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Part 2 Chapter 2
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He asks her, "What did you and the kid do today?"

 

"Oh, nothing much. Hung around the house in the morning, took a drive in the afternoon."

 

"Where to?"

 

"Up to Mt. Judge."

 

"The town?"

 

"The mountain. We had a Coke in the Pinnacle1 Hotel and watched a softball game in the park for a while."

 

"Tell me the truth. Do you have the kid smoking pot?"

 

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

 

"He's awfully2 fascinated with you, and I figure it's either pot or sex."

 

"Or the car. Or the fact that I treat him like a human being instead of a failed little athlete because he's not six feet six. Nelson is a very intelligent sensitive child who is very upset by his mother leaving."

 

"I know he's intelligent, thanks, I've known the kid for years."

 

"Harry4, do you want me to leave, is that it? I will if that's what you want. I could go back to Babe except she's having a rough time."

 

"What kind of rough time?"

 

"She's been busted5 for possession. The pigs came into the Jimbo the other night and took about ten away, including her and Skeeter. She says they asked for a bigger payoff and the owner balked6. The owner is white, by the way."

 

"So you're still in touch with that crowd."

 

"You don't want me to be?"

 

"Suit yourself. It's your life to fuck up."

 

"Somebody's been bugging7 you, haven't they?"

 

"Several people."

 

"Do whatever you want to with me, Harry. I can't be anything in your real life."

 

She is standing8 before him in the living room, in her cutoff jeans and peasant blouse, her hands held at her sides slightly lifted and open, like a servant waiting for a tray. Her fingers are red from washing his dishes. Moved to gallantry, he confesses, "I need your sweet mouth and your pearly ass9."

 

"I think they're beginning to bore you."

 

He reads this in reverse: he bores her. Always did. He attacks: "O.K., what about sex, with you and the kid?"

 

She looks away. She has a long nose and long chin, and that dry moth3 mouth that he feels, seeing it in repose10, when she is not watching him, as absentmindedly disdainful, as above him and wanting to flutter still higher. Summer has put only a few freckles11 on her, and these mostly on her forehead, which bulges12 gently as a milk pitcher13. Her hair is twisty from being so much in those little tiny braids hippies make. "He likes me," she answers, except it is no answer.

 

He tells her. "We can't do that trip to Valley Forge tomorrow. Janice wants Nelson to go shopping with her for school clothes, ?and I should go see my mother. You can drive me if you want, or I can take the bus."

 

He thinks he is being obliging, but she gives him her rich?girl sneer14 and says, "You remind me of my mother sometimes. She thought she owned me too."

 

Saturday morning, she is gone. But her clothes still hang like rags in the closet. Downstairs on the kitchen table lies a note in green magic marker: Out all day. Will drop Nelson at the lot. (heart & peace symbols), So he takes the two bus rides all the way across Brewer15. The lawns in Mt. Judge, patches of grass between cement walks, are burned; spatterings of leaves here and there in the maples16 are already turned gold. There is that scent17 in the air, of going back to school, of beginning again and reconfirming the order that exists. He wants to feel good, he always used to feel good at every turning of the year, every vacation or end of vacation, every new sheet on the calendar: but his adult life has proved to have no seasons, only changes of weather, and the older he gets, the less weather interests him.

 

The house next to his old house still has the FOR SALE sign up. He tries his front door but it is locked; he rings, and after a prolonged shuffle18 and rumble19 within Pop comes to the door. Rabbit asks, "What's this locked door business?"

 

"Sorry, Harry, there've been so many burglaries in town lately. We had no idea you were coming."

 

"Didn't I promise?"

 

"You've promised before. Not that your mother and I can blame you, we know your life is difficult these days."

 

"It's not so difficult. In some ways it's easier. She upstairs?"

 

Pop nods. "She's rarely down anymore."

 

"I thought this new stuff was working."

 

"It does in a way, but she's so depressed20 she lacks the will. Nine?tenths of life is will, my father used to say it, and the longer I live the more I see how right he was."

 

The disinfected scent of the house is still oppressive, but Harry goes up the stairs two at a time; Jill's disappearance21 has left him vigorous with anger. He bursts into the sickroom, saying, "Mom, tell me your dreams."

 

She has lost weight. The bones have shed all but the minimum connective tissue; her face is strained over the bones with an expression of far?seeing, expectant sweetness. Her voice emerges from this apparition22 more strongly than before, with less hesitation23 between words.

 

"I'm tormented24 something cruel at night, Harry. Did Earl tell you?"

 

"He mentioned bad dreams."

 

"Yes, bad, but not so bad as not being able to sleep at all. I know this room so well now, every object. At night even that innocent old bureau and that ?poor shapeless armchair they."

 

They what?" He sits on the bed to take her hand, and fears the swaying under his weight will jostle and break her bones.

 

She says, "They want. To suffocate25 me."

 

"Those things do?"

 

"All things ? do. They crowd in, in the queerest way, these simple homely26 bits of furniture I've. Lived with all my life. Dad's asleep in the next room, I can hear him snore. No cars go by. It's just me and the streetlamp. It's like being ?under water. I count the seconds I have breath left for. I figure I can go forty, thirty, then it gets down to ten."

 

"I didn't know breathing was affected27 by this."

 

"It isn't. It's all my mind. The things I have in my mind, Hassy, it reminds me of when they clean out a drain. All that hair and sludge mixed up with a rubber comb somebody went and dropped down years ago. Sixty years ago in my case."

 

"You don't feel that about your life, do you? I think you did a good job."

 

"A good job at what? You don't even know what you're trying to do, is the humor of it."

 

"Have a few laughs," he offers. "Have a few babies."

 

She takes him up on that. "I keep dreaming about you and Mim. Always together. When you haven't been together since you got out of school."

 

"What do Mim and I do, in these dreams?"

 

"You look up at me. Sometimes you want to be fed and I can't find the food. Once I remember looking into the icebox and. A man was in it frozen. A man I never knew, just one. Of those total strangers dreams have. Or else the stove won't light. Or I can't locate where Earl put the food when he came home from shopping, I know he. Put it somewhere. Silly things. But they become so important. I wake up screaming at Earl."

 

"Do Mim and I say anything?"

 

"No, you just look up like children do. Slightly frightened but sure I'll save. The situation. This is how you look. Even when I can see you're dead."

