I was passing some days of idleness in a shallow Vermont valley, situated1 at an elevation2 of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, circled by wooded hills, and intersected by an old turnpike, which connects the towns near Lake Champlain with the region beyond the mountains. Small farmhouses3 stood here and there along the highway, while others were scattered4 at wide intervals5 over the lower slopes of the outlying hills.
With all the brightness and freshness of early summer upon it, it was indeed an enchanting6 picture; but even so, one could not altogether put aside a feeling of something like commiseration7 for the people who, year in and year out, from babyhood to old age, found in this narrow vale, with its severity of weather, and its scarcity8 of social comforts and opportunities, their only experience of what we fondly call this wide, wide world.
From my inn I had walked eastward9 for perhaps a mile; then at the little school-house had taken a cross-road, which presently began to climb. Here I passed two or three cottages (one of them boasting the singularity of paint), and after a while came to another, which appeared to be the last, as the road not far beyond struck into the ancient forest. First, however, it ran up to a small plateau, where, out of sight from the house, lay a scanty10 quarter of an acre, in which the old parable11, "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear," was in the primary stage of its fresh annual fulfillment. The ground was but newly cleared, and the brambles still felt themselves its true and rightful possessors. Who was this puny-looking, good-for-nothing foreigner, that they should be turned out of house and home for his accommodation? So they seemed to be asking among themselves, as they lifted up their heads here and there in the midst of the pale-green shoots. The crows, on the other hand, bade the newcomer welcome,—as the wolf welcomes the lamb. Against these hungry lovers of his crop (who loved not unwisely, but too well), the farmer had fenced his field with a single string, stretched from corner to corner. He must put extraordinary faith in the considerateness of the birds, a looker-on might think; such a barrier as this could be, at the most, nothing more than a polite hint of ownership, a delicate reminder12 against thoughtless trespassing13, a courteously14 indirect suggestion to such as needed not a physical, but only a moral, restraint. Or one might take it as an appeal to some known or fancied superstitiousness15 on the crows' part; as if the white cord were a kind of fetich, with which they would never presume to meddle16. But the rustic17 would have laughed at all such far-fetched cockneyish inferences. This strange-seeming device of his was simply an attempt to take the suspicious in their own suspiciousness; to set before Corvus a hindrance18 so unmistakably insufficient19 that he would mistrust it as a cover for some deep-laid and deadly plot. Probably the scheme had not been crowned with complete success in the present instance, for from a pole in the middle of the inclosure a dead crow was dangling20 in the breeze. This was a more business-like signal than the other; even a cockney could hardly be in doubt as to its meaning; and the farmer, when I afterwards met him, assured me that it had answered its purpose to perfection. The crow is nobody's fool. "Live and learn" is his motto; and he does both, but especially the former, in a way to excite the admiration21 of all disinterested22 observers. In the long struggle between human ingenuity23 and corvine sagacity, it is doubtful which has thus far obtained the upper hand. Nor have I ever quite convinced myself which of the contestants24 has the better case. "The crow is a thief," the planter declares; "he should confine himself to a wild diet, or else sow his own garden." "Yes, yes," Corvus makes reply; "but if I steal your corn, you first stole my land." Unlike his cousin the raven,—who, along with the Indian, has retreated before the pale-face,—the crow is no ultra-conservative. Civilization and modern ideas are not in the least distasteful to him. He has an unfeigned respect for agriculture, and in fact may be said himself to have set up as gentleman-farmer, letting out his land on shares, and seldom failing to get his full half of the crop; and, like the shrewd manager that he is, he insures himself against drought and other mischances by taking his moiety25 early in the season. As I plant no acres myself, I perhaps find it easier than some of my fellow-citizens to bear with the faults and appreciate the virtues26 of this sable27 aboriginal28. Long may he live, I say, this true lover of his native land, to try the patience and sharpen the wits of his would-be exterminators.
The crow's is only the common lot. The whole earth is one field of war. Every creature's place upon it is coveted29 by some other creature. Plants and animals alike subsist30 by elbowing their rivals out of the way. Man, if he plants a corn-field, puts in no more grains than will probably have room to grow and thrive. But Nature, in her abhorrence31 of a vacuum, stands at no waste. She believes in competition, and feels no qualms32 at seeing the weak go to the wall.
"The good old rule
Sufficeth her, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."
If she wishes a single oak, she drops acorns33 without number. Her recklessness equals that of some ambitious military despot, to whom ten thousand or a hundred thousand dead soldiers count as nothing, if only the campaign be fought through to victory.
