The North Pole was at last to be conquered by the audacious genius of man!
Barbicane and his co-directors had the means of succeeding where so many others had failed. They would do what had not been done by Franklin, Kane, Nares, or Greely. They would advance beyond the eighty-fourth parallel. They would take possession of the vast portion 48of the globe that had fallen to them under the hammer. They would add to the American flag the forty-third star for the forty-third state annexed2 to the American Confederation.
“Rubbish!” said the European delegates.
And the means of conquering the Pole—means that were practical, logical, indisputable, and of a simplicity3 quite infantine—were the suggestion of J. T. Maston. It was in his brain, where ideas were cooked in cerebral4 matter in a state of constant ebullition, that there had been conceived this great geographical5 work, and the means devised of bringing it to a successful issue.
The secretary of the Gun Club was a remarkable6 calculator. The solution of the most complicated problems of mathematical science was but sport to him. He laughed at difficulties, whether in the science of magnitudes, that is algebra7, or in the science of numbers, that is arithmetic; and it was a treat to see him handle the symbols, the conventional signs which form the algebraic notation8, whether letters of the alphabet, representing quantities or magnitudes, or lines coupled or crossed, which indicate the relation between the quantities and the operations to which they are submitted.
Ah! The co-efficients, the exponents9, the radicals10, the indices, and the other arrangements adopted in that language! How the signs leapt from his pen, or rather from the piece of chalk which wriggled11 at the end of his metal hook, for he preferred to work on a blackboard. There, on a surface of ten square yards—for nothing less would do for J. T. Maston—he revelled12 in all the ardour of his algebraical temperament13. They were no miserable14 little figures that he employed in his calculations. No; the 49figures were fantastic, gigantic, traced with a furious hand. His 2’s and 3’s waltzed like shavings in a whirlwind; his 7’s were like gibbets, and only wanted a corpse15 to complete them; his 8’s were like spectacles; and his 6’s and 9’s had flourishes interminable!
And the letters with which he built up his formulæ! The a’s and b’s and c’s he used for his quantities given or known; and the x’s, y’s, and z’s he used for the quantities sought or unknown, and especially his z’s, which twisted in zigzags16 like lightning flashes! And what turns and twiggles there were in his π’s, his λ’s, his ω’s! Even a Euclid or an Archimedes would have been proud of them!
And as to his signs, in pure unblurred chalk, they were simply marvellous. His + showed the addition was unmistakable. His -, though humbler, was quite a work of art. His × was as clear as a St. Andrew’s cross. And as to his =, so rigorously equal were they, as to indicate without a chance of mistake, that J. T. Maston lived in a country where equality was no vain formula. His <, his >, and his ≷ were really grand! And as to his √, the root of a quantity or of a number, it was really a triumph, and when he completed the horizontal bar in this style
√‾‾‾‾‾‾
it seemed as if the indicatory vinculum would shoot clean off the blackboard and menace the world with inclusion within the maniacal17 equation.
But do not suppose that the mathematical intelligence of J. T. Maston was bounded by the horizon of elementary algebra. No! The differential calculus18, the integral calculus, the calculus of variations were no strangers to him, and with unshaking hand he dashed down the famous 50sign of integration19, the shape so terrible in its simplicity, the
f
And like it was his Σ which represents the sum of a finite number of finite elements; like it was his ∝ with which mathematicians23 indicate the variant24; like it were all the mysterious symbols employed in this language so unintelligible25 to ordinary mortals. In short, this astonishing man was capable of mounting the mathematical ladder to the very topmost rung.
Such was J. T. Maston. No wonder his colleagues had every confidence in him when he undertook to solve the wildest abracadabrant calculations that occurred to their audacious brains! No wonder that the Gun Club had confided26 to him the problem regarding the hurling27 of the projectile28 from the Earth to the Moon! No wonder that Evangelina Scorbitt was intoxicated29 with his glory, and had conceived for him an admiration30 which perilously31 bordered on love!
But in the case under consideration, the solution of the problem regarding the conquest of the North Pole, J. T. Maston had no flight to take in the sublime32 regions of analysis. To allow the concessionaries of the Arctic regions to make use of their new possessions, the secretary of the Gun Club had but a simple problem in mechanics to occupy his mind. It was a complicated problem, no doubt, requiring ingenious and possibly novel formulæ, but it could be done.
Yes! They could trust J. T. Maston, although the slightest slip might entail33 the loss of millions! But never 51since his baby head had toyed with the first notions of arithmetic had he made a mistake, never had he been the millionth of an inch out in a matter of measurement, and if he had made an error in the last of twenty places of decimals his gutta-percha cranium would have burst its fixings.
It was important to insist on the remarkable mathematical powers of J. T. Maston. We have done so! Now we have to show him at work, and to do that we must go back a few weeks.