 

"Dead?"

 

"Yes. All powdered and set out in coffins28. Only still standing up, still waiting for something from me. You've died because I couldn't get the food on the table. A strange thing about these dreams, come to think of it. Though you look up at me from a child's height. You look the way you do now. Mim all full of lipstick29, with one of those shiny miniskirts and boots zippered30 up to her knee."

 

"Is that how she looks now?"

 

"Yes, she sent us a publicity31 picture."

 

"Publicity for what?"

 

"Oh, you know. For herself. You know how they do things now. I didn't understand it myself. It's on the bureau."

 

The picture, eight by ten, very glossy32, with a diagonal crease33 where the mailman bent34 it, shows Mim in a halter and bracelets35 and sultan pants, her head thrown back, one long bare foot ? she had big feet as a child, Mom had to make the shoe salesmen go deep into the stockroom ? up on a hassock. Her eyes from the way they've reshaped them do not look like Mim at all. Only something about the nose makes it Mim. The kind of lump on the end, and the nostrils36: the way as a baby they would tuck in when she started to cry is the way they tuck in now when they tell her to look sexy. He feels in this picture less Mim than the men posing her. Underneath37, the message pale in ballpoint pen, she had written, Miss you all Hope to come East soon Love Mim. A slanting39 cramped40 hand that hadn't gone past high school. Jill's message had been written in splashy upright private?school semi?printing, confident as a poster. Mim never had that.

 

Rabbit asks, "How old is Mim now?"

 

Mom says, "You don't want to hear about my dreams."

 

"Sure I do." He figures it: born when he was six, Mim would be thirty now: she wasn't going anywhere, not even in harem costume. What you haven't done by thirty you're not likely to do. What you have done you'll do lots more. He says to his mother: "Tell me the worst one."

 

"The house next door has been sold. To some people who want to put up an apartment building. The Scranton pair have gone into partnership41 with them and then. These two walls go up, so the house doesn't get any light at all, and I'm in a hole looking up. And dirt starts to come down on me, cola cans and cereal boxes, and then. I wake up and know I can't breathe."

 

He tells her, "Mt. Judge isn't zoned42 for high?rise."

 

She doesn't laugh. Her eyes are wide now, fastened on that other half of her life, the night half, the nightmare half that now is rising like water in a bad cellar and is going to engulf43 her, proving that it was the real half all along, that daylight was an illusion, a cheat. "No," she says, "that's not the worst. The worst is Earl and I go to the hospital for tests. All around us are tables the size of our kitchen table. Only instead of set for meals each has a kind of puddle44 on it, a red puddle mixed up with crumpled45 bedsheets so they're shaped like. Children's sandcastles. And connected with tubes to machines with like television patterns on them. And then it dawns on me these are each people. And Earl keeps saying, so proud and pleased he's brainless, `The government is paying for it all. The government is paying for it.' And he shows me the paper you and Mim signed to make me one of?you know, them. Those puddles46."

 

"That's not a dream," her son says. "That's how it is."

 

And she sits up straighter on the pillows, stiff, scolding. Her mouth gets that unforgiving downward sag38 he used to fear more than anything ? more than vampires47, more than polio, more than thunder or God or being late for school. "I'm ashamed of you," she says. "I never thought I'd hear a son of mine so bitter."

 

"It was a joke, Mom."

 

"Who has so much to be grateful for," she goes on implacably.

 

"For what? For exactly what?"

 

"For Janice's leaving you, for one thing. She was always. A damp washrag."

 

"And what about Nelson, huh? What happens to him now?" This is her falsity, that she forgets what time creates, she still sees the world with its original four corners, her and Pop and him and Mim sitting at the kitchen table. Her tyrant48 love would freeze the world.

 

Mom says, "Nelson isn't my child, you're my child."

 

"Well, he exists anyway, and I have to worry about him. You just can't dismiss Janice like that."

 

"She's dismissed you."

 

"Not really. She calls me up at work all the time. Stavros wants her to come back."

 

"Don't you let her. She'll. Smother49 you, Harry."

 

"What choices do I have?"

 

"Run. Leave Brewer. I never knew why you came back. There's nothing here any more. Everybody knows it. Ever since the hosiery mills went south. Be like Mim."

 

"I don't have what Mim has to sell. Anyway she's breaking Pop's heart, whoring around."

 

"He wants it that way, your father has always been looking. For excuses to put on a long face. Well, he has me now, and I'm excuse enough. Don't say no to life, Hussy. Let the dead bury the dead. Bitterness never helps. I'd rather have a postcard from you happy than. See you sitting there like a lump."

 

Always these impossible demands and expectations from her. These harsh dreams. "Hussy, do you ever pray?"

 

"Mostly on buses."

 

"Pray for rebirth. Pray for your own life."

 

His cheeks flame; he bows his head. He feels she is asking him to kill Janice, to kill Nelson. Freedom means murder. Rebirth means death. A lump, he silently resists, and she looks aside with the comer of her mouth worse bent. She is still trying to call him forth50 from her womb, can't she see he is an old man? An old lump whose only use is to stay in place to keep the lumps leaning on him from tumbling.

 

Pop comes upstairs and tunes51 in the Phillies game on television. "They're a much sounder team without that Allen," he says. "He was a bad egg, Harry, I say that without prejudice; bad eggs come in all colors."

 

After a few innings, Rabbit leaves.

 

"Can't you stay for at least the game, Harry? I believe there's a beer still in the refrigerator, I was going to go down to the kitchen anyway to make Mother some tea."

 

"Let him go, Earl."

 

To protect the electrical wires, a lot of the maples along Jackson Road have been mutilated, the center of their crowns cut out. Rabbit hadn't noticed this before, or the new sidewalk squares where they have taken away the little surface gutters52 that used to trip you roller skating. He had been roller skating when Kenny Leggett, an older boy from across the street, who later became a five?minute miler, a county conference marvel53, but that was later, this day he was just a bigger boy who had hit Rabbit with an icy snowball that winter ?could have taken out an eye if it had hit higher ? this day he just tossed across Jackson Road the shout, "Harry, did you hear on the radio? The President is dead." He said "The President," not "Roosevelt"; there had been no other President for them. The next time this would happen, the President would have a name: as he sat at the deafening54 tall machine one Friday after lunch his father sneaked55 up behind him and confided56, "Harry, it just came over the radio, engraving57 had it on. Kennedy's been shot. They think in the head." Both charmers dead of violent headaches. Their smiles fade in the field of stars. We grope on, under bullies58 and accountants. On the bus, Rabbit prays as his mother told him to do: Make the L?dopa work, give her pleasanter dreams, keep Nelson more or less pure, don't let Stavros turn too hard on Janice, help Jill find her way home. Keep Pop healthy. Me too. Amen.

