[10]Miss Janet, armed with a stump4 of pencil and the back of an envelope, ready to jot5 down suggestions, swayed to and fro in the rocking-chair with her lips drawn6 into a bunch and the particular little pucker7 between her eyebrows8 that always came when she was trying to concentrate her thoughts.
"It really is a difficulty, Janet!" said Miss Kingsley. "A suitable head girl makes all the difference to a school, and if we happen to choose the wrong one it may completely spoil the tone. If only Lottie Carson or Helen Stanley had stayed on! Or even Enid Jones or Stella Hardy9!"
"It's hard luck to lose all our best senior girls at once!" agreed Miss Janet, biting her stump of pencil abstractedly. "But if they're gone, they're gone."
"Of course!" Miss Kingsley's tone savoured slightly of impatience10. "And the urgent matter is to supply their places. It's like making bricks without straw. Haven't you any suggestions? I do wish you'd stop rocking, it worries me to hear your chair creak!"
Miss Janet, seasoned by thirty-five years' acquaintance with her sister's nervous temperament12, rose and walked to the window, where she stood looking out over the sunlit tennis court to the bank of exotic shrubs13 that half hid the blue line of the sea. There was a moment's pause, then she said:
Miss Kingsley reached for a certain black-backed [11]shiny exercise-book and opened it. The entries were in her own neat hand.
"There will only be eight girls in the Sixth Form this term," she volunteered. "Taking them in alphabetical16 order they are: Nellie Appleby, Claire Bardsley, Claudia Castleton, Vivien Forrester, Lorraine Forrester, Audrey Roberts, Dorothy Skipton, and Patricia Sullivan."
Miss Janet smiled.
"First of all you may cross off the last," she suggested.
"Decidedly. Patsie Sullivan as head girl would be about as suitable as—as——"
"It's unthinkable! Most of the others are soon weeded out too. Nellie Appleby and Claire Bardsley—good stodgy20 girls, but quite unfit for leadership—Claudia Castleton, a new girl, so of course not eligible15; Audrey Roberts—could you imagine silly little Audrey in any post of trust? It really only leaves us the choice between Lorraine Forrester, Vivien Forrester, and Dorothy Skipton."
"In last term's exams these three were fairly equal," commented Miss Janet.
"So equal that I shan't take the results of the exams into consideration. It must be a question of which girl will make the most efficient head. Each has her points and her drawbacks. Take Vivien, now: she's smart and capable, and would revel21 in exercising authority."
[12]"Too much so. I should be sorry for the school with anyone so domineering as Vivien Forrester at the head of affairs. She's too forward altogether, and inclined to argue and pit her opinion against that of the mistresses. If she were singled out for special office, I believe she'd grow insufferable. Dorothy Skipton, with all her faults, would be preferable to Vivien."
"And Dorothy has faults—very big ones too!" sighed Miss Kingsley. "I never can consider Dorothy to be absolutely straight and square. I've several times caught her cheating or copying, and she's not above telling a fib if she's in a tight place. She's clever, undoubtedly22, and decidedly popular, and in that lies the greatest danger, for a popular head girl whose moral attitude is not of the very highest might ruin the tone of the school in a single term. I'm afraid Dorothy is too risky23 an experiment."
"Then that leaves only Lorraine Forrester?"
"Yes—Lorraine."
Both the sisters paused, with the same look of puzzled doubt on their faces.
"She's a child I never seem to have got to know thoroughly," said Miss Janet. "I must say I've always found her perfectly24 square and a plodding25 worker. She has given very little trouble in class."
"Not so brilliant, perhaps, as Vivien, but, on the whole, more satisfactory," commented Miss Kingsley. "I agree with you that we have never really got to know Lorraine. She's a very reserved girl, and hasn't pushed herself forward, but there's [13]great strength of character in her, in my opinion. Those big brown eyes look in earnest over anything she's doing. She's never made a bid for popularity, like Dorothy Skipton, but I've seen her coaching the younger ones at hockey and cricket. She's inclined to go about in a dream, but I believe if she were placed in a post of authority she'd wake up. I really think we could depend on Lorraine. The first quality in a head girl is that she must be conscientious26, and she certainly comes out top in that respect."
