear to put his face in. There is a whole host of goblins, it turns out, that Janice's warm little tightly knit body, even snoring and farting as it sometimes did, protected him from. In her absence he sleeps with his heart, listening to it race and skip when his rest is disturbed, when kids who have climbed the fence yell on the empty moonlit golf course, when a siren bleats⁶¹ somewhere in downtown Deleon, when a big jet from the north heads in especially low to the Southwest Florida Regional Airport, churning the air. He awakes in lavender light and then lets his heart's slowing beat drag him back under.

 

His dreams are delicious, like forbidden candy ? intensely colored overpopulated rearrangements of old situations stored in his brain cells, rooms like the little living room at 26 Vista⁶² Crescent, with the fireplace they never used and the lamp with the driftwood base, or the old kitchen at 303 Jackson, with the wooden ice box and the gas stove with its nipples of blue flame and the porcelain⁶³ table with the worn spots, skewed and new and crowded with people at the wrong ages, Mim with lots of green eye makeup⁶⁴ at the age Mom was when they were kids, or Nelson as a tiny child sliding out from under a car in the greasy⁶⁵ service section of Springer Motors, looking woebegone and sickly with his smudged face, or Marty Tothero and Ruth and even that nitwit Margaret Kosko, he hasn't thought of her name for thirty years, but there she was in his brain cells, just as clear with her underfed city pallor as she was that night in the booth of the Chinese restaurant, Ruth next to him and Margaret next to Mr. Tothero whose head looks lopsided and gray like that of a dying rhinoceros⁶⁶, the four of them eating now in the Valhalla dining room with its garbled⁶⁷ bas?relief of Vikings and sumptuous⁶⁸ salad bar where the dishes underneath⁶⁹ the plastic sneeze guard are bright and various as jewels, arranged in rainbow order like the crayons in the Crayola boxes that were always among his birthday presents in February, a little stadium of waxy⁷⁰?smelling pointed⁷¹ heads there in the bright February window?light, filtered through icicles and the stunned⁷² sense of being a year older. Harry wakes from these dreams reluctantly, as if their miniaturized visions are a substance essential to his nutrition, or a whirring finely fitted machine he needs to reinsert himself into, like poor Thelma and her dialysis machine. He awakes always on his stomach, and only as his head clears and re?creates present time, establishing the felt?gray parallel lines he sees as the dawn behind the curved slats of Venetian blinds and the insistent⁷³ pressure on his face as the cool Gulf⁷⁴ breeze coming in where he left the sliding door ajar, does his solitude begin to gnaw⁷⁵ again, and his heart to talk to him. At times it seems a tiny creature, a baby, pleading inside him for attention, for rescue, and at others a sinister⁷⁶ intruder, a traitor⁷⁷ muttering in code, an alien parasite⁷⁸ nothing will expel. The pains, when they come, seem hostile and deliberate, the knives of a strengthening enemy.

 

He makes an appointment with Dr. Morris. He is able to get one surprisingly soon, the day after next. These doctors are scrambling⁷⁹ down here, a glut⁸⁰ of them, too many miners at the gold rush, the geriatric immigrants still hanging up north this time of year. The office is in one of those low stucco clinics along Route 41. Soothing⁸¹ music plays constantly in the waiting room, entwining with the surf?sound of traffic outside. The doctor has aged⁸² since the last appointment. He is bent⁸³?over and shufliy, with arthritic⁸⁴ knuckles⁸⁵. His shrivelled jaw⁸⁶ looks not quite clean?shaven; his nostrils⁸⁸ are packed with black hair. His son, young Tom, pink and sleek⁸⁹ in his mid?forties, gives Harry a freckled⁹⁰ fat hand in the hall, and is wearing his white clinical smock over kelly?green golf slacks. He is established in an adjacent office, primed to take over the full practice. But for now the old doctor clings to his own patients. Harry tries to describe his complex sensations. Dr. Morris, with an impatient jerk of his arthritic hand, waves him toward the examination room. He has him strip to his jockey undershorts, weighs him, tut?tuts. He seats him on the examination table and listens to his chest through his stethoscope, and taps his naked back with a soothing, knobby touch, and solemnly, silently takes Harry's hands in his. He studies the fingernails, turns them over, studies the palms, grunts⁹¹. Close up, he gives off an old man's sad leathery, moldy⁹² smell.

 

"Well," Harry asks, "what do you think?"

 

"How much do you exercise?"

 

"Not much. Not since I got down here. I do a little gardening up north. Golf-but I've kind of run out of partners."

 

Dr. Morris ponders him through rimless⁹³ glasses. His eyes, once a sharp blue, have that colorless sucked look to the irises⁹⁴. His eyebrows⁹⁵ are messy tangled⁹⁶ tufts of white and reddish?brown, his forehead and cheeks are flecked with small blotches⁹⁸ and bumps. His projecting eyebrows lift, like turrets⁹⁹ taking aim. "You should walk."

 

"Walk?"

 

"Briskly. Several miles a day. What sorts of food are you eating?"

 

"Oh ? stuff you can heat up. TV?dinner kind of thing. My wife is still up north but she doesn't cook that much even when she's here. Now, my daughter?in?law -"

 

"You ever eat any of this salty junk that comes in bags?"

 

"Well ? once in a great while."

 

"You should watch your sodium¹⁰⁰ intake¹⁰¹. Snack on fresh vegetables if you want to snack. Read the labels. Stay away from salt and animal fats. I think we've been through all this, when you were in the hospital" ? he lifts his forearm and checks his record ? "nine months ago."

 

"Yeah, I did for a while, I still do, it's just that day to day, it's easier -"

 

"To poison yourself. Don't. Don't be lazy about it. And you should lose forty pounds. Without the salt in your diet you'd lose ten in retained water in two weeks. I'll give you a diet list, if you've lost the one I gave you before. You may get dressed."

 

The doctor has grown smaller, or his desk has grown bigger, since Harry's last visit here. He sits down, dressed, at the desk and begins, "The pains -"

 

"The pains will moderate with better conditioning. Your heart doesn't like what you're feeding it. Have you been under any special stress lately?"

 

"Not really. Just the normal flack. A couple family problems, but they seem to be clearing up."

 

The doctor is writing on his prescription¹⁰² pad. "I want you to have blood tests and an EKG at the Community General. Then I want to consult with Dr. Olman. Depending on how the results look, it may be time for another catheterization."

 

"Oh Jesus. Not that again."

 

The messy eyebrows go up again, the prim⁴⁴ dry lips pinch in. Not a clever generous Jewish mouth. A crabby Scots economy in the way he thinks and talks, on the verge¹⁰³ of impatience¹⁰⁴, having seen so many hopelessly deteriorating¹⁰⁵ patients in his life. "What didn't you like? Were the hot flashes painful?"

 

"It just felt funny," Harry tells him, "having that damn thing inside me. It's the idea of it."

 

"Well, do you prefer the idea of a life?threatening restenosis of your coronary artery¹⁰⁶? It's been, let's see, nearly six months since you had the angioplasty at" ?he reads his records, with difficulty ? "St. Joseph's Hospital in Brewer, Pennsylvania."

 

"They made me watch," Harry tells him. "I could see my own damn heart on TV, full of like Rice Krispies."

 

A tiny Scots smile, dry as a thistle. "Was that so bad?"

 

"It was" ? he searches for the word ? "insulting." In fact when you think about it his whole life from here on in is apt to be insulting. Pacemakers, crutches¹⁰⁷, wheelchairs. Impotence. Once in the Valhalla locker¹⁰⁸ room a very old tall guy ? somebody's guest, he never saw him again ? came out of the shower and his muscles were so shrivelled his thighs from the back blended right up into his buttocks so his asshole seemed to flow down into the entire long space between his legs. His ass had lost its cheeks and Harry couldn't stop staring at the fleshly chasm¹¹⁰.

 

Dr. Morris is making, in a deliberate, tremulous hand, notes to add to his folder¹¹¹. Without looking up, he says, "There are a number of investigative instruments now that don't involve a catheter. Scans using IV technetium 99 can identify acutely damaged heart muscle. Then there is echocardiography. We won't rush into anything. Let's see what you can do on your own, with a healthier regimen."

 

"Great."

 

"I want to see you in four weeks. Here are slips for the blood tests and EKG, and prescriptions¹¹² for a diuretic and a relaxant for you at night. Don't forget the diet lists. Walk. Not violently, but vigorously, two or three miles a day."

 

"O.K.," Rabbit says, beginning to rise from his chair, feeling as light as a boy called into the principal's office and dismissed with a light reprimand.

 

But Dr. Morris fixes him with those sucked?out old blue eyes and says, "Do you have any sort of a job? According to my last information here, you were in charge of a car agency."

 

"That's gone. My son's taken over and my wife wants me to stay out of the kid's way. The agency was founded by her father. They'll probably wind up having to sell it off."

 

"Any hobbies?"

 

"Well, I read a lot of history. I'm a kind of a buff, you could say."

 

"You need more than that. A man needs an occupation. He needs something to do. The best thing for a body is a healthy interest in life. Get interested in something outside yourself, and your heart will stop talking to you."

 

The smell of good advice always makes Rabbit want to run the other way. He resumes rising from the chair and takes Dr. Morris' many slips of paper out into the towering heat. The few other people out on the parking lot seem tinted¹¹³ smoke rising from their shadows, barely cxisting. The radio in the Celica is full of voices yammering about Deion Sanders, about Koch losing the New York Democratic primary to a black, about the SAT scores dropping in Lee County, about President Bush's televised appeal to America's schoolchildren yesterday. "The man's not doing anything!" one caller howls.

 

Well, Rabbit thinks, doing nothing works for Bush, why not for him? On the car seat next to him Dr. Morris' prescriptions and medical slips and Xeroxed diet sheets lift and scatter¹¹⁴ in the breeze from the car air?conditioning. On another station he hears that the Phillies beat the Mets last night, two to one. Dickie Thon homered with one out in the ninth, dropping the pre?season pennant¹¹⁵ favorites five and a half games behind the once?lowly Chicago Cubs¹¹⁶. Harry tries to care but has trouble. Ever since Schmidt retired¹¹⁷. Get interested is the advice, but in truth you are interested in less and less. It's Nature's way.

 

But he does begin to walk. He even drives to the Palmetto Palm Mall and buys a pair of walking Nikes, with a bubble of special hi?tech air to cushion each heel. He sets out between nine and ten in the morning, after eating breakfast and digesting the News?Press, and then again between four and five, returning to a nap and then dinner and then television and a page or two of his book and a sound sleep, thanks to the walking. He explores Deleon. First, he walks the curving streets of low stucco houses within a mile of Valhalla Village, with unfenced front yards of tallish tough grass half?hiding bits of dried palm frond¹¹⁸, a Florida texture¹¹⁹ in that, a cozy¹²⁰ sere¹²¹ Florida scent¹⁵. Encountering a UPS man delivering or a barking small dog ? a flat?faced Pekinese with its silky long hair done up in ribbons ? is like finding life on Mars. Then, growing ever fonder of his Nikes (that bubble in the heel, he thought at first it was just a gimmick¹²² but maybe it does add bounce), he makes his way to the downtown and the river, where the town first began, as a fort in the Seminole wars and a shipping¹²³ point for cattle and cotton.

 

He discovers, some blocks back from the beachfront and the green glass hotels, old neighborhoods where shadowy big spicy¹²⁵ gentle trees, live oaks and gums and an occasional banyan¹²⁶ widening out on its crutches, overhang wooden houses once painted white but flaking¹²⁷ down to gray bareness, with louvered windows and roofs of corrugated¹²⁸ tin. Music rises from within these houses, scratchy radio music, and voices raised in argument or jabbery jubilation¹²⁹, bright fragments of overheard life. The sidewalks are unpaved, small paths such as cats make have been worn diagonally between the trees, in and out of private property, the parched¹³⁰ grass growing in patches, packed dirt littered with pods and nuts. It reminds Harry of those neighborhoods he blundered into trying to get out of Savannah, but also of the town of his childhood, Mt. Judge in the days of Depression and distant war, when people still sat on their front porches, and there were vacant lots and oddshaped cornfields, and men back from work in the factories would water their lawns in the evenings, and people not long off the farm kept chickens in back?yard pens, and peddled¹³² the eggs for odd pennies. Chickens clucking and pecking and suddenly squawking: he hasn't heard that sound for forty years, and hasn't until now realized what he's been missing. For chicken coops tucked here and there dot this sleepy neighborhood he has discovered.

 

In the daytime here, under the heavy late?summer sun, there are few people moving, just women getting in and out of cars with pre?school children. The slams of their car doors carry a long way down the dusty straight streets, under the live oaks. At some corners there are grocery stores that also sell beer and wine in the permissive Southern way, and pastel?painted bars with the door open on a dark interior, and video rental¹³³ places with horror and kung?fu tapes displayed in the window, the boxes' colors being bleached¹³⁴ by the sun. One day he passes an old?fashioned variety store, in a clapboarded one?story building, displaying all sorts of innocent things ? erector sets, model airplane kits¹³⁵, Chinese?checker boards and marbles ? that he hadn't known were still being sold. He almost goes in but doesn't dare. He is too white.

 

Toward late afternoon, when he takes his second walk of the day, the neighborhood begins to breathe, a quickness takes hold, men and boys return to it, and Rabbit walks more briskly, proclaiming with his stride that he is out for the exercise, just passing through, not spying. These blocks are black, and there are miles of them, a vast stagnant¹³⁶ economic marsh¹³⁷ left over from Deleon's Southern past, supplying the hotels and condos with labor, with waiters and security guards and chambermaids. To Harry, whose Deleon has been a glitzy community of elderly refugees, these blocks feel like a vast secret, and as the shadows lengthen¹³⁸ under the trees, and the chickens cease their day?long clucking, his senses widen to grasp the secret better, as when in whispering knickers he would move through Mt. Judge unseen, no taller than a privet hedge, trying to grasp the unspeakable adult meaning of the lit windows, of the kitchen noises filtering across the yards mysterious and damp as jungles. An unseen child would cry, a dog would bark, and he would tingle¹³⁹ with the excitement of simply being himself, at this point of time and space, with worlds to know and forever to live, Harold C. Angstrom, called Hassy in those lost days never to be relived. He prolongs his walks, feeling stronger, more comfortable in this strange city where he is at last beginning to exist as more than a visitor; but as darkness approaches, and the music from the glowing slatted windows intensifies¹⁴⁰, he begins to feel conspicuous¹⁴¹, his whiteness begins to glimmer¹⁴², and he heads back to the car, which he has taken to parking in a lot or at a meter downtown, as base for his widening explorations.