 

A man in a pink shirt drops down beside him with a stagey sigh, after a stop on the side of the mountain, by the gas station with the Day?Glo spinner. The man's face, turned full, clings to the side of Rabbit's vision; after a while he defiantly59 returns the stare. The other man's cheeks are like his shirt pink, smooth as a boy's though his hair is gray, and his long worried eyebrows60 are lifted with an effort of recognition. "I do beg your pardon," he says, with an emphasis that curls back into his voice purringly, "but aren't you Harry ??"

 

"Hey, and you're Eccles. Reverend Eccles."

 

"Angstrom, yes? Harry Angstrom. How very wonderful. Really." And Eccles takes his hand, in that plump humid grip that feels as if it will never let go. In the clergyman's eyes there is some?thing new, a hardened yet startled something, naked like the pale base of his throat, which lacks a clerical collar. And the shirt, Rabbit sees, is a fancy shirt, with a fine white stitch?stripe and an airy semi?transparent61 summer weave: he remembers how the man wore not black but a subtly elegant midnight blue. Eccles still has hold of his hand. Harry pulls it free. "Do tell me," Eccles says, with that preening62 emphasis again, which Rabbit doesn't remember from ten years ago, "how things have gone for you. Are you still with ??"

 

"Janice."

 

"She didn't seem quite up to you, I can say now, frankly63."

 

"Well, or vice64 versa. We never had another child." That had been Eccles' advice, in those first months of reconciliation65, when he and Janice were starting fresh and even going to the Episcopal church together. Then Eccles had been called to a church nearer Philadelphia. They had heard a year or two later, by way of Janice's mother, that he had run into some trouble in his new parish; then nothing. And here he was again, grayer but looking no older: if anything, younger, slimmer through the middle, in self?consciously good condition, hard and tan in a way few in Brewer bother to cultivate, and with that young, startled look to his eyes. His hair is long, and curls at the back of his shirt collar. Rabbit asks him, "And what about things with you?" He is wondering where Eccles could have been, to board the bus at the side of the mountain. Nothing there but the gas station, a diner, a view of the viaduct, and some rich men's homes tucked up among the spruces, behind iron fences.

 

"Ca va. It goes. I've been buried; and yet I live. I've parted company with the ministry66." And his jaw67 stays open, propped68 as if to emit a guffaw69, though no sound comes, and those strangely purified eyes remain watchful70.

 

"Why'd you do that?" Rabbit asks.

 

Eccles' chuckle71, which always had something exploratory and quizzical about it, has become impudent72, mocking, if not quite unafraid. "A variety of reasons. I was rather invited to, for one. I wanted to, for another."

 

"You no longer believe it?"

 

"In my fashion. I'm not sure I believed it then."

 

"No?" Rabbit is shocked.

 

"I believed," Eccles tells him, and his voice takes on an excessive modulation73, a self?caressing74 timbre75, "in certain kinds of human interrelation. I still do. If people want to call what happens in certain relationships Christ, I raise no objection. But it's not the word I choose to use anymore."

 

"How'd your father feel about this? Wasn't he a bishop76?"

 

"My father ? God rest his, et cetera ? was dead when my decision was reached."

 

"And your wife? She was nifty, I forget her name."

 

"Lucy. Dear Lucy. She left me, actually. Yes, I've shed many skins." And the mouth of this pale?throated, long?haired man holds open on the possibility of a guffaw, but silently, watchfully77.

 

"She left ya?"

 

"She fled my indiscretions. She remarried and lives in Wilmington. Her husband's a painfully ordinary fellow, a chemist of some sort. No indiscretions. My girls adore him. You remember my two girls."

 

"They were cute. Especially the older one. Since we're on the subject, Janice has left me, too."

 

Eccles' pale active eyebrows arch higher. "Really? Recently?"

 

"The day before the moon shot."

 

"She seemed more the left than the leaving type. Look, Harry, we should get together in a more, ah, stationary78 place and have a real conversation." In his leaning closer for emphasis, as the bus sways, his arm touches Rabbit's. He always had a certain surprising muscularity, but Eccles has become burlier, more himself. His fluffed?up head seems huge.

 

Rabbit asks him, "Uh, what do you do now?"

 

Again, the guffaw, the held jaw, the watchfulness79. "I Eve in Philadelphia, basically. For a while I did youth work with the Y. M. C. A. I was a camp supervisor80 three summers in Vermont. Some winters, I've chosen just to read, to meditate81. I think a very exciting thing is happening in Western consciousness and, laugh if you will, I'm making notes toward a book about it. What I think, in essence, is that, at long last, we're coming out of Plato's cave. How does `Out from Plato's Cave' strike you as a title?"

 

"Kind of spooky, but don't mind me. What brings you back to this dirty old burg then?"

 

"Well, it's rather curious, Harry. You don't mind my calling you Harry? That all is beginning to seem as if it were only yesterday. What curious people we were then! The ghosts we let bedevil us! Anyway, you know the little town called Oriole, six miles south of Brewer?"

 

"I've been there." With his high?school basketball team, a dozen years ago. Junior year. He had one of his great nights there.

 

"Well, they have a summer theater, called the Oriole Players."

 

"Sure. We run their ads."

 

"That's right ? you're a printer. I've heard that."

 

"Linotyper, actually."

 

"Good for you. Well, a friend of mine, he's an absurd person, very egotistical, but nevertheless a wonderful man, is with them as co?director, and has talked me into helping82 with their P.R. Public relations. It's really being a fund raiser. I was in Mt. Judge just now seeing this impossible old Mahlon Youngerman, that's Sunflower Beer of course, for a donation. He said he'd think about it. That's code for he won't think about it."

 

"It sounds a little like what you used to do."

 

Eccles glances at him more sharply; a defensive83 sleepiness masks his face. "Pearls before swine, you mean? Pushing stumblingblocks at the Gentiles. Yes, a little, but I only do it eight hours a day. The other sixteen, I can be my own man."

