"We are ready," said Nikka.
Her face flowered in an instantaneous smile.
"It is well, Giorgi Bordu. Come with me."
She led us across the courtyard to the building which fronted it on the left and was extended by the brick addition I have spoken of to shut in partially4 the rear of the court which abutted5 on the Bosphorus. A man was leaning over in the doorway6, strapping7 up a bundle, and Kara planted her bare foot in the middle of his back, sending him sprawling8. He was up in a flash, with his knife out and his face distorted with anger; but when he saw who had kicked him, the anger turned to smiles. He swung the bundle on his shoulder and swaggered off. And Kara looked at Nikka, with the expectant manner of a child who has performed a trick and expects to be applauded for it.
I grinned. I couldn't help it. But Nikka only motioned impatiently to the doorway. She caught her lip in a pout10, dug her toes in the dust and affected11 not to understand him; but Nikka took one stride, with arm extended, and she danced away, all smiles again. Apparently12, she didn't mind as long as she made him look at her.
Inside the door was a big, stone-paved hall. There were traces of carvings13 on the capitals of the pillars and a spaciousness14 that spoke3 of ancient glories. The stairs that led to the upper story were railed with marble and grooved16 deep by the tread of countless17 feet. But the place reeked18 with the squalor of a tenement19. Three old women were huddled20 in front of a fire that blazed on an enormous hearth21, and strings22 of onions and garlic hung from hooks in the ceiling. All around were scattered23 dirty piles of blankets and personal belongings24.
Kara skipped across to the fireplace, and tapped the oldest of the three women on the shoulder.
"Hi, Mother Kathene," she called loudly. "Here are two strangers Beran has taken into the tribe."
"Strangers?" whined26 Mother Kathene. "Why strangers in the tribe? Haven't we enough fine young men to stab and steal for the chief? Heh-heh! I don't like strangers."
"Strangers are bad luck," pronounced a second beldame, whose name was Zitzi.
"Bad luck," echoed the third, who was called Lilli. "And I suppose we'll have to cook and scrub for the rascals27, too."
"Don't talk of scrubbing to me!" she sneered29. "You wouldn't touch water to a foul30 pot, let alone a man's clothes. You'd drown if you were rained on. Bah, Mother Lilli, you are lucky to have a chief like Beran, who gives the old ones work to do and shelter and food for the end of their days, instead of driving them out to seek the bounty31 of the Roumis and Franks. And you are luckier still to have a great thief like Giorgi Bordu to cook for. He is the greatest thief in the world. Why, he even caught me when I would have stolen from him!"
"He took my knife from me without drawing his own," flared33 Kara. "No other man in the tribe could do that. The other? Oh, he is a Frank."
"More bad luck," wailed34 old Zitzi. "Tzigane folk who live with Franks are always spoiled. They worship the Christian35 goddess or they grow clumsy or they lose their courage or they take the spotted36 sickness."
"Have done with it," she commanded imperiously. "Where are Giorgi and Jakka to lie?"
"Where they choose," returned Zitzi sourly.
"Here or above, whichever you say," she announced to us. "These are the quarters of the young men."
"May we look above?" asked Nikka, anxious to seize this opportunity to explore.
Her answer was to dance up the stairs—she seldom walked or did anything slowly.
We followed her. There was a central corridor, and from it opened various rooms, some of them crammed39 with all manner of goods, valuable rugs, bric-a-brac, cloths, and frequently, the veriest junk.
"Beran stores plunder40 here, as you can see," she said. "The other rooms are empty. The young men prefer to sleep all together where they can watch one another."
Nikka realized that if we set up a different standard of conduct from that observed by our brother bachelors we would prejudice our position in this strange community.
"What is good enough for them is good enough for us," he decided41. "But is there no more to see? I thought the building ran around by the water."
"There is no connection," she replied. "The building over the water is just a storehouse. We are a great tribe, and Beran has agents everywhere. Never a day goes by that plunder does not come in, and we store it until there is opportunity to dispose of it."
"Across the court," she answered. "Come and you shall see."