 

Coming back one day around six?thirty, just in time for a shower and a look at the news while his TV dinner heats in the oven, he is startled by the telephone's ringing. He has ceased to listen for it as intensely as in that first lonely week. When it does ring, it has been one of those recordings¹⁴³ ("Hello there, this is Sandra") selling health insurance or a no?frills burial plan or reduced?fee investment services, going through all the numbers by computer, you wonder how it pays, Harry always hangs up and can't imagine who would listen and sign up for this stuff. But this time the caller is Nelson, his son.

 

"Dad?"

 

"Yes," he says, gathering¹⁴⁴ up his disused voice, trying to imagine what you can say to a son whose wife you've boffed. "Nellie," he says, "how the hell is everybody?"

 

The distant voice is gingerly, shy, also not sure what is appropriate. "We're fine, pretty much."

 

"You're staying clean?" He didn't mean to take the offensive so sharply; the other voice, fragile in its distance, is stunned into silence for a moment.

 

"You mean the drugs. Sure. I don't even think about coke, except at NA meetings. Like they say, you give your life over to a higher power. You ought to try it, Dad."

 

"I'm working on it. Listen, no kidding, I am. I'm proud ofyou, Nelson. Keep taking it a day at a time, that's all anybody can do."

 

Again, the boy seems momentarily stuck. Maybe this came over as too preachy. Who is he to preach? Shit, he was just trying to share, like you're supposed to. Harry holds his tongue.

 

"There's been so much going on around here," Nelson tells him, "I really haven't thought about myself that much. A lot of my problem, I think, was idleness. Hanging around the lot all day waiting for some action, for the customers to show up, really preys¹⁴⁵ on your selfconfidence. I mean, you have no control. It was degrading."

 

"I did it, for fifteen years I did it, every day."

 

"Yeah, but you have a different sort of temperament¹⁴⁶. You're more happy?go?lucky."

 

"Stupid, you mean."

 

"Hey Dad, I didn't call up to quarrel. This isn't exactly fun for me, I've been putting it off. But I got some things to say."

 

"O.K., say 'em." This isn't working out. He doesn't want to be this way, he is putting his anger at Janice onto the kid. Her silence has hurt him. He can't stop, adding, "You've sure taken your time saying anything, I've been down here all by myself for two weeks. I saw old Dr. Morris and he thinks I'm so far gone I should stop eating."

 

"Well," Nelson says back, "if you were so crazy to talk you could have come over that night instead of getting in the car and disappearing. We weren't going to kill you, we just wanted to talk it through, to understand what had happened, really, in terns of family dynamics¹⁴⁷. Pru's as good as admitted it was a way of getting in touch with her own father."

 

"With Blubberlips Lubell? Tell her thanks a lot." But he is not displeased¹⁴⁸ to hear Nelson taking a firmer tone with him. You're not a man in this world until you've got on top of your father. In his own case, it was easier, the system had beaten Pop so far down already. "Coming over there that night felt like a set?up," he explains to Nelson.

 

"Well, Mom didn't think any of us should try to get in touch if that's the kind of cowardly trick you were going to pull. She wasn't too happy you telephoned Pru instead of her, either."

 

"I kept trying our number but she's never home."

 

"Well, whatever. She wanted me to let you know a couple things. One, she has an offer on the house, not as much as she'd hoped for, one eighty?five, but the market's pretty flat right now and she thinks we should take it. It would reduce the debt to Brewer Trust to the point where we could manage it."

 

"Let me get this straight. This is the Penn Park house you're talking about? The little gray stone house I've always loved?"

 

"What other house could you think? We can't tell the Mt. Judge house ?where would we all live?"

 

"Tell me, Nelson,. I'm just curious. How does it feel to have smoked up your parents' house in crack?"

 

The boy begins to sound more like himself. He whines¹⁴⁹, "I keep telling you, I was never that much into crack. The crack just came into it toward the end, it was so much more convenient than freebasing. I'm sorry, Jesus. I went to rehab, I took the vows¹⁵⁰, I'm trying to make amends¹⁵¹ like they say. Who are you to still be on my case?"

 

Who indeed? "O.K.," Rabbit says. "Sorry to mention it. What else did your mother tell you to tell me?"

 

"Hyundai is interested in the lot, the location is just what they want and don't have. They'd enlarge the building out toward the back like I always wanted to do." Goodbye, Paraguay, Rabbit thinks. "They'd keep the service people on, with a little retraining, and some of the sales force, Elvira might go over to Rudy's on 422. Hyundai's made her a counteroffer. But they don't want me. No way. Word gets around, I guess, among these Oriental companies."

 

"I guess," Harry says. Too much ninjó not enough giri. "I'm sorry."

 

"Don't be sorry, Dad. It frees me up. I'm thinking of becoming a social worker."

 

"A social worker!"

 

"Sure, why not? Help other people instead of myself for a change. It's a two?year course at the Penn State extension, I could still get in for this October."

 

"Sure, why not, come to think of it," Rabbit agrees. He is beginning to dislike himself, for being so agreeable, for wanting to worm back into everybody's good graces.

 

"Me and the lawyers all think if it goes through we should lease to Hyundai rather than sell; if we sell the house in Penn Park we wouldn't need any more capital and should keep the lot as an investment, Mom says it's going to be worth millions by the year 2000."

 

"Wow," Harry says unenthusiastically. "You and your mom are quite a team. Anything else to hit me with?"

 

"Well, this maybe isn't any of your business, but Pru thought it was. We're trying to get pregnant."

 

"We?"

 

"We want to have a third child. All this has made us realize how much we've been neglecting our marriage and how much really we have invested in making it work. Not only for Judy and Roy, but for ourselves. We love each other, Dad."

 

Maybe this is supposed to make him feel jealous, and there is a pang¹⁵², just under the right ventricle. But Rabbit's basic emotion is relief, at being excused from having to keep any kind of candle burning at Pru's shrine¹⁵³. Good luck to her, her and her sweet slum hunger. "Great," he tells the boy. He can't resist adding, "Though I'm not so sure social workers make enough to support three kids." And, getting mad, feeling squeezed, he goes on, "And tell your mother I'm not so sure I want to sign our house away. It's not like the lot, we're co?owners, and she needs my signature on the sales agreement. Ifwe split up, my signature ought to be worth quite a bit, tell her."

 

"Split up?" The boy sounds frightened. "Who's saying anything about splitting up?"

 

"Well," Harry says, "we seem split up now. At least I don't see her down here, unless she's under the bed. But don't you worry about it, Nelson. You've been through this before and I felt lousy about it. You get on with your own life. It sounds like you're doing fine. I'm proud of you. Or did I say that?"

 

"But everything kind of depends on selling the Penn Park house."

 

"Tell her I'll think about it. Tell Judy and Roy I'll give 'em a call one of these days."

 

"But, Dad -"

 

"Nelson, I got this low?cal frozen dinner in the oven and the buzzer¹⁵⁴ went off five minutes ago. Tell your mother to call me sometime if she wants to talk about it. Must run. Terrific to talk to you. Really." He hangs up.

 

He has been buying low?cal frozen meals, raw vegetables like cabbage and carrots, and no more sodium?laden¹⁵⁵ munchies. He has lost three pounds on the bathroom scale, if he weighs himself naked and right in the morning after taking a crap. At night, to keep himself away from the TV and the breadbox in the kitchen drawer and the beer in the refrigerator, he gets into bed and reads the book Janice gave him for last Christmas. Its author has joined Roy Orbison and Bart Giamatti in that beyond where some celebrities¹⁵⁶ like Elvis and Marilyn expand like balloons and become gods but where most shrivel and shrink into yellowing obituaries¹⁵⁷ not much bigger than Harry's will be in the Brewer Standard. In the News?Press he doesn't expect to get an inch. He read in her obituary¹⁵⁸ that the author had been a niece of Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury¹⁵⁹ Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Harry remembers Morgenthau: the pointy?nosed guy who kept urging him and his schoolmates to buy war stamps with their pennies. It's a small world, and a long life in a way.

 

He has reached the exciting part of the book, where, after years of frustration¹⁶⁰ and starvation and lousy support from his fellow would?be Americans, Washington has hopes of joining up with a French fleet sailing from the Caribbean to trap Cornwallis and his army at York in the Chesapeake Bay. It seems impossible that it will work. The logistics of it need perfect timing¹⁶¹, and the com-munications take weeks, ships to land and back. Anyway, what's in it for France? Instead of an aggressive ally, they were tied to a depen- dent³⁵ client, unable to establish a strong government and requiring trans-fusions of men?at?arms and money to keep its war effort alive. The war, like all wars, was proving more expensive for the Bourbons than planned. What was in it for the soldiers? The American troops, for too long orphans¹⁶² of the battle, unkempt, underfed and unpaid¹⁶³ while Congress rode in carriages and dined at well?laid tables, would not march without pay. What was in it for Washington? He couldn't even have known he'd get his face on the dollar bill. But he hangs in there, patch-ing, begging, scrambling, his only assets the fatheadedness of the British commanders, all gouty noblemen wishing they were home in their castles, and the fact that, just like in Vietnam, the natives weren't basically friendly. Washington gets his troops across the Hudson while Clinton cowers¹⁶⁴ defensively in New York. DeGrasse gets his fleet heading north because Admiral Rodney cau-tiously chooses the defense¹⁶⁵ of Barbados over pursuit. But, still, the odds¹³¹ of the troops and the ships arriving at the Chesapeake at the same time and Cornwallis remaining a sitting duck in Yorktown are preposterous¹⁶⁶. All that transport, all those men trudging¹⁶⁷ and horses galloping¹⁶⁸ along the New World's sandy, woodsy roads, winding¹⁶⁹ through forests, past lonely clearings, among bears and wolves and chipmunks¹⁷⁰ and Indians and passenger pigeons, it makes Harry sleepy to think about. The tangle⁹⁷ of it all, the trouble. He reads ten pages a night; his is a slow march.

 

He does not always gravitate in his health walks to the black section of Deleon; he discovers and explores posh streets he never dreamed were there, long roads parallel to the beach, giving the passerby¹⁷¹ glimpses of backs of houses that front on the ocean, wooden back stairs and sundecks, three?car garages at the end of driveways surfaced in crushed seashells, plantings of hibiscus and jacaranda, splashing sounds coming from a fenced?in swimming pool, the purr of air?conditioners lost amid the retreating and advancing shush of the surf. Posh, shoosh. Some people have it made; not for them a condo where they steal your view of the Gulf from the balcony. No matter how hard you climb, there are always the rich above you, who got there without effort. Lucky stiffs, holding you down, making you discontent so you buy more of the crap advertised on television.

 

Occasional breaks in the developed oceanfront property permit a look at the Gulf, its striped sails and scooting jet skis, its parachutes being pulled by powerboats, its far gray stationary¹⁷² freighters. Bicyclers in bathing suits pass him with a whirr; a beefy young mailman in blue?gray shorts and socks to match pushes along one of these pouches¹⁷³ on rubber wheels they have now, like baby strollers. We're getting soft. A nation of couch potatoes. The man who brought the mail to Jackson Road, he forgets his name, an iron?haired man with a handsome unhappy face, Mom said his wife had left him, used to carry this scuffed¹⁷⁵ leather pouch¹⁷⁴, leaning to one side against its pull especially on Fridays when the maga-zines came to the houses, Life and the Post. Mr. Abendroth. That was his name. Left by his wife: Harry as a boy used to try to imag-ine what could have been so terribly wrong with him, to earn such a disgrace in life.

 

His Nikes with the bubbles of air in the heels take him along crushed?shell sidewalks, so white they hurt his eyes when the sun is high. And he walks through an area of marinas cut into coral shell, neat straight streets of water sliced out, full of powerboats tied up obedient and empty, their rub rails tapping the sliced coral, their curved sides seeming to tremble and twitch¹⁷⁶ in the sunlight reflected in bobbling stripes off the calm water as it lightly kicks and laps. Tap. Lap. No Trespassing¹⁷⁷ signs abound¹⁷⁸, but not so much for him, a respectable?looking white man past middle age. Each boat ties up as much money as a house used to cost and a number of them no doubt are involved in cocaine¹⁷⁹ smuggling¹⁸⁰, put?putting out in the dead of the night when the moon is down, crime and the sea have always mixed, pirates ever since there have been ships, law ends with the land, man is nothing out there, a few bubbles as he goes down under the mindless waves: that must be why Harry has always been afraid of it, the water. He loves freedom but a grassy¹⁸¹ field is his idea of enough. People down here are crazy about boats but not him. Give him terra firma. Away from the water he walks miles of plain neighborhoods, glorified¹⁸² cabins put up after the war for people without much capital who yet wanted a piece of the sun Washington won for them or else were born here, this strange thin vacation?land their natural home, their houses shedding paint like a sunbather's clothes, surrounded not by barberry and yew¹⁸⁴ bushes but spiky¹⁸⁵ cactuses fattening¹⁸⁶ in the baking heat, America too hot and dry really for European civilization to take deep root.

 

But it is the widespread black section that draws him back, he doesn't quite know why, whether because he is exerting his national right to go where he pleases or because this ignored part of Deleon is in some way familiar, he's been there before, before his life got too soft. On the Monday after a pretty good weekend for blacks ? a black Miss America got elected, and Randall Cunningham brought the Eagles back from being down to the Redskins twenty to nothing ? Rabbit ventures several blocks farther than he has dared walk before and comes upon, beyond an abandoned high school built about when Brewer High was, an ochre?brick edifice¹⁸⁷ with tall gridded windows and a piece of Latin in cement over the main entrance, a recreation field ? a wide tan emptiness under the sun, with a baseball diamond and backstop at the far end, a pair of soccer goals set up in the outfield, and, nearer the street, two pitted clay tennis courts with wire nets slack and bent from repeated assaults and, also of pale tamped¹⁸⁹ earth, a basketball court. A backboard and netless hoop¹⁹⁰ lifted up on pipe legs preside at either end. A small pack of black boys are scrimmaging around one basket. Legs, shouts. Puffs¹⁹¹ of dust rise from their striving, stop?and?starting feet. Some benches have been placed in an unmowed strip of seedy blanched¹⁹² weeds next to the cement sidewalk. The benches are backless so you can sit facing the street or facing the field. Rabbit seats himself on the end of one, facing neither way, so he can watch the basketball while seeming to be doing something else, just resting a second on his way through, not looking at anything, minding his own business.