Man's economy and Nature's prodigality,—here they were in typical operation, side by side. The corn was in "hills" uniformly spaced, and evidently the proprietor34 had already been at work with plough and hoe, lest the weeds should spring up and choke it; but just beyond stood a perfect thicket35 of wild-cherry shrubs36, so huddled37 together that not one in twenty could possibly find room in which to develop. If they were not all of them stunted38 beyond recovery, it would be only because a few of the sturdiest should succeed in crowding down and killing39 off their weaker competitors.
The import of this apparent wastefulness40 and cruelty of Nature, her seeming indifference41 to the welfare of the individual, is a question on which it is not pleasant, and, as I think, not profitable, to dwell. We see but parts of her ways, and it must be unsafe to criticise42 the working of a single wheel here or there, when we have absolutely no means of knowing how each fits into the grand design, and, for that matter, can only guess at the grand design itself. Rather let us content ourselves with the prudent43 saying of that ancient agnostic, Bildad the Shuhite: "We are but of yesterday, and know nothing." The wisest of us are more or less foolish, by nature and of necessity; but it seems a gratuitous44 superfluity of folly45 to ignore our own ignorance. For one, then, I am in no mood to propose, much less to undertake, any grand revolution in the order of natural events. Indeed, as far as I am personally concerned, I fear it would be found but a dubious46 improvement if the wildness were quite taken out of the world,—if its wilderness47, according to the word of the prophet, were to become all like Eden. Tameness is not the only good quality, whether of land or of human nature.
As I sat on my comfortable log (the noble old tree had not been cut down for nothing), birds of many kinds came and went about me. Wordsworth's couplet would have suited my case:—
Their thoughts I cannot measure;"
but I could hardly have rounded out the quotation49; for, joyful50 as I believed the creatures to be, many of their motions were plainly not "thrills of pleasure," but tokens of fear. It was now the very heyday51 of life with them, when they are at once happiest and most wary52. There were secrets to be kept close; eggs and little ones, whose whereabouts must on no account be divulged53. For the birds, too, not less than the corn, the bramble, and the cherry, not less even than the saint, find this earthly life a daily warfare54.
The artless ditty of the mourning warbler came to my ears at intervals out of a tangle55 of shrubbery, and once or twice he allowed me glimpses of his quaint56 attire57. I would gladly have seen and heard much more of him, but he evaded58 all my attempts at familiarity. Nor could I blame him for his furtive59 behavior. How was he to be certain that I was no collector, but only an innocent admirer of birds in the bush? Sought after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist60, the mourning warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion61 in fighting shy of every animal that walks upright.
It is evident, however, that for birds, as for ourselves, the same thing often has both a bright and a dark side. If men are sometimes heartless, and never to be altogether confided62 in, yet at the same time their doings are in various respects conducive63 to the happiness and increase of feathered life; and this not only in the case of some of the more familiar species, but even in that of many which still retain all their natural shyness of human society. A clearing like that in which I was now resting offers an excellent illustration of this; for it is a rule without exceptions that in such a place one may see and hear more birds in half an hour than are likely to be met with in the course of a long day's tramp through the unbroken forest. The mourning warbler himself likes a roadside copse better than a deep wood, jealous as he may be of man's approach. Up to a certain point, civilization is a blessing64, even to birds. Beyond a certain point, for aught I know, it may be nothing but a curse, even to men.
Here, then, I sat, now taken up with the beautiful landscape, and anon turning my head to behold65 some fowl66 of the air. I might have mused67 with Emerson,—
"Knows he who tills this lonely field,
To reap its scanty corn,
What mystic fruit his acres yield
At midnight and at morn,"
—only "mystic fruit" would have been rather too high-sounding a phrase for my commonplace cogitations. Hermit68 thrushes, olive-backed thrushes, and veeries, with sundry69 warblers and a scarlet70 tanager, sang in chorus from the woods behind me, while in front bluebirds, robins71, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, and chippers were doing their best to transform this fresh Vermont clearing into a time-worn Massachusetts pasture; assisted meanwhile by a goldfinch who flew over my head with an ecstatic burst of melody, and a linnet who fell to warbling with characteristic fluency72 from a neighboring tree-top. At least two pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks had summer quarters here; and busy enough they looked, flitting from one side of the garden to another, yet not too busy for a tune73 between whiles. One of the males was in really gorgeous plumage. The rose-color had run over, as it were (like Aaron's "precious ointment"), and spilled all down his breast. It is hard for me ever to think of this brilliant, tropically dressed grosbeak as a true Northerner; and here once more I was for the moment surprised to hear him and the olive-backed thrush singing together in the same wood. Could such neighborliness have any patriotic74 significance? I was almost ready to ask. Across the corn-field a Traill's flycatcher was tossing up his head pertly, and vociferating kwee-kwee. I took it for a challenge: "Find my nest if you can, brother!" But I found nothing. Nor was I more successful with a humming-bird, who had chosen the tip of a charred75 stub, only a few rods from my seat, for his favorite perch76. Again and again I saw him there preening77 his feathers, and once or twice I tried to inveigle78 him into betraying his secret. Either his house was further off than I suspected, however, or else he was too cunning to fall into my snare79. At any rate, he permitted me to trample80 all about the spot, without manifesting the first symptom of uneasiness.