 

Harry doesn't like the hungry way he says man, like it means too much. They are jerking and trembling down Weiser Street; Eccles looks past Harry out the window and blinks. "I must get off here. Could I ask you to get off with me and have me buy you a drink? There's a bar here on the corner that's not too depressing." "No, Jesus, thanks. I got to keep riding. I got to get home. I have a kid there alone."

 

"Nelson."

 

"Right! What a memory! So thanks a lot. You look great."

 

"Delightful84 to see you again, Harry. Let's do make a more leisurely85 occasion sometime. Where are you living?"

 

"Over in Penn Villas86, they put it up since you were here. Things are a little vague right now. . ."

 

"I understand," Eccles says, quickly, for the bus is chuffing and groaning87 to a stop. Yet he finds time to put his hand on Harry's shoulder, up near the neck. His voice changes quality, beseeches88, becomes again a preacher's: "I think these are marvellous times to be alive in, and I'd love to share my good news with you at your leisure."

 

To put distance between them, Rabbit rides the 16A six blocks further, to where it toms up Greely, and gets off there, walking back to the roasted?peanut place on Weiser to catch the bus to Penn Villas. PIG ATROCITIES89 STIR CAMDEN says a headline on a rack, a radical90 black paper out of Philly. Harry feels nervous, looking north along Weiser for a pink shirt coming after him. The place on his bare neck where Eccles touched tickles91: amazing how that guy wants to cling, after all these years, with both their lives turned upside down. The bus number 12 comes and pulls him across the bridge. The day whines92 at the windows, a September brightness empty of a future: the lawns smitten93 flat, the black river listless and stinking94. HOBBY HEAVEN. BUTCH CSSDY & KID. He walks down Emberly toward Vista95 Crescent among sprinklers twirling in unison96, under television aerials raking the same four?o'clock garbage from the sky.

 

The dirty white Porsche is in the driveway, halfway97 into the garage, the way Janice used to do it, annoyingly. Jill is in the brown armchair, in her slip. From the slumped98 way she sits he sees she has no underpants on. She answers his questions groggily99, with a lag, as if they are coming to her through a packing of dirty cotton, of fuzzy memories accumulated this day.

 

"Where'd you go so early this morning?"

 

"Out. Away from creeps like you."

 

"You drop the kid off?"

 

"Sure."

 

"When'd you get back?"

 

"Just now."

 

"Where'd you spend all day?"

 

"Maybe I went to Valley Forge anyway."

 

"Maybe you didn't."

 

"I did."

 

"How was it?"

 

"Beautiful. A gas, actually. George was a beautiful dude."

 

"Describe one room."

 

"You go in a door, and there's a four?poster bed, and a little tasselled pillow, and on it it says, `George Washington slept here.' On the bedside tables you can still see the pills he took, to make himself sleep, when the redcoats had got him all uptight100. The walls have some kind of lineny stuff on them, and all the chairs have ropes across the arms so you can't sit down on them. That's why I'm sitting on this one. Because it didn't. O.K.?"

 

He hesitates among the many alternatives she seems to be presenting. Laughter, anger, battle, surrender. "O.K. Sounds interesting. I'm sorry we couldn't go."

 

"Where did you go?"

 

"I went to visit my mother, after doing the housework around here."

 

"How is she?"

 

"She talks better, but seems frailer101."

 

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry she has that disease. I guess I'll never meet your mother, will I?"

 

"Do you want to? You can see my father any time you want, just be in the Phoenix102 Bar at four?fifteen. You'd like him, he cares about politics. He thinks the System is shit, just like you do."

 

"And I'll never meet your wife."

 

"Why would you want to? What is this?"

 

"I don't know, I'm interested. Maybe I'm falling for you."

 

"Jesus, don't do that."

 

"You don't think much of yourself, do you?"

 

"Once the basketball stopped, I suppose not. My mother by the way told me I should let Janice screw herself and leave town."

 

"What'd you say to that?"

 

"I said I couldn't."

 

"You're a creep."

 

Her lack of underpants and his sense that she has already been used today, and his sense of this unique summer, this summer of the moon, slipping away forever, lead him to ask, blushing for the second time this afternoon, "You wouldn't want to make love, would you?"

 

"Fuck or suck?"

 

"Whichever. Fuck." For he has come to feel that she gives him the end of her with teeth in it as a way of keeping the other for some man not yet arrived, some man more real to her than himself.

 

"What about Nelson?" she asks.

 

"He's off with Janice, she may keep him for supper. He's no threat. But maybe you're too tired. From all that George Washington."

 

Jill stands and pulls her slip to her shoulder and holds it there, a crumpled bag containing her head, her young body all there below, pale as a candlestick, the breasts hardened drippings. "Fuck me," she says coolly, tossing her slip toward the kitchen, and, when under him and striving, continues, "Harry, I want you to fuck all the shit out of me, all the shit and dreariness103 of this shitdreary world, hurt me, clean me out, I want you to be all of my insides, sweetheart, right up to my throat, yes, oh yes, bigger, more, shoot it all out of me, sweet oh sweet sweet creep." Her eyes dilate104 in surprise. Their green is just a rim105, around pupils whose pure black is muddied with his shadow. "You've gotten little."

 

It is true: all her talk, her wild wanting it, have scared him down to nothing. She is too wet; something has enlarged her. And the waxen solidity of her young body, her buttocks spheres too perfect, feels alien to him: he grasps her across a distance clouded with Mom's dry warm bones and Janice's dark curves, Janice's ribs106 crescent above where the waist dipped. He senses winds playing through Jill's nerve?ends, feels her moved by something beyond him, of which he is only a shadow, a shadow of white, his chest a radiant shield crushing her. She disengages herself and kneels to tongue his belly107. They play with each other in a fog. The furniture dims around them. They are on the scratchy carpet, the television screen a mother?planet above them. Her hair is in his mouth. Her ass is two humps under his eyes. She tries to come against his face but his tongue isn't that strong. She rubs her clitoris against his chin upside down until he hurts. Elsewhere she is nibbling108 him. He feels gutted109, silly, limp. At last he asks her to drag her breasts, the tough little tips, across his genitals, that lie cradled at the join of his legs. In this way he arouses himself, and attempts to satisfy her, and does, though by the time she trembles and comes they are crying over secrets far at their backs, in opposite directions, moonchild and earthman. "I love you," he says, and the fact that he doesn't makes it true. She is sitting on him, still working like some angry mechanic who, having made a difficult fit, keeps testing it.