 

The kids, six of them, in shorts and tank tops, vary in heights and degrees of looseness, but all have that unhurried look he likes to see, missing shots or making them, passing back out and then crossing over in a screen, dribbling¹⁹³ as if to drive in and then stopping dead to pass off in a droll¹⁹⁴ behind?the?back toss, imitating the fancy stuff they see on television, all together making a weave, nobody trying too hard, it's a long life, a long afternoon. Their busy legs are up to their knees in a steady haze¹⁹⁵ of pink dust lifting from the clay, their calves¹⁹⁶ dulled but for where sweat makes dark rivulets¹⁹⁷, their sneakers solidly coated a rosy¹⁹⁸ earth color. There is a breeze here, stirred up by the empty space stretching to the baseball backstop. Rabbit's watch says four o'clock, school is over, but the brick high school has been abandoned, the real action is elsewhere, at some modern low glassy high school you take a bus to, out on the bulldozed edges of the city. Rabbit is happy to think that the world isn't yet too crowded to have a few of these underused pockets left. Grass, he observes, has crept onto the dirt court, in the middle, where the pounding, pivoting¹⁹⁹ feet rarely come. Shallow semicircular troughs have been worn around the baskets at either end.

 

Though he is sitting some distance away ? a good firm chip shot, or a feathered wedge ? the players eye him. They're doing this for themselves, not as a show for some fat old honky walking around where he shouldn't be. Where's his car? Feeling heat from their sidelong glances, not wanting so delicate a relation to turn awkward, Harry sighs ostentatiously and heaves himself up from the bench and walks away the way he came, taking note of the street signs so he can find this peaceful place again. If he comes every day he'll blend in. Blacks don't have this racist²⁰⁰ thing whites do, about keeping their neighborhoods pure. They can't be too angry these days, with their third Miss America just elected. The funny thing about the final judges' panel, it held two celebrities he feels he knows, has taken into himself, loves, actually: Phylicia Rashad, who for his money is the real star of The Cosby Show, with those legs and that nice loose smile, and Mike Schmidt, who had the grace to pack it in when he could no longer produce. So there is life after death of a sort. Schmidt judges. Skeeter lives. And the weekend before last, a young black girl beat Chrissie Evert in the last U.S. Open match she'll ever play. She packed it in too. There comes a time.

 

Now the News?Press wears daily banner headlines tracking Hurricane Hugo ?Deadly Hugo roars into islands, Hugo rips into Puerto Rico. Tuesday, he walks in the expensive beachfront areas and scans the sky for hurricane signs, for clouds God's finger might write, and reads none. In the hall that evening, happening to be standing²⁰¹ with him at the elevators, Mrs. Zabntski turns those veiny protuberant²⁰² eyes up at him out of her skeletal face and pronounces, "Terrible thing."

 

"What is?"

 

"The thing coming," she says, her white hair looking already wind?tossed, lifted out from her skull²⁰³ in all directions.

 

"Oh, it'll never get here," Harry reassures²⁰⁴ her. "It's all this media hype. You know, hype, phony hullabaloo. They have to make news out of something, every night."

 

"Yeah?" Mrs. Zabritski says, coyly. The way her neck twists into her hunched²⁰⁵ shoulders gives her head a flirtatious²⁰⁶ tilt she may not mean. But then again she may. Didn't he hear on some TV show that even in the Nazi²⁰⁷ death camps there were romances? This windowless corridor, with its peach?and?silver wallpaper, is an eerie²⁰⁸ cryptlike space he is always anxious to get out of. The big vase on the marble half?moon table, with green glaze²⁰⁹ running into golden, could be holding someone's ashes. Still the elevator refuses to arrive. His female companion clears her throat and volunteers, "Wednesday buffet²¹⁰ tomorrow. I like extra much the buffet."

 

"Me too," he tells her. "Except I can't choose and then I wind up taking too much and then eating it all." What is she suggesting, that they go together? That they have a date? He's stopped telling her that Janice is coming down.

 

"Do you do the kosher?"

 

"I don't know. Those scallops wrapped in bacon, are they kosher?"

 

She stares at him as if he were the crazy one, stares so hard her eyeballs seem in danger of snapping the bloody²¹¹ threads that hold them fast in their sockets. Then she must have decided²¹² he was joking, for a careful stiff smile slowly spreads across the lower half of her face, crisscrossed by wrinkles like a quilt sewn of tiny squares of skin. He thinks of that little sniffly slut in the Polish?American Club, her silken skin below the waist, below the sweater, and feels bitter toward Janice, for leaving him at his age at the mercy of women. He eats at his table alone but is so disturbed by Mrs. Zabritski's making a pass at him that he takes two Nitrostats to quell²¹³ his heart.

 

After dinner, in bed, on September 1, 1781, the French troops make a dazzling impression upon the citizens of Philadelphia. Ecstatic applause greeted the dazzling spectacle of the French as they passed in review in their bright white uniforms and white plumes²¹⁴. Wearing colored lapels and collars of pink, green, violet or blue identifying their regiments²¹⁵, they were the most brilliantly appointed soldiers in Europe. Joseph Reed, the President of the State of Pennsylvania, entertained the French officers at a ceremonial dinner of which the main feature was an immense ninety pound turtle with soup served in its shell. Talk about cholesterol²¹⁶. Didn't seem to bother them, but, then, how old did those poor devils get to be? Not fifty?six, most of them. The troops are scared to march south for fear of malaria²¹⁷. Rochambeau has talked Washington out of attacking New York, and at this point seems to be the brains of the Revolution. He wants to rendezvous²¹⁸ with De Grasse at the head of the Chesapeake. De Grasse has evaded²¹⁹ Hood¹²⁴ by sailing the back?alley²²⁰ route between the Bahamas and Cuba. It will never work.

 

Hugo headingfor U.S., the News?Press headline says next morning. For breakfast now, Harry has switched from Frosted Flakes²²¹ to Nabisco Shredded²²² Wheat 'n' Bran, though he forgets exactly why, something about fiber²²³ and the bowels²²⁵. He does hope he never reaches the point where he has to think all the time about shitting. Ma Springer, toward the end, got to talking about her bowel²²⁴ movements like they were family heirlooms, each one precious. On the evening news half the commercials are for laxatives and the other half for hemorrhoid medicine, as if only assholes watch the news. That walking corpse²²⁶ in the locker room. After breakfast Harry walks along Pindo Palm Boulevard and brings back a bag of groceries from Winn Dixie, passing up the Keystone Corn Chips and going heavy on the low?cal frozen dinners. The day's predicted showers come at noon but seem over by three and in a kind of trance Rabbit drives into downtown Deleon, parks at a two?hour meter, and walks the mile to the playing field he discovered Monday. Today two sets of boys are on the dirt court, each using one basket. One set is energetically playing a two?on?two, but the other consists of three boys at a desultory²²⁷ game of what he used to call Horse. You take a shot, and if it goes in the next guy has to make the same shot, and if he misses he's an H, or an H?O, and when he's a HORSE he's out. Rabbit takes the bench within a chip shot of this group and frankly²²⁸ watches ? after all, is it a free country or not?

 

The three are in their early teens at best, and don't know what to make of this sudden uninvited audience. One of these old ofays after some crack or a black boy's dick? Their languid motions stiffen²²⁹, they jostle shoulders and pass each other sliding silent messages that make one another giggle²³⁰. One of them perhaps deliberately²³¹ lets a pass flip²³² off his hands and bounce Harry's way. He leans off his bench end and stops it left?handed, not his best hand but it remembers. It remembers exactly. That taut pebbled²³³ roundness, the smooth seams between, the little circlet for taking the air valve. A big pebbled ball that wants to fly. He flips²³⁴ it back, a bit awkwardly, sitting, but still with a little zing to show he's handled one before. Somewhat satisfied, the trio resume Horse, trying skyhooks, under?the?basket layups, fall?back jumpers, crazy improvised²³⁵ underhanded or sidearm shots that now and then go in, by accident or miracle. One such wild toss rockets off the rim⁴⁰ and comes Rabbit's way. This time he stands up with the ball and advances with it toward the boys. He feels himself big, a big shape with the sun behind him. His shadow falls across the face of the nearest boy, who wears an unravelling²³⁶ wool cap of many colors. Another boy has the number 8 on his tank top. "What's the game?" Harry asks them. "You call it Horse?"

 

"We call it Three," the wool cap answers reluctantly. "Three misses, you out." He reaches for the ball but Rabbit lifts it out of his reach.

 

"Lemme take a shot, could I?"

 

The boys' eyes consult, they figure this is the way to get the ball back. "Go 'head," Wool Cap says.

 

Harry is out on an angle to the left maybe twenty feet and as his knees dip and his right arm goes up he feels the heaviness of the years, all those blankets of time, since he did this last. A bank shot. He has the spot on the backboard in his sights, but the ball doesn't quite have the length and, instead of glancing off and in, jams between the wood and hoop and kicks back into the hands of Number 8.

 

"Hey man," the third one, the one who looks most Hispanic and most sullen²³⁷, taunts²³⁸ him, "you're history!"

 

"I'm rusty," Rabbit admits. "The air down here is different than I'm used to."

 

"You want to see somebody sink that shot?" Number 8, the tallest, asks him. He stands where Harry stood, and opens his mouth and lets his pink tongue dangle²³⁹ the way Michael Jordan does. He gently paws the air above his forehead so the ball flies from his long loose brown hand. But he misses also, hitting the rim on the right. This breaks some of the ice. Rabbit holds still, waiting to see what they will do with him.

 

The boy in the hat of concentric circles, a Black Muslim hat, Harry imagines, takes the rebound²⁴⁰ and now says, "Let me sink that mother," and indeed it does go in, though the boy kind of flings it and, unlike Number 8, will never be a Michael Jordan.

 

Now or never. Harry asks, "Hey, how about letting me play one game of, whaddeya call it, Three? One quick game and I'll go. I'm just out walking for exercise."

 

The sullen Hispanic?looking boy says to the others, "Why you lettin' this man butt¹⁰⁹ in? This ain't for my blood," and goes off and sits on the bench. But the other two, figuring perhaps that one white man is the tip of the iceberg²⁴¹ and the quickest way around trouble is through it, oblige the interloper and let him play. He goes a quick two misses down ? a floating double?pump Number 8 pulls off over the stretched hands of an imaginary crowd of defenders²⁴², and a left?handed pop the wool hat establishes and Number 8 matches ? but then Rabbit finds a ghost of his old touch and begins to dominate. Take a breath of oxygen, keep your eye on the front of the rim, and it gets easy. The distance between your hands and the hoop gets smaller and smaller. You and it, ten feet off the ground, above it all. He even shows them a stunt²⁴³ he perfected in the gravel²⁴⁴ alleys²⁴⁵ of Mt. Judge, the two?handed backwards²⁴⁶ set, the basket sighted upside, the head bent way back.

 

Seen upside down, how blue and stony²⁴⁷?gray the cloudy sky appears ? an abyss, a swallowing, upheaving kind of earth! He sinks the backwards set shot and all three of them laugh. These kids never take two?handed set shots, it's not black style, and by doing nothing else from five steps out Rabbit might have cleaned up. But, since they were good sports to let him in, he lets himself get sloppysilly on a few one?handers, and Number 8 gains back control.

 

"Here you see a Kareem sky?hook," the boy says, and does sink a hook from about six feet out, on the right.

 

"When I was a kid," Rabbit tells them, "a guy called Bob Pettit, played for St. Louis, used to specialize in those." Almost on purpose, he misses. "That gives me three. I'm out. Thanks for the game, gentlemen."

 

They murmur²⁴⁸ wordlessly, like bees, at this farewell. To the boy sitting on the bench out of protest, he says, "All yours, amigo." Bending down to pick up the furled golf umbrella he brought along in case it rained again, Harry smiles to see that his walking Nikes are coated with a pink?tan dust just like these black boys' sneakers.

 

He walks back to his car at the meter feeling lightened, purged²⁴⁹ like those people on the Milk of Magnesia commercials who drift around in fuzzy focus in their bathrobes ecstatic at having become "regular." His bit of basketball has left him feeling cocky. He stops at a joy Food Store on the way back to Valhalla Village and buys a big bag of onion?flavored potato chips and a frozen lasagna to heat up in the oven instead of going down to the buffet and risking running into Mrs. Zabritski. He's beginning to think he owes her something, for keeping him company on the floor, for being another lonely refugee.

 

In the condo, the phone is silent. The evening news is all Hugo and looting in St. Croix and St. Thomas in the wake of the devastation²⁵⁰ and a catastrophic health?plan repeal²⁵¹ in Washington that gets big play down here because of all the elderly and a report on that French airliner²⁵² that disappeared on the way from Chad to Paris. The wreckage²⁵³ has been found, scattered²⁵⁴ over a large area of the Sahara desert. From the wide distribution of the debris²⁵⁵ it would appear to have been a bomb. Just like that plane over Lockerbie, Rabbit thinks. His cockiness ebbs²⁵⁶. Every plane had a bomb ticking away in its belly. We can explode any second.

 

The rooms and furniture of the condo in these days he's been living here alone have taken on the tension and menace of a living person who is choosing to remain motionless. At night he can feel the rooms breathe and think. They are thinking about him. The blank TV, the blond sofa, the birds made of small white shells, the taut bedspread in the room where Nelson and Pru stayed last New Year's, the aqua kitchen cabinets that seemed too intense once they were painted and still do, the phone that refuses to ring all have a certain power, the ability to outlast²⁵⁷ him. He is flesh, they are inanimate things. The well?sealed hollow space that greeted his arrival seventeen days ago now does brim with fear, with a nervous expectancy²⁵⁸ that the babble²⁵⁹ of the TV, the headlines in the paper, the ticking warmth of the oven and the minutes ticking down on the timer panel, even the soft scuffle and rustle²⁶⁰ of his body's own movements hold at bay for their duration; but when these small commotions²⁶¹ are over the silence comes back, the presence of absence, the unanswerable question that surrounds his rustling²⁶² upright stalk of warm blood. The lasagna is gluey and like napalm on the tongue but he eats it all, a portion for two, while flipping²⁶³ channels between Jennings and Brokaw looking for the best clips of hurricane damage and wind, wild wet wind screaming through rooms just like this one, knocking out entire glass sliding doors and skimming them around like pie plates. Everything flies loose, the world is crashing, nothing in life can be nailed down. Terrific.

 

He suddenly needs, as suddenly as the need to urinate comes upon a man taking diuretics, to talk to his grandchildren. He is a grandfather, they can't deny him that. He has to look up Nelson's number in the address book on the fake?bamboo desk, it was changed last winter, he's forgotten it already, your mind at Harry's age lets all sorts of things slip. He finds the book, kept in Janice's half?formed schoolgirl hand, in a variety of slants²⁶⁴. He dials, hav-ing to hang up once when he thinks he might have dialled an 8 for a 9. Pru answers. Her voice is casual, light, tough. He almost hangs up again.

