Doubly free after his imprisonment6 of the morning, Gibbie sped joyously7 along. Already nature, her largeness, her openness, her loveliness, her changefulness, her oneness in change, had begun to heal the child's heart, and comfort him in his disappointment with his kind. The stream he was now ascending8 ran along a claw of the mountain, which claw was covered with almost a forest of pine, protecting little colonies of less hardy9 timber. Its heavy green was varied10 with the pale delicate fringes of the fresh foliage11 of the larches13, filling the air with aromatic14 breath. In the midst of their soft tufts, each tuft buttoned with a brown spot, hung the rich brown knobs and tassels15 of last year's cones16. But the trees were all on the opposite side of the stream, and appeared to be mostly on the other side of a wall. Where Gibbie was, the mountain-root was chiefly of rock, interspersed17 with heather.
A little way up the stream, he came to a bridge over it, closed at the farther end by iron gates between pillars, each surmounted18 by a wolf's head in stone. Over the gate on each side leaned a rowan-tree, with trunk and branches aged19 and gnarled amidst their fresh foliage. He crossed the burn to look through the gate, and pressed his face between the bars to get a better sight of a tame rabbit that had got out of its hutch. It sat, like a Druid white with age, in the midst of a gravel20 drive, much overgrown with moss21, that led through a young larch12 wood, with here and there an ancient tree, lonely amidst the youth of its companions. Suddenly from the wood a large spaniel came bounding upon the rabbit. Gibbie gave a shriek22, and the rabbit made one white flash into the wood, with the dog after him. He turned away sad at heart.
"Ilka cratur 'at can," he said to himself, "ates ilka cratur 'at canna!"
It was his first generalization23, but not many years passed before he supplemented it with a conclusion:
"But the man 'at wad be a man, he maunna."
Resuming his journey of investigation24, he trotted along the bank of the burn, farther and farther up, until he could trot4 no more, but must go clambering over great stones, or sinking to the knees in bog25, patches of it red with iron, from which he would turn away with a shudder26. Sometimes he walked in the water, along the bed of the burn itself; sometimes he had to scramble27 up its steep side, to pass one of the many little cataracts28 of its descent. Here and there a small silver birch, or a mountain-ash, or a stunted29 fir-tree, looking like a wizard child, hung over the stream. Its banks were mainly of rock and heather, but now and then a small patch of cultivation30 intervened. Gibbie had no thought that he was gradually leaving the abodes31 of men behind him; he knew no reason why in ascending things should change, and be no longer as in plainer ways. For what he knew, there might be farm after farm, up and up for ever, to the gates of heaven. But it would no longer have troubled him greatly to leave all houses behind him for a season. A great purple foxglove could do much now—just at this phase of his story, to make him forget—not the human face divine, but the loss of it. A lark33 aloft in the blue, from whose heart, as from a fountain whose roots were lost in the air, its natural source, issued, not a stream, but an ever spreading lake of song, was now more to him than the memory of any human voice he had ever heard, except his father's and Sambo's. But he was not yet quite out and away from the dwellings35 of his kind.
I may as well now make the attempt to give some idea of Gibbie's appearance, as he showed after so long wandering. Of dress he had hardly enough left to carry the name. Shoes, of course, he had none. Of the shape of trousers there remained nothing, except the division before and behind in the short petticoat to which they were reduced; and those rudimentary divisions were lost in the multitude of rents of equal apparent significance. He had never, so far as he knew, had a shirt upon his body; and his sole other garment was a jacket, so much too large for him, that to retain the use of his hands he had folded back the sleeves quite to his elbows. Thus reversed they became pockets, the only ones he had, and in them he stowed whatever provisions were given him of which he could not make immediate36 use—porridge and sowens and mashed37 potatoes included: they served him, in fact, like the first of the stomachs of those animals which have more than one—concerning which animals, by the way, I should much like to know what they were in "Pythagoras' time." His head had plentiful38 protection in his own natural crop—had never either had or required any other. That would have been of the gold order, had not a great part of its colour been sunburnt, rained, and frozen out of it. All ways it pointed39, as if surcharged with electric fluid, crowning him with a wildness which was in amusing contrast with the placidity40 of his countenance41. Perhaps the resulting queerness in the expression of the little vagrant42, a look as if he had been hunted till his body and soul were nearly ruffled43 asunder44, and had already parted company in aim and interest, might have been the first thing to strike a careless observer. But if the heart was not a careless one, the eye would look again and discover a stronger stillness than mere45 placidity—a sort of live peace abiding46 in that weather-beaten little face under its wild crown of human herbage. The features of it were well-shaped, and not smaller than proportioned to the small whole of his person. His eyes—partly, perhaps, because there was so little flesh upon his bones—were large, and in repose47 had much of a soft animal expression: there was not in them the look of You and I know. Frequently, too, when occasion roused the needful instinct, they had a sharp expression of outlook and readiness, which, without a trace of fierceness or greed, was yet equally animal. Only all the time there was present something else, beyond characterization: behind them something seemed to lie asleep. His hands and feet were small and childishly dainty, his whole body well-shaped and well put together—of which the style of his dress rather quashed the evidence.
