I
THOUGH he saw them twice daily, though he knew and amply discussed every detail of their expenditures1, yet for weeks together Babbitt was no more conscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat-sleeves.
The admiration2 of Kenneth Escott made him aware of Verona.
She had become secretary to Mr. Gruensberg of the Gruensberg Leather Company; she did her work with the thoroughness of a mind which reveres4 details and never quite understands them; but she was one of the people who give an agitating5 impression of being on the point of doing something desperate — of leaving a job or a husband — without ever doing it. Babbitt was so hopeful about Escott’s hesitant ardors that he became the playful parent. When he returned from the Elks7 he peered coyly into the living-room and gurgled, “Has our Kenny been here to-night?” He never credited Verona’s protest, “Why, Ken3 and I are just good friends, and we only talk about Ideas. I won’t have all this sentimental9 nonsense, that would spoil everything.”
It was Ted8 who most worried Babbitt.
With conditions in Latin and English but with a triumphant10 record in manual training, basket-ball, and the organization of dances, Ted was struggling through his Senior year in the East Side High School. At home he was interested only when he was asked to trace some subtle ill in the ignition system of the car. He repeated to his tut-tutting father that he did not wish to go to college or law-school, and Babbitt was equally disturbed by this “shiftlessness” and by Ted’s relations with Eunice Littlefield, next door.
Though she was the daughter of Howard Littlefield, that wrought-iron fact-mill, that horse-faced priest of private ownership, Eunice was a midge in the sun. She danced into the house, she flung herself into Babbitt’s lap when he was reading, she crumpled11 his paper, and laughed at him when he adequately explained that he hated a crumpled newspaper as he hated a broken sales-contract. She was seventeen now. Her ambition was to be a cinema actress. She did not merely attend the showing of every “feature film;” she also read the motion-picture magazines, those extraordinary symptoms of the Age of Pep-monthlies and weeklies gorgeously illustrated12 with portraits of young women who had recently been manicure girls, not very skilful13 manicure girls, and who, unless their every grimace14 had been arranged by a director, could not have acted in the Easter cantata15 of the Central Methodist Church; magazines reporting, quite seriously, in “interviews” plastered with pictures of riding-breeches and California bungalows16, the views on sculpture and international politics of blankly beautiful, suspiciously beautiful young men; outlining the plots of films about pure prostitutes and kind-hearted train-robbers; and giving directions for making bootblacks into Celebrated17 Scenario18 Authors overnight.
These authorities Eunice studied. She could, she frequently did, tell whether it was in November or December, 1905, that Mack Harker? the renowned19 screen cowpuncher and badman, began his public career. as chorus man in “Oh, You Naughty Girlie.” On the wall of her room, her father reported, she had pinned up twenty-one photographs of actors. But the signed portrait of the most graceful20 of the movie heroes she carried in her young bosom21.
Babbitt was bewildered by this worship of new gods, and he suspected that Eunice smoked cigarettes. He smelled the cloying22 reek23 from up-stairs, and heard her giggling24 with Ted. He never inquired. The agreeable child dismayed him. Her thin and charming face was sharpened by bobbed hair; her skirts were short, her stockings were rolled, and, as she flew after Ted, above the caressing25 silk were glimpses of soft knees which made Babbitt uneasy, and wretched that she should consider him old. Sometimes, in the veiled life of his dreams, when the fairy child came running to him she took on the semblance26 of Eunice Littlefield.
Ted was motor-mad as Eunice was movie-mad.
A thousand sarcastic27 refusals did not check his teasing for a car of his own. However lax he might be about early rising and the prosody28 of Vergil, he was tireless in tinkering. With three other boys he bought a rheumatic Ford29 chassis30, built an amazing racer-body out of tin and pine, went skidding31 round corners in the perilous32 craft, and sold it at a profit. Babbitt gave him a motor-cycle, and every Saturday afternoon, with seven sandwiches and a bottle of Coca–Cola in his pockets, and Eunice perched eerily33 on the rumble34 seat, he went roaring off to distant towns.
Usually Eunice and he were merely neighborhood chums, and quarreled with a wholesome35 and violent lack of delicacy36; but now and then, after the color and scent37 of a dance, they were silent together and a little furtive38, and Babbitt was worried.