 

In the small slipping sound they make he hears their mixed liquids, imagines in the space of her belly a silver machine, spidershaped, spun110 from the threads of their secretions111, carefully spinning. This links them. He says, surrendering, "Oh cry. Do." He pulls her down to him, puts their cheeks together, so their tears will mix.

 

Jill asks him, "Why are you crying?"

 

"Why are you?"

 

"Because the world is so shitty and I'm part of it."

 

"Do you think there's a better one?"

 

"There must be."

 

"Well," he considers, "why the hell not?"

 

By the time Nelson comes home, they have both taken baths, their clothes are on, the lights are on. Rabbit is watching the sixo'clock news (the round?up tally112 on summer riots, the week's kill figures in Vietnam, the estimate of traffic accidents over the coming Labor113 Day weekend) and Jill is making lentil soup in the kitchen. Nelson spreads over the floor and furniture the unwrapped loot of his day with Janice: snappy new jockey shorts, undershirts, stretch socks, two pairs of slacks, four sports shirts, a corduroy jacket, wide neckties, even cufflinks to go with a lavender dress shirt, not to mention new loafers and basketball sneakers.

 

Jill admires: "Groovy, groovier, grooviest. Nelson, I just pity those eighth?grade girls, they'll be at your mercy."

 

He looks at her anxiously. "You know it's square. I didn't want to, Mom made me. The stores were disgusting, all full of materialism114."

 

"What stores did she go to?" Rabbit asked. "How the hell did she pay for all this junk?"

 

"She opened charge accounts everywhere, Dad. She bought herself some clothes too, a really neat thing that looks like pajamas115 only it's O.K. to wear to parties if you're a woman, and stuff like that. And I got a suit, kind of grayey?green with checks, really cool, that we can pick up in a week when they make the alterations116. Doesn't it feel funny when they measure you?"

 

"Do you remember, who was the name on the accounts? Me or Springer?"

 

Jill for a joke has put on one of his new shirts and tied her hair in a tail behind with one of his wide new neckties. To show herself off she twirls. Nelson, entranced, can scarcely speak. At her merry.

 

"The name on her driver's license117, Dad. Isn't that the right one?"

 

"And the address here? All those bills are going to come here?"

 

"Whatever's on the driver's license, Dad. Don't go heavy on me, I told her I just wanted blue jeans. And a Che Guevara sweatshirt, only there aren't any in Brewer."

 

Jill laughs. "Nelson, you'll be the best?dressed radical at West Brewer Junior High. Harry, these neckties are silk!"

 

"So it's war with that bitch."

 

"Dad, don't. It wasn't my fault."

 

"I know that. Forget it. You needed the clothes, you're growing."

 

"And Mom really looked neat in some of the dresses."

 