Such was Gibbie to the eye, as he rose from Daurside to the last cultivated ground on the borders of the burn, and the highest dwelling34 on the mountain. It was the abode32 of a cottar, and was a dependency of the farm he had just left. The cottar was an old man of seventy; his wife was nearly sixty. They had reared stalwart sons and shapely daughters, now at service here and there in the valleys below—all ready to see God in nature, and recognize Him in providence48. They belong to a class now, I fear, extinct, but once, if my love prejudice not my judgment49 too far, the glory and strength of Scotland: their little acres are now swallowed up in the larger farms.
It was a very humble50 dwelling, built of turf upon a foundation of stones, and roofed with turf and straw—warm, and nearly impervious51 to the searching airs of the mountain-side. One little window of a foot and a half square looked out on the universe. At one end stood a stack of peat, half as big as the cottage itself, All around it were huge rocks, some of them peaks whose masses went down to the very central fires, others only fragments that had rolled from above. Here and there a thin crop was growing in patches amongst them, the red grey stone lifting its baldness in spots numberless through the soft waving green. A few of the commonest flowers grew about the door, but there was no garden. The door-step was live rock, and a huge projecting rock behind formed the back and a portion of one of the end walls. This latter rock had been the attraction to the site, because of a hollow in it, which now served as a dairy. For up there with them lived the last cow of the valley—the cow that breathed the loftiest air on all Daurside—a good cow, and gifted in feeding well upon little. Facing the broad south, and leaning against the hill, as against the bosom52 of God, sheltering it from the north and east, the cottage looked so high-humble, so still, so confident, that it drew Gibbie with the spell of heart-likeness. He knocked at the old, weather-beaten, shrunk and rent, but well patched door. A voice, alive with the soft vibrations54 of thought and feeling, answered,
"Come yer wa's in, whae'er ye be."
A woman sat on a creepie, her face turned over her shoulder to see who came. It was a grey face, with good simple features and clear grey eyes. The plentiful hair that grew low on her forehead, was half grey, mostly covered by a white cap with frills. A clean wrapper and apron56, both of blue print, over a blue winsey petticoat, blue stockings, and strong shoes completed her dress. A book lay on her lap: always when she had finished her morning's work, and made her house tidy, she sat down to have her comfort, as she called it. The moment she saw Gibbie she rose. Had he been the angel Gabriel, come to tell her she was wanted at the throne, her attention could not have been more immediate or thorough. She was rather a little woman, and carried herself straight and light.
"Eh, ye puir ootcast!" she said, in the pitying voice of a mother, "hoo cam ye here sic a hicht? Cratur, ye hae left the warl' ahin' ye. What wad ye hae here? I hae naething."
Receiving no answer but one of the child's betwitching smiles, she stood for a moment regarding him, not in mere silence, but with a look of dumbness. She was a mother. One who is mother only to her own children is not a mother; she is only a woman who has borne children. But here was one of God's mothers.
Loneliness and silence, and constant homely57 familiarity with the vast simplicities58 of nature, assist much in the development of the deeper and more wonderful faculties59 of perception. The perceptions themselves may take this or that shape according to the education—may even embody60 themselves fantastically, yet be no less perceptions. Now the very moment before Gibbie entered, she had been reading the words of the Lord: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"; and with her heart full of them, she lifted her eyes and saw Gibbie. For one moment, with the quick flashing response of the childlike imagination of the Celt, she fancied she saw the Lord himself. Another woman might have made a more serious mistake, and seen there only a child. Often had Janet pondered, as she sat alone on the great mountain, while Robert was with the sheep, or she lay awake by his side at night, with the wind howling about the cottage, whether the Lord might not sometimes take a lonely walk to look after such solitary61 sheep of his flock as they, and let them know he had not lost sight of them, for all the ups and downs of the hills. There stood the child, and whether he was the Lord or not, he was evidently hungry. Ah! who could tell but the Lord was actually hungry in every one of his hungering little ones!
