ALYOSHA remained for some time irresolute1 after hearing the command his father shouted to him from the carriage. But in spite of his uneasiness he did not stand still. That was not his way. He went at once to the kitchen to find out what his father had been doing above. Then he set off, trusting that on the way he would find some answer to the doubt tormenting2 him. I hasten to add that his father’s shouts, commanding him to return home “with his mattress3 and pillow” did not frighten him in the least. He understood perfectly4 that those peremptory5 shouts were merely “a flourish” to produce an effect. In the same way a tradesman in our town who was celebrating his name-day with a party of friends, getting angry at being refused more vodka, smashed up his own crockery and furniture and tore his own and his wife’s clothes, and finally broke his windows, all for the sake of effect. Next day, of course, when he was sober, he regretted the broken cups and saucers. Alyosha knew that his father would let him go back to the monastery6 next day, possibly even that evening. Moreover, he was fully7 persuaded that his father might hurt anyone else, but would not hurt him. Alyosha was certain that no one in the whole world ever would want to hurt him, and, what is more, he knew that no one could hurt him. This was for him an axiom, assumed once for all without question, and he went his way without hesitation9, relying on it.
But at that moment an anxiety of sort disturbed him, and worried him the more because he could not formulate10 it. It was the fear of a woman, of Katerina Ivanovna, who had so urgently entreated11 him in the note handed to him by Madame Hohlakov to come and see her about something. This request and the necessity of going had at once aroused an uneasy feeling in his heart, and this feeling had grown more and more painful all the morning in spite of the scenes at the hermitage and at the Father Superior’s. He was not uneasy because he did not know what she would speak of and what he must answer. And he was not afraid of her simply as a woman. Though he knew little of women, he spent his life, from early childhood till he entered the monastery, entirely12 with women. He was afraid of that woman, Katerina Ivanovna. He had been afraid of her from the first time he saw her. He had only seen her two or three times, and had only chanced to say a few words to her. He thought of her as a beautiful, proud, imperious girl. It was not her beauty which troubled him, but something else. And the vagueness of his apprehension13 increased the apprehension itself. The girl’s aims were of the noblest, he knew that. She was trying to save his brother Dmitri simply through generosity14, though he had already behaved badly to her. Yet, although Alyosha recognised and did justice to all these fine and generous sentiments, a shiver began to run down his back as soon as he drew near her house.
He reflected that he would not find Ivan, who was so intimate a friend, with her, for Ivan was certainly now with his father. Dmitri he was even more certain not to find there, and he had a foreboding of the reason. And so his conversation would be with her alone. He had a great longing15 to run and see his brother Dmitri before that fateful interview. Without showing him the letter, he could talk to him about it. But Dmitri lived a long way off, and he was sure to be away from home too. Standing16 still for a minute, he reached a final decision. Crossing himself with a rapid and accustomed gesture, and at once smiling, he turned resolutely17 in the direction of his terrible lady.
He knew her house. If he went by the High Street and then across the market-place, it was a long way round. Though our town is small, it is scattered18, and the houses are far apart. And meanwhile his father was expecting him, and perhaps had not yet forgotten his command. He might be unreasonable19, and so he had to make haste to get there and back. So he decided20 to take a short cut by the backway, for he knew every inch of the ground. This meant skirting fences, climbing over hurdles22, and crossing other people’s back-yards, where everyone he met knew him and greeted him. In this way he could reach the High Street in half the time.
He had to pass the garden adjoining his father’s, and belonging to a little tumbledown house with four windows. The owner of this house, as Alyosha knew, was a bedridden old woman, living with her daughter, who had been a genteel maid-servant in generals’ families in Petersburg. Now she had been at home a year, looking after her sick mother. She always dressed up in fine clothes, though her old mother and she had sunk into such poverty that they went every day to Fyodor Pavlovitch’s kitchen for soup and bread, which Marfa gave readily. Yet, though the young woman came up for soup, she had never sold any of her dresses, and one of these even had a long train — a fact which Alyosha had learned from Rakitin, who always knew everything that was going on in the town. He had forgotten it as soon as he heard it, but now, on reaching the garden, he remembered the dress with the train, raised his head, which had been bowed in thought, and came upon something quite unexpected.