 

"Hi," he says. "It's me."

 

"Harry, you really shouldn't be -"

 

"I'm not. I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to my grandchildren. Isn't it about time for Roy's birthday?"

 

"Next month."

 

"Just think. He'll be four."

 

"He is four. He'll be five."

 

"Time for kindergarten," Harry says. "Incredible. I understand you and little Nellie are working on a third. Terrific."

 

"Well, we're just seeing what happens."

 

"No more condoms, huh? What about him and AIDS?"

 

"Harry, please. This is none of your business. But he was tested, if you must know, and is HIV?negative."

 

"Terrific. One more thing off my mind. The kid's straight, and the kid's clean. Pru, I think I'm going crazy down here. My dreams ? they're like cut?up comic strips."

 

He can picture her smiling wryly²⁶⁵ at this, her mouth tugging²⁶⁶ down on one side, her free hand pushing back from her forehead with two fingers stray strands²⁶⁷ of carrot?colored hair. Sexy; but what has it got her? A would?be social worker for a husband, liv-ing space in another woman's house, and a future of drudging and watching her looks fade away in the mirror. Her voice in his ear is like a periscope²⁶⁸ glimpse, blurred²⁶⁹ by salt spray, of the upper world. She is up there, he is down here.

 

Her tone is changing, sinking toward friendliness²⁷⁰. Once you've fucked them, their voices ever hold these warm grainy traces. "Harry, what are you doing down there for amusement?"

 

"Oh, I walk around a lot, getting to know the town. Nice old town, Deleon. Tell Janice if you ever see her that there's a rich Jewish widow giving me the eye."

 

"She's right here for dinner, actually. We're celebrating because she sold a house. Not your house, she can't sell that until you agree, but a house for the real?estate company, for Pearson and Schrack. She's showing houses for them weekends, till she gets her license²⁷¹."

 

"That's fantastic! Put her on and I'll congratulate her."

 

Pru hesitates. "I'll have to ask her if she wants to talk to you."

 

His stomach feels hollow suddenly, scared. "You don't have to do that. I called to talk to the kids, honest."

 

"I'll put Judy on, she's right at my elbow, all excited about the hurricane. You take care of yourself, Harry."

 

"Sure. You know me. Careful."

 

"I know you," she says. "A crazy man." She sounded Dutch, the cozy settled way she said that. She's assimilating. One more middle?aged Brewer broad.

 

There is a clatter²⁷² and whispering and now Judy has the phone and cries, "Oh Grandpa, we're all so worried about you and the hurricane!"

 

He says, "Who's all so worried? Not my Judy. Not after she brought me in on that crippled Sunfish. The TV says Hugo is going to hit the Carolinas. That's six hundred miles away. It was sunny here today, mostly. I played a little basketball with some kids not much older than you."

 

"It rained here. All day."

 

"And you're having Grandma to dinner tonight," he tells her.

 

Judy says, "She says she doesn't want to talk to you. What did you do to make her so mad?"

 

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I channel?surfed too much. Hey, Judy, know what? On the way down I drove right by Disney World, and I promised myself that the next time you're here we'll all go."

 

"You don't have to. A lot of the kids at school have been, and they say it gets boring."

 

"How's school going?"

 

"I like the teachers and all but I can't stand the other kids. They're all assholes."

 

"Don't say that. Such language. What's the matter, do they ignore you?"

 

"I wish they would. They tease me about my freckles²⁷³. They call me Carrottop." Her little voice breaks.

 

"Well, then. They like you. They think you're terrific. Just don't wear too much lipstick²⁷⁴ until you're fifteen. Remember what I told you last time we talked?"

 

"You said don't force it."

 

"Right. Don't force it. Let nature do its work. Do what your mommy and daddy tell you. They love you very much."

 

She wearily sighs, "I know."

 

"You're the light of their lives. You ever hear that expression before, `the light of their lives'?"

 

"No."

 

"Well then, you've learned something. Now go do your thing, honey. Could you put Roy on?"

 

"He's too dumb to talk."

 

"No he's not. Put him on. Tell him his grandpa wants to give him some words of wisdom."

 

The phone clatters²⁷⁵ down and in the background there is a kind of shredded wheat of family noises ? he thinks he even hears Janice's voice, sounding decisive the way Ma Springer's used to. Footsteps approach through the living room he knows so well ? the Barcalounger, the picture windows with the drawn²⁷⁶ curtains, the piecrust?edged knickknack table, though the green glass egg, with the teardrop of emptiness inside, that used to sit on it is now on the shelves here, a few feet from his eyes. Pru's voice says, "Janice says she doesn't want to talk to you, Harry, but here's Roy."

 

"Hi, Roy," Harry says.

 

Silence. God on the line again.

 

"How's it going up there? I hear it rained all day."

 

More silence.

 

"Are you being a good boy?"

 

Silence, but with a touch of breathing in it.

 

"You know," Harry says, "it may not feel like much to you right now, but these are important years."

 

"Hi, Grandpa," the child's voice at last pronounces.

 

"Hi," Harry has to respond, though it puts him back to the beginning. "I miss you down here," he says.

 

Silence.

 

"A little birdie comes to the balcony every morning and asks, `Where's Roy? Where's Roy?"'

 

Silence, which is what this lie deserves. But then the child comes out with the other thing he's perhaps been coached to say: "I love you, Grandpa."

 

"Well, I love you, Roy. Happy Birthday, by the way, for next month. Five years old! Think of it."

 

"Happy Birthday," the child's voice repeats, in that oddly deep, manlike way it sometimes has.

 

Harry finds himself waiting for more but then realizes there is no more. "O.K.," he says, "I guess that does it, Roy. I've loved talking with you. Give everybody my love. Hang up now. You can hang up."

 

Silence, and then a clumsy soft clatter, and the buzz of a dead line. Strange, Rabbit thinks, hanging up his own receiver, that he had to make the child do it first. Chicken in a suicide pact²⁷⁷.

 

Alone, he is terrified by the prospect²⁷⁸ of an entire evening in these rooms. It is seven?thirty, plenty of time to still make the buffet, though his mouth feels tender from all that hot lasagna and the bagful of onion potato chips, full of sharp edges and salt. He will just go down and pick a few low?cal items off the buffet table. Talking to his family has exhilarated him; he feels them all safely behind him. Without showering, he puts on a shirt, coat, and tie. Mrs. Zabritski isn't at the elevator. In the half?empty Mead²⁷⁹ Hall, under the berserk gaze of the Viking warriors²⁸⁰ in the big ceramic²⁸¹ mural, he helps himself generously to, among other items, the scallops wrapped in bacon. The mix of textures²⁸², of crisp curved bacon and rubbery yielding scallops, in his sensitive mouth feels so delicious his appetite becomes bottomless. He goes back for more, and more creamed asparagus and potato pancakes, then suddenly is so full his heart feels squeezed. He takes a Nitrostat and skips dessert and coffee, even decal Carefully he treads back across the alien texture of that Florida grass and the carpeted traffic island beneath the warm dome²⁸³ of stars, really a deep basin we are looking down into, he saw that this afternoon when he did the upside?down set shot, we are stuck fast to the Earth like flies on a ceiling. He feels stuffed and dizzy. The air is thick, the Milky²⁸⁴ Way just barely shows, like the faint line of fair hair up the middle of some women's bellies²⁸⁵.

 

He gets back into the condo in time for the last fifteen minutes of Grouting Pains, the only show on TV where every member of the family is repulsive²⁸⁶, if you count Roseanne's good?old?boy husband as not repulsive. Then he flips back and forth²⁸⁷ between Unsolved Mysteries on Channel 20 and an old Abbott and Costello on 36 that must have been funnier when it came out, the same year he graduated from high school. Costello's yips seem mechanical and aggravating²⁸⁸, and Abbott looks old, and cruel when he slaps his fat buddy²⁸⁹. People yelled and snapped at one another like animals then. Maybe the Sixties did some good after all. Among the commercials that keep interrupting is that Nissan Infiniti one of crickets and lily ponds, no car at all, just pure snob²⁹⁰ Nature. The Lexus commercials he's seen are almost as vague ? an idyllic²⁹¹ road shiny with rain. They're both skirting the issue: can the Japanese establish a luxury image? Or will people with thirty?five thousand to burn prefer to buy European? Thank God, Harry no longer has to care. Jake down toward Pottstown has to care, but not Harry.

 

He brushes his teeth, taking care to floss and rinse²⁹² with Peridex. Without Janice here he is becoming staid in his habits, another old?fogey bachelor fussing with his plumbing²⁹³ and nostril⁸⁷ hairs. Nostril hairs: he never wants to look like Dr. Morris. His double dinner burns in his stomach but when he sits on the toilet noth-ing comes out. Phillips' Milk of Magnesia, he should get some. Another of their commercials has a black man talking about MOM and that was unfortunate, his color made the shit too real. In bed, on the march to Yorktown, the allied²⁹⁴ armies come upon British atrocities²⁹⁵ around Williamsburg. De Grasse's Swedish aide Karl Gustaf Tomquist, a latter?day Viking, noted²⁹⁶ in his journal, On a beautiful estate a pregnant woman was found murdered in her bed through several bayonet stabs; the barbarians²⁹⁷ had opened both of her breasts and written above the bed canopy²⁹⁸: "Thou shalt nevergive birth to a rebel. " In another room, was just as horrible a sight ?five cut?off heads arranged on a cupboard in place of plaster?cast?figures which lay broken to pieces on the floor. Dumb animals were no less spared. The pastures were in many places covered with dead horses, oxen, and cows. Harry tries to fall asleep through a screen of agitation²⁹⁹ bred by these images. He has always thought of the Revolution as a kind of gentlemen's war, without any of that Vietnam stuff. He begins to have those slippery half?visions, waking dreams that only upon reflection make no sense. He sees a woman's round stomach, with smooth seams and a shining central fuzz, split open and yield yards and yards of red string, like the inside of a baseball. Then he is lying beside a body, a small man dressed all in black, a body limp and without muscle, a ventriloquist's dummy³⁰⁰, wearing sunglasses. He awakes in the dark, too early for the sound of lawnmowers, for the cheep of the dull brown bird in the Norfolk pine, for the chatter³⁰¹ of the young businessmen's dawn foursomes. He makes his way to the bathroom amid motionless glossy³⁰² shapes and slants of dim light ? the blue oven?timer numerals, the yellowish guard lights on the golfcourse fence. He urinates sitting down, like a woman, and returns to bed. Always he sleeps on his old side of the bed, as if Janice is still on her side. He dreams now of the portal with the round top, but this time it pushes open easily, on noiseless unresistant hinges, upon a bustling³⁰³ brightness within. It is somehow Ma Spnnger's downstairs, only you step down into it, a kind of basement, brighter than her house ever was, with a many?colored carnival³⁰⁴ gaudiness³⁰⁵, like something in Latin America, like the cruise?ship commercial they keep playing in the middle of the news, and full of welcoming people he hardly knows, or can barely remember: Mrs. Zabritski as a slender young girl, though still with that inviting³⁰⁶ inquisitive³⁰⁷ crick in her neck, and wearing a racily short fringed skirt like they wore in the Sixties, and Marty Tothero carrying a mailman's pouch that matches his lopsided face, and Mom and Pop in their prime, looking tall and rangy in their Sunday best, bringing a baby girl home from the hospital wrapped in a pink blanket, just its tiny tipped?up nose and a single tiny closedeyelid eye showing, and a tall soberly staring dark?eyed man with lacquered black hair like an old ad for Kreml, who gives him a manly³⁰⁸ handshake, while Janice at his side whispers to him that this of course is Roy, Roy all grown up, and as tall as he. Awaking, Rabbit can still feel the pressure on his hand, and a smile of greeting dying on his face.

 

Hugo aims at SE coast. USAir jet crashes in N. Y. river. Bomb probably caused crash of French DC?10. Lee slows boaters in manatee³⁰⁹ territory. Harry feeds himself oat bran and digests the News?Press. Chaos³¹⁰ reigned³¹¹ on St. Croix, as police and National Guardsmen joined machetearmed mobs on a post?Hugo looting spree. Tourists pleaded with reporters landing on the island to get them off: What fucking crybabies. It occurs to him that his dream might relate to all this Caribbean news, the pre?weekend party they have at resort hotels, to welcome the new arrivals and jolly everybody into a melting pot. He steps out onto his narrow balcony to seize the day. The paper said today would be sunny despite Hugo and so it is. The distant blue?green skyscrapers³¹² hurl³¹³ back blobs of light from the morning sun at his back. The Gulf cannot be seen but he can smell it out there. He tries to remember who all was at the party but can't; dream people don't stick to the ribs. The plane in New York skidded³¹⁴ off the end of the runway and two people were killed. Just two. One hundred seventy?one died in the Sahara. A caller in London gave all the credit to Allah. Harry doesn't mind that one as much as the Lockerbie Pan Am bomb. Like everything else on the news, you get bored, disasters get to seem a gimmick, like all those TV timeouts in football.

 

While other, younger men shout and kid on the golf course behind the curtained sliding doors, Harry makes the bed and sweeps the kitchen floor, and adds his orange juice glass and cereal bowl to the orderly array in the dishwasher waiting to add up to a load's worth. Not quite there yet. When Janice shows up at last he wants the state of the place to give her an object lesson in housekeeping.

 

At ten, he goes out for his morning walk. He looks at the northeast sky, toward the hurricane that is snubbing Florida, and is struck by the clouds, how intricate they are, tattered³¹⁵, gray on white on blue, with tilted³¹⁶ sheets of fishscales and rows of long clouds shaggy underneath but rounded on top as if by action of swiftly running water, like the rhythmic³¹⁷ ribs of sand the tide leaves. A glassy wind blows through the sunlight. There is something in the air that makes it slightly difficult to breathe. Lack of ozone³¹⁸? Or too much ozone? It may be his imagination, but the sky seems clean of airplanes. Usually you can see them layered in their slow circling slants, coming in to land at the Southwest Florida Regional Airport. The planes have been chased from the sky. Under the sun a kind of highway of haze in bars recedes³¹⁹ to the northeast horizon like the reflections the moon stacks up in a calm ocean.

 

On an impulse he decides to take the Celica and drive downtown and park at a meter near the First Federal Bank and walk toward the black section. This afternoon, he thinks, he might feel like trying to get in some holes of golf. The pro shop called up a few days ago and said they found his shoes.