About a month before the famous advertisement, J. T. Maston had been requested to work out the elements of the project of which he had suggested to his colleagues the marvellous consequences.
For many years he had lived at No. 179, Franklin Street, one of the quietest streets in Baltimore, far from the business quarter, for in commerce he took no interest; far from the noise of the crowd, for the mob he abhorred34.
There he occupied a modest habitation known as Ballistic Cottage, living on the pension he drew as an old artillery35 officer, and on the salary paid him as the Gun Club secretary. He lived alone with one servant, Fire-Fire, a name worthy36 of an artilleryman’s valet. This negro was a servant of the first-water, and he served his master as faithfully as he would have served a gun.
J. T. Maston was a confirmed bachelor, being of opinion that bachelorhood is the only state worth caring about in this sublunary sphere. He knew the Sclav proverb, that a woman draws more with one hair than four oxen in a plough; and he was on his guard.
If he was alone at Ballistic Cottage, it was because he wished to be alone. He had only to nod to change his solitude37 of one into a solitude of two, and help himself 52to half the fortune of a millionaire. There was no doubt of it. Mrs. Scorbitt would only have been too happy; but J. T. Maston was not going to be too happy; and it seemed that these two people so admirably adapted for each other—in the widow’s opinion—would never understand each other.
The cottage was a very quiet one. There was a groundfloor and a first-floor. The ground floor had its verandah, its reception-room and dining-room, and the kitchen in a small annexe in the garden. Above them was a bedroom in front, and a workroom facing the garden away from the noise, a buen retiro of the savant and the sage38 within whose walls were solved calculations that would have raised the envy of a Newton or a Laplace.
Different, indeed, was the home of Mrs. Scorbitt, in the fashionable quarter of New Park, with the balconies on its front covered with the fantastic sculpture of American architecture, Gothic and Renascence jumbled39 together; its enormous hall, its picture galleries, its double twisted staircase, its numerous domestics, its stables, its coach-houses, its gardens, its lawns, its trees, its fountains, and the tower which dominated its battlements from the summit of which fluttered in the breeze the blue and gold banner of the Scorbitts.
Three miles divided New Park from Ballistic Cottage. But a telephone-wire united the two habitations, and at the ringing of the call between the mansion40 and the cottage conversation could be instantly established. If the talkers could not see each other, they could hear each other; and no one will be surprised to learn that Evangelina Scorbitt called J. T. Maston much oftener before his telephonic plate than J. T. Maston called Evangelina 53Scorbitt before hers. The mathematician22 would leave his work, not without some disgust, to receive a friendly “good morning,” and he would reply by a growl41 along the wire, which he hoped would soften42 as it went, and then he would return to his problems.
It was on the 3rd of October, after a last and long conference, that J. T. Maston took leave of his colleagues to devote himself to his task. It was the most important investigation43 he had undertaken. He had to calculate the mechanical formulæ required for the advance on the Pole, and the economical working of the coal-beds thereof. He estimated that it would take him rather more than a week to accomplish this mysterious task. It was a complicated and delicate inquiry44, necessitating45 the resolution of a large number of equations dealing46 with mechanics, analytical47 geometry of the three dimensions, and spherical48 trigonometry.
To be free from trouble, it had been arranged that the secretary of the Gun Club should retire to his cottage, and be visited and disturbed by no one. This was a great trial for Mrs. Scorbitt, but she had to resign herself to it. She and President Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, the brisk Bilsby, Colonel Bloomsberry, and Tom Hunter with his wooden legs, had called on Maston in the afternoon to bid him farewell for a time.
“You will succeed, dear Maston,” she said, as she rose to go.
“But be sure you don’t make a mistake,” said Barbicane, with a smile.
“A mistake! He!” exclaimed Mrs. Scorbitt, with horror at the thought.
With a grip of the hand from some, a sigh from one, 54wishes for success, and recommendations not to overwork himself from others, the mathematician saw his friends depart. The door of Ballistic Cottage was shut, and Fire-Fire received orders to open it to no one—not even to the President of the United States of America.
For the first two days of his seclusion49 J. T. Maston thought over the problem without touching50 the chalk. He read over certain works relative to the elements, the earth, its mass, its density51, its volume, its form, its rotation52 on its axis53, and translation round its orbit—elements which were to form the bases of his calculations.
These are the principal, which it is as well the reader should have before him:—
Form of the Earth: an ellipsoid of revolution, with a major diameter of 7926·6 miles, and a minor54 diameter of 7899·6 miles. The difference between the two, owing to the flattening55 of the spheroid at the Poles being 27 miles, or one two-hundred-and-ninety-third of its mean diameter.
Circumference56 of the Earth at the Equator: 24,899 miles, the meridional circumference being 24,856 miles.
Surface of the Earth: 197,000,000 square miles.
Volume of the Earth: 260,000,000,000 cubic miles.