In the mean time—only it was but thought-time, not clock-time—Gibbie stood motionless in the middle of the floor, smiling his innocent smile, asking for nothing, hinting at nothing, but resting his wild calm eyes, with a sense of safety and mother-presence, upon the grey thoughtful face of the gazing woman. Her awe62 deepened; it seemed to descend63 upon her and fold her in as with a mantle64. Involuntarily she bowed her head, and stepping to him took him by the hand, and led him to the stool she had left. There she made him sit, while she brought forward her table, white with scrubbing, took from a hole in the wall and set upon it a platter of oatcakes, carried a wooden bowl to her dairy in the rock through a whitewashed65 door, and bringing it back filled, half with cream half with milk, set that also on the table. Then she placed a chair before it, and said—
"Sit ye doon, an' tak. Gin ye war the Lord himsel', my bonny man, an' ye may be for oucht I ken53, for ye luik puir an' despised eneuch, I cud gie nae better, for it's a' I hae to offer ye—'cep it micht be an egg," she added, correcting herself, and turned and went out.
Presently she came back with a look of success, carrying two eggs, which, having raked out a quantity, she buried in the hot ashes of the peats, and left in front of the hearth66 to roast, while Gibbie went on eating the thick oatcake, sweet and substantial, and drinking such milk as the wildest imagination of town-boy could never suggest. It was indeed angels' food—food such as would have pleased the Lord himself after a hard day with axe67 and saw and plane, so good and simple and strong was it. Janet resumed her seat on the low three-legged stool, and took her knitting that he might feel neither that he was watched as he ate, nor that she was waiting for him to finish. Every other moment she gave a glance at the stranger she had taken in; but never a word he spoke68, and the sense of mystery grew upon her.
Presently came a great bounce and scramble; the latch jumped up, the door flew open, and after a moment's pause, in came a sheep dog—a splendid thorough-bred collie, carrying in his mouth a tiny, long-legged lamb, which he dropped half dead in the woman's lap. It was a late lamb, born of a mother which had been sold from the hill, but had found her way back from a great distance, in order that her coming young one might have the privilege of being yeaned on the same spot where she had herself awaked to existence. Another moment, and her mba-a was heard approaching the door. She trotted in, and going up to Janet, stood contemplating69 the consequences of her maternal70 ambition. Her udder was full, but the lamb was too weak to suck. Janet rose, and going to the side of the room, opened the door of what might have seemed an old press, but was a bed. Folding back the counterpane, she laid the lamb in the bed, and covered it over. Then she got a caup, a wooden dish like a large saucer, and into it milked the ewe. Next she carried the caup to the bed; but what means she there used to enable the lamb to drink, the boy could not see, though his busy eyes and loving heart would gladly have taken in all.
In the mean time the collie, having done his duty by the lamb, and perhaps forgotten it, sat on his tail, and stared with his two brave trusting eyes at the little beggar that sat in the master's chair, and ate of the fat of the land. Oscar was a gentleman, and had never gone to school, therefore neither fancied nor had been taught that rags make an essential distinction, and ought to be barked at. Gibbie was a stranger, and therefore as a stranger Oscar gave him welcome—now and then stooping to lick the little brown feet that had wandered so far.
Like all wild creatures, Gibbie ate fast, and had finished everything set before him ere the woman had done feeding the lamb. Without a notion of the rudeness of it, his heart full of gentle gratitude71, he rose and left the cottage. When Janet turned from her shepherding, there sat Oscar looking up at the empty chair.
"What's come o' the laddie?" she said to the dog, who answered with a low whine72, half-regretful, half-interrogative. It may be he was only asking, like Esau, if there was no residuum of blessing73 for him also; but perhaps he too was puzzled what to conclude about the boy. Janet hastened to the door, but already Gibbie's nimble feet refreshed to the point of every toe with the food he had just swallowed, had borne him far up the hill, behind the cottage, so that she could not get a glimpse of him. Thoughtfully she returned, and thoughtfully removed the remnants of the meal. She would then have resumed her Bible, but her hospitality had rendered it necessary that she should put on her girdle—not a cincture of leather upon her body, but a disc of iron on the fire, to bake thereon cakes ere her husband's return. It was a simple enough process, for the oat-meal wanted nothing but water and fire; but her joints74 had not yet got rid of the winter's rheumatism75, and the labour of the baking was the hardest part of the sacrifice of her hospitality. To many it is easy to give what they have, but the offering of weariness and pain is never easy. They are indeed a true salt to salt sacrifices withal. That it was the last of her meal till her youngest boy should bring her a bag on his back from the mill the next Saturday, made no point in her trouble.