Babbitt was an average father. He was affectionate, bullying39, opinionated, ignorant, and rather wistful. Like most parents, he enjoyed the game of waiting till the victim was clearly wrong, then virtuously40 pouncing41. He justified42 himself by croaking43, “Well, Ted’s mother spoils him. Got to be somebody who tells him what’s what, and me, I’m elected the goat. Because I try to bring him up to be a real, decent, human being and not one of these sapheads and lounge-lizards, of course they all call me a grouch44!”
Throughout, with the eternal human genius for arriving by the worst possible routes at surprisingly tolerable goals, Babbitt loved his son and warmed to his companionship and would have sacrificed everything for him — if he could have been sure of proper credit.
II
Ted was planning a party for his set in the Senior Class.
Babbitt meant to be helpful and jolly about it. From his memory of high-school pleasures back in Catawba he suggested the nicest games: Going to Boston, and charades45 with stew-pans for helmets, and word-games in which you were an Adjective or a Quality. When he was most enthusiastic he discovered that they weren’t paying attention; they were only tolerating him. As for the party, it was as fixed46 and standardized47 as a Union Club Hop6. There was to be dancing in the living-room, a noble collation48 in the dining-room, and in the hall two tables of bridge for what Ted called “the poor old dumb-bells that you can’t get to dance hardly more ‘n half the time.”
Every breakfast was monopolized49 by conferences on the affair. No one listened to Babbitt’s bulletins about the February weather or to his throat-clearing comments on the headlines. He said furiously, “If I may be PERMITTED to interrupt your engrossing50 private CONVERSATION— Juh hear what I SAID?”
“Oh, don’t be a spoiled baby! Ted and I have just as much right to talk as you have!” flared51 Mrs. Babbitt.
On the night of the party he was permitted to look on, when he was not helping52 Matilda with the Vecchia ice cream and the petits fours. He was deeply disquieted53. Eight years ago, when Verona had given a high-school party, the children had been featureless gabies. Now they were men and women of the world, very supercilious54 men and women; the boys condescended55 to Babbitt, they wore evening-clothes, and with hauteur56 they accepted cigarettes from silver cases. Babbitt had heard stories of what the Athletic57 Club called “goings on” at young parties; of girls “parking” their corsets in the dressing-room, of “cuddling” and “petting,” and a presumable increase in what was known as Immorality58. To-night he believed the stories. These children seemed bold to him, and cold. The girls wore misty59 chiffon, coral velvet60, or cloth of gold, and around their dipping bobbed hair were shining wreaths. He had it, upon urgent and secret inquiry61, that no corsets were known to be parked upstairs; but certainly these eager bodies were not stiff with steel. Their stockings were of lustrous62 silk, their slippers63 costly64 and unnatural65, their lips carmined and their eyebrows66 penciled. They danced cheek to cheek with the boys, and Babbitt sickened with apprehension67 and unconscious envy.
Worst of them all was Eunice Littlefield, and maddest of all the boys was Ted. Eunice was a flying demon68. She slid the length of the room; her tender shoulders swayed; her feet were deft69 as a weaver’s shuttle; she laughed, and enticed70 Babbitt to dance with her.
Then he discovered the annex71 to the party.
The boys and girls disappeared occasionally, and he remembered rumors72 of their drinking together from hip-pocket flasks73. He tiptoed round the house, and in each of the dozen cars waiting in the street he saw the points of light from cigarettes, from each of them heard high giggles74. He wanted to denounce them but (standing75 in the snow, peering round the dark corner) he did not dare. He tried to be tactful. When he had returned to the front hall he coaxed76 the boys, “Say, if any of you fellows are thirsty, there’s some dandy ginger77 ale.”
“Oh! Thanks!” they condescended.
He sought his wife, in the pantry, and exploded, “I’d like to go in there and throw some of those young pups out of the house! They talk down to me like I was the butler! I’d like to —”
“I know,” she sighed; “only everybody says, all the mothers tell me, unless you stand for them, if you get angry because they go out to their cars to have a drink, they won’t come to your house any more, and we wouldn’t want Ted left out of things, would we?”