Density of the Earth: five and a half times that of water, the mass being approximately 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
Duration of the Earth’s journey round the Sun: 365 days and a quarter, constituting the solar year, or more exactly 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, thus giving the spheroid an average velocity57 of 66,000 miles an hour.
Rate of the Earth’s rotation at the Equator: 1037·4583 miles per hour.
The following were the units of length, force, time, and 55inclination which J. T. Maston required for his calculations; the mile, the ton, the second, and the angle at the centre which cuts off in any circle an arc equal to the radius58.
It was on the 5th of October, at five o’clock in the afternoon—it is important to know the precise time in a work of such celebrity—that J. T. Maston, after much reflecting, began to write. And, to begin with, he attacked the problem at its base—that is, by the number representing the circumference of the Earth, and one of its great circles, viz. the Equator.
The blackboard was placed in an angle of the room on an easel of polished oak, well in the light of one of the windows which opened on to the garden. Little sticks of chalk were placed on the shelf at the bottom of the board. A sponge to wipe out with was in the calculator’s left hand. His right hand, or rather his hook, was reserved for writing down the figures of his working.
He began by describing the circumference of the terrestrial spheroid. At the Equator the curve of the globe was marked by a plain line representing the front part of the curve, and by a dotted line representing the back half of the curve. The axis was a perpendicular59 line cutting the Equator, and marked N.S.
On the left-hand top corner of the board he wrote the number that used to represent the earth’s circumference in metrical measurement—
40,000,000.
He knew that this was an assumption admitted to be erroneous, but it afforded a good round integer to begin with, and the subsequent rectification60 of his calculations by the inclusion of the missing meters was but child’s-play to so transcendental a mathematician as J. T. Maston.
He was so pre-occupied that he had not noticed the state of the sky—which had changed considerably61 during the afternoon. For the last hour one of those great storms had been gathering62 which affect the organizations of all living things. Livid clouds like whitish wool flocks had accumulated on the grey expanse and hung heavily over the city. The roll of distant thunder was heard. One or two flashes had already rent the atmosphere where the electric tension was at its highest.
J. T. Maston, more and more absorbed, saw nothing, heard nothing.
“Good!” exclaimed the mathematician. “If interrupters can’t get in by the door, they come through the wire! A fine invention for people who wish to be left alone! I’ll see if I can’t turn that current off while I am at work!”
And stepping up to the telephone, he asked,—
“Who wants me?”
“I want a moment’s talk with you,” said a feminine voice.
“And who is speaking?”
“Have you not recognized my voice, dear Mr. Maston? It is Mrs. Scorbitt.”
“Mrs. Scorbitt! She will not leave me a moment’s peace.”
But the last words were prudently64 muttered above the instrument, so that the widow heard them not. And J. T. Maston, seeing that he must say something civil, replied,—
“Ah! It is you, Mrs. Scorbitt?”
“I, dear Mr. Maston!”
“And what does Mrs. Scorbitt want with me?”
“To tell you that there is a storm coming your way.”
“Well, I cannot stop it—”
“No, but I wanted to ask if you had taken care to shut your window—”
Mrs. Scorbitt had hardly ended before a tremendous clap of thunder filled the air. It seemed as though a vast sheet of silk had been torn apart for an infinity of length. The lightning had flashed down over Ballistic Cottage, and, conducted by the telephone-wire, had invaded the mathematician’s room with a brutality65 quite electric.
J. T. Maston, bending over the mouthpiece of the instrument, received the hardest voltaic knock that had ever found the mouth of a philosopher. The flash had run along his metal hook, and spun66 him round like a teetotum. The blackboard he struck with his back was hurled67 down in the corner. And the lightning disappeared out of window.
Stunned68 for a moment—and it was a wonder it was no worse—J. T. Maston slowly rose, and rubbed the different parts of his body to make sure he was not hurt.
Then, having lost none of his coolness, as beseemed the ancient pointer of the Columbiad, he put his room in order, picked up his easel, hoisted69 up his blackboard, gathered up the fragments of chalk scattered70 on the carpet, and resumed his work, which had been so rudely interrupted.
But he noticed that by the fall of the blackboard the figures he had written on the right-hand top corner, which represented in meters the approximate equatorial circumference of the earth, had been partially71 erased72. He stretched his hook up to re-write them when the bell sounded with a feverish73 tinkle74.
“Again!” exclaimed J. T. Maston. And he went to the telephone.
“Who is there?” he asked.
“Mrs. Scorbitt.”
“And what does Mrs. Scorbitt want?”
“Did that horrible flash of lightning strike Ballistic Cottage?”
“I have every reason to believe so.”
“Good Heavens! The lightning—”
“Do not be uneasy, Mrs. Scorbitt.”
“You are not hurt, dear Mr. Maston?”
“Not at all.”
“You are sure you have not been touched?”