We descended44 the stairs into the big hall on the ground-floor, where the three hags had crouched45 again before the fire, and crossed the courtyard to the building opposite on the right of the entrance. It was long and graceful46 in appearance, beautifully built of a hard white marble, which had been coated with dirt for centuries. The cornices were elaborately sculptured in a conventional design; the window openings were carved and set with a light mastery that disguised their bulk.
The door was supported by simple pillars of wonderful green stone that contrived47 to show its color through the accumulation of filth48 which tried to mask it. How such pillars could have escaped the antiquary I do not know. They were as handsome as anything in St. Sophia. But then, as we were to discover, the whole abode49 of Beran Tokalji constituted an amazing shrine50 of Byzantine art, perhaps the most remarkable51 non-ecclesiastical remnant in the city.
But of all this I thought little at the time. What interested me more than anything was that immediately above the door on a panel let into the wall was carved a representation of a bull, head lowered and in act to charge. I looked at Nikka, and his eyes met mine with a warning glance to say nothing. It was a good thing that my knowledge of Gypsy dialect was sketchy52, for had I been able to, I believe I should have exclaimed over this first clue and attempted to probe our guide's knowledge of it.
Kara never gave the sculpture a glance; it meant nothing to her. She beckoned53 us inside the door. Here again was a spacious15, pillared hall, triple-aisled like a small church, its battered54 pavement showing traces here and there of the gorgeous mosaics55 which once had floored it. Whatever decorations adorned58 its walls were obscured by the incrustations of centuries of misuse59. The pillars were of different stones, many of them semi-precious, and occasionally glinting pink or red or green or yellow through their drab coats of dirt and soot60. At one end was an apse-like space large enough to hold a dinner table or a throne, and on the curving wall I fancied I could discern faint traces of one of those mosaic56 portraits with which the Byzantine artists loved to adorn57 their buildings.
But this superb chamber was littered with the odds61 and ends of a people accustomed to dwell in tents. I suppose Tokalji's tribe, by all accounts we had, had been living here for some hundreds of years, yet they never adapted themselves to urban conditions. Generation after generation looked upon this wonderful fragment of one of the world's stateliest palaces as no more than the four walls and a roof required to keep out rain and cold. The windows were covered by wooden shutters62. Cleaning was resorted to only when the atmosphere became unsupportable for the salted nostrils63 of the tribe.
"These are the quarters of the married people," explained Kara. "Beran sleeps here." She pointed64 to a pallet in the recess65 that I likened to an apse. "The others upstairs."
"And you?" asked Nikka.
"Oh, I live where I choose, but most of all I like my garden."
"Your garden? Where is there a garden?"
"I will show you, Giorgi Bordu."
At the end of the hall opposite the apse there was a worn stone stair. The shallow steps descended straight to an opening, barred by a rude pine door. As we passed it, I noted66 idly holes in the stone lintels where formerly67 had been cemented the bolts of heavy metal hinges. A gate, perhaps. Beyond the door was a pleasant room in which several women sewed, and children scrabbled in the dirt on the floor. The sunlight poured in from windows facing us. I saw trees tossing, heard the splash of water.
Kara crossed the room, with a nod to the women, and opened another door. This led to a pillared portico68, and I gasped69 in wonder at the sheer loveliness of this morsel70 of imperial Byzantium, buried in the frowsy lanes of Stamboul. There was a tangled71 stretch of garden, weed-grown, of course, and two jade-green cedars72 that lifted their heads in isolated73 majesty74. Around the four sides ran the portico, although in two places the pillars had collapsed75 and the wreckage76 of the roof strewed77 the ground. But the gem78 of the place was the fountain in the center, a lion rearing back on his hind-legs with a broken spear in his chest. From his open mouth poured a stream of water that fell into a stone-rimmed79 pool.
"That is where I swim," volunteered Kara. "It is not far, but I can beat you across it. Would you like me to try?"
"Another time," said Nikka, laughing, and with a single look to see if he was in earnest in refusing such sport, she promptly81 refastened her clothes. "This is lower than the rest of the house, isn't it?"