 

At the recreation field beyond the empty ochre high school, a lone²⁸ tall boy in denim³²⁰ cutoffs is shooting baskets by himself. His tank top is an electric turquoise³²¹ stencilled³²² with a snarling³²⁴ tiger head ? orange?and?white?striped fur, yellow eyes, the tongue and end of the nose an unreal violet. On this boy, though, the outfit³²⁵ has a certain propriety³²⁶, the dignity of a chosen uniform. Older than the kids yesterday, eighteen at least, he is a deliberate performer, making good serious economical moves, dribbling in, studying the ground, staring at the hoop, sizing up the shot with two hands on the ball, letting go with the left hand underneath only at the last while shooting. He wears ankle?high black sneakers and no socks; his haircut is one of those muffin?shapes on the top of the skull, with a series of X's along the sides and back where the shaved part begins. Sitting on the bench, the opposite end from a small red knapsack the boy has evidently left there, Rabbit watches him a good while, while the sun shines and the glassy wind blows and passing clouds dip the dirt field and the surrounding frame houses in shadow. The houses have the colors of sun?faded wash and seem remote and silent. You don't see people going in and out.

 

To vary his attitude Harry sometimes tips his white face back as if to sunbathe¹⁸³, coating his vision in red, letting photons burn through his translucent³²⁷ eyelids³²⁸. One time when he opens his eyes the boy is standing close, darker than a cloud. There is something matte about his blackness, and his high cheekbones and the thinness of his lips hint at Indian blood.

 

"You want sumpin'?" His voice is light, level, unsmiling. It seems to come out of the tiger's snarling violet mouth.

 

"No, nothing," Rabbit says. "My sitting here bother you?"

 

"You after no Scotty?" With the hand not holding the basketball against his hip⁴ he makes the smallest, most delicate little motion of cracking a whip. Rabbit darts³²⁹ his eyes at the knapsack and brings them back to the tiger's mouth.

 

"No, thanks," he says. "Never touch it. How about a little one?on?one, though? Since you seem to be out here alone."

 

"I heard some cheesecake come here yesterday was foolin' around."

 

`Just foolin', that's what I do. I'm retired."

 

"How come you come out here to do your foolin'? Lot of foolin'?around places over there in your end of Deleon." He pronounces it the local way, Dealya?in.

 

"It's pretty boring over there," Harry tells him. "I like it here, where there isn't so much glitz. D'ya mind?"

 

The boy, taken a bit off balance, thinks for an answer, and Rabbit's hands dart³³⁰ out and rest on the basketball, a more worn one than the boys yesterday had, and not leather?colored but scuffed red, white, and blue. Its rough?smooth surface feels warm. "Come on," he begs, growling³³¹ the "on." "Gimme the ball."

 

Tiger's expression doesn't change, but the ball comes loose. With it, Harry strides onto the packed dirt. He feels precariously³³² tall, as when this summer he stepped out alone onto the macadam street. He put on Bermuda shorts this morning, in case he got to play. Dust and reflected sun caress³³³ his bare calves, his chalky old man's calves that never had much hair and now have almost none ? actually none, where socks have rubbed for over fifty years.

 

He goes for a jumper from pretty far out and it lucks in. He and Tiger take shots alternately, careful not to touch and bouncing their passes to each other. "You played once," the tall boy says.

 

"Long time ago. High school. Never got to college. Different style then than you guys have now. But if you feel like practicing your moves one?on?one, I'm game. Play to twenty?one. Honor system ? call fouls³³⁴ on yourself."

 

There seems a leaden sadness in Tiger's stare, but he nods, and takes the ball bounced to him. He walks with a cocky slump³³⁶ shoulders down, butt out ?out to the half?court line scratched in the dirt with the heels of sneakers. From the back, the kid is all bones and tendons, polished by sweat but not too much, the sloped shoulders matte beneath the turquoise straps³³⁷.

 

"Wait," Harry says. "I better take a pill first. Don't mind me."

 

The Nitrostat burns under his tongue, and by the time Tiger has come in and has his layup blocked, and Rabbit has dribbled³³⁸ out and missed a twenty?footer, the pill's little kick has reached his other end. He feels loose and deeply free at first. Tiger has some good herky-jerky moves, and can get a step on the heavier older man whenever he wants, but he wastes a lot of shots. The stopand?pop style doesn't give you quite the time to get in harmony with the target, and there isn't enough height to Tiger's arc. The ball comes off his hands flat and turns the hoop's circle into a slot. And he is giving Harry an inch or two in height; Rabbit lifts a few close?in jumpers over the boy's fingertips ? soft, high, in, just like that, air balls only right through the netless hoop, a scabby orange circle bent awry³⁴⁰ by too many show offs practicing slam?dunks and hanging on imitating Darryl Dawkins ? and Tiger begins to press tighter, inviting a turn around the corner and a break for the basket if Harry can find the surge. Tiger's elbows and sharp knees rattle³⁴¹ off his body and he has to laugh at the old sensation, the jostle and press. He is aware of his belly being slung³⁴² up and down by the action and of a watery³⁴³ weariness entering into his knees, but adrenaline and nostalgia³⁴⁴ overrule. Tiger begins to exploit his opponent's slowness more cruelly, more knifingly, slipping and slashing³⁴⁵ by, and Rabbit kicks himself up a notch³⁴⁶, feeling his breath come harder, through a narrower passage. Still, the sun feels good, springing sweat from his pores like calling so many seeds into life. The nature of this exertion³⁴⁷ is to mix him with earth and sky: earth, the packed pink?tan glaring dust printed over and over with the fanned bars of his Nikes and the cagelike grid¹⁸⁸ of Tiger's black sneakers, stamped earth in the rim of his vision as he dribbles³⁴⁸; and sky, wide white sky when he looks up to follow his shot or the other's. The clouds have gathered in an agitated³⁴⁹ silvery arena³⁵⁰ around the blinding sun, a blue bullring. Rabbit accidentally in one twist of upward effort stares straight into the sun and can't for a minute brush away its blinking red moon of an afterimage. His chest feels full, his head dizzy; his pulse rustles³⁵¹ in his ears, the soaked space between his shoulder blades holds a jagged pain. Tiger retrieves³⁵² his own rebound and holds the ball against his hip in his graceful³⁵³ way and gives Harry a deliberate stare. His skin is like a grinding stone of fine black grits³⁵⁴. His ears are small and flat to his head and his hair above the row of X's is kinked as tight as nature can make it; sun glints from every circular particle.

 

"Hey man, you all right?"

 

"I'm. Fine."

 

"You puffin' pretty bad."

 

"You wait. Till you're my age."

 

"How about coolin' it? No big deal."

 

This is gracious, Rabbit sees, through the sweat in his eyebrows and the pounding of his blood. He feels as if his tree of veins and arteries³⁵⁵ is covered with big pink blossoms. No big deal. No big deal you're too out of shape for this. No big deal you aren't good even for a little one?on?one. His sweat is starting to cake on his legs, with the dust. He's afraid he's going to lose the rhythm, the dance, the whatever it is, the momentum³⁵⁶, the grace. He asks, "Aren't you. Having fun?" He is enjoying scaring Tiger with his big red face, his heaving cheesecake bulk, his berserk icy blue eyes.

 

Tiger says, "Sure, man. Medium fun." At last he smiles. Wonderful even teeth, in lavender gums. Even the ghetto³⁵⁷ kids get orthodontia now.

 

"Let's keep our bargain. Play to twenty?one. Like we said. Eighteen up, right?"

 

"Right." Neither player has called a foul³³⁵.

 

"Go. Your ball, Tiger." The pain in Harry's back is spreading, like clumsy wings. The young black man whips around him for a quick under?the?basket layup. Harry takes the ball out and stops short a step inside the half?court line and, unguarded, lets fly an old?fashioned two?handed set shot. He knows as it leaves his hands it will drop; a groove³⁵⁸ in the shape of the day guides it down.

 

"Man," Tiger says admiringly, "that is pure horseshit," and he tries to imitate it with a long one?hander that rockets straight back off the rim, its arc is too low. Rabbit grabs the rebound but then can't move with it, his body weighs a ton, his feet have lost their connection to his head. Tiger knifes in between him and the basket, leans right in his face with a violet snarl³²³, then eases back a little, so Rabbit feels a gap, a moment's slackness in the other in which to turn the corner; he takes one slam of a dribble³³⁹, carrying his foe³⁵⁹ on his side like a bumping sack of coal, and leaps up for the peeper. The hoop fills his circle of vision, it descends³⁶⁰ to kiss his lips, he can't miss.

 

Up he goes, way up toward the torn clouds. His torso is ripped by a terrific pain, elbow to elbow. He bursts from within; he feels something immense persistently³⁶¹ fumble³⁶² at him, and falls unconscions to the dirt. Tiger catches the ball on its fall through the basket and feels a body bump against him as if in purposeful foul. Then he sees the big old white man, looking choked and kind of sleepy in the face, collapse³⁶³ soundlessly, like a rag doll being dropped. Tiger stands amazed above the fallen body ? the plaid Bermuda shorts, the brand?new walking Nikes, the blue golf shirt with a logo of intertwined V's. Adhesive³⁶⁴ dust of fine clay clings to one cheek of the unconscious flushed face like a shadow, like half of a clown's mask of paint. Shocked numb³², the boy repeats, "Pure horseshit."

 

The impulse to run ripples³⁶⁵ through him, draining his head of practical thoughts. He doesn't want to get mixed up with nobody. From the end of the bench he retrieves the knapsack, the kind very small Boy Scouts³⁶⁶ might use on a one?night camping trip, and, holding it and the basketball close to his chest, walks deliberately away. In the middle of the block, he begins to run, under the high excited sky. An airplane goes over, lowering on a slow diagonal.

 

Seen from above, his limbs splayed and bent, Harry is as alone on the court as the sun in the sky, in its arena of clouds. Time passes. Then the social net twitches³⁶⁷; someone who in the houses bordering the lonely recreation field has been watching through a curtained window calls 911. Minutes later, several of the elderly poor battened down against danger in their partitioned little rooms, with only television for a friend, mistake the approaching sirens for a hurricane alert, and believe that the storm has veered³⁶⁸ back from South Carolina toward them.

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

3 squint   

v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的

参考例句：

• A squint can sometimes be corrected by an eyepatch. 斜视有时候可以通过戴眼罩来纠正。
• The sun was shinning straight in her eyes which made her squint. 太阳直射着她的眼睛,使她眯起了眼睛。

4 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

5 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

6 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

7 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

8 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

9 taut   

adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的

参考例句：

• The bowstring is stretched taut.弓弦绷得很紧。
• Scarlett's taut nerves almost cracked as a sudden noise sounded in the underbrush near them. 思嘉紧张的神经几乎一下绷裂了，因为她听见附近灌木丛中突然冒出的一个声音。

10 veiny   

adj.纹理状的

参考例句：

11 sockets   

n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴

参考例句：

• All new PCs now have USB sockets. 新的个人计算机现在都有通用串行总线插孔。
• Make sure the sockets in your house are fingerproof. 确保你房中的插座是防触电的。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

12 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

13 dwarfish   

a.像侏儒的，矮小的

参考例句：

• Her dwarfish spouse still smoked his cigar and drank his rum without heeding her. 她那矮老公还在吸他的雪茄，喝他的蔗酒，睬也不睬她。
• Rest no longer satisfied with thy dwarfish attainments, but press forward to things and heavenly. 不要再满足于属世的成就，要努力奔向属天的事物。

14 warped   

adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾，

参考例句：

• a warped sense of humour 畸形的幽默感
• The board has warped. 木板翘了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

16 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

17 verity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• Human's mission lies in exploring verity bravely.人的天职在勇于探索真理。
• How to guarantee the verity of the financial information disclosed by listed companies? 如何保证上市公司财务信息披露真实性?

18 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

19 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

20 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

21 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 pussy   

n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪

参考例句：

• Why can't they leave my pussy alone?为什么他们就不能离我小猫咪远一点？
• The baby was playing with his pussy.孩子正和他的猫嬉戏。

24 lithe   

adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的

参考例句：

• His lithe athlete's body had been his pride through most of the fifty - six years.他那轻巧自如的运动员体格，五十六年来几乎一直使他感到自豪。
• His walk was lithe and graceful.他走路轻盈而优雅。

25 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

26 furrows   

n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I could tell from the deep furrows in her forehead that she was very disturbed by the news. 从她额头深深的皱纹上，我可以看出她听了这个消息非常不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dirt bike trails crisscrossed the grassy furrows. 越野摩托车的轮迹纵横交错地布满条条草沟。 来自辞典例句

27 magnetism   

n.磁性，吸引力，磁学

参考例句：

• We know about magnetism by the way magnets act.我们通过磁铁的作用知道磁性是怎么一回事。
• His success showed his magnetism of courage and devotion.他的成功表现了他的胆量和热诚的魅力。

28 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

29 bogged   

adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍

参考例句：

• The professor bogged down in the middle of his speech. 教授的演讲只说了一半便讲不下去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The tractor is bogged down in the mud. 拖拉机陷入了泥沼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

30 skit   

n.滑稽短剧；一群

参考例句：

• The comic skIt sent up the foolishness of young men in love.那幅画把沉溺于热恋中的青年男子的痴态勾勒得滑稽可笑。
• They performed a skit to amuse the crowd.他们表演了一个幽默小品来娱乐观众。

31 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

32 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

33 impulsively   

adv.冲动地

参考例句：

• She leant forward and kissed him impulsively. 她倾身向前，感情冲动地吻了他。
• Every good, true, vigorous feeling I had gathered came impulsively round him. 我的一切良好、真诚而又强烈的感情都紧紧围绕着他涌现出来。

34 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

35 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

36 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

37 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

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

38 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

39 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

40 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

41 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

42 falcons   

n.猎鹰( falcon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Peregrine falcons usually pluck the feathers and strip the flesh off their bird prey. 游隼捕到鸟类猎物时，通常是先拔掉它们的羽毛，再把肉撕下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Though he doubted the wisdom of using falcons, Dr. de la Fuente undertook the project. 虽然德·拉·富恩特博士怀疑使用游隼是否明智，但他还是执行了这项计划。 来自辞典例句

43 auxiliary   

adj.辅助的，备用的

参考例句：

• I work in an auxiliary unit.我在一家附属单位工作。
• The hospital has an auxiliary power system in case of blackout.这家医院装有备用发电系统以防灯火管制。

44 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：

• She's too prim to enjoy rude jokes!她太古板，不喜欢听粗野的笑话！
• He is prim and precise in manner.他的态度一本正经而严谨