He announced that he would be enchanted78 to have Ted left out of things, and hurried in to be polite, lest Ted be left out of things.
But, he resolved, if he found that the boys were drinking, he would — well, he’d “hand ’em something that would surprise ’em.” While he was trying to be agreeable to large-shouldered young bullies79 he was earnestly sniffing80 at them Twice he caught the reek of prohibition-time whisky, but then, it was only twice —
Dr. Howard Littlefield lumbered81 in.
He had come, in a mood of solemn parental82 patronage83, to look on. Ted and Eunice were dancing, moving together like one body. Littlefield gasped84. He called Eunice. There was a whispered duologue, and Littlefield explained to Babbitt that Eunice’s mother had a headache and needed her. She went off in tears. Babbitt looked after them furiously. “That little devil! Getting Ted into trouble! And Littlefield, the conceited85 old gas-bag, acting86 like it was Ted that was the bad influence!”
Later he smelled whisky on Ted’s breath.
After the civil farewell to the guests, the row was terrific, a thorough Family Scene, like an avalanche87, devastating88 and without reticences. Babbitt thundered, Mrs. Babbitt wept, Ted was unconvincingly defiant89, and Verona in confusion as to whose side she was taking.
For several months there was coolness between the Babbitts and the Littlefields, each family sheltering their lamb from the wolf-cub next door. Babbitt and Littlefield still spoke90 in pontifical91 periods about motors and the senate, but they kept bleakly92 away from mention of their families. Whenever Eunice came to the house she discussed with pleasant intimacy93 the fact that she had been forbidden to come to the house; and Babbitt tried, with no success whatever, to be fatherly and advisory94 with her.
III
“Gosh all fishhooks!” Ted wailed95 to Eunice, as they wolfed hot chocolate, lumps of nougat, and an assortment96 of glace nuts, in the mosaic97 splendor98 of the Royal Drug Store, “it gets me why Dad doesn’t just pass out from being so poky. Every evening he sits there, about half-asleep, and if Rone or I say, ‘Oh, come on, let’s do something,’ he doesn’t even take the trouble to think about it. He just yawns and says, ‘Naw, this suits me right here.’ He doesn’t know there’s any fun going on anywhere. I suppose he must do some thinking, same as you and I do, but gosh, there’s no way of telling it. I don’t believe that outside of the office and playing a little bum99 golf on Saturday he knows there’s anything in the world to do except just keep sitting there-sitting there every night — not wanting to go anywhere — not wanting to do anything — thinking us kids are crazy — sitting there — Lord!”
IV
If he was frightened by Ted’s slackness, Babbitt was not sufficiently100 frightened by Verona. She was too safe. She lived too much in the neat little airless room of her mind. Kenneth Escott and she were always under foot. When they were not at home, conducting their cautiously radical101 courtship over sheets of statistics, they were trudging102 off to lectures by authors and Hindu philosophers and Swedish lieutenants103.
“Gosh,” Babbitt wailed to his wife, as they walked home from the Fogartys’ bridge-party, “it gets me how Rone and that fellow can be so poky. They sit there night after night, whenever he isn’t working, and they don’t know there’s any fun in the world. All talk and discussion — Lord! Sitting there — sitting there — night after night — not wanting to do anything — thinking I’m crazy because I like to go out and play a fist of cards — sitting there — gosh!”
Then round the swimmer, bored by struggling through the perpetual surf of family life, new combers swelled104.
V
Babbitt’s father — and mother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Henry T. Thompson, rented their old house in the Bellevue district and moved to the Hotel Hatton, that glorified105 boarding-house filled with widows, red-plush furniture, and the sound of ice-water pitchers106. They were lonely there, and every other Sunday evening the Babbitts had to dine with them, on fricasseed chicken, discouraged celery, and cornstarch ice cream, and afterward108 sit, polite and restrained, in the hotel lounge, while a young woman violinist played songs from the German via Broadway.
Then Babbitt’s own mother came down from Catawba to spend three weeks.
She was a kind woman and magnificently uncomprehending. She congratulated the convention-defying Verona on being a “nice, loyal home-body without all these Ideas that so many girls seem to have nowadays;” and when Ted filled the differential with grease, out of pure love of mechanics and filthiness109, she rejoiced that he was “so handy around the house — and helping his father and all, and not going out with the girls all the time and trying to pretend he was a society fellow.”