She assented82, and it was then that I recovered from the bewilderment inspired by the unexpected charm of the picture, and realized for the first time what it meant. The bull above the entrance door, the hall, the stair, the marks of heavy hinges at its foot where a gate had hung, the room where the women sat, an atrium, in the old Roman architecture; the garden—by Jove, even the cedars!—the Garden of the Cedars; and the Fountain of the Lion! It was exactly as the first Hugh had described it in the missing half of the Instructions which we had found.
I dug my fingers into Nikka's arm.
"Yes, yes," he said quietly in English. "I see it, too. But do not let yourself seem excited."
Involuntarily I repeated to myself the concluding sentences of the Instructions which we had all memorized:
"From the center of the Fountain take four paces west toward the wall of the atrium. Then walk three paces north. Underfoot is a red stone an ell square."
The center of the Fountain—where could that be? The pool stretched sidewise to us, as we stood in front of the atrium. Plainly, then, it was intended to mean from the center of the pedestal on which the lion was perched. I stepped out from the portico, measured with my eye the distance from the pedestal west toward the wall of the atrium, and walked north on the paved walk which rimmed the central grass-plot.
The flagging here, while naturally worn by the passage of time, was as even as though it had been laid yesterday. It was composed of blocks of red and brown granite83 in a checker-board pattern, but they seemed to be only a foot square. It was not until I passed the center of the fountain that I discovered that at regular intervals84 a larger stone was inserted in the design. And sure enough, I found a red one about three and a half paces, as I roughly made it, in a northerly line from the point I had calculated as four paces west of the center of the fountain.
Kara had no eyes for any one save Nikka, and I ventured to stamp my sandaled heel on the stone as I trod over it. It gave back no different sound from those on either side of it, but when my first disappointment had passed, I told myself that this was no more than could have been expected. Had it sounded hollow, surely, some person in the course of seven centuries would have noticed it, and whether possessed85 of knowledge of the treasure or not, must have had sufficient enterprise to attempt to find what it concealed86.
I walked on around the garden, determined87 to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to survey the ground. But there was nothing else to see. On one side the porticos fringed a blank wall, evidently belonging to the adjoining property. Vernon King afterwards said that at some period this group of buildings of the Palace of the Bucoleon had been cut up into separate structures and built together in blocks. On the side toward the Bosphorus a wing of the building we had traversed intervened. Through the frequent windows I saw Gypsy men and women and a few children lounging or occupied with their household duties or playing. One of the men was teaching a boy to pick pockets. I watched him for some time with interest.
I finally abandoned my investigations88 because I gathered from the tones of their voices that Nikka was having an argument with Kara. When I came up to them, Nikka was offering her Watkins's watch; but she dashed it to the pavement, burst into tears and fled back the way we had come.
"What have you been doing, Lothario?" I demanded in French.
Nikka looked very unhappy.
"She wanted me to kiss her. I—I offered her that watch, in the first place. To make up for showing her up the way I did; that was to impress Tokalji, of course. And then I thought she had been pretty decent to us since."
"I daresay she has been," I agreed. "For a purpose, to be sure."
"A purpose?"
"Oh, that!" Nikka's discomfort90 was heart-warming. "She doesn't know any better, Jack91. I've seen her kind before—at least, none as bright as she or quite as pretty; but the same kind of untamed wild-cats. We Gypsies spoil our women if they have any spirit. And she— Well, you could see for yourself. She has been brought up in this atmosphere. Crime is an art with her. She looks upon a clever robbery as you do on a good job of architecture. She has lived with men ever since she left her mother's arms. She doesn't know what it means to be refused any thing. She—she's all right, you know."
"I know she's the prettiest savage92 creature I've ever seen," I returned drily. "Since she is the first, however, that may not mean much. You seem to be very anxious to explain her savagery93, my friend. Why didn't you kiss her?"
Nikka picked up the watch and examined the broken crystal.
"I don't think we'd better stay here," he answered vaguely94. "Women's quarters, and all that sort of thing. Hullo, here's Tokalji, now!"
The Gypsy chief stalked out of the atrium.
