He was what his superiors called ‘a very superior man.’ Owing to the more careful enunciation9 required in singing, he had lost a great deal of the Five Towns accent, and one cannot be a compositor for a quarter of a century without insensibly acquiring an education and a store of knowledge far excelling the ordinary. His manner was gentle, and perhaps somewhat pompous10, as is common with very big men; but you could never be sure whether an extremely subdued11 humour did not underlie12 his pomposity13. He was a bachelor, aged14 forty-five, and lived quietly with a married sister at the bottom of Woodisun Bank, near the National Schools. The wonder was that, with all his advantages, he had not more deeply impressed himself upon Bursley as an individuality, and not merely as a voice. But he seemed never to seek to do so. He was without ambition; and, though curiously16 careful sometimes about preserving his own dignity, and beyond question sensitive by temperament17, he showed marked respect, and even humility18, to the worldly-successful. Despite his bigness and simplicity19 there was something small about him which came out in odd trifling20 details. Thus it was characteristic of Big James to ask Edwin to be waiting for him at the back gates in Woodisun Bank when he might just as easily have met him at the side door by the closed shop in Wedgwood Street.
Edwin, who from mere15 pride had said nothing to his sisters about the impending21 visit to the Dragon, was a little surprised and dashed to see Big James in broadcloth and a high hat; for he had not dreamed of changing his own everyday suit, nor had it occurred to him that the Dragon was a temple of ceremoniousness. Big James looked enormous. The wide lapel of his shining frock-coat was buttoned high up under his beard and curved downwards22 for a distance of considerably23 more than a yard to his knees: it was a heroic frock-coat. The sleeves were wide, but narrowing at the wrists, and the white wristbands were very tight. The trousers fell in ample folds on the uppers of the gigantic boots. Big James had a way of sticking out his chest and throwing his head back which would have projected the tip of his beard ten inches forth24 from his body, had the beard been stiff; but the soft silkiness of the beard frustrated25 this spectacular phenomenon, which would have been very interesting to witness.
Two.
The pair stepped across Trafalgar Road together, Edwin, though he tried to be sedate26, nothing but a frisking morsel27 by the side of the vast monument. Compared with the architectural grandeur28 of Mr Varlett, his thin, supple29, free-moving limbs had an almost pathetic appearance of ephemeral fragility.
Big James directed himself to the archway leading to the Dragon stables, and there he saw an ostler or oddman. Edwin, feeling the imminence30 of an ordeal31, surreptitiously explored a pocket to be sure that the proof of the wedding-card was safely there.
The ostler raised his reddish eyebrows32 to Big James. Big James jerked his head to one side, indicating apparently33 the entire Dragon, and simultaneously34 conveying a query35. The ostler paused immobile an instant and then shook his insignificant36 turnip-pate. Big James turned away. No word had been spoken; nevertheless, the men had exchanged a dialogue which might be thus put into words—
“I wasn’t thinking to see ye so soon,” from the ostler.
“Then nobody of any importance has yet gone into the assembly room?” from Big James.
“Nobody worth speaking of, and won’t, for a while,” from the other.
“Then I’ll take a turn,” from Big James.
The latter now looked down at Edwin, and addressed him in words—
“Seemingly we’re too soon, Mr Edwin. What do you say to a turn round the town—playground way? I doubted we should be too soon.”
Edwin showed alacrity37. As a schoolboy it had been definitely forbidden to him to go out at night; and unless sent on a special and hurried errand, he had scarcely seen the physiognomy of the streets after eight o’clock. He had never seen the playground in the evening. And this evening the town did not seem like the same town; it had become a new and mysterious town of adventure. And yet Edwin was not fifty yards away from his own bedroom.
They ascended38 Duck Bank together, Edwin proud to be with a celebrity39 of the calibre of Big James, and Big James calmly satisfied to show himself thus formally with his master’s son. It appeared almost incredible that those two immortals40, so diverse, had issued from the womb practically alike; that a few brief years on the earth had given Big James such a tremendous physical advantage. Several hours’ daily submission41 to the exact regularities42 of lines of type and to the unvarying demands of minutely adjusted machines in motion had stamped Big James’s body and mind with the delicate and quasi-finicking preciseness which characterises all compositors and printers; and the continual monotonous43 performance of similar tasks that employed his faculties44 while never absorbing or straining them, had soothed45 and dulled the fever of life in him to a beneficent calm, a calm refined and beautified by the pleasurable exercise of song. Big James had seldom known a violent emotion. He had craved46 nothing, sought for nothing, and lost nothing.
