The rise in the thermometer foretold2 a fall of snow, and soon it came, beginning in large flakes3. This added to the hardships of their journey; they kept straying from a straight line; they could not go quickly; nevertheless, they averaged three miles an hour.
The ice-field, under the pressure of the frost, presented an unequal surface; the sledge was often nearly turned over, but they succeeded in saving it.
Hatteras and his companions wrapped themselves up in their fur clothes cut in the Greenland fashion; they were not cut with extraordinary neatness, but they suited the needs of the climate; their faces were enclosed in a narrow hood4 which could not be penetrated6 by the snow or wind; their mouths, noses, and eyes were alone exposed to the air, and they did not need to be protected against it; nothing is so inconvenient7 as scarfs and nose-protectors, which soon are stiff with ice; at night they have to be cut away, which, even in the arctic seas, is a poor way of undressing. It was necessary to leave free passage for the breath, which would freeze at once on anything it met.
The boundless8 plain stretched out with tiresome9 monotony; everywhere there appeared heaped-up ice-hills, hummocks10, blocks, and icebergs13, separated by winding14 valleys; they walked staff in hand, saying but little. In this cold atmosphere, to open the mouth was painful; sharp crystals of ice suddenly formed between the lips, and the heat of the breath could not melt them. Their progress was silent, and every one beat the ice with his staff. Bell's footsteps were visible in the fresh snow; they followed them mechanically, and where he had passed, the others could go safely.
Numerous tracks of bears and foxes crossed one another everywhere; but during this first day not one could be seen; to chase them would have been dangerous and useless: they would only have overloaded15 the already heavy sledge.
Generally, in excursions of this sort, travellers take the precaution of leaving supplies along their path; they hide them from the animals, in the snow, thus lightening themselves for their trip, and on their return they take the supplies which they did not have the trouble of carrying with them.
Hatteras could not employ this device on an ice-field which perhaps was moving; on firm land it would have been possible; and the uncertainty16 of their route made it doubtful whether they would return by the same path.
At noon, Hatteras halted his little troop in the shelter of an ice-wall; they dined off pemmican and hot tea; the strengthening qualities of this beverage17 produced general comfort, and the travellers drank a large quantity. After an hour's rest they started on again; in the first day they walked about twenty miles; that evening men and dogs were tired out.
Still, in spite of their fatigue18, they had to build a snow-house in which to pass the night; the tent would not have been enough. This took them an hour and a half. Bell was very skilful19; the blocks of ice, which were cut with a knife, were placed on top of one another with astonishing rapidity, and they took the shape of a dome20, and a last piece, the keystone of the arch, established the solidity of the building; the soft snow served as mortar21 in the interstices; it soon hardened and made the whole building of a single piece.
The snow-house
Access was had into this improvised22 grotto23 by means of a narrow opening, through which it was necessary to crawl on one's hands and knees; the doctor found some difficulty in entering, and the others followed. Supper was soon prepared on the alcohol cooking-stove. The temperature inside was very comfortable; the wind, which was raging without, could not get in.
And this meal, though the same as the dinner, was shared by all. When it was finished their only thought was sleep; the mackintoshes, spread out upon the snow, protected them from the dampness. At the flame of the portable stove they dried their clothes; then three of them, wrapped up in their woollen coverings, fell asleep, while one was left on watch; he had to keep a lookout25 on the safety of all, and to prevent the opening from being closed, otherwise they ran a risk of being buried alive.
Duke shared their quarters; the other dogs remained without, and after they had eaten their supper they lay down and were soon hidden by the snow.
Their fatigue soon brought sound sleep. The doctor took the watch until three of the morning. In the night the hurricane raged furiously. Strange was the situation of these lonely men lost in the snow, enclosed in this vault26 with its walls rapidly thickening under the snow-fall.
The next morning at six o'clock their monotonous27 march was resumed; there were ever before them the same valleys and icebergs, a uniformity which made the choice of a path difficult. Still, a fall of several degrees in the temperature made their way easier by hardening the snow. Often they came across little elevations28, which looked like cairns or storing-places of the Esquimaux; the doctor had one destroyed to satisfy his curiosity, but he found nothing except a cake of ice.
"What do you expect to find, Clawbonny?" asked Hatteras; "are we not the first men to penetrate5 into this part of the globe?"
"Probably," answered the doctor, "but who knows?"
"Don't let us waste our time in useless searching," resumed the captain; "I am in a hurry to rejoin the ship, even if this long-wanted fuel should not be found."
"I have great hopes of finding it," said the doctor.
"Doctor," Hatteras used to say frequently, "I did wrong to leave the Forward; it was a mistake! The captain's place is on board, and nowhere else."
