THREE Dog Ways 5

5
THE TIME: FORTY-SIX years later. The place: the spot where Granddad, Father, and Mother hadfought a heroic battle against a pack of dogs led by the three from our family – Blackie, Red, andGreen. On one stormy night lightning split open a mass grave where Communists, Nationalists,commoners, Japanese, and puppet troops were buried – a site called All-Souls Grave – spreadingrotting bones over a ten-yard area, where they were washed clean by the rain and turned a sombrewhite. I was home on summer holiday at the time, and when I heard that All-Souls Grave hadopened up I rushed over to see for myself, our blue-coated little dog following hard on my heels.
It was still drizzling¹, and the dog darted² in front of me, his paws splashing loudly in the muddypuddles. It wasn’t long before we were in the midst of bones that had been sent flying withexplosive force, and Blue ran up to sniff³ them, quickly shaking his head to show that they didn’tinterest him.
People stood fearfully around the exposed graveyard⁴. I squeezed in among them until I couldsee the skeletons at the bottom of the pit, piles of bones exposed to the sun for the first time in allthose years. I doubt that even the provincial⁵ party secretary could have told which of thembelonged to Communists, which to Nationalists, which to Japanese soldiers, which to puppetsoldiers, and which to civilians⁶. The skulls⁸ all had the exact same shape, and all had been throwninto the same heap. The scattered⁹ raindrops beat a desolate¹⁰ rhythm on the white bones, forcefuland fiendish. Skeletons lay on their backs, nearly submerged in the icy water, like fermentingsorghum wine that had been stored up for years.
The villagers picked up the bones that had been scattered around the area and tossed them backin. A momentary¹² dizziness came over me, and when it passed I took another look, discoveringthe skulls of dozens of dogs mixed in with the human heads in the grave. The bottom of the pitwas a shallow blur¹³ of white, a sort of code revealing that the history of dogs and the history ofmen are intertwined. I helped pick up the scattered bones, but put on a pair of white gloves just tobe on the safe side. Noticing the hateful stares of the villagers, I quickly took them off and stuffedthem into my pants pockets, then walked down the bone-strewn road all the way to the edge ofthe sorghum¹¹ field, a good hundred yards away.
There in the short green grass, still dripping with water, lay the curved dome¹⁴ of a human skull⁷.
The flat, broad forehead showed that it hadn’t belonged to any ordinary person. I picked it upwith three fingers and had started running back with it when I spotted¹⁵ another muted gleam ofwhite in the grass not far away. This one was a long, narrow skull with several sharp teeth still inits opened mouth; I knew it was one I didn’t have to pick up, for it belonged to the same speciesas the little blue-coated friend tagging along behind me. Maybe it had been a wolf. All I knew forsure was that it had been blown over here by the explosive force, for the specks¹⁶ of dirt on itsfreshly cleaned surface proved it had lain in the mass grave for decades. I picked it up anyway.
The villagers were tossing bones stolidly¹⁷ into the grave, some cracking and splitting when theyhit. I tossed in the fragment of the human skull. But when it came to the large canine¹⁸ skull Ihesitated. ‘Toss it in,’ an old man said; ‘the dogs back then were as good as humans.’ So I tossedit into the open pit. Once All-Souls Grave had been filled in, it looked just as it had before thelightning hit. In order to calm the frightened souls of the dead, Mother burned a stack of yellowspirit money at the head of the grave.
After helping¹⁹ fill in the pit, I stayed with her to look down at this resting place of a thousandbodies, and kowtowed three times.
‘It’s been forty-six years,’ Mother said. ‘I was fifteen then.’

1 drizzling   

下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The rain has almost stopped, it's just drizzling now. 雨几乎停了，现在只是在下毛毛雨。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。

2 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

4 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

5 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

6 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

7 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

8 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

9 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

10 desolate   

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。

11 sorghum   

n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西

参考例句：

• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
• They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。

12 momentary   

adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的

参考例句：

• We are in momentary expectation of the arrival of you.我们无时无刻不在盼望你的到来。
• I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。

13 blur   

n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚

参考例句：

• The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
• If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了，图像就会变得模糊不清。

14 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

15 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

16 specks   

n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Minutes later Brown spotted two specks in the ocean. 几分钟后布朗发现海洋中有两个小点。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• Do you ever seem to see specks in front of your eyes? 你眼睛前面曾似乎看见过小点吗？ 来自辞典例句

17 stolidly   

adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地

参考例句：

• Too often people sat stolidly watching the noisy little fiddler. 人们往往不动声色地坐在那里，瞧着这位瘦小的提琴手闹腾一番。 来自辞典例句
• He dropped into a chair and sat looking stolidly at the floor. 他坐在椅子上，两眼呆呆地望着地板。 来自辞典例句

18 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。