"If it were put to the general vote——" began Miss Janet, but her sister snapped her up.
"I don't believe in allowing the girls a choice! The popular idol27 of the school isn't always the one with the best influence. I've quite decided17, Janet! Lorraine is far and away the most suitable among the new Sixth. I shall send for her the day before term opens and have a private talk with her. Unless I'm very much mistaken in the girl, we shan't be disappointed."
"I believe you are right!" agreed Miss Janet, sinking into the easy-chair and resuming her rocking, without further remonstrance28 from her now satisfied sister.
Miss Kingsley and Miss Janet had kept school together at The Gables for the last twelve years. It was not a very large school, but then Porthkeverne was not a very large place—only a little quaint11, old-fashioned seaside town, built down the sloping cliffs of a Cornish cove29, with its back to the heather-clad moors30 and its face to the broad [14]Atlantic. Whether you appreciated Porthkeverne or not was entirely31 a matter of temperament. Strangers, whose pleasure in a summer holiday depended on pier32, esplanade, band, and cheap amusements, found it insufferably dull, and left for the more flaring33 gaieties of St. Jude's or Trewenlock Head. Porthkeverne was glad to get rid of them; it did not cater34 for such as these. But there were others for whom the little town had a peculiar35 fascination36; its quaint, irregular houses and grey roofs, its narrow streets of steep steps, its archways with glimpses of the sea, its picturesque37 harbour and red-sailed fishing-boats, its exotic shrubs and early flowers, its yellow sands and great pinnacled38 crags, the softness of the west wind and the perpetual dull roll of the Atlantic breakers cast a spell over certain natures and compelled them to remain. Visitors would return to it again and again, and some of them, who were free to live where they chose, would take houses and settle down as residents. Over literary and artistic39 people Porthkeverne seemed to exercise a special charm. Authors and artists had collected there, and, partly attracted by the place and partly by each other's society, had formed an intellectual colony that centred round the Arts Club in the old Guildhall down by the harbour.
Marine40 painters, and those who sought to immortalize peasant life on their canvases, found ample subjects among the crags and coves41 and sea-weed-covered rocks where the blue water lapped softly, or the white waves came foaming42 [15]and churning up; and the fisher-folk, bronzed, blue-eyed, and straight of limb, were models to set the heart of a Millet43 or a Wilkie on the thrill. To authors the quiet place, with its miles of moorland lying inland from the cliffs, was a ripe field for literary work. Novelists worked out their plots undisturbed by the hooting44 of motor horns or the whizzing of tram-cars; scientific men, who had spent years of study over the treasures of the British Museum or Kew, came there to sort out their materials for books of reference, and to have leisure for making certain experiments; writers of travels reviewed their notes, and archaeologists scheduled the antiquities45 of the neighbourhood. To this literary and artistic brotherhood46 Porthkeverne offered the calm of the country combined with the mental stimulus47 of intellectual comradeship, and though, in the inevitable48 march of events, its individual members often changed, the colony remained and flourished, and sent forth49 work of a character that was of value to the world of art and letters.
Miss Kingsley and her sister, Miss Janet, themselves women of strong literary tastes, had come to the town with the rising tide of the Arts Settlement, and had established their school chiefly to meet the needs of the new colony. Most of their pupils were the children of painters and authors, though a few of the gentry50 and professional men of the district also took advantage of such a good local opportunity to educate their daughters. The Gables was a pleasant old-fashioned white house, standing51 [16]on a narrow terrace of the cliff, with a high rock behind to screen it from the wind, and a view of grey roof-tops leading down to a peep of the harbour. In the sheltered garden grew, according to their season, white arum lilies and rosy52 tamarisk, aloes and myrtle and oleander and other beautiful half-tropical shrubs, while geraniums, carnations and humbler flowers bloomed in profusion53. There was a veranda54 covered with a wistaria, and most of the class-room windows were framed with sweet-smelling creepers. Long afterwards, when the pupils looked back to their time at The Gables, they would always connect certain lessons with the strong scent55 of honeysuckle, or the faint odour of tea roses, for the flowers seemed just as much a part of the general culture of the school as were the Botticelli pictures on the library walls, or the weekly recitals56 of modern music.