Edwin, like Big James in progress from everlasting47 to everlasting, was all inchoate48, unformed, undisciplined, and burning with capricious fires; all expectant, eager, reluctant, tingling49, timid, innocently and wistfully audacious. By taking the boy’s hand, Big James might have poetically50 symbolised their relation.
Three.
“Are you going to sing to-night at the Dragon, Mr Yarlett?” asked Edwin. He lengthened51 his step to Big James’s, controlled his ardent52 body, and tried to remember that he was a man with a man.
“I am, young sir,” said Big James. “There is a party of us.”
“Is it the Male Glee Party?” Edwin pursued.
“Yes, Mr Edwin.”
“Then Mr Smallrice will be there?”
“He will, Mr Edwin.”
“Why can Mr Smallrice sing such high notes?”
Big James slowly shook his head, as Edwin looked up at him. “I tell you what it is, young sir. It’s a gift, that’s what it is, same as I can sing low.”
“But Mr Smallrice is very old, isn’t he?”
“There’s a parrot in a cage over at the Duck, there, as is eighty-five years old, and that’s proved by record kept, young sir.”
“No!” protested Edwin’s incredulity politely.
“By record kept,” said Big James.
“Do you often sing at the Dragon, Mr Yarlett?”
“Time was,” said Big James, “when some of us used to sing there every night, Sundays excepted, and concerts and whatnot excepted. Aye! For hours and hours every night. And still do sometimes.”
“After your work?”
“After our work. Aye! And often till dawn in summer. One o’clock, two o’clock, half-past two o’clock, every night. But now they say that this new Licensing53 Act will close every public-house in this town at eleven o’clock, and a straight-up eleven at that!”
“But what do you do it for?”
“What do we do it for? We do it to pass the time and the glass, young sir. Not as I should like you to think as I ever drank, Mr Edwin. One quart of ale I take every night, and have ever done; no more, no less.”
“But”—Edwin’s rapid, breaking voice interrupted eagerly the deep majestic54 tones—“aren’t you tired the next day? I should be!”
“Never,” said Big James. “I get up from my bed as fresh as a daisy at six sharp. And I’ve known the nights when my bed ne’er saw me.”
“You must be strong, Mr Yarlett, my word!” Edwin exclaimed. These revelations of the habits and prowess of Big James astounded55 him. He had never suspected that such things went on in the town.
“Aye! Middling!”
“I suppose it’s a free-and-easy at the Dragon, to-night, Mr Yarlett?”
“In a manner of speaking,” said Big James.
“I wish I could stay for it.”
“And why not?” Big James suggested, and looked down at Edwin with half-humorous incertitude56.
Edwin shrugged57 his shoulders superiorly, indicating by instinct, in spite of himself, that possibly Big James was trespassing58 over the social line that divided them. And yet Big James’s father would have condescended59 to Edwin’s grandfather. Only, Edwin now belonged to the employing class, whilst Big James belonged to the employed. Already Edwin, whose father had been thrashed by workmen whom a compositor would hesitate to call skilled—already Edwin had the mien60 natural to a ruler, and Big James, with dignified61 deference62, would submit unresentingly to his attitude. It was the subtlest thing. It was not that Edwin obscurely objected to the suggestion of his being present at the free-and-easy; it was that he objected (but nicely, and with good nature) to any assumption of Big James’s right to influence him towards an act that his father would not approve. Instead of saying, “Why not?” Big James ought to have said: “Nobody but you can decide that, as your father’s away.” James ought to have been strictly63 impartial64.
Four.
“Well,” said Big James, when they arrived at the playground, which lay north of the covered Meat Market or Shambles65, “it looks as if they hadn’t been able to make a start yet at the Blood Tub.” His tone was marked by a calm, grand disdain66, as of one entertainer talking about another.
The Blood Tub, otherwise known as Snaggs’s, was the centre of nocturnal pleasure in Bursley. It stood almost on the very spot where the jawbone of a whale had once lain, as a supreme67 natural curiosity. It represented the softened68 manners which had developed out of the old medievalism of the century. It had supplanted69 the bear-pit and the cock-pit. It corresponded somewhat with the ideals symbolised by the new Town Hall. In the tiny odorous beer-houses of all the undulating, twisting, reddish streets that surrounded the contiguous open spaces of Duck Bank, the playground, the market-place, and Saint Luke’s Square, the folk no longer discussed eagerly what chance on Sunday morning the municipal bear would have against five dogs. They had progressed as far as a free library, boxing-gloves, rabbit-coursing, and the Blood Tub.
