小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » Three Thousand Dollars » CHAPTER I "Do you know what would happen to him?"
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER I "Do you know what would happen to him?"
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
"Do you know what would happen to him?"
 
open quote
NOW state your problem."
 
The man who was thus addressed shifted uneasily on the long bench which he and his companion bestrode. He was facing the speaker, and though very little light sifted1 through the cobweb-covered window high over their heads, he realized that what there was fell on his features, and he was not sure of his features, or of what effect their expression might have on the other man.
 
"Are you sure we are quite alone in this big, desolate2 place?" he asked.
 
It seemed a needless question. Though it was broad daylight outside and they were in the very heart of the most populated district of lower New York, they could not have been more isolated3 had the surrounding walls been those of some old ruin in the heart of an untraversed desert.
 
A short description of the place will explain this. They were in the forsaken4 old church not far from Avenue A——, a building long given over to desolation, and empty of everything but débris and one or two broken stalls, which for some inscrutable reason—possibly from some latent instinct of inherited reverence—had not yet been converted into junk and sold to the old clothes men by the rapacious5 denizens6 of the surrounding tenements7.
 
Perhaps you remember this building; perhaps some echo of the bygone andromantic has come to you as you passed its decaying walls once dedicated8 to worship, but soulless now and only distinguishable from the five-story tenements pressing up on either side, by its one high window in which some bits of colored glass still lingered amid its twisted and battered9 network. You may remember the building and you may remember the stray glimpses afforded you through the arched opening in the lower story of one of the adjacent tenements, of the churchyard in its rear with its chipped and tumbling head-*stones just showing here and there above the accumulated litter. But it is not probable that you have any recollections of the interior of the church itself, shut as it has been from the eye of the public for nearly a generation. And it is with the interior we have to do—a great hollow vault10 where once altar and priest confronted a reverent11 congregation. There is no altar here now, nor any chancel; hardly any floor. The timbers which held the pews have rotted and fallen away, and what was once a cellar has received all this rubbish and held it piled up in mounds12 which have blocked up most of the windows and robbed the place even of the dim religious light which was once its glory, so that when the man whose words we have just quoted asked if they were quite alone and peered into the dim, belumbered corners, it was but natural for his hardy13, resolute14, and unscrupulous companion to snort with impatience15 and disgust as he answered:
 
"Would I have brought you here if I hadn't known it was the safest place in New York for this kind of talk? Why, man, there may be in this city five men all told, who know the trick of[15] the door I unfastened for you, and not one of them is a cop. You may take my word for that. Besides——"
 
"But the kids? They're everywhere; and if one of them should have followed us——"
 
"Do you know what would happen to him? I'll tell you a story—no, I won't; you're frightened enough already. But there's no kid here, nor any one else but our two selves, unless it be some wandering spook from the congregations laid outside; and spooks don't count. So out with your proposition, Mr. Fellows. I——"

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 sifted 9e99ff7bb86944100bb6d7c842e48f39     
v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 );筛滤;细查;详审
参考例句:
  • She sifted through her papers to find the lost letter. 她仔细在文件中寻找那封丢失的信。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She sifted thistles through her thistle-sifter. 她用蓟筛筛蓟。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 desolate vmizO     
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂
参考例句:
  • The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
  • We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后,我们都觉得万分孤寂。
3 isolated bqmzTd     
adj.与世隔绝的
参考例句:
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
4 Forsaken Forsaken     
adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词
参考例句:
  • He was forsaken by his friends. 他被朋友们背弃了。
  • He has forsaken his wife and children. 他遗弃了他的妻子和孩子。
5 rapacious hAzzh     
adj.贪婪的,强夺的
参考例句:
  • He had a rapacious appetite for bird's nest soup.他吃燕窝汤吃个没够。
  • Rapacious soldiers looted the houses in the defeated city.贪婪的士兵洗劫了被打败的城市。
6 denizens b504bf59e564ac3f33d0d2f4de63071b     
n.居民,住户( denizen的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • polar bears, denizens of the frozen north 北极熊,在冰天雪地的北方生活的动物
  • At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn. 到了后来,连这些沼泽国的居民们也不见了。 来自辞典例句
7 tenements 307ebb75cdd759d238f5844ec35f9e27     
n.房屋,住户,租房子( tenement的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Here were crumbling tenements, squalid courtyards and stinking alleys. 随处可见破烂的住房、肮脏的庭院和臭气熏天的小胡同。 来自辞典例句
  • The tenements are in a poor section of the city. 共同住宅是在城中较贫苦的区域里。 来自辞典例句
8 dedicated duHzy2     
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的
参考例句:
  • He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
  • His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。
9 battered NyezEM     
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损
参考例句:
  • He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
  • The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。
10 vault 3K3zW     
n.拱形圆顶,地窖,地下室
参考例句:
  • The vault of this cathedral is very high.这座天主教堂的拱顶非常高。
  • The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。
11 reverent IWNxP     
adj.恭敬的,虔诚的
参考例句:
  • He gave reverent attention to the teacher.他恭敬地听老师讲课。
  • She said the word artist with a gentle,understanding,reverent smile.她说作家一词时面带高雅,理解和虔诚的微笑。
12 mounds dd943890a7780b264a2a6c1fa8d084a3     
土堆,土丘( mound的名词复数 ); 一大堆
参考例句:
  • We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
  • Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊,这就是同墓,”——我想他要说的一定是公墓,“看到那些土墩了吗?
13 hardy EenxM     
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的
参考例句:
  • The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
  • He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。
14 resolute 2sCyu     
adj.坚决的,果敢的
参考例句:
  • He was resolute in carrying out his plan.他坚决地实行他的计划。
  • The Egyptians offered resolute resistance to the aggressors.埃及人对侵略者作出坚决的反抗。
15 impatience OaOxC     
n.不耐烦,急躁
参考例句:
  • He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢,他显得不耐烦。
  • He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533