This garden, Miss Kingsley's fetish and the joy of Miss Janet's heart, was blooming its best on the particular September afternoon when the autumn term began. Soon after two o'clock its green lawn and shady paths began to fill up with girls. They came at first in twos and threes, and then in larger numbers till the place seemed full of them. There were only about forty altogether, but it was seven weeks since most of them had met one another, and the babel of tongues that ensued would have suggested a hundred children at the least. Six long-legged juniors occupied the garden-seat, with as many more hanging over the back; a dozen of the smaller fry squatted57 on the grass, some [17]frivolous intermediates cackled over jokes in the corner by the bay tree, and a few enterprising spirits had mounted the wall to watch for new-comers.
"Here's Aileen!"
"And Grace!"
"With her little sister!"
"And Effie after all, though she wasn't sure she'd be back in time!"
"Good old Effie! I'm glad she's come!"
"Where's Marcia, by the by?"
"Gone to the High School at St. Jude's."
"Poor wretch58, I'm sorry for her! What a traipse to go by train every morning! Why, here's Doreen, and she's cut her hair short! Oh, I say! Doreen, old sport, I hardly knew you! What a kid you look!"
Doreen shook back her shock of crisp brown hair, conscious of the pleasing fact that it curled at the ends.
"Kid, indeed!" she replied, with an indignant thrill in her voice. "I was thirteen last week!"
"Shouldn't have thought it," twittered Enid. "I was just going to suggest a pair of socks and ankle-band shoes. There's a new teacher for the kindergarten, if that interests you. There, don't get raggy! Perhaps you'll find yourself in the Sixth after all!"
"No, thank you! I've no yearnings to be in the Oxford59 Room. I suppose we shall all be going up a form, though? Who are the monitresses this year? Have you heard?"
Enid slipped down from her post on the wall, [18]and locking her arm in Doreen's strolled with her towards the house.
"Not a word," she replied. "Until the Great Panjandrum reads out the lists we're utterly60 and entirely in the dark. Of course, most of those who were in the Fifth last year will have gone up into the Sixth, except, perhaps, Beryl Woodhouse and Moira Stanning, but I've been talking it over with Vera and Pansy, and they both agree it's an absolute toss-up who's to be head girl."
"Why, how extraordinary! I should have said there wasn't any doubt about it. There's only one girl who's in the least likely."
"Which one?"
"Vivien, of course!"
"It's not 'of course'. I, for one, heartily62 hope she won't get it. Vivien Forrester, as she is, is quite bad enough, but Vivien Forrester as head of the school would be the absolute limit."
"She'll be chosen all the same, you'll see. There really isn't anybody else. When Lily Anderson left last term, she certainly thought Vivien was going to be her successor. She showed her how to keep all the books of the Clubs and Guilds63, so that she could slide into the work easily. And Vivien's such a sport at hockey, too!"
"Um! I don't know. She has such a jolly good opinion of her own cleverness, but the question is whether Miss Kingsley exactly shares it or not. Hello! Hold me up! Here comes the Duchess herself, as large as life!"
[19]The girl who advanced briskly from the rhododendron walk would have been good looking, but she was spoilt by a rather rabbity mouth and large teeth. Her complexion64 was clear, her brown eyes were bright, and her auburn hair was abundant. She held herself with the confidence of one who has so far found life an unqualified success. In her wake followed a little train of courtiers: Sybil Snow, Nellie Appleby, Mona Parker, Phœbe Gibson, and Adelaide Brookfield, all eager sycophants65 craving66 her favour, and doing their utmost to ingratiate themselves.