45 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

46 cracker   

n.（无甜味的）薄脆饼干

参考例句：

• Buy me some peanuts and cracker.给我买一些花生和饼干。
• There was a cracker beside every place at the table.桌上每个位置旁都有彩包爆竹。

47 ransacking   

v.彻底搜查( ransack的现在分词 )；抢劫，掠夺

参考例句：

• She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. 她正在彻底搜寻各家店铺，为吉姆买礼物。 来自英汉文学 - 欧亨利
• Ransacking the drawers of the dresser he came upon a discarded, tiny, ragged handkerchief. 他打开橱柜抽屉搜寻，找到了一块弃置的小旧手帕。 来自辞典例句

48 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

49 solitude   

n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方

参考例句：

• People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
• They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。

50 sluggish   

adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的

参考例句：

• This humid heat makes you feel rather sluggish.这种湿热的天气使人感到懒洋洋的。
• Circulation is much more sluggish in the feet than in the hands.脚部的循环比手部的循环缓慢得多。

51 skittish   

adj.易激动的，轻佻的

参考例句：

• She gets very skittish when her boy-friend is around.她男朋友在场时，她就显得格外轻佻。
• I won't have my son associating with skittish girls.我不准我的儿子与轻佻的女孩交往。

52 confides   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的第三人称单数 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• Now Butterfly confides to Pinkerton that she has secretly embraced Christianity. 蝴蝶向平克顿吐露，她已暗地里信奉了基督教。 来自辞典例句
• He also confides, in great secrecy, that his own heart still bleeds over Natalie. 他还极秘密地透露，他自己内心里还在为那塔丽感到痛苦。 来自辞典例句

53 gallop   

v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展

参考例句：

• They are coming at a gallop towards us.他们正朝着我们飞跑过来。
• The horse slowed to a walk after its long gallop.那匹马跑了一大阵后慢下来缓步而行。

54 rims   

n.（圆形物体的）边( rim的名词复数 )；缘；轮辋；轮圈

参考例句：

• As she spoke, the rims of her eyes reddened a little. 说时，眼圈微红。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
• Her eyes were a little hollow, and reddish about the rims. 她的眼睛微微凹陷，眼眶有些发红。 来自辞典例句

55 tingling   

v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My ears are tingling [humming; ringing; singing]. 我耳鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My tongue is tingling. 舌头发麻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

56 muffled   

adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己）

参考例句：

• muffled voices from the next room 从隔壁房间里传来的沉闷声音
• There was a muffled explosion somewhere on their right. 在他们的右面什么地方有一声沉闷的爆炸声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

57 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

58 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

59 contractions   

n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩

参考例句：

• Contractions are much more common in speech than in writing. 缩略词在口语里比在书写中常见得多。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Muscle contractions are powered by the chemical adenosine triphosphate(ATP ). 肌肉收缩是由化学物质三磷酸腺苷(ATP)提供动力的。 来自辞典例句

60 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：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

61 bleats   

v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的第三人称单数 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说

参考例句：

• Every time the sheep bleats it loses a mouthful. 羊每叫一次，就少吃一口。 来自互联网
• There is a saying that every time the sheep bleats, it loses a mouthful of hay. 有句古谚曾说，绵羊每叫一声，它就会掉落一口干草。 来自互联网

62 vista   

n.远景，深景，展望，回想

参考例句：

• From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去，远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
• These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路，未来看不到一点儿希望。

63 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

64 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

65 greasy   

adj. 多脂的，油脂的

参考例句：

• He bought a heavy-duty cleanser to clean his greasy oven.昨天他买了强力清洁剂来清洗油污的炉子。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

66 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

67 garbled   

adj.（指信息）混乱的，引起误解的v.对（事实）歪曲，对（文章等）断章取义，窜改( garble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He gave a garbled account of what had happened. 他对所发生事情的叙述含混不清。
• The Coastguard needs to decipher garbled messages in a few minutes. 海岸警卫队需要在几分钟内解读这些含混不清的信息。 来自辞典例句

68 sumptuous   

adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的

参考例句：

• The guests turned up dressed in sumptuous evening gowns.客人们身着华丽的夜礼服出现了。
• We were ushered into a sumptuous dining hall.我们被领进一个豪华的餐厅。

69 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

70 waxy   

adj.苍白的；光滑的

参考例句：

• Choose small waxy potatoes for the salad.选些个头小、表皮光滑的土豆做色拉。
• The waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry.这些蜡状耳油可以保持耳朵不会太干燥。

71 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

72 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

73 insistent   

adj.迫切的，坚持的

参考例句：

• There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
• He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。

74 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

75 gnaw   

v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨

参考例句：

• Dogs like to gnaw on a bone.狗爱啃骨头。
• A rat can gnaw a hole through wood.老鼠能啃穿木头。

76 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

77 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

78 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

79 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

80 glut   

n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽

参考例句：

• The glut of coffee led to a sharp drop in prices.咖啡供过于求道致价格急剧下跌。
• There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.西欧的农产品供过于求。

81 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

82 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

83 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

84 arthritic   

adj.关节炎的

参考例句：

• Somehow the geriatric Voyager 2, arthritic and partially deaf, managed to reach Neptune. 得了关节炎而且局部变聋、衰老的“旅行者2号”最后总算抵达海王星。 来自百科语句
• Femoral head ostectomy is a surgery performed on severely arthritic dogs. 股骨断截骨术’都是针对关节炎严重的狗狗的手术。 来自互联网

85 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：

• He gripped the wheel until his knuckles whitened. 他紧紧握住方向盘，握得指关节都变白了。
• Her thin hands were twisted by swollen knuckles. 她那双纤手因肿大的指关节而变了形。 来自《简明英汉词典》

86 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

87 nostril   

n.鼻孔

参考例句：

• The Indian princess wore a diamond in her right nostril.印弟安公主在右鼻孔中戴了一颗钻石。
• All South American monkeys have flat noses with widely spaced nostril.所有南美洲的猴子都有平鼻子和宽大的鼻孔。

88 nostrils   

鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
• The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。

89 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

90 freckled   

adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her face was freckled all over. 她的脸长满雀斑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Her freckled skin glowed with health again. 她长有雀斑的皮肤又泛出了健康的红光。 来自辞典例句

91 grunts   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈

参考例句：

• With grunts of anguish Ogilvie eased his bulk to a sitting position. 奥格尔维苦恼地哼着，伸个懒腰坐了起来。
• Linda fired twice A trio of Grunts assembling one mortar fell. 琳达击发两次。三个正在组装迫击炮的咕噜人倒下了。

92 moldy   

adj.发霉的

参考例句：

• She chucked the moldy potatoes in the dustbin.她把发霉的土豆扔进垃圾箱。
• Oranges can be kept for a long time without going moldy.橙子可以存放很长时间而不腐烂。

93 rimless   

adj.无边的

参考例句：

• Among the guests was a quiet, agreeable man with rimless glasses locking like a college professor. 宾客中有一个沉静和蔼的人戴着无边眼镜，看起来象大学教授。 来自辞典例句
• Heyward's aquiline, austere face showed concentration; behind rimless glasses his grey eyes were cool. 海沃德那长着鹰钩鼻子的严峻的脸上露出十分专注的神情，无框眼镜的后面，一双褐色的眼睛闪着寒光。 来自辞典例句

94 irises   

n.虹( iris的名词复数 )；虹膜；虹彩；鸢尾（花）

参考例句：

• The cottage gardens blaze with irises, lilies and peonies. 村舍花园万紫千红，鸢尾、百合花和牡丹竞相争艳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The irises were of flecked grey. 虹膜呈斑驳的灰色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

95 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

96 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

97 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

98 blotches   

n.（皮肤上的）红斑，疹块( blotch的名词复数 )；大滴 [大片]（墨水或颜色的）污渍

参考例句：

• His skin was covered with unsightly blotches. 他的皮肤上长满了难看的疹块。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His face was covered in red blotches, seemingly a nasty case of acne. 他满脸红斑，像是起了很严重的粉刺。 来自辞典例句

99 turrets   

（六角）转台( turret的名词复数 )； （战舰和坦克等上的）转动炮塔； （摄影机等上的）镜头转台； （旧时攻城用的）塔车

参考例句：

• The Northampton's three turrets thundered out white smoke and pale fire. “诺思安普敦号”三座炮塔轰隆隆地冒出白烟和淡淡的火光。
• If I can get to the gun turrets, I'll have a chance. 如果我能走到炮塔那里，我就会赢得脱险的机会。

100 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

101 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

102 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

103 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

104 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

105 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

106 artery   

n.干线，要道；动脉

参考例句：

• We couldn't feel the changes in the blood pressure within the artery.我们无法感觉到动脉血管内血压的变化。
• The aorta is the largest artery in the body.主动脉是人体中的最大动脉。

107 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

108 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

109 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

110 chasm   

n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突

参考例句：

• There's a chasm between rich and poor in that society.那社会中存在着贫富差距。
• A huge chasm gaped before them.他们面前有个巨大的裂痕。

111 folder   

n.纸夹，文件夹

参考例句：

• Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
• He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。

112 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

113 tinted   

adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• a pair of glasses with tinted lenses 一副有色镜片眼镜
• a rose-tinted vision of the world 对世界的理想化看法

114 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

115 pennant   

n.三角旗；锦标旗

参考例句：

• The second car was flying the Ghanaian pennant.第二辆车插着加纳的三角旗。
• The revitalized team came from the cellar to win the pennant.该队重整旗鼓，从最后一名一跃而赢得冠军奖旗。

116 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

117 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

118 frond   

n.棕榈类植物的叶子

参考例句：

• The weavers made a hat from palm fronds.织工用棕榈叶织成了一顶帽子。
• The village hut was thatched with palm fronds.乡村小屋用棕榈叶作顶。

119 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

120 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

121 sere   

adj.干枯的；n.演替系列

参考例句：

• The desert was edged with sere vegetation.沙漠周围零星地长着一些干枯的植被。
• A sere on uncovered rock is a lithosere.在光秃岩石上的演替系列是岩生演替系列。

122 gimmick   

n.(为引人注意而搞的)小革新，小发明

参考例句：

• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。
• It is just a public relations gimmick.这只不过是一种公关伎俩。

123 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

124 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

125 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

126 banyan   

n.菩提树，榕树

参考例句：

• This huge banyan tree has a history of more than 400 years.这棵大榕树已经有四百多年的历史了。
• A large banyan tree may look like a forest.大型的榕树看起来象一片树林。

127 flaking   

刨成片，压成片； 盘网

参考例句：

• He received ointment for his flaking skin. 医生给他开了治疗脱皮的软膏。
• The paint was flaking off the walls. 油漆从墙上剥落下来。

128 corrugated   

adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• a corrugated iron roof 波纹铁屋顶
• His brow corrugated with the effort of thinking. 他皱着眉头用心地思考。 来自《简明英汉词典》

129 jubilation   

n.欢庆，喜悦

参考例句：

• The goal was greeted by jubilation from the home fans.主场球迷为进球欢呼。
• The whole city was a scene of jubilation.全市一片欢腾。

130 parched   

adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干

参考例句：

• Hot winds parched the crops.热风使庄稼干透了。
• The land in this region is rather dry and parched.这片土地十分干燥。

131 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

132 peddled   

（沿街）叫卖( peddle的过去式和过去分词 )； 兜售； 宣传； 散播

参考例句：

• He has peddled the myth that he is supporting the local population. 他散布说他支持当地群众。
• The farmer peddled his fruit from house to house. 那个农民挨家挨户兜售他的水果。

133 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

134 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

135 kits   

衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件

参考例句：

• Keep your kits closed and locked when not in use. 不用的话把你的装备都锁好放好。
• Gifts Articles, Toy and Games, Wooden Toys, Puzzles, Craft Kits. 采购产品礼品，玩具和游戏，木制的玩具，智力玩具，手艺装备。

136 stagnant   

adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的

参考例句：

• Due to low investment,industrial output has remained stagnant.由于投资少，工业生产一直停滞不前。
• Their national economy is stagnant.他们的国家经济停滞不前。

137 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

138 lengthen   

vt.使伸长，延长

参考例句：

• He asked the tailor to lengthen his coat.他请裁缝把他的外衣放长些。
• The teacher told her to lengthen her paper out.老师让她把论文加长。

139 tingle   

vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动

参考例句：

• The music made my blood tingle.那音乐使我热血沸腾。
• The cold caused a tingle in my fingers.严寒使我的手指有刺痛感。

140 intensifies   

n.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的名词复数 )v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A clear atmosphere intensifies the blue of the sky. 纯净的空气使天空变得更蓝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Blowing on fire intensifies the heat. 吹火使热度加强。 来自《简明英汉词典》

141 conspicuous   

adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的

参考例句：

• It is conspicuous that smoking is harmful to health.很明显，抽烟对健康有害。
• Its colouring makes it highly conspicuous.它的色彩使它非常惹人注目。

142 glimmer   

v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光

参考例句：

• I looked at her and felt a glimmer of hope.我注视她，感到了一线希望。
• A glimmer of amusement showed in her eyes.她的眼中露出一丝笑意。

143 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

144 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

145 preys   

v.掠食( prey的第三人称单数 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生

参考例句：

• His misfortune preys upon his mind. 他的不幸使她心中苦恼。 来自辞典例句
• The owl preys on mice. 猫头鹰捕食老鼠。 来自辞典例句

146 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

147 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

148 displeased   

a.不快的

参考例句：

• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。
• He was displeased about the whole affair. 他对整个事情感到很不高兴。

149 whines   

n.悲嗥声( whine的名词复数 )；哀鸣者v.哀号( whine的第三人称单数 )；哀诉，诉怨

参考例句：

• The colony whines a centerless loud drone that vibrates the neighborhood. 蜂群嗡嗡喧闹的哀鸣振动邻里。 来自互联网
• The web whines with the sound of countless mosquitoes and flies trapped in its folds. 蜘蛛网内发出无数只被困在蜘蛛丝间的蚊子与苍蝇所发出来的声音。 来自互联网

150 vows   

誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿

参考例句：

• Matrimonial vows are to show the faithfulness of the new couple. 婚誓体现了新婚夫妇对婚姻的忠诚。
• The nun took strait vows. 那位修女立下严格的誓愿。

151 amends   

n. 赔偿

参考例句：

• He made amends for his rudeness by giving her some flowers. 他送给她一些花，为他自己的鲁莽赔罪。
• This country refuses stubbornly to make amends for its past war crimes. 该国顽固地拒绝为其过去的战争罪行赔罪。