Babbitt loved his mother, and sometimes he rather liked her, but he was annoyed by her Christian110 Patience, and he was reduced to pulpiness111 when she discoursed112 about a quite mythical113 hero called “Your Father”:
“You won’t remember it, Georgie, you were such a little fellow at the time — my, I remember just how you looked that day, with your goldy brown curls and your lace collar, you always were such a dainty child, and kind of puny114 and sickly, and you loved pretty things so much and the red tassels115 on your little bootees and all — and Your Father was taking us to church and a man stopped us and said ‘Major’— so many of the neighbors used to call Your Father ‘Major;’ of course he was only a private in The War but everybody knew that was because of the jealousy116 of his captain and he ought to have been a high-ranking officer, he had that natural ability to command that so very, very few men have — and this man came out into the road and held up his hand and stopped the buggy and said, ‘Major,’ he said, ‘there’s a lot of the folks around here that have decided117 to support Colonel Scanell for congress, and we want you to join us. Meeting people the way you do in the store, you could help us a lot.’
“Well, Your Father just looked at him and said, ‘I certainly shall do nothing of the sort. I don’t like his politics,’ he said. Well, the man — Captain Smith they used to call him, and heaven only knows why, because he hadn’t the shadow or vestige118 of a right to be called ‘Captain’ or any other title — this Captain Smith said, ‘We’ll make it hot for you if you don’t stick by your friends, Major.’ Well, you know how Your Father was, and this Smith knew it too; he knew what a Real Man he was, and he knew Your Father knew the political situation from A to Z, and he ought to have seen that here was one man he couldn’t impose on, but he went on trying to and hinting and trying till Your Father spoke up and said to him, ‘Captain Smith,’ he said, ‘I have a reputation around these parts for being one who is amply qualified119 to mind his own business and let other folks mind theirs!’ and with that he drove on and left the fellow standing there in the road like a bump on a log!”
Babbitt was most exasperated120 when she revealed his boyhood to the children. He had, it seemed, been fond of barley-sugar; had worn the “loveliest little pink bow in his curls” and corrupted121 his own name to “Goo-goo.” He heard (though he did not officially hear) Ted admonishing122 Tinka, “Come on now, kid; stick the lovely pink bow in your curls and beat it down to breakfast, or Goo-goo will jaw123 your head off.”
Babbitt’s half-brother, Martin, with his wife and youngest baby, came down from Catawba for two days. Martin bred cattle and ran the dusty general-store. He was proud of being a freeborn independent American of the good old Yankee stock; he was proud of being honest, blunt, ugly, and disagreeable. His favorite remark was “How much did you pay for that?” He regarded Verona’s books, Babbitt’s silver pencil, and flowers on the table as citified extravagances, and said so. Babbitt would have quarreled with him but for his gawky wife and the baby, whom Babbitt teased and poked124 fingers at and addressed:
“I think this baby’s a bum, yes, sir, I think this little baby’s a bum, he’s a bum, yes, sir, he’s a bum, that’s what he is, he’s a bum, this baby’s a bum, he’s nothing but an old bum, that’s what he is — a bum!”
All the while Verona and Kenneth Escott held long inquiries125 into epistemology; Ted was a disgraced rebel; and Tinka, aged107 eleven, was demanding that she be allowed to go to the movies thrice a week, “like all the girls.”
Babbitt raged, “I’m sick of it! Having to carry three generations. Whole damn bunch lean on me. Pay half of mother’s income, listen to Henry T., listen to Myra’s worrying, be polite to Mart, and get called an old grouch for trying to help the children. All of ’em depending on me and picking on me and not a damn one of ’em grateful! No relief, and no credit, and no help from anybody. And to keep it up for — good Lord, how long?”
He enjoyed being sick in February; he was delighted by their consternation126 that he, the rock, should give way.