This last was a theatre with wooden sides and a canvas roof, and it would hold quite a crowd of people. In front of it was a platform, and an orchestra, lighted by oil flares70 that, as Big James and Edwin approached, were gaining strength in the twilight71. Leaning against the platform was a blackboard on which was chalked the announcement of two plays: “The Forty Thieves” (author unstated) and Cruikshank’s “The Bottle.” The orchestra, after terrific concussions72, fell silent, and then a troupe73 of players in costume, cramped74 on the narrow trestle boards, performed a sample scene from “The Forty Thieves,” just to give the crowd in front an idea of the wonders of this powerful work. And four thieves passed and repassed behind the screen hiding the doors, and reappeared nine times as four fresh thieves until the tale of forty was complete. And then old Hammerad, the beloved clown who played the drum (and whose wife kept a barber’s shop in Buck75 Row and shaved for a penny), left his drum and did two minutes’ stiff clowning, and then the orchestra burst forth again, and the brazen76 voice of old Snaggs (in his moleskin waistcoat) easily rode the storm, adjuring77 the folk to walk up and walk up: which some of the folk did do. And lastly the band played “God Save the Queen,” and the players, followed by old Snaggs, processionally entered the booth.
“Why?” asked Edwin. He was absolutely new to the scene.
“I lay they haven’t got twenty couple inside,” said Big James.
And in less than a minute the troupe did indeed emerge, and old Snaggs expostulated with a dilatory79 public, respectfully but firmly. It had been a queer year for Mr Snaggs. Rain had ruined the Wakes; rain had ruined everything; rain had nearly ruined him. July was obviously not a month in which a self-respecting theatre ought to be open, but Mr Snaggs had got to the point of catching80 at straws. He stated that in order to prove his absolute bona fides the troupe would now give a scene from that world-renowned and unique drama, “The Bottle,” after which the performance really would commence, since he could not as a gentleman keep his kind patrons within waiting any longer. His habit, which emphasised itself as he grew older, was to treat the staring crowd in front of his booth like a family of nephews and nieces. The device was quite useless, for the public’s stolidity81 was impregnable. It touched the heroic. No more granitic82 and crass83 stolidity could have been discovered in England. The crowd stood; it exercised no other function of existence. It just stood, and there it would stand until convinced that the gratis84 part of the spectacle was positively85 at an end.
Five.
With a ceremonious gesture signifying that he assumed the young sir’s consent, Big James turned away. He had displayed to Edwin the poverty and the futility86 of the Blood Tub. Edwin would perhaps have liked to stay. The scenes enacted87 on the outer platform were certainly tinged88 with the ridiculous, but they were the first histrionics that he had ever witnessed; and he could not help thinking, hoping, in spite of his common sense, that within the booth all was different, miraculously89 transformed into the grand and the impressive. Left to himself, he would surely have preferred an evening at the Blood Tub to a business interview with Mr Enoch Peake at the Dragon. But naturally he had to scorn the Blood Tub with a scorn equal to the massive and silent scorn of Big James. And on the whole he considered that he was behaving as a man with another man rather well. He sought by depreciatory90 remarks to keep the conversation at its proper adult level.
Big James led him through the market-place, where a few vegetable, tripe91, and gingerbread stalls—relics of the day’s market—were still attracting customers in the twilight. These slatternly and picturesque92 groups, beneath their flickering93 yellow flares, were encamped at the gigantic foot of the Town Hall porch as at the foot of a precipice94. The monstrous95 black walls of the Town Hall rose and were merged96 in gloom; and the spire97 of the Town Hall, on whose summit stood a gold angel holding a gold crown, rose right into the heavens and was there lost. It was marvellous that this town, by adding stone to stone, had upreared this monument which, in expressing the secret nobility of its ideals, dwarfed98 the town. On every side of it the beer-houses, full of a dulled, savage99 ecstasy100 of life, gleamed brighter than the shops. Big James led Edwin down through the mysteries of the Cock Yard and up along Bugg’s Gutter101, and so back to the Dragon.