When at last she had done, and put the things away, and swept up the hearth, she milked the ewe, sent her out to nibble76, took her Bible, and sat down once more to read. The lamb lay at her feet, with his little head projecting from the folds of her new flannel77 petticoat; and every time her eye fell from the book upon the lamb, she felt as if somehow the lamb was the boy that had eaten of her bread and drunk of her milk. After she had read a while, there came a change, and the lamb seemed the Lord himself, both lamb and shepherd, who had come to claim her hospitality. Then, divinely invaded with the dread78 lest in the fancy she should forget the reality, she kneeled down and prayed to the friend of Martha and Mary and Lazarus, to come as he had said, and sup with her indeed.
Not for years and years had Janet been to church; she had long been unable to walk so far; and having no book but the best, and no help to understand it but the highest, her faith was simple, strong, real, all-pervading. Day by day she pored over the great gospel—I mean just the good news according to Matthew and Mark and Luke and John—until she had grown to be one of the noble ladies of the kingdom of heaven—one of those who inherit the earth, and are ripening79 to see God. For the Master, and his mind in hers, was her teacher. She had little or no theology save what he taught her, or rather, what he is. And of any other than that, the less the better; for no theology, except the Theou logos, {compilers note: spelled in Greek: Theta, Epsilon, Omicron, Upsilon; Lambda, Omicron with stress, Gamma, Omicron, Sigma} is worth the learning, no other being true. To know him is to know God. And he only who obeys him, does or can know him; he who obeys him cannot fail to know him. To Janet, Jesus Christ was no object of so-called theological speculation80, but a living man, who somehow or other heard her when she called to him, and sent her the help she needed.
点击收听单词发音
1 propulsive | |
adj.推进的 | |
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2 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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3 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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4 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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5 trotted | |
小跑,急走( trot的过去分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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6 imprisonment | |
n.关押,监禁,坐牢 | |
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7 joyously | |
ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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8 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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9 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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10 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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11 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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12 larch | |
n.落叶松 | |
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13 larches | |
n.落叶松(木材)( larch的名词复数 ) | |
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14 aromatic | |
adj.芳香的,有香味的 | |
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15 tassels | |
n.穗( tassel的名词复数 );流苏状物;(植物的)穗;玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 );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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16 cones | |
n.(人眼)圆锥细胞;圆锥体( cone的名词复数 );球果;圆锥形东西;(盛冰淇淋的)锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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17 interspersed | |
adj.[医]散开的;点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18 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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19 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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20 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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21 moss | |
n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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22 shriek | |
v./n.尖叫,叫喊 | |
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23 generalization | |
n.普遍性,一般性,概括 | |
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24 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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25 bog | |
n.沼泽;室...陷入泥淖 | |
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26 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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27 scramble | |
v.爬行,攀爬,杂乱蔓延,碎片,片段,废料 | |
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28 cataracts | |
n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 );白内障 | |
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29 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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30 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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31 abodes | |
住所( abode的名词复数 ); 公寓; (在某地的)暂住; 逗留 | |
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32 abode | |
n.住处,住所 | |
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33 lark | |
n.云雀,百灵鸟;n.嬉戏,玩笑;vi.嬉戏 | |
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34 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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35 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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36 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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37 mashed | |
a.捣烂的 | |
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38 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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39 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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40 placidity | |
n.平静,安静,温和 | |
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41 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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42 vagrant | |
n.流浪者,游民;adj.流浪的,漂泊不定的 | |
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43 ruffled | |
adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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44 asunder | |
adj.分离的,化为碎片 | |
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45 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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46 abiding | |
adj.永久的,持久的,不变的 | |
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47 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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48 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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49 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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50 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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51 impervious | |
adj.不能渗透的,不能穿过的,不易伤害的 | |
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52 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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53 ken | |
n.视野,知识领域 | |
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54 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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55 latch | |
n.门闩,窗闩;弹簧锁 | |
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56 apron | |
n.围裙;工作裙 | |
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57 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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58 simplicities | |
n.简单,朴素,率直( simplicity的名词复数 ) | |
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59 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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60 embody | |
vt.具体表达,使具体化;包含,收录 | |
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61 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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62 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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63 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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64 mantle | |
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红 | |
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65 whitewashed | |
粉饰,美化,掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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67 axe | |
n.斧子;v.用斧头砍,削减 | |
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68 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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69 contemplating | |
深思,细想,仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 ); 注视,凝视; 考虑接受(发生某事的可能性); 深思熟虑,沉思,苦思冥想 | |
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70 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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71 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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72 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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73 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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74 joints | |
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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75 rheumatism | |
n.风湿病 | |
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76 nibble | |
n.轻咬,啃;v.一点点地咬,慢慢啃,吹毛求疵 | |
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77 flannel | |
n.法兰绒;法兰绒衣服 | |
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78 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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79 ripening | |
v.成熟,使熟( ripen的现在分词 );熟化;熟成 | |
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80 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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