“Good evening, dear Mr. Maston.”
“Good evening, dear Mrs. Scorbitt.”
And he returned to his blackboard.
“Confound that excellent woman,” he said; “if she hadn’t called me to the telephone I should not have run the chance of being struck by lightning.”
And to insure being left in quiet, he judiciously76 put the telephone out of action.
Then he resumed his work. From the number on the board he gradually built up a definitive77 formula, and then noting it on the left, he cleared away the working by which he had arrived at it, and launched forth78 into an appalling79 series of figures and signs.
Eight days later the wonderful calculation was finished, and the secretary of the Gun Club triumphantly80 bore off to his colleagues the solution of the problem which they had awaited with a very natural impatience81.
The practical means of arriving at the North Pole to work its coal-mines were mathematically established. Then the company was formed under the title of The North Polar Practical Association. Then the Arctic regions were purchased under the auctioneer’s hammer. And then the shares were offered to the world.
点击收听单词发音
1 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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2 annexed | |
[法] 附加的,附属的 | |
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3 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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4 cerebral | |
adj.脑的,大脑的;有智力的,理智型的 | |
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5 geographical | |
adj.地理的;地区(性)的 | |
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6 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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7 algebra | |
n.代数学 | |
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8 notation | |
n.记号法,表示法,注释;[计算机]记法 | |
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9 exponents | |
n.倡导者( exponent的名词复数 );说明者;指数;能手 | |
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10 radicals | |
n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数 | |
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11 wriggled | |
v.扭动,蠕动,蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 );(使身体某一部位)扭动;耍滑不做,逃避(应做的事等) | |
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12 revelled | |
v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉 | |
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13 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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14 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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15 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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16 zigzags | |
n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路,曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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17 maniacal | |
adj.发疯的 | |
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18 calculus | |
n.微积分;结石 | |
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19 integration | |
n.一体化,联合,结合 | |
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20 infinity | |
n.无限,无穷,大量 | |
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21 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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22 mathematician | |
n.数学家 | |
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23 mathematicians | |
数学家( mathematician的名词复数 ) | |
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24 variant | |
adj.不同的,变异的;n.变体,异体 | |
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25 unintelligible | |
adj.无法了解的,难解的,莫明其妙的 | |
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26 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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27 hurling | |
n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的现在分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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28 projectile | |
n.投射物,发射体;adj.向前开进的;推进的;抛掷的 | |
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29 intoxicated | |
喝醉的,极其兴奋的 | |
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30 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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31 perilously | |
adv.充满危险地,危机四伏地 | |
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32 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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33 entail | |
vt.使承担,使成为必要,需要 | |
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34 abhorred | |
v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 );(厌恶地)回避;拒绝;淘汰 | |
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35 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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36 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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37 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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38 sage | |
n.圣人,哲人;adj.贤明的,明智的 | |
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39 jumbled | |
adj.混乱的;杂乱的 | |
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40 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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41 growl | |
v.(狗等)嗥叫,(炮等)轰鸣;n.嗥叫,轰鸣 | |
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42 soften | |
v.(使)变柔软;(使)变柔和 | |
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43 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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44 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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45 necessitating | |
使…成为必要,需要( necessitate的现在分词 ) | |
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46 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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47 analytical | |
adj.分析的;用分析法的 | |
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48 spherical | |
adj.球形的;球面的 | |
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49 seclusion | |
n.隐遁,隔离 | |
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50 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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51 density | |
n.密集,密度,浓度 | |
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52 rotation | |
n.旋转;循环,轮流 | |
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53 axis | |
n.轴,轴线,中心线;坐标轴,基准线 | |
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54 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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55 flattening | |
n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
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56 circumference | |
n.圆周,周长,圆周线 | |
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57 velocity | |
n.速度,速率 | |
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58 radius | |
n.半径,半径范围;有效航程,范围,界限 | |
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59 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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60 rectification | |
n. 改正, 改订, 矫正 | |
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61 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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62 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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63 tinkling | |
n.丁当作响声 | |
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64 prudently | |
adv. 谨慎地,慎重地 | |
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65 brutality | |
n.野蛮的行为,残忍,野蛮 | |
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66 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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67 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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68 stunned | |
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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69 hoisted | |
把…吊起,升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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71 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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72 erased | |
v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 );抹去;清除 | |
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73 feverish | |
adj.发烧的,狂热的,兴奋的 | |
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74 tinkle | |
vi.叮当作响;n.叮当声 | |
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75 gallantly | |
adv. 漂亮地,勇敢地,献殷勤地 | |
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76 judiciously | |
adv.明断地,明智而审慎地 | |
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77 definitive | |
adj.确切的,权威性的;最后的,决定性的 | |
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78 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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79 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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80 triumphantly | |
ad.得意洋洋地;得胜地;成功地 | |
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81 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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