He had eaten a questionable127 clam128. For two days he was languorous129 and petted and esteemed130. He was allowed to snarl131 “Oh, let me alone!” without reprisals132. He lay on the sleeping-porch and watched the winter sun slide along the taut133 curtains, turning their ruddy khaki to pale blood red. The shadow of the draw-rope was dense134 black, in an enticing135 ripple136 on the canvas. He found pleasure in the curve of it, sighed as the fading light blurred137 it. He was conscious of life, and a little sad. With no Vergil Gunches before whom to set his face in resolute138 optimism, he beheld139, and half admitted that he beheld, his way of life as incredibly mechanical. Mechanical business — a brisk selling of badly built houses. Mechanical religion — a dry, hard church, shut off from the real life of the streets, inhumanly140 respectable as a top-hat. Mechanical golf and dinner-parties and bridge and conversation. Save with Paul Riesling, mechanical friendships — back-slapping and jocular, never daring to essay the test of quietness.
He turned uneasily in bed.
He saw the years, the brilliant winter days and all the long sweet afternoons which were meant for summery meadows, lost in such brittle141 pretentiousness142. He thought of telephoning about leases, of cajoling men he hated, of making business calls and waiting in dirty anterooms — hat on knee, yawning at fly-specked calendars, being polite to office-boys.
“I don’t hardly want to go back to work,” he prayed. “I’d like to — I don’t know.”
But he was back next day, busy and of doubtful temper.
收听单词发音 |
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expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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reveres
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的第三人称单数 ) | |
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agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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hop
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| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
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elks
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| n.麋鹿( elk的名词复数 ) | |
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ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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cantata
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| n.清唱剧，大合唱 | |
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bungalows
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| n.平房( bungalow的名词复数 )；单层小屋，多于一层的小屋 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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scenario
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| n.剧本，脚本；概要 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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cloying
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| adj.甜得发腻的 | |
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reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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giggling
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
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caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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prosody
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| n.诗体论，作诗法 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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chassis
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| n.汽车等之底盘；（飞机的）起落架；炮底架 | |
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skidding
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| n.曳出，集材v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的现在分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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eerily
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| adv.引起神秘感或害怕地 | |
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rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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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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furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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bullying
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| v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈 | |
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virtuously
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| 合乎道德地，善良地 | |
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pouncing
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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croaking
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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grouch
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| n.牢骚，不满；v.抱怨 | |
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charades
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| n.伪装( charade的名词复数 )；猜字游戏 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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standardized
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| adj.标准化的 | |
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collation
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| n.便餐；整理 | |
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monopolized
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| v.垄断( monopolize的过去式和过去分词 )；独占；专卖；专营 | |
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50
engrossing
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| adj.使人全神贯注的，引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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51
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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52
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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53
disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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55
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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56
hauteur
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| n.傲慢 | |
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57
athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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58
immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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59
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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60
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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61
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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62
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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63
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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64
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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65
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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66
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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67
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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68
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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69
deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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70
enticed
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| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
annex
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| vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物 | |
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72
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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73
flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
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74
giggles
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| n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75
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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76
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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77
ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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78
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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79
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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80
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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81
lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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82
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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83
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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84
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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85
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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86
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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87
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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88
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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89
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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90
spoke
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| 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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91
pontifical
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| adj.自以为是的，武断的 | |
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92
bleakly
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| 无望地，阴郁地，苍凉地 | |
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93
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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94
advisory
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| adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询 | |
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95
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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96
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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97
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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98
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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99
bum
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| n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨 | |
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100
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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101
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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102
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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103
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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104
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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105
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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106
pitchers
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| 大水罐( pitcher的名词复数 ) | |
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107
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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108
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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109
filthiness
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110
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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111
pulpiness
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| 纸浆质； 果肉性； 浆壮； 软糊壮 | |
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112
discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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113
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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114
puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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115
tassels
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| 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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116
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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117
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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118
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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119
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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120
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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121
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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122
admonishing
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| v.劝告( admonish的现在分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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123
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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124
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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125
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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126
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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127
questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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128
clam
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| n.蛤，蛤肉 | |
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129
languorous
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| adj.怠惰的，没精打采的 | |
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130
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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131
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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132
reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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133
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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134
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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135
enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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136
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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137
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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138
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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139
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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140
inhumanly
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| adv.无人情味地，残忍地 | |
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141
brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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142
pretentiousness
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| n.矫饰；炫耀；自负；狂妄 | |
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