"Johnson is there."
"Yes! but—let us hurry on!"
They advanced rapidly; Simpson's voice could be heard urging on the dogs; they ran along on a brilliant surface, all aglow30 with a phosphorescent light, and the runners of the sledge seemed to toss up a shower of sparks. The doctor ran on ahead to examine this snow, when suddenly, as he was trying to jump upon a hummock11, he disappeared from sight. Bell, who was near him, ran at once towards the place.
"Well, Doctor," he cried anxiously, while Hatteras and Simpson joined him, "where are you?"
"Doctor!" shouted the captain.
"Down here, at the bottom of a hole," was the quiet answer. "Throw me a piece of rope, and I'll come up to the surface of the globe."
They threw a rope down to the doctor, who was at the bottom of a pit about ten feet deep; he fastened it about his waist, and his three companions drew him up with some difficulty.
"Are you hurt?" asked Hatteras.
"No, there's no harm done," answered the doctor, wiping the snow from his smiling face.
"But how did it happen?"
"O, it was in consequence of the refraction," he answered, laughing; "I thought I had about a foot to step over, and I fell into this deep hole! These optical illusions are the only ones left me, my friends, and it's hard to escape from them! Let that be a lesson to us all never to take a step forward without first testing the ice with a staff, for our senses cannot be depended on. Here our ears hear wrong, and our eyes deceive us! It's a curious country!"
"Can you go on?" asked the captain.
"Go on, Hatteras, go on! This little fall has done me more good than harm."
They resumed their march to the southeast, and at evening they halted, after walking about twenty-five miles; they were all tired, but still the doctor had energy enough to ascend31 an ice-mountain while the snow-hut was building.
The moon, which was nearly at its full, shone with extraordinary brilliancy in a clear sky; the stars were wonderfully brilliant; from the top of the iceberg12 a boundless plain could be seen, which was covered with strangely formed hillocks of ice; in the moonlight they looked like fallen columns or overthrown32 tombstones; the scene reminded the doctor of a huge, silent graveyard33 barren of trees, in which twenty generations of human beings might be lying in their long sleep.
In spite of the cold and fatigue, Clawbonny remained for a long time in a revery, from which it was no easy task for his companions to arouse him; but they had to think of resting; the snow-hut was completed; the four travellers crawled in like moles34, and soon were all asleep.
The following days went on without any particular incident; at times they went on slowly, at times quickly, with varying ease, according to the changes in the weather; they wore moccasins or snow-shoes, as the nature of the ice demanded.
In this way they went on till January 15th; the moon, now in its last quarter, was hardly visible; the sun, although always beneath the horizon, gave a sort of twilight35 for six hours every day, but not enough to light up the route, which had to be directed by the compass. Then Bell went on ahead; Hatteras followed next; Simpson and the doctor sought also to keep in a straight line behind, with their eyes on Hatteras alone; and yet, in spite of all their efforts, they often got thirty or forty degrees from the right way, much to their annoyance36.
Sunday, January 15th, Hatteras judged that they had come about one hundred miles to the south; this morning was set aside to mending their clothes and materials; the reading of divine service was not forgotten.
At noon they started again; the temperature was very low; the thermometer marked only -22°;* the air was very clear.
Suddenly, without warning, a frozen vapor arose into the air from the ice, to a height of about ninety feet, and hung motionless; no one could see a foot before him; this vapor formed in long, sharp crystals upon their clothing.
The travellers, surprised by this phenomenon, which is called frost-rime, only thought of getting together; so immediately various shouts were heard:—
"O Simpson!"
"Bell, this way!"
"Dr. Clawbonny!"
"Doctor!"
"Captain, where are you?"
They began to look for one another with outstretched arms, wandering through the fog which their eyes could not pierce. But to their disappointment they could hear no answer; the vapor seemed incapable38 of carrying sound.
Each one then thought of firing his gun as a signal to the others. But if their voices were too feeble, the reports of the fire-arms were too loud; for the echoes, repeated in every direction, made but a confused roar, in which no particular direction could be perceived.
Then they began to act, each one as he thought best. Hatteras stood still and folded his arms. Simpson contented39 himself with stopping the sledge. Bell retraced40 his steps, feeling them with his hand. The doctor, stumbling over the blocks of ice, wandered here and there, getting more and more bewildered.
At the end of five minutes he said to himself,—
"This can't last long! Singular climate! This is too much! There is nothing to help us, without speaking of these sharp crystals which cut my face. Halloo, Captain!" he shouted again.
But he heard no answer; he fired his gun, but in spite of his thick gloves the iron burned his hands. Meanwhile he thought he saw a confused mass moving near him.