点击收听单词发音
1 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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2 bass | |
n.男低音(歌手);低音乐器;低音大提琴 | |
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3 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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4 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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5 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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6 elasticity | |
n.弹性,伸缩力 | |
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7 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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8 anthems | |
n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 );圣歌;赞歌;颂歌 | |
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9 enunciation | |
n.清晰的发音;表明,宣言;口齿 | |
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10 pompous | |
adj.傲慢的,自大的;夸大的;豪华的 | |
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11 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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12 underlie | |
v.位于...之下,成为...的基础 | |
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13 pomposity | |
n.浮华;虚夸;炫耀;自负 | |
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14 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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15 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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16 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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17 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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18 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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19 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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20 trifling | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
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21 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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22 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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23 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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24 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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25 frustrated | |
adj.挫败的,失意的,泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧 | |
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26 sedate | |
adj.沉着的,镇静的,安静的 | |
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27 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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28 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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29 supple | |
adj.柔软的,易弯的,逢迎的,顺从的,灵活的;vt.使柔软,使柔顺,使顺从;vi.变柔软,变柔顺 | |
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30 imminence | |
n.急迫,危急 | |
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31 ordeal | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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32 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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33 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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34 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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35 query | |
n.疑问,问号,质问;vt.询问,表示怀疑 | |
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36 insignificant | |
adj.无关紧要的,可忽略的,无意义的 | |
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37 alacrity | |
n.敏捷,轻快,乐意 | |
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38 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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40 immortals | |
不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 ); 永生不朽者 | |
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41 submission | |
n.服从,投降;温顺,谦虚;提出 | |
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42 regularities | |
规则性( regularity的名词复数 ); 正规; 有规律的事物; 端正 | |
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43 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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44 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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45 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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46 craved | |
渴望,热望( crave的过去式 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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47 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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48 inchoate | |
adj.才开始的,初期的 | |
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49 tingling | |
v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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50 poetically | |
adv.有诗意地,用韵文 | |
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51 lengthened | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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53 licensing | |
v.批准,许可,颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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54 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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55 astounded | |
v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词);愕然;愕;惊讶 | |
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56 incertitude | |
n.疑惑,不确定 | |
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57 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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58 trespassing | |
[法]非法入侵 | |
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59 condescended | |
屈尊,俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 ); 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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60 mien | |
n.风采;态度 | |
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61 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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62 deference | |
n.尊重,顺从;敬意 | |
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63 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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64 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
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65 shambles | |
n.混乱之处;废墟 | |
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66 disdain | |
n.鄙视,轻视;v.轻视,鄙视,不屑 | |
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67 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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68 softened | |
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
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69 supplanted | |
把…排挤掉,取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70 flares | |
n.喇叭裤v.(使)闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 );(使)(船舷)外倾;(使)鼻孔张大;(使)(衣裙、酒杯等)呈喇叭形展开 | |
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71 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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72 concussions | |
n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 );脑震荡;冲击;震动 | |
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73 troupe | |
n.剧团,戏班;杂技团;马戏团 | |
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74 cramped | |
a.狭窄的 | |
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75 buck | |
n.雄鹿,雄兔;v.马离地跳跃 | |
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76 brazen | |
adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
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77 adjuring | |
v.(以起誓或诅咒等形式)命令要求( adjure的现在分词 );祈求;恳求 | |
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78 blandness | |
n.温柔,爽快 | |
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79 dilatory | |
adj.迟缓的,不慌不忙的 | |
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80 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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81 stolidity | |
n.迟钝,感觉麻木 | |
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82 granitic | |
花岗石的,由花岗岩形成的 | |
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83 crass | |
adj.愚钝的,粗糙的;彻底的 | |
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84 gratis | |
adj.免费的 | |
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85 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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86 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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87 enacted | |
制定(法律),通过(法案)( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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88 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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89 miraculously | |
ad.奇迹般地 | |
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90 depreciatory | |
adj.贬值的,蔑视的 | |
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91 tripe | |
n.废话,肚子, 内脏 | |
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92 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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93 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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94 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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95 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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96 merged | |
(使)混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 ); 相融; 融入; 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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97 spire | |
n.(教堂)尖顶,尖塔,高点 | |
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98 dwarfed | |
vt.(使)显得矮小(dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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99 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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100 ecstasy | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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101 gutter | |
n.沟,街沟,水槽,檐槽,贫民窟 | |
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