He goes to the window, rather than continue to be heavy on the kid. He sees his own car, the faithful Falcon118, slowly pull out. He sees for a second the shadow of Janice's head, the way she sits at the wheel hunched119 over, you'd think she'd be more relaxed with cars, having grown up with them. She had been waiting, for what? For him to come out? Or was she just looking at the house, maybe to spot Jill? Or homesick. By a tug120 of tension in one cheek he recognizes himself as smiling, seeing that the flag decal is still on the back window, she hasn't let Stavros scrape it off.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pinnacle A2Mzb     
n.尖塔,尖顶,山峰;(喻)顶峰
参考例句:
  • Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
  • It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。
2 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
参考例句:
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
3 moth a10y1     
n.蛾,蛀虫
参考例句:
  • A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
  • The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。
4 harry heBxS     
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。
5 busted busted     
adj. 破产了的,失败了的,被降级的,被逮捕的,被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了!
  • It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。
6 balked 9feaf3d3453e7f0c289e129e4bd6925d     
v.畏缩不前,犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 );(指马)不肯跑
参考例句:
  • He balked in his speech. 他忽然中断讲演。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • They balked the robber's plan. 他们使强盗的计划受到挫败。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
7 bugging 7b00b385cb79d98bcd4440f712db473b     
[法] 窃听
参考例句:
  • Okay, then let's get the show on the road and I'll stop bugging you. 好,那么让我们开始动起来,我将不再惹你生气。 来自辞典例句
  • Go fly a kite and stop bugging me. 走开,别烦我。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语
8 standing 2hCzgo     
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。
9 ass qvyzK     
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。
10 repose KVGxQ     
v.(使)休息;n.安息
参考例句:
  • Don't disturb her repose.不要打扰她休息。
  • Her mouth seemed always to be smiling,even in repose.她的嘴角似乎总是挂着微笑,即使在睡眠时也是这样。
11 freckles MsNzcN     
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》
12 bulges 248c4c08516697064a5c8a7608001606     
膨胀( bulge的名词复数 ); 鼓起; (身体的)肥胖部位; 暂时的激增
参考例句:
  • His pocket bulges with apples. 他的衣袋装着苹果鼓了起来。
  • He bulges out of his black T-shirt. 他的肚子在黑色T恤衫下鼓鼓地挺着。
13 pitcher S2Gz7     
n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐;(棒球)投手
参考例句:
  • He poured the milk out of the pitcher.他从大罐中倒出牛奶。
  • Any pitcher is liable to crack during a tight game.任何投手在紧张的比赛中都可能会失常。
14 sneer YFdzu     
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语
参考例句:
  • He said with a sneer.他的话中带有嘲笑之意。
  • You may sneer,but a lot of people like this kind of music.你可以嗤之以鼻,但很多人喜欢这种音乐。
15 brewer 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。
16 maples 309f7112d863cd40b5d12477d036621a     
槭树,枫树( maple的名词复数 ); 槭木
参考例句:
  • There are many maples in the park. 公园里有好多枫树。
  • The wind of the autumn colour the maples carmine . 秋风给枫林涂抹胭红。
17 scent WThzs     
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。
18 shuffle xECzc     
n.拖著脚走,洗纸牌;v.拖曳,慢吞吞地走
参考例句:
  • I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
  • Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。
19 rumble PCXzd     
n.隆隆声;吵嚷;v.隆隆响;低沉地说
参考例句:
  • I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
  • We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定,天要下雨了。
20 depressed xu8zp9     
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。
21 disappearance ouEx5     
n.消失,消散,失踪
参考例句:
  • He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
  • Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。
22 apparition rM3yR     
n.幽灵,神奇的现象
参考例句:
  • He saw the apparition of his dead wife.他看见了他亡妻的幽灵。
  • But the terror of this new apparition brought me to a stand.这新出现的幽灵吓得我站在那里一动也不敢动。
23 hesitation tdsz5     
n.犹豫,踌躇
参考例句:
  • After a long hesitation, he told the truth at last.踌躇了半天,他终于直说了。
  • There was a certain hesitation in her manner.她的态度有些犹豫不决。
24 tormented b017cc8a8957c07bc6b20230800888d0     
饱受折磨的
参考例句:
  • The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
  • He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠,深受嫉妒的折磨。
25 suffocate CHNzm     
vt.使窒息,使缺氧,阻碍;vi.窒息,窒息而亡,阻碍发展
参考例句:
  • If you shut all the windows,I will suffocate.如果你把窗户全部关起来,我就会闷死。
  • The stale air made us suffocate.浑浊的空气使我们感到窒息。
26 homely Ecdxo     
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的
参考例句:
  • We had a homely meal of bread and cheese.我们吃了一顿面包加乳酪的家常便餐。
  • Come and have a homely meal with us,will you?来和我们一起吃顿家常便饭,好吗?
27 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
28 coffins 44894d235713b353f49bf59c028ff750     
n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 );使某人早亡[死,完蛋,垮台等]之物
参考例句:
  • The shop was close and hot, and the atmosphere seemed tainted with the smell of coffins. 店堂里相当闷热,空气仿佛被棺木的味儿污染了。 来自辞典例句
  • Donate some coffins to the temple, equal to the number of deaths. 到寺庙里,捐赠棺材盒给这些死者吧。 来自电影对白
29 lipstick o0zxg     
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。
30 zippered ed46cf997b13826b9dcc208fa3765aea     
v.拉上拉链( zipper的过去式和过去分词 );用拉链扣上
参考例句:
  • Freeze grapes and put them into a zippered plastic bag. 还可以把葡萄冷冻,然后放在有拉链的塑料袋里。 来自互联网
  • Packaging is a VZB( Vinyl Zippered Bag packaging), with a color insert. 包装:有拉链的塑料袋,放一张彩卡。 来自互联网
31 publicity ASmxx     
n.众所周知,闻名;宣传,广告
参考例句:
  • The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
  • 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。
32 glossy nfvxx     
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。
33 crease qo5zK     
n.折缝,褶痕,皱褶;v.(使)起皱
参考例句:
  • Does artificial silk crease more easily than natural silk?人造丝比天然丝更易起皱吗?
  • Please don't crease the blouse when you pack it.包装时请不要将衬衫弄皱了。
34 bent QQ8yD     
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。
35 bracelets 58df124ddcdc646ef29c1c5054d8043d     
n.手镯,臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The lamplight struck a gleam from her bracelets. 她的手镯在灯光的照射下闪闪发亮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • On display are earrings, necklaces and bracelets made from jade, amber and amethyst. 展出的有用玉石、琥珀和紫水晶做的耳环、项链和手镯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
36 nostrils 23a65b62ec4d8a35d85125cdb1b4410e     
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。
37 underneath VKRz2     
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。
38 sag YD4yA     
v.下垂,下跌,消沉;n.下垂,下跌,凹陷,[航海]随风漂流
参考例句:
  • The shelf was beginning to sag beneath the weight of the books upon it.书架在书的重压下渐渐下弯。
  • We need to do something about the sag.我们须把下沉的地方修整一下。
39 slanting bfc7f3900241f29cee38d19726ae7dce     
倾斜的,歪斜的
参考例句:
  • The rain is driving [slanting] in from the south. 南边潲雨。
  • The line is slanting to the left. 这根线向左斜了。
40 cramped 287c2bb79385d19c466ec2df5b5ce970     
a.狭窄的
参考例句:
  • The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤,但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
  • working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作
41 partnership NmfzPy     
n.合作关系,伙伴关系
参考例句:
  • The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
  • Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。
42 zoned 1a07bb31ae57d0f013be87dfa4b9cb4a     
adj.划成区域的,束带的v.(飞机、汽车等)急速移动( zoom的现在分词 );(价格、费用等)急升,猛涨
参考例句:
  • This small town has been zoned as a shopping area. 这个小镇已划作商业区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They zoned the house into sleeping, sitting and dining rooms. 他们将房子区分成卧室、客厅和餐厅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
43 engulf GPgzD     
vt.吞没,吞食
参考例句:
  • Floodwaters engulf a housing project in the Bajo Yuna community in central Dominican Republic.洪水吞没了多米尼加中部巴杰优那社区的一处在建的住房工程项目。
  • If we are not strong enough to cover all the minds up,then they will engulf us,and we are in danger.如果我们不够坚强来抵挡大众的意念,就会有被他们吞没的危险。
44 puddle otNy9     
n.(雨)水坑,泥潭
参考例句:
  • The boy hopped the mud puddle and ran down the walk.这个男孩跳过泥坑,沿着人行道跑了。
  • She tripped over and landed in a puddle.她绊了一下,跌在水坑里。
45 crumpled crumpled     
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句:
  • She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire. 她把那封信揉成一团扔进了火里。
  • She flattened out the crumpled letter on the desk. 她在写字台上把皱巴巴的信展平。
46 puddles 38bcfd2b26c90ae36551f1fa3e14c14c     
n.水坑, (尤指道路上的)雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The puddles had coalesced into a small stream. 地面上水洼子里的水汇流成了一条小溪。
  • The road was filled with puddles from the rain. 雨后路面到处是一坑坑的积水。 来自《简明英汉词典》
47 vampires 156828660ac146a537e281c7af443361     
n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 );吸血蝠;高利贷者;(舞台上的)活板门
参考例句:
  • The most effective weapon against the vampires is avampire itself. 对付吸血鬼最有效的武器就是吸血鬼自己。 来自电影对白
  • If vampires existed, don`t you think we would`ve found them by now? 如果真有吸血鬼,那我们怎么还没有找到他们呢? 来自电影对白
48 tyrant vK9z9     
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人
参考例句:
  • The country was ruled by a despotic tyrant.该国处在一个专制暴君的统治之下。
  • The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves.暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。
49 smother yxlwO     
vt./vi.使窒息;抑制;闷死;n.浓烟;窒息
参考例句:
  • They tried to smother the flames with a damp blanket.他们试图用一条湿毯子去灭火。
  • We tried to smother our laughter.我们强忍住笑。
50 forth Hzdz2     
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。
51 tunes 175b0afea09410c65d28e4b62c406c21     
n.曲调,曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 );调整;(给收音机、电视等)调谐;使协调
参考例句:
  • a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
  • When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时,她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
52 gutters 498deb49a59c1db2896b69c1523f128c     
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地
参考例句:
  • Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
  • They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来,以后就在街头长大。
53 marvel b2xyG     
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事
参考例句:
  • The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
  • The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。
54 deafening deafening     
adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • The noise of the siren was deafening her. 汽笛声震得她耳朵都快聋了。
  • The noise of the machine was deafening. 机器的轰鸣声震耳欲聋。
55 sneaked fcb2f62c486b1c2ed19664da4b5204be     
v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状
参考例句:
  • I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
  • She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。
56 confided 724f3f12e93e38bec4dda1e47c06c3b1     
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的过去式和过去分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等)
参考例句:
  • She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
  • He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露,他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
57 engraving 4tyzmn     
n.版画;雕刻(作品);雕刻艺术;镌版术v.在(硬物)上雕刻(字,画等)( engrave的现在分词 );将某事物深深印在(记忆或头脑中)
参考例句:
  • He collected an old engraving of London Bridge. 他收藏了一张古老的伦敦桥版画。 来自辞典例句
  • Some writing has the precision of a steel engraving. 有的字体严谨如同钢刻。 来自辞典例句
58 bullies bullies     
n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负
参考例句:
  • Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
  • Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。
59 defiantly defiantly     
adv.挑战地,大胆对抗地
参考例句:
  • Braving snow and frost, the plum trees blossomed defiantly. 红梅傲雪凌霜开。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
60 eyebrows a0e6fb1330e9cfecfd1c7a4d00030ed5     
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。
61 transparent Smhwx     
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的
参考例句:
  • The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明,可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
  • The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。
62 preening 2d7802bbf088e82544268e2af08d571a     
v.(鸟)用嘴整理(羽毛)( preen的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • Will you stop preening yourself in front of the mirror? 你别对着镜子打扮个没完行不行?
  • She was fading, while he was still preening himself in his elegance and youth. 她已显老,而他却仍然打扮成翩翩佳公子。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
63 frankly fsXzcf     
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。
64 vice NU0zQ     
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
参考例句:
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
65 reconciliation DUhxh     
n.和解,和谐,一致
参考例句:
  • He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
  • Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。
66 ministry kD5x2     
n.(政府的)部;牧师
参考例句:
  • They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
  • We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。
67 jaw 5xgy9     
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。
68 propped 557c00b5b2517b407d1d2ef6ba321b0e     
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
  • This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。
69 guffaw XyUyr     
n.哄笑;突然的大笑
参考例句:
  • All the boys burst out into a guffaw at the joke.听到这个笑话,男孩子们发出一阵哄笑。
  • As they guffawed loudly,the ticket collector arrived.他们正哈哈大笑的时候,检票员到了。
70 watchful tH9yX     
adj.注意的,警惕的
参考例句:
  • The children played under the watchful eye of their father.孩子们在父亲的小心照看下玩耍。
  • It is important that health organizations remain watchful.卫生组织保持警惕是极为重要的。
71 chuckle Tr1zZ     
vi./n.轻声笑,咯咯笑
参考例句:
  • He shook his head with a soft chuckle.他轻轻地笑着摇了摇头。
  • I couldn't suppress a soft chuckle at the thought of it.想到这个,我忍不住轻轻地笑起来。
72 impudent X4Eyf     
adj.鲁莽的,卑鄙的,厚颜无耻的
参考例句:
  • She's tolerant toward those impudent colleagues.她对那些无礼的同事采取容忍的态度。
  • The teacher threatened to kick the impudent pupil out of the room.老师威胁着要把这无礼的小学生撵出教室。
73 modulation mEixk     
n.调制
参考例句:
  • The soft modulation of her voice soothed the infant. 她柔和的声调使婴儿安静了。
  • Frequency modulation does not allow static to creep in. 频率调制不允许静电干扰混入。
74 caressing 00dd0b56b758fda4fac8b5d136d391f3     
爱抚的,表现爱情的,亲切的
参考例句:
  • The spring wind is gentle and caressing. 春风和畅。
  • He sat silent still caressing Tartar, who slobbered with exceeding affection. 他不声不响地坐在那里,不断抚摸着鞑靼,它由于获得超常的爱抚而不淌口水。
75 timbre uoPwM     
n.音色,音质
参考例句:
  • His voice had a deep timbre.他嗓音低沉。
  • The timbre of the violin is far richer than that of the mouth organ.小提琴的音色远比口琴丰富。
76 bishop AtNzd     
n.主教,(国际象棋)象
参考例句:
  • He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
  • Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。
77 watchfully dded71fa82d287f8b2b1779aba6d474d     
警惕地,留心地
参考例句:
  • Defending his wicket watchfully, the last man is playing out time. 最后一名球员小心地守着他的三柱门,直到比赛结束。
78 stationary CuAwc     
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。