"I tell you I can't promise anything!" Vivien was saying. "Naturally the head of the school has the power to appoint any secretaries she likes, but it'll be time enough to decide these things afterwards. I wish you wouldn't bother me so! There'll be a proper Committee meeting on Friday to arrange the Societies, and you must just wait till then."
"But if anybody speaks to you about it in the meantime, you'll remember it's the Dramatic I'm keenest on?" urged Phœbe plaintively67.
"I tell you again, I can't promise—but—well, I'll do my best for you, at any rate."
"What's this about the Dramatic?" broke in Dorothy Skipton, who, arm in arm with Patsie Sullivan, had joined the group. "Do you mean to say you're arranging the Societies beforehand? Really, Vivien Forrester, of all cool cheek I call this the very limit! Who said you were going to be head girl, I should like to know?"
"Nobody said so!" she retorted. "Certainly I didn't, though I dare say I've as good a chance as anybody else. I don't see why you need catch me up like this."
"Little bit tall to be promising69 posts till you're certain you're top dog!" laughed Patsie. "Old Dorothy may be the lucker instead of you. Me? Rather not! I can hardly flatter myself after my career last term that I'd be chosen as pattern pupil and pitchforked into the post of honour to set a good example to the rest of the school. Do I look the part, now?"
The others, surveying Patsie's humorous face and twinkling grey eyes, broke into a universal chuckle.
"Well, it's hardly your line, exactly!" admitted Vivien. "Why, if you confiscated70 surreptitious sweets from the kids, you'd probably eat them before their indignant faces, and give them a tip on how to hide them more carefully in future. I know you!"
"Joking apart, though," said Dorothy, "I suppose somebody'll be made head of this school. Hasn't any one got the least inkling or hint? Lorraine! Lorraine Forrester, come here! We're talking about who's to be head girl. It's a burning question, isn't it? Do you know anything?"
The schoolmate addressed as Lorraine closed with a slam the book she was reading, and advanced somewhat unwillingly71. She was a slim, pretty girl of sixteen, with the general effect of an [21]autumn woodland. Everything about her seemed golden brown; her hazel eyes, her creamy complexion, the sunny glint in her rich, dark hair were emphasized by the brown dress she was wearing and the orange carnations pinned in her belt. At the first glance there was a certain likeness72 to Vivien, for the girls were cousins, yet everything about Lorraine seemed of a slightly superior quality, as if she had been turned out of a finer mould. She flushed as she evaded73 Dorothy's question.
"I suppose we shall all know when Miss Kingsley tells us," she answered.
"We'd be duffers if we didn't!" mocked Patsie. "In my opinion Dorothy'll have an uncommonly74 good innings, and I'm getting ready to congratulate her."
"No, no! It'll be Vivien!" declared Mona.
"Yes, Vivien!" agreed Sybil and Phœbe together.
But at that moment the loud clanging of the bell put a stop to the conversation, and the girls turned in a body, and hurried into the house.
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1
carnations
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| n.麝香石竹，康乃馨( carnation的名词复数 ) | |
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ripply
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| 波纹状的，潺潺声的 | |
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legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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jot
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| n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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pucker
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| v.撅起，使起皱；n.（衣服上的）皱纹，褶子 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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eligibles
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| 合格者（eligible的复数形式） | |
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eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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alphabetical
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| adj.字母（表）的，依字母顺序的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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stodgy
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| adj.易饱的；笨重的；滞涩的；古板的 | |
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revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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cater
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| vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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pinnacled
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| 小尖塔般耸立的，顶处的 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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41
coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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42
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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millet
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| n.小米，谷子 | |
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hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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45
antiquities
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| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
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46
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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47
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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48
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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49
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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50
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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51
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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52
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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54
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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56
recitals
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| n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 )；独奏会；小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等；一系列事件等的详述 | |
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57
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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58
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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60
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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61
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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guilds
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| 行会，同业公会，协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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sycophants
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| n.谄媚者，拍马屁者( sycophant的名词复数 ) | |
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66
craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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67
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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68
Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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69
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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70
confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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72
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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73
evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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