152 pang   

n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷

参考例句：

• She experienced a sharp pang of disappointment.她经历了失望的巨大痛苦。
• She was beginning to know the pang of disappointed love.她开始尝到了失恋的痛苦。

153 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

154 buzzer   

n.蜂鸣器；汽笛

参考例句：

• The buzzer went off at eight o'clock.蜂鸣器在8点钟时响了。
• Press the buzzer when you want to talk.你想讲话的时候就按蜂鸣器。

155 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

156 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

157 obituaries   

讣告，讣闻( obituary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Next time I read about him, I want it in the obituaries. 希望下次读到他的消息的时候，是在仆告里。
• People's obituaries are written while they're still alive? 人们在世的时候就有人给他们写讣告？

158 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

159 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

160 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

161 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

162 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

163 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

164 cowers   

v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

165 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

166 preposterous   

adj.荒谬的，可笑的

参考例句：

• The whole idea was preposterous.整个想法都荒唐透顶。
• It would be preposterous to shovel coal with a teaspoon.用茶匙铲煤是荒谬的。

167 trudging   

vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There was a stream of refugees trudging up the valley towards the border. 一队难民步履艰难地爬上山谷向着边境走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two mules well laden with packs were trudging along. 两头骡子驮着沉重的背包，吃力地往前走。 来自辞典例句

168 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

169 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

170 chipmunks   

n.金花鼠( chipmunk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

171 passerby   

n.过路人，行人

参考例句：

• We had our photo taken by a passerby.我们请了一个路人为我们照相。
• A passerby heard her screams and rushed to her aid.一个过路人听见她的尖叫，便冲过去帮助她。

172 stationary   

adj.固定的，静止不动的

参考例句：

• A stationary object is easy to be aimed at.一个静止不动的物体是容易瞄准的。
• Wait until the bus is stationary before you get off.你要等公共汽车停稳了再下车。

173 pouches   

n.（放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的）小袋( pouch的名词复数 )；（袋鼠等的）育儿袋；邮袋；（某些动物贮存食物的）颊袋

参考例句：

• Pouches are a peculiarity of marsupials. 腹袋是有袋动物的特色。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Under my eyes the pouches were heavy. 我眼睛下的眼袋很深。 来自《简明英汉词典》

174 pouch   

n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件

参考例句：

• He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
• The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。

175 scuffed   

v.使磨损( scuff的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚走

参考例句：

• I scuffed the heel of my shoe on the stonework. 我的鞋跟儿给铺好的石头磨坏了。
• Polly dropped her head and scuffed her feet. 波莉低下头拖着脚走开了。 来自辞典例句

176 twitch   

v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛

参考例句：

• The smell made my dog's nose twitch.那股气味使我的狗的鼻子抽动着。
• I felt a twitch at my sleeve.我觉得有人扯了一下我的袖子。

177 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。

178 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

179 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

180 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

181 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

182 glorified   

美其名的，变荣耀的

参考例句：

• The restaurant was no more than a glorified fast-food cafe. 这地方美其名曰餐馆，其实只不过是个快餐店而已。
• The author glorified the life of the peasants. 那个作者赞美了农民的生活。

183 sunbathe   

n.日光浴

参考例句：

• She liked to sunbathe in the seclusion of her own garden.她喜欢在自己僻静的花园里晒日光浴。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

184 yew   

n.紫杉属树木

参考例句：

• The leaves of yew trees are poisonous to cattle.紫杉树叶会令牛中毒。
• All parts of the yew tree are poisonous,including the berries.紫杉的各个部分都有毒，包括浆果。

185 spiky   

adj.长而尖的，大钉似的

参考例句：

• Your hairbrush is too spiky for me.你的发刷，我觉得太尖了。
• The spiky handwriting on the airmail envelope from London was obviously hers.发自伦敦的航空信封上的尖长字迹分明是她的。

186 fattening   

adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值

参考例句：

• The doctor has advised him to keep off fattening food. 医生已建议他不要吃致肥食物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We substitute margarine for cream because cream is fattening. 我们用人造黄油代替奶油，因为奶油会使人发胖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

187 edifice   

n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室)

参考例句：

• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。
• There is a huge Victorian edifice in the area.该地区有一幢维多利亚式的庞大建筑物。

188 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

189 tamped   

v.捣固( tamp的过去式和过去分词 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实

参考例句：

• The poets, once so praised, are tamped unceremoniously together in our textbooks, in one curt chapter. 那些名噪一时的诗人，在今天的教科书里，已被毫不客气地挤在一起，列为短短的一章。 来自辞典例句
• They tamped down the earth around the apple tree. 他们把苹果树周围的泥土夯实。 来自互联网

190 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

191 puffs   

n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• We sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his. 我们坐在那里，轮番抽着他那支野里野气的烟斗。 来自辞典例句
• Puffs of steam and smoke came from the engine. 一股股蒸汽和烟雾从那火车头里冒出来。 来自辞典例句

192 blanched   

v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮

参考例句：

• The girl blanched with fear when she saw the bear coming. 那女孩见熊（向她）走来，吓得脸都白了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Their faces blanched in terror. 他们的脸因恐惧而吓得发白。 来自《简明英汉词典》

193 dribbling   

n.（燃料或油从系统内）漏泄v.流口水( dribble的现在分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球

参考例句：

• Basic skills include swimming, dribbling, passing, marking, tackling, throwing, catching and shooting. 个人基本技术包括游泳、带球、传球、盯人、抢截、抛球、接球和射门。 来自互联网
• Carol: [Laurie starts dribbling again] Now do that for ten minutes. 卡罗：（萝莉开始再度运球）现在那样做十分钟。 来自互联网

194 droll   

adj.古怪的，好笑的

参考例句：

• The band have a droll sense of humour.这个乐队有一种滑稽古怪的幽默感。
• He looked at her with a droll sort of awakening.他用一种古怪的如梦方醒的神情看着她.

195 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

196 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：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

197 rivulets   

n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Rivulets of water ran in through the leaks. 小股的水流通过漏洞流进来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rivulets of sweat streamed down his cheeks. 津津汗水顺着他的两颊流下。 来自辞典例句

198 rosy   

adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的

参考例句：

• She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作，生活看上去很美好。
• She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。

199 pivoting   

n.绕轴旋转，绕公共法线旋转v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的现在分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开

参考例句：

• Here is a neat YouTube video showing the Gyro's pivoting mechanism. 这里是一个整洁的YouTube视频显示陀螺仪的旋转机制。 来自互联网
• Dart pivoting is widely used in the gannent pattern design. 省道转移的原理在服装纸样设计中应用十分广泛。 来自互联网

200 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

201 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

202 protuberant   

adj.突出的，隆起的

参考例句：

• The boy tripped over a protuberant rock.那个男孩被突起的岩石绊了一下。
• He has a high-beaked nose and large protuberant eyes.他有着高鼻梁和又大又凸出的眼睛

203 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

204 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：

• A significant benefit of Undo is purely psychological: It reassures users. 撤销的一个很大好处纯粹是心理上的，它让用户宽心。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Direct eye contact reassures the person that you are confident and honest. 直接的目光接触让人相信你的自信和诚实。 来自口语例句

205 hunched   

（常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的

参考例句：

• He sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。
• Stephen hunched down to light a cigarette. 斯蒂芬弓着身子点燃一支烟。

206 flirtatious   

adj.爱调情的，调情的，卖俏的

参考例句：

• a flirtatious young woman 卖弄风情的年轻女子
• Her flirtatious manners are intended to attract. 她的轻浮举止是想引人注意。 来自《简明英汉词典》

207 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

208 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

209 glaze   

v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情

参考例句：

• Brush the glaze over the top and sides of the hot cake.在热蛋糕的顶上和周围刷上一层蛋浆。
• Tang three-color glaze horses are famous for their perfect design and realism.唐三彩上釉马以其造型精美和形态生动而著名。

210 buffet   

n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台

参考例句：

• Are you having a sit-down meal or a buffet at the wedding?你想在婚礼中摆桌宴还是搞自助餐？
• Could you tell me what specialties you have for the buffet?你能告诉我你们的自助餐有什么特色菜吗？

211 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

212 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

213 quell   

v.压制，平息，减轻

参考例句：

• Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
• The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。

214 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

215 regiments   

（军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物

参考例句：

• The three regiments are all under the command of you. 这三个团全归你节制。
• The town was garrisoned with two regiments. 该镇有两团士兵驻守。

216 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

217 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

218 rendezvous   

n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇

参考例句：

• She made the rendezvous with only minutes to spare.她还差几分钟时才来赴约。
• I have a rendezvous with Peter at a restaurant on the harbour.我和彼得在海港的一个餐馆有个约会。

219 evaded   

逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出

参考例句：

• For two weeks they evaded the press. 他们有两周一直避而不见记者。
• The lion evaded the hunter. 那狮子躲开了猎人。

220 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

221 flakes   

小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人

参考例句：

• It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
• It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。

222 shredded   

shred的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Serve the fish on a bed of shredded lettuce. 先铺一层碎生菜叶，再把鱼放上，就可以上桌了。
• I think Mapo beancurd and shredded meat in chilli sauce are quite special. 我觉得麻婆豆腐和鱼香肉丝味道不错。 来自《简明英汉词典》

223 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

224 bowel   

n.肠(尤指人肠)；内部，深处

参考例句：

• Irritable bowel syndrome seems to affect more women than men.女性比男性更易患肠易激综合征。
• Have you had a bowel movement today?你今天有排便吗？

225 bowels   

n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处

参考例句：

• Salts is a medicine that causes movements of the bowels. 泻盐是一种促使肠子运动的药物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cabins are in the bowels of the ship. 舱房设在船腹内。 来自《简明英汉词典》

226 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

227 desultory   

adj.散漫的，无方法的

参考例句：

• Do not let the discussion fragment into a desultory conversation with no clear direction.不要让讨论变得支离破碎，成为没有明确方向的漫谈。
• The constables made a desultory attempt to keep them away from the barn.警察漫不经心地拦着不让他们靠近谷仓。

228 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

229 stiffen   

v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬

参考例句：

• The blood supply to the skin is reduced when muscles stiffen.当肌肉变得僵硬时，皮肤的供血量就减少了。
• I was breathing hard,and my legs were beginning to stiffen.这时我却气吁喘喘地开始感到脚有点僵硬。

230 giggle   

n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说

参考例句：

• Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
• All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。

231 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

232 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

233 pebbled   

用卵石铺（pebble的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• And quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell! 接着它飞快地回落到白色卵石的井底潺潺！
• Outside, the rain had stopped but the glass was still pebbled with bright drops. 窗外的雨已经停了，但玻璃上还是布满明亮的水珠。

234 flips   

轻弹( flip的第三人称单数 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• Larry flips on the TV while he is on vacation in Budapest. 赖瑞在布达佩斯渡假时，打开电视收看节目。
• He flips through a book before making a decision. 他在决定买下一本书前总要先草草翻阅一下。

235 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

236 unravelling   

解开，拆散，散开( unravel的现在分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚

参考例句：

• Nail head clamp the unravelling of nail exteriorize broken nails and clean. 钉头卡钉，拆开钉头取出碎钉并清洁。
• The ends of ropes are in good condition and secured without unravelling. 缆绳端部状况良好及牢固，并无松散脱线。

237 sullen   

adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的

参考例句：

• He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
• Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐，因为昨晚没睡好。

238 taunts   

嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He had to endure the racist taunts of the crowd. 他不得不忍受那群人种族歧视的奚落。
• He had to endure the taunts of his successful rival. 他不得不忍受成功了的对手的讥笑。

239 dangle   

v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂

参考例句：

• At Christmas,we dangle colored lights around the room.圣诞节时，我们在房间里挂上彩灯。
• He sits on the edge of the table and dangles his legs.他坐在桌子边上，摆动著双腿。

240 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

241 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

242 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

243 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

244 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

245 alleys   

胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径

参考例句：

• I followed him through a maze of narrow alleys. 我紧随他穿过一条条迂迴曲折的窄巷。
• The children lead me through the maze of alleys to the edge of the city. 孩子们领我穿过迷宫一般的街巷，来到城边。

246 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

247 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

248 murmur   

n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言

参考例句：

• They paid the extra taxes without a murmur.他们毫无怨言地交了附加税。
• There was a low murmur of conversation in the hall.大厅里有窃窃私语声。

249 purged   

清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响

参考例句：

• He purged his enemies from the Party. 他把他的敌人从党内清洗出去。
• The iron in the chemical compound must be purged. 化学混合物中的铁必须清除。

250 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

251 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

252 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。

253 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

254 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

255 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

256 ebbs   

退潮( ebb的名词复数 )； 落潮； 衰退

参考例句：

• When the tide ebbs it's a rock pool inhabited by crustaceans. 退潮时，它便成为甲壳动物居住的岩石区潮水潭。
• The new Russia steadily ebbs away drive out of Moscow. 驶离莫斯科愈来愈远以后，俄罗斯崭新的景象也逐渐消失。

257 outlast   

v.较…耐久

参考例句：

• The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it.人生的充分利用就是为争取比人生更长久的东西而度过一生。
• These naturally dried flowers will outlast a bouquet of fresh blooms.这些自然风干的花会比一束鲜花更加持久。

258 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

259 babble   

v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语

参考例句：

• No one could understand the little baby's babble. 没人能听懂这个小婴孩的话。
• The babble of voices in the next compartment annoyed all of us.隔壁的车厢隔间里不间歇的嘈杂谈话声让我们都很气恼。

260 rustle   

v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声

参考例句：

• She heard a rustle in the bushes.她听到灌木丛中一阵沙沙声。
• He heard a rustle of leaves in the breeze.他听到树叶在微风中发出的沙沙声。

261 commotions   

n.混乱，喧闹，骚动( commotion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

262 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

263 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

264 slants   

（使）倾斜，歪斜( slant的第三人称单数 )； 有倾向性地编写或报道

参考例句：

• Most handwriting slants to the right. 大多数字体是向右倾斜的。
• That tree slants to one side because of the heavy winds. 因为刮大风，那棵树歪倒一边去了。

265 wryly   

adv. 挖苦地，嘲弄地

参考例句：

• Molly smiled rather wryly and said nothing. 莫莉苦笑着，一句话也没说。
• He smiled wryly, then closed his eyes and gnawed his lips. 他狞笑一声，就闭了眼睛，咬着嘴唇。 来自子夜部分