79 watchfulness 2ecdf1f27c52a55029bd5400ce8c70a4     
警惕,留心; 警觉(性)
参考例句:
  • The escort and the universal watchfulness had completely isolated him. 护送和普遍一致的监视曾经使他完全孤立。
  • A due watchfulness on the movements of the enemy was maintained. 他们对敌人的行动还是相当警惕的。
80 supervisor RrZwv     
n.监督人,管理人,检查员,督学,主管,导师
参考例句:
  • Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说,我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
  • He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。
81 meditate 4jOys     
v.想,考虑,(尤指宗教上的)沉思,冥想
参考例句:
  • It is important to meditate on the meaning of life.思考人生的意义很重要。
  • I was meditating,and reached a higher state of consciousness.我在冥想,并进入了一个更高的意识境界。
82 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
83 defensive buszxy     
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的
参考例句:
  • Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题,使她警觉起来。
  • The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。
84 delightful 6xzxT     
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的
参考例句:
  • We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
  • Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。
85 leisurely 51Txb     
adj.悠闲的;从容的,慢慢的
参考例句:
  • We walked in a leisurely manner,looking in all the windows.我们慢悠悠地走着,看遍所有的橱窗。
  • He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work.他从容的吃了早餐,高兴的开车去工作。
86 villas 00c79f9e4b7b15e308dee09215cc0427     
别墅,公馆( villa的名词复数 ); (城郊)住宅
参考例句:
  • Magnificent villas are found throughout Italy. 在意大利到处可看到豪华的别墅。
  • Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build sea-side villas. 有钱人从富有的罗马来到这儿建造海滨别墅。
87 groaning groaning     
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
  • The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着,无人救助。
88 beseeches f9a510e18151ef0ff03a6891574f3e45     
v.恳求,乞求(某事物)( beseech的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
89 atrocities 11fd5f421aeca29a1915a498e3202218     
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》
90 radical hA8zu     
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
参考例句:
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
91 tickles b3378a1317ba9a2cef2e9e262649d607     
(使)发痒( tickle的第三人称单数 ); (使)愉快,逗乐
参考例句:
  • My foot [nose] tickles. 我的脚[鼻子]痒。
  • My nose tickles from the dust and I want to scratch it. 我的鼻子受灰尘的刺激发痒,很想搔它。
92 whines 9fa923df54d93fb1b237b287cc9eb52f     
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
93 smitten smitten     
猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • From the moment they met, he was completely smitten by her. 从一见面的那一刻起,他就完全被她迷住了。
  • It was easy to see why she was smitten with him. 她很容易看出为何她为他倾倒。
94 stinking ce4f5ad2ff6d2f33a3bab4b80daa5baa     
adj.臭的,烂醉的,讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 );发臭味;名声臭;糟透
参考例句:
  • I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
  • Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的!就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船!是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻
95 vista jLVzN     
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。
96 unison gKCzB     
n.步调一致,行动一致
参考例句:
  • The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
  • My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。
97 halfway Xrvzdq     
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
参考例句:
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
98 slumped b010f9799fb8ebd413389b9083180d8d     
大幅度下降,暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 ); 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]
参考例句:
  • Sales have slumped this year. 今年销售量锐减。
  • The driver was slumped exhausted over the wheel. 司机伏在方向盘上,疲惫得睡着了。
99 groggily tfVxW     
adv.酒醉地;东倒西歪地
参考例句:
100 uptight yjXwQ     
adj.焦虑不安的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • He's feeling a bit uptight about his exam tomorrow.他因明天的考试而感到有点紧张。
  • Try to laugh at it instead of getting uptight.试着一笑了之,不要紧张。
101 frailer 62ecf5aad648e1745c51d761d95d3769     
脆弱的( frail的比较级 ); 易损的; 易碎的
参考例句:
  • Somehow he looked older and frailer in his city clothes. 不知怎么回事,他穿着城市服装,显得衰老一点。
102 phoenix 7Njxf     
n.凤凰,长生(不死)鸟;引申为重生
参考例句:
  • The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
  • The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。
103 dreariness 464937dd8fc386c3c60823bdfabcc30c     
沉寂,可怕,凄凉
参考例句:
  • The park wore an aspect of utter dreariness and ruin. 园地上好久没人收拾,一片荒凉。
  • There in the melancholy, in the dreariness, Bertha found a bitter fascination. 在这里,在阴郁、倦怠之中,伯莎发现了一种刺痛人心的魅力。
104 dilate YZdzp     
vt.使膨胀,使扩大
参考例句:
  • At night,the pupils dilate to allow in more light.到了晚上,瞳孔就会扩大以接收更多光线。
  • Exercise dilates blood vessels on the surface of the brain.运动会使大脑表层的血管扩张。
105 rim RXSxl     
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。
106 ribs 24fc137444401001077773555802b280     
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。
107 belly QyKzLi     
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。
108 nibbling 610754a55335f7412ddcddaf447d7d54     
v.啃,一点一点地咬(吃)( nibble的现在分词 );啃出(洞),一点一点咬出(洞);慢慢减少;小口咬
参考例句:
  • We sat drinking wine and nibbling olives. 我们坐在那儿,喝着葡萄酒嚼着橄榄。
  • He was nibbling on the apple. 他在啃苹果。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
109 gutted c134ad44a9236700645177c1ee9a895f     
adj.容易消化的v.毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 );取出…的内脏
参考例句:
  • Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望?我是伤心透了!
  • The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
110 spun kvjwT     
v.纺,杜撰,急转身
参考例句:
  • His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
  • Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。
111 secretions dfdf2c8f9fa34d69cdb57b5834c6dbea     
n.分泌(物)( secretion的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Lysozyme is an enzyme found in egg white, tears, and other secretions. 溶菌酶是存在于卵白、泪和其他分泌物中的一种酶。 来自辞典例句
  • Chest percussion and vibration are used with postural drainage to help dislodge secretions. 在做体位引流时要敲击和振动胸部帮助分泌物松动排出。 来自辞典例句
112 tally Gg1yq     
n.计数器,记分,一致,测量;vt.计算,记录,使一致;vi.计算,记分,一致
参考例句:
  • Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
  • The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。
113 labor P9Tzs     
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。
114 materialism aBCxF     
n.[哲]唯物主义,唯物论;物质至上
参考例句:
  • Idealism is opposite to materialism.唯心论和唯物论是对立的。
  • Crass materialism causes people to forget spiritual values.极端唯物主义使人忘掉精神价值。
115 pajamas XmvzDN     
n.睡衣裤
参考例句:
  • At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时,我脱去衣服,换上睡衣。
  • He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。
116 alterations c8302d4e0b3c212bc802c7294057f1cb     
n.改动( alteration的名词复数 );更改;变化;改变
参考例句:
  • Any alterations should be written in neatly to the left side. 改动部分应书写清晰,插在正文的左侧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code. 基因突变是指DNA 密码的改变。 来自《简明英汉词典》
117 license B9TzU     
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。
118 falcon rhCzO     
n.隼,猎鹰
参考例句:
  • The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
  • The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。
119 hunched 532924f1646c4c5850b7c607069be416     
(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。
120 tug 5KBzo     
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船
参考例句:
  • We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
  • The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。


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