"I wouldn't kiss her," said Nikka with a sudden grin.
"You are a wise one! I said so! I know men, I, Beran Tokalji! But hark you," and his tone took on an edge, "be careful with her. She is all I have, and I give her to no man I do not know. You come in out of the street, whoever you are. Prove yourself, and I can make much of you. But until you prove yourself, you and this Frank jackal with you, you walk carefully and jump when you hear the lash9."
"Is she your daughter?" asked Nikka.
"Never mind who she is. What are you doing here?"
"She was showing us the fountain."
"That is all right. But the young men stay out of this house. I want no troubles over women in the tribe. Remember that, you two."
点击收听单词发音
1 pouched | |
adj.袋形的,有袋的 | |
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2 tattered | |
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的 | |
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3 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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4 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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5 abutted | |
v.(与…)邻接( abut的过去式和过去分词 );(与…)毗连;接触;倚靠 | |
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6 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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7 strapping | |
adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式 | |
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8 sprawling | |
adj.蔓生的,不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 );蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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9 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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10 pout | |
v.撅嘴;绷脸;n.撅嘴;生气,不高兴 | |
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11 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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12 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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13 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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14 spaciousness | |
n.宽敞 | |
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15 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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16 grooved | |
v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏 | |
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17 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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18 reeked | |
v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象) | |
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19 tenement | |
n.公寓;房屋 | |
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20 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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21 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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22 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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23 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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24 belongings | |
n.私人物品,私人财物 | |
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25 tottered | |
v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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26 whined | |
v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 );哀诉,诉怨 | |
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27 rascals | |
流氓( rascal的名词复数 ); 无赖; (开玩笑说法)淘气的人(尤指小孩); 恶作剧的人 | |
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28 squeal | |
v.发出长而尖的声音;n.长而尖的声音 | |
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29 sneered | |
讥笑,冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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31 bounty | |
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与 | |
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32 mumbled | |
含糊地说某事,叽咕,咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33 Flared | |
adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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34 wailed | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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36 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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37 clouted | |
adj.缀补的,凝固的v.(尤指用手)猛击,重打( clout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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39 crammed | |
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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40 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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41 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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42 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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43 rosily | |
adv.带玫瑰色地,乐观地 | |
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44 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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45 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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47 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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48 filth | |
n.肮脏,污物,污秽;淫猥 | |
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49 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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50 shrine | |
n.圣地,神龛,庙;v.将...置于神龛内,把...奉为神圣 | |
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51 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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52 sketchy | |
adj.写生的,写生风格的,概略的 | |
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53 beckoned | |
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54 battered | |
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损 | |
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55 mosaics | |
n.马赛克( mosaic的名词复数 );镶嵌;镶嵌工艺;镶嵌图案 | |
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56 mosaic | |
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的 | |
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57 adorn | |
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
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58 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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59 misuse | |
n.误用,滥用;vt.误用,滥用 | |
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60 soot | |
n.煤烟,烟尘;vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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61 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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62 shutters | |
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门 | |
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63 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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64 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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65 recess | |
n.短期休息,壁凹(墙上装架子,柜子等凹处) | |
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66 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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67 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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68 portico | |
n.柱廊,门廊 | |
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69 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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70 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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71 tangled | |
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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72 cedars | |
雪松,西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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73 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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74 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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75 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
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76 wreckage | |
n.(失事飞机等的)残骸,破坏,毁坏 | |
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77 strewed | |
v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 );散落于;点缀;撒满 | |
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78 gem | |
n.宝石,珠宝;受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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79 rimmed | |
adj.有边缘的,有框的v.沿…边缘滚动;给…镶边 | |
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80 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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81 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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82 assented | |
同意,赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83 granite | |
adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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84 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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85 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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86 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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87 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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88 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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89 gibed | |
v.嘲笑,嘲弄( gibe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90 discomfort | |
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便 | |
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91 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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92 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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93 savagery | |
n.野性 | |
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94 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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95 growled | |
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说 | |
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96 gargoyle | |
n.笕嘴 | |
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