"There's some one," he said. "Hatteras! Bell! Simpson! Is that you? Come, answer!"
A dull roar was alone heard.
"Ah!" thought the doctor, "what is that?"
The object approached; it lost its first size and appeared in more definite shape. A terrible thought flashed into the doctor's mind.
"A bear!" he said to himself.
In fact, it was a huge bear; lost in the fog, it came and went with great danger to the men, whose presence it certainly did not suspect.
Sometimes he felt the animal's breath, which was soon lost in the frost-rime; again he would see the monster's huge paws beating the air so near him that his clothes were occasionally torn by its sharp claws; he jumped back, and the animal disappeared like a phantasmagoric spectre.
But as he sprang back he found an elevation29 beneath his feet; he climbed up first one block of ice, then another, feeling his way with his staff.
"An iceberg!" he said to himself; "if I can get to the top I am safe."
With these words he climbed up an elevation of about ninety feet with surprising agility42; he arose above the frozen mist, the top of which was sharply defined.
"Good!" he said to himself; and looking about him he saw his three companions emerging from the vapor.
"Hatteras!"
"Dr. Clawbonny!"
"Bell!"
"Simpson!"
These names were shouted out almost at the same time; the sky, lit up by a magnificent halo, sent forth43 pale rays which colored the frost-rime as if it were a cloud, and the top of the icebergs seemed to rise from a mass of molten silver. The travellers found themselves within a circle of less than a hundred feet in diameter. Thanks to the purity of the air in this upper layer in this low temperature, their words could be easily heard, and they were able to talk on the top of this iceberg. After the first shots, each one, hearing no answer, had only thought of climbing above the mist.
"The sledge!" shouted the captain.
"It's eighty feet beneath us," answered Simpson.
"Is it all right?"
"All right."
"And the bear?" asked the doctor.
"What bear?" said Bell.
"A bear!" said Hatteras; "let's go down."
"No!" said the doctor; "we shall lose our way, and have to begin it all over again."
"And if he eats our dogs—" said Hatteras.
At that moment Duke was heard barking, the sound rising through the mist.
"That's Duke!" shouted Hatteras; "there's something wrong. I'm going down."
All sorts of howling arose to their ears; Duke and the dogs were barking furiously. The noise sounded like a dull murmur44, like the roar of a crowded, noisy room. They knew that some invisible struggle was going on below, and the mist was occasionally agitated45 like the sea when marine46 monsters are fighting.
"Duke, Duke!" shouted the captain, as he made ready to enter again into the frost-rime.
"Wait a moment, Hatteras,—wait a moment! It seems to me that the fog is lifting."
It was not lifting, but sinking, like water in a pool; it appeared to be descending47 into the ground from which it had risen; the summits of the icebergs grew larger; others, which had been hidden, arose like new islands; by an optical illusion, which may be easily imagined, the travellers, clinging to these ice-cones, seemed to be rising in the air, while the top of the mist sank beneath them.
Soon the top of the sledge appeared, then the harnessed dogs, and then about thirty other animals, then great objects moving confusedly, and Duke leaping about with his head alternately rising and sinking in the frozen mist.
"Foxes!" shouted Bell.
"Bears!" said the doctor; "one, two, three."
"Our dogs, our provisions!" cried Simpson.
A troop of foxes and bears, having come across the sledge, were ravaging48 the provisions. Their instinct of pillaging49 united them in perfect harmony; the dogs were barking furiously, but the animals paid no heed50, but went on in their work of destruction.
"Fire!" shouted the captain, discharging his piece.
His companions did the same. But at the combined report the bears, raising their heads and uttering a singular roar, gave the signal to depart; they fell into a little trot51 which a galloping52 horse could not have kept up with, and, followed by the foxes, they soon disappeared amid the ice to the north.
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收听单词发音
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1
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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2
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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6
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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7
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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9
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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10
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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hummock
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| n.小丘 | |
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12
iceberg
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| n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人 | |
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13
icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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14
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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15
overloaded
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| a.超载的，超负荷的 | |
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16
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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beverage
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| n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料 | |
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18
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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19
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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20
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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21
mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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22
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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23
grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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24
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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25
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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27
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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28
elevations
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| （水平或数量）提高( elevation的名词复数 )； 高地； 海拔； 提升 | |
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29
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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30
aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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31
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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32
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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33
graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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34
moles
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| 防波堤( mole的名词复数 )； 鼹鼠； 痣； 间谍 | |
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35
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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36
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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37
vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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38
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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39
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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40
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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41
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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42
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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45
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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46
marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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47
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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48
ravaging
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| 毁坏( ravage的现在分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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49
pillaging
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的现在分词 ) | |
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50
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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51
trot
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| 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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52
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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