What a traveler the humming-bird is! I myself had come perhaps three hundred miles, and had accounted it a long, tiresome81 journey, notwithstanding I had been brought nearly all the way in a carriage elaborately contrived82 for comfort, and moving over iron rails. But this tiny insect-like creature spent last winter in Central America, or it may be in Cuba, and now here he sat, perfectly83 at home again in this Green Mountain nook; and next autumn he will be off again betimes, as the merest matter of course, for another thousand-mile flight. Verily, a marvelous spirit and energy may be contained within a few ounces of flesh! But if Trochilus be indeed Prospero's servant in disguise, as one of our poets makes out, why, then, to be sure, his flittings back and forth84 are little to wonder at. How slow, overgrown, and clumsy human beings must look in his eyes! I wonder if he is never tempted85 to laugh at us. Who knows but humming-birds have it for a by-word, "As awkward as a man"?
My ruminations were suddenly broken in upon by the approach of a carriage, driven by a boy of perhaps ten years, a son of the farmer from whose land I was, as it were, gathering86 the first fruits. We had made each other's acquaintance the day before, and now, as he surmounted87 the hill, he stopped to inquire politely whether I would ride with him. Yes, I answered, I would gladly be carried into the forest a little way. It proved a very little way indeed; for the road was heavy from recent rains, and the poor old hack88 was so short of breath that he could barely drag us along, and at every slump89 of the wheels came to a dead standstill. "Pity for a horse o'er-driven" soon compelled me to take to the woods, in spite of the protestations of my charioteer, who assured me that his steed could trot90 "like everything," if he only would. It is an extremely unpatriotic Vermonter, I suspect (I have never yet discovered him), who will not brag91 a little over his horse; and I was rather pleased than otherwise to hear my flaxen-haired friend set forth the good points of his beast, even while he confessed that the "heaves" were pretty bad. I was glad, too, to find the youngster in a general way something of an optimist92. When I asked him how long the land had been cleared, he pointed93 to one corner of it, and responded, using the pronoun with perfect naïveté, "We cleared up that piece last fall;" and on my inquiring whether it was not hard work, he replied, in a tone of absolute satisfaction, "Oh, yes, but you get your pay for it." Evidently he believed in Green Mountain land, which I thought a very fortunate circumstance. "Be content with such things as ye have," said the Apostle; and it is certainly easier to obey the precept94 if one looks upon his own things as the best in the world. My youthful philosopher seemed to consider it altogether natural and reasonable that prosperity, instead of coming of itself, should have to be earned by the sweat of the brow. Perhaps the crow and the cherry-tree are equally unsophisticated. Perhaps, too, men's fates are less uneven95 than is sometimes supposed. For I could not help thinking that if this boy should retain his present view of things, he would pass his days more happily than many a so-called favorite of fortune.
On my way back to the inn I met an old man from the lowlands, driving over the mountains for the first time since boyhood. "You have a pretty good farming country here," he called out cheerily,—"a little rolling." He took me for a native, and I hope to be forgiven for not disclaiming96 the compliment.
As I write, I find myself wondering how my nameless farmer's crop is prospered97. In my corner of the world we have lately been afflicted98 with drought. I hope it has been otherwise on his hillside plateau. In my thought, at all events, his corn is now fully99 tasseled100, and waves in a pleasant mountain wind, all green and shining.