266 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

267 strands   

n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》

268 periscope   

n. 潜望镜

参考例句：

• The captain aligned the periscope on the bearing.船长使潜望镜对准方位。
• Now,peering through the periscope he remarked in businesslike tones.现在，他一面从潜望镜里观察，一面用精干踏实的口吻说话。

269 blurred   

v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离

参考例句：

• She suffered from dizziness and blurred vision. 她饱受头晕目眩之苦。
• Their lazy, blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears. 他们那种慢吞吞、含糊不清的声音在他听起来却很悦耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

270 friendliness   

n.友谊，亲切，亲密

参考例句：

• Behind the mask of friendliness,I know he really dislikes me.在友善的面具后面，我知道他其实并不喜欢我。
• His manner was a blend of friendliness and respect.他的态度友善且毕恭毕敬。

271 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

272 clatter   

v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声

参考例句：

• The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
• Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。

273 freckles   

n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She had a wonderful clear skin with an attractive sprinkling of freckles. 她光滑的皮肤上有几处可爱的小雀斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When she lies in the sun, her face gets covered in freckles. 她躺在阳光下时，脸上布满了斑点。 来自《简明英汉词典》

274 lipstick   

n.口红，唇膏

参考例句：

• Taking out her lipstick,she began to paint her lips.她拿出口红，开始往嘴唇上抹。
• Lipstick and hair conditioner are cosmetics.口红和护发素都是化妆品。

275 clatters   

盘碟刀叉等相撞击时的声音( clatter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I thought, 'Aye aye, hit it before he comes and clatters me. 我想，'埃赞成，击出他来之前和clatters我。

276 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

277 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

278 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

279 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

280 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

281 ceramic   

n.制陶业，陶器，陶瓷工艺

参考例句：

• The order for ceramic tiles has been booked in.瓷砖的订单已登记下来了。
• Some ceramic works of art are shown in this exhibition.这次展览会上展出了一些陶瓷艺术品。

282 textures   

n.手感( texture的名词复数 )；质感；口感；（音乐或文学的）谐和统一感

参考例句：

• I'm crazy about fabrics textures and colors and designs. 我喜欢各式各样的纺织物--对它的质地，色彩到花纹图案--简直是入了迷。 来自辞典例句
• Let me clear up the point about the textures. 让我明确了一点有关的纹理。 来自互联网

283 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

284 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

285 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

286 repulsive   

adj.排斥的，使人反感的

参考例句：

• She found the idea deeply repulsive.她发现这个想法很恶心。
• The repulsive force within the nucleus is enormous.核子内部的斥力是巨大的。

287 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

288 aggravating   

adj.恼人的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• How aggravating to be interrupted! 被打扰，多令人生气呀！
• Diesel exhaust is particularly aggravating to many susceptible individuals. 许多体质敏感的人尤其反感柴油废气。

289 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

290 snob   

n.势利小人，自以为高雅、有学问的人

参考例句：

• Going to a private school had made her a snob.上私立学校后，她变得很势利。
• If you think that way, you are a snob already.如果你那样想的话，你已经是势利小人了。

291 idyllic   

adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的

参考例句：

• These scenes had an idyllic air.这种情景多少有点田园气氛。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

292 rinse   

v.用清水漂洗，用清水冲洗

参考例句：

• Give the cup a rinse.冲洗一下杯子。
• Don't just rinse the bottles. Wash them out carefully.别只涮涮瓶子，要仔细地洗洗里面。

293 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

294 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

295 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

296 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

297 barbarians   

n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人

参考例句：

• The ancient city of Rome fell under the iron hooves of the barbarians. 古罗马城在蛮族的铁蹄下沦陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It conquered its conquerors, the barbarians. 它战胜了征服者——蛮族。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

298 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

299 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

300 dummy   

n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头

参考例句：

• The police suspect that the device is not a real bomb but a dummy.警方怀疑那个装置不是真炸弹，只是一个假货。
• The boys played soldier with dummy swords made of wood.男孩们用木头做的假木剑玩打仗游戏。

301 chatter   

vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战

参考例句：

• Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
• I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。

302 glossy   

adj.平滑的；有光泽的

参考例句：

• I like these glossy spots.我喜欢这些闪闪发光的花点。
• She had glossy black hair.她长着乌黑发亮的头发。

303 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

304 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

305 gaudiness   

n.华美，俗丽的美

参考例句：

• July, yearses~now, at Kun mountain gaudiness plastic hardware product limited company work. 2006年7月~现在，在昆山华美塑胶五金制品有限公司工作。 来自互联网
• The European antique furniture are gaudiness. 欧洲的古典家具一向以华美著称。 来自互联网

306 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

307 inquisitive   

adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的

参考例句：

• Children are usually inquisitive.小孩通常很好问。
• A pat answer is not going to satisfy an inquisitive audience.陈腔烂调的答案不能满足好奇的听众。

308 manly   

adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地

参考例句：

• The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
• He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务，并希望别人效之。

309 manatee   

n.海牛

参考例句：

• We watched dolphin,manatee,sea lion and whale shows.我们看了海豚、海牛、海狮和鲸的表演。
• One of the most extraordinary river creatures is Amazonian manatee.其中河里最特别的生物之一要数亚马孙海牛。

310 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

311 reigned   

vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式）

参考例句：

• Silence reigned in the hall. 全场肃静。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Night was deep and dead silence reigned everywhere. 夜深人静，一片死寂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

312 skyscrapers   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
• On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。

313 hurl   

vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂

参考例句：

• The best cure for unhappiness is to hurl yourself into your work.医治愁苦的最好办法就是全身心地投入工作。
• To hurl abuse is no way to fight.谩骂决不是战斗。

314 skidded   

v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区

参考例句：

• The car skidded and hit a lamp post. 那辆汽车打滑撞上了路灯杆。
• The car skidded and overturned. 汽车打滑翻倒了。

315 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

316 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。

317 rhythmic   

adj.有节奏的，有韵律的

参考例句：

• Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
• Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。

318 ozone   

n.臭氧，新鲜空气

参考例句：

• The ozone layer is a protective layer around the planet Earth.臭氧层是地球的保护层。
• The capacity of ozone can adjust according of requirement.臭氧的产量可根据需要或调节。

319 recedes   

v.逐渐远离( recede的第三人称单数 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• For this reason the near point gradually recedes as one grows older. 由于这个原因，随着人渐渐变老，近点便逐渐后退。 来自辞典例句
• Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the darkness. 缄默的、悲哀的、被抛弃的、支离破碎的捷克斯洛伐克，已在黑暗之中。 来自辞典例句

320 denim   

n.斜纹棉布；斜纹棉布裤，牛仔裤

参考例句：

• She wore pale blue denim shorts and a white denim work shirt.她穿着一条淡蓝色的斜纹粗棉布短裤，一件白粗布工作服上衣。
• Dennis was dressed in denim jeans.丹尼斯穿了一条牛仔裤。

321 turquoise   

n.绿宝石；adj.蓝绿色的

参考例句：

• She wore a string of turquoise round her neck.她脖子上戴着一串绿宝石。
• The women have elaborate necklaces of turquoise.那些女人戴着由绿松石制成的精美项链。

322 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：

• He then stencilled the ceiling with a moon and stars motif. 他随后用模版在天花板上印上了月亮和繁星图案。 来自辞典例句
• Each cage was stencilled with the name and the brand of the bull-breeder. 每只笼子上都印有公牛饲养人的姓名和商标。 来自辞典例句

323 snarl   

v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮

参考例句：

• At the seaside we could hear the snarl of the waves.在海边我们可以听见波涛的咆哮。
• The traffic was all in a snarl near the accident.事故发生处附近交通一片混乱。

324 snarling   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• "I didn't marry you," he said, in a snarling tone. “我没有娶你，"他咆哮着说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• So he got into the shoes snarling. 于是，汤姆一边大喊大叫，一边穿上了那双鞋。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

325 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

326 propriety   

n.正当行为；正当；适当

参考例句：

• We hesitated at the propriety of the method.我们对这种办法是否适用拿不定主意。
• The sensitive matter was handled with great propriety.这件机密的事处理得极为适当。

327 translucent   

adj.半透明的；透明的

参考例句：

• The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
• A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。

328 eyelids   

n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色

参考例句：

• She was so tired, her eyelids were beginning to droop. 她太疲倦了，眼睑开始往下垂。
• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

329 darts   

n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• His darts trophy takes pride of place on the mantelpiece. 他将掷镖奖杯放在壁炉顶上最显著的地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I never saw so many darts in a bodice! 我从没见过紧身胸衣上纳了这么多的缝褶！ 来自《简明英汉词典》

330 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

331 growling   

n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼

参考例句：

• We heard thunder growling in the distance. 我们听见远处有隆隆雷声。
• The lay about the deck growling together in talk. 他们在甲板上到处游荡，聚集在一起发牢骚。

332 precariously   

adv.不安全地；危险地；碰机会地；不稳定地

参考例句：

• The hotel was perched precariously on a steep hillside. 旅馆危险地坐落在陡峭的山坡上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The phone was perched precariously on the window ledge. 电话放在窗台上，摇摇欲坠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

333 caress   

vt./n.爱抚，抚摸

参考例句：

• She gave the child a loving caress.她疼爱地抚摸着孩子。
• She feasted on the caress of the hot spring.她尽情享受着温泉的抚爱。

334 fouls   

n.煤层尖灭；恶劣的( foul的名词复数 )；邪恶的；难闻的；下流的v.使污秽( foul的第三人称单数 )；弄脏；击球出界；（通常用废物）弄脏

参考例句：

• The player was sent off the field because of fouls. 这名运动员因屡屡犯规而被罚下场。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Jones was ordered off in the second half after repeated fouls. 由于屡次犯规，琼斯在下半场中被责令退出比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

335 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

336 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

337 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

338 dribbled   

v.流口水( dribble的过去式和过去分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球

参考例句：

• Melted wax dribbled down the side of the candle. 熔化了的蜡一滴滴从蜡烛边上流下。
• He dribbled past the fullback and scored a goal. 他越过对方后卫，趁势把球踢入球门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

339 dribble   

v.点滴留下，流口水；n.口水

参考例句：

• Melted wax dribbled down the side of the candle.熔化了的蜡一滴滴从蜡烛边上流下。
• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。

340 awry   

adj.扭曲的，错的

参考例句：

• She was in a fury over a plan that had gone awry. 计划出了问题，她很愤怒。
• Something has gone awry in our plans.我们的计划出差错了。

341 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

342 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

343 watery   

adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的

参考例句：

• In his watery eyes there is an expression of distrust.他那含泪的眼睛流露出惊惶失措的神情。
• Her eyes became watery because of the smoke.因为烟熏，她的双眼变得泪汪汪的。

344 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

345 slashing   

adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Slashing is the first process in which liquid treatment is involved. 浆纱是液处理的第一过程。 来自辞典例句
• He stopped slashing his horse. 他住了手，不去鞭打他的马了。 来自辞典例句

346 notch   

n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级

参考例句：

• The peanuts they grow are top-notch.他们种的花生是拔尖的。
• He cut a notch in the stick with a sharp knife.他用利刃在棒上刻了一个凹痕。

347 exertion   

n.尽力，努力

参考例句：

• We were sweating profusely from the exertion of moving the furniture.我们搬动家具大费气力，累得大汗淋漓。
• She was hot and breathless from the exertion of cycling uphill.由于用力骑车爬坡，她浑身发热。

348 dribbles   

n.涓滴( dribble的名词复数 )；细滴；少量（液体）v.流口水( dribble的第三人称单数 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球

参考例句：

• That faucet dribbles badly. 那个水龙头漏水严重。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Question: How do you make the dribbles like you always do them? 就像你经常做的，你怎么盘带？（估计也是个踢球的）。 来自互联网

349 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

350 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

351 rustles   

n.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的名词复数 )v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A slight breeze rustles the tan grass. 微风拂来，黄褐色的草沙沙作响。 来自互联网

352 retrieves   

v.取回( retrieve的第三人称单数 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• The mole comes in later, retrieves the item and packs it back in his gear. 鼹鼠随后到达，找回东西然后用他的传送装置返回。 来自电影对白
• Retrieves the pitch of the current image, in bytes. 得到代表目前图像斜度的字节数。 来自互联网

353 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

354 grits   

n.粗磨粉；粗面粉；粗燕麦粉；粗玉米粉；细石子，砂粒等( grit的名词复数 )；勇气和毅力v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的第三人称单数 )；咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The sands [grits] in the cooked rice made my tooth ache. 米饭里的砂粒硌痛了牙。 来自辞典例句
• This process also produces homing and corn grits. 此法也产生玉米麸(homing)和玉米粗粉。 来自辞典例句

355 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

356 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

357 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

358 groove   

n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯

参考例句：

• They're happy to stay in the same old groove.他们乐于墨守成规。
• The cupboard door slides open along the groove.食橱门沿槽移开。

359 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

360 descends   

v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite. 这个节日起源于宗教仪式。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The path descends steeply to the village. 小路陡直而下直到村子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

361 persistently   

ad.坚持地；固执地

参考例句：

• He persistently asserted his right to a share in the heritage. 他始终声称他有分享那笔遗产的权利。
• She persistently asserted her opinions. 她果断地说出了自己的意见。

362 fumble   

vi.笨拙地用手摸、弄、接等，摸索

参考例句：

• His awkwardness made him fumble with the key.由于尴尬不安，他拿钥匙开锁时显得笨手笨脚。
• He fumbled his one-handed attempt to light his cigarette.他笨拙地想用一只手点燃香烟。

363 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

364 adhesive   

n.粘合剂；adj.可粘着的，粘性的

参考例句：

• You'll need a strong adhesive to mend that chair. 你需要一种粘性很强的东西来修理那把椅子。
• Would you give me an adhesive stamp?请给我一枚带胶邮票好吗？

365 ripples   

逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moon danced on the ripples. 月亮在涟漪上舞动。
• The sea leaves ripples on the sand. 海水在沙滩上留下了波痕。

366 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

367 twitches   

n.（使）抽动， （使）颤动， （使）抽搐( twitch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• No response, just a flutter of flanks and a few ear twitches. 没反应，只有胁腹和耳朵动了几下。 来自互联网
• BCEF(50,100 mg·kg~-1 ) could distinctly increase the head-twitch number in the 5-HTP induced head-twitches test. BCEF50、100mg·kg-1可明显增加5羟色胺酸诱导甩头小鼠的甩头次数。 来自互联网

368 veered   

v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转

参考例句：

• The bus veered onto the wrong side of the road. 公共汽车突然驶入了逆行道。
• The truck veered off the road and crashed into a tree. 卡车突然驶离公路撞上了一棵树。 来自《简明英汉词典》