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1 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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2 elevation | |
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高 | |
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3 farmhouses | |
n.农舍,农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
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4 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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5 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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6 enchanting | |
a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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7 commiseration | |
n.怜悯,同情 | |
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8 scarcity | |
n.缺乏,不足,萧条 | |
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9 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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10 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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11 parable | |
n.寓言,比喻 | |
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12 reminder | |
n.提醒物,纪念品;暗示,提示 | |
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13 trespassing | |
[法]非法入侵 | |
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14 courteously | |
adv.有礼貌地,亲切地 | |
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15 superstitiousness | |
被邪教所支配 | |
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16 meddle | |
v.干预,干涉,插手 | |
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17 rustic | |
adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
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18 hindrance | |
n.妨碍,障碍 | |
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19 insufficient | |
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的 | |
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20 dangling | |
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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21 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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22 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
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23 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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24 contestants | |
n.竞争者,参赛者( contestant的名词复数 ) | |
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25 moiety | |
n.一半;部分 | |
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26 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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27 sable | |
n.黑貂;adj.黑色的 | |
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28 aboriginal | |
adj.(指动植物)土生的,原产地的,土著的 | |
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29 coveted | |
adj.令人垂涎的;垂涎的,梦寐以求的v.贪求,觊觎(covet的过去分词);垂涎;贪图 | |
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30 subsist | |
vi.生存,存在,供养 | |
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31 abhorrence | |
n.憎恶;可憎恶的事 | |
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32 qualms | |
n.不安;内疚 | |
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33 acorns | |
n.橡子,栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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34 proprietor | |
n.所有人;业主;经营者 | |
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35 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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36 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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37 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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38 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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39 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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40 wastefulness | |
浪费,挥霍,耗费 | |
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41 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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42 criticise | |
v.批评,评论;非难 | |
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43 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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44 gratuitous | |
adj.无偿的,免费的;无缘无故的,不必要的 | |
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45 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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46 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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47 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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48 hopped | |
跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 ); 单足蹦跳; 齐足(或双足)跳行; 摘葎草花 | |
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49 quotation | |
n.引文,引语,语录;报价,牌价,行情 | |
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50 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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51 heyday | |
n.全盛时期,青春期 | |
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52 wary | |
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的 | |
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53 divulged | |
v.吐露,泄露( divulge的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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55 tangle | |
n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱 | |
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56 quaint | |
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的 | |
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57 attire | |
v.穿衣,装扮[同]array;n.衣着;盛装 | |
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58 evaded | |
逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 ); 避开; 回避; 想不出 | |
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59 furtive | |
adj.鬼鬼崇崇的,偷偷摸摸的 | |
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60 ornithologist | |
n.鸟类学家 | |
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61 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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62 confided | |
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的过去式和过去分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等) | |
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63 conducive | |
adj.有益的,有助的 | |
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64 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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65 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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66 fowl | |
n.家禽,鸡,禽肉 | |
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67 mused | |
v.沉思,冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 );沉思自语说(某事) | |
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68 hermit | |
n.隐士,修道者;隐居 | |
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69 sundry | |
adj.各式各样的,种种的 | |
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70 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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71 robins | |
n.知更鸟,鸫( robin的名词复数 );(签名者不分先后,以避免受责的)圆形签名抗议书(或请愿书) | |
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72 fluency | |
n.流畅,雄辩,善辩 | |
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73 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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74 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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75 charred | |
v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式);烧焦 | |
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76 perch | |
n.栖木,高位,杆;v.栖息,就位,位于 | |
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77 preening | |
v.(鸟)用嘴整理(羽毛)( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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78 inveigle | |
v.诱骗 | |
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79 snare | |
n.陷阱,诱惑,圈套;(去除息肉或者肿瘤的)勒除器;响弦,小军鼓;vt.以陷阱捕获,诱惑 | |
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80 trample | |
vt.踩,践踏;无视,伤害,侵犯 | |
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81 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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82 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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83 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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84 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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85 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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86 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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87 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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88 hack | |
n.劈,砍,出租马车;v.劈,砍,干咳 | |
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89 slump | |
n.暴跌,意气消沉,(土地)下沉;vi.猛然掉落,坍塌,大幅度下跌 | |
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90 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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91 brag | |
v./n.吹牛,自夸;adj.第一流的 | |
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92 optimist | |
n.乐观的人,乐观主义者 | |
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93 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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94 precept | |
n.戒律;格言 | |
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95 uneven | |
adj.不平坦的,不规则的,不均匀的 | |
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96 disclaiming | |
v.否认( disclaim的现在分词 ) | |
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97 prospered | |
成功,兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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100 tasseled | |
v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须( tassel的过去式和过去分词 );使抽穗, (为了使作物茁壮生长)摘去穗状雄花;用流苏装饰 | |
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