Over the hurdle21 in the garden, Dmitri, mounted on something, was leaning forward, gesticulating violently, beckoning23 to him, obviously afraid to utter a word for fear of being overheard. Alyosha ran up to the hurdle.
“It’s a good thing you looked up. I was nearly shouting to you,” Mitya said in a joyful24, hurried whisper. “Climb in here quickly! How splendid that you’ve come! I was just thinking of you”
Alyosha was delighted too, but he did not know how to get over the hurdle. Mitya put his powerful hand under his elbow to help him jump. Tucking up his cassock, Alyosha leapt over the hurdle with the agility25 of a bare-legged street urchin26.
“Well done! Now come along,” said Mitya in an enthusiastic whisper.
“Where?” whispered Alyosha, looking about him and finding himself in a deserted27 garden with no one near but themselves. The garden was small, but the house was at least fifty paces away.
“There’s no one here. Why do you whisper?” asked Alyosha.
“Why do I whisper? Deuce take it” cried Dmitri at the top of his voice. “You see what silly tricks nature plays one. I am here in secret, and on the watch. I’ll explain later on, but, knowing it’s a secret, I began whispering like a fool, when there’s no need. Let us go. Over there. Till then be quiet. I want to kiss you.
Glory to God in the world,
Glory to God in me . . .
I was just repeating that, sitting here, before you came.”
The garden was about three acres in extent, and planted with trees only along the fence at the four sides. There were apple-trees, maples29, limes and birch-trees. The middle of the garden was an empty grass space, from which several hundredweight of hay was carried in the summer. The garden was let out for a few roubles for the summer. There were also plantations30 of raspberries and currants and gooseberries laid out along the sides; a kitchen garden had been planted lately near the house.
Dmitri led his brother to the most secluded31 corner of the garden. There, in a thicket32 of lime-trees and old bushes of black currant, elder, snowball-tree, and lilac, there stood a tumbledown green summer-house; blackened with age. Its walls were of lattice-work, but there was still a roof which could give shelter. God knows when this summer-house was built. There was a tradition that it had been put up some fifty years before by a retired33 colonel called von Schmidt, who owned the house at that time. It was all in decay, the floor was rotting, the planks34 were loose, the woodwork smelled musty. In the summer-house there was a green wooden table fixed35 in the ground, and round it were some green benches upon which it was still possible to sit. Alyosha had at once observed his brother’s exhilarated condition, and on entering the arbour he saw half a bottle of brandy and a wineglass on the table.
“That’s brandy,” Mitya laughed. “I see your look: ‘He’s drinking again” Distrust the apparition36.
Distrust the worthless, lying crowd,
And lay aside thy doubts.
I’m not drinking, I’m only ‘indulging,’ as that pig, your Rakitin, says. He’ll be a civil councillor one day, but he’ll always talk about ‘indulging.’ Sit down. I could take you in my arms, Alyosha, and press you to my bosom37 till I crush you, for in the whole world — in reality — in real-i-ty — (can you take it in?) I love no one but you!
He uttered the last words in a sort of exaltation.
“No one but you and one ‘jade’ I have fallen in love with, to my ruin. But being in love doesn’t mean loving. You may be in love with a woman and yet hate her. Remember that! I can talk about it gaily38 still. Sit down here by the table and I’ll sit beside you and look at you, and go on talking. You shall keep quiet and I’ll go on talking, for the time has come. But on reflection, you know, I’d better speak quietly, for here — here — you can never tell what ears are listening. I will explain everything; as they say, ‘the story will be continued.’ Why have I been longing for you? Why have I been thirsting for you all these days, and just now? (It’s five days since I’ve cast anchor here.) Because it’s only to you I can tell everything; because I must, because I need you, because to-morrow I shall fly from the clouds, because to-morrow life is ending and beginning. Have you ever felt, have you ever dreamt of falling down a precipice39 into a pit? That’s just how I’m falling, but not in a dream. And I’m not afraid, and don’t you be afraid. At least, I am afraid, but I enjoy it. It’s not enjoyment40 though, but ecstasy41. Damn it all, whatever it is! A strong spirit, a weak spirit, a womanish spirit — what, ever it is! Let us praise nature: you see what sunshine, how clear the sky is, the leaves are all green, it’s still summer; four o’clock in the afternoon and the stillness! Where were you going?”
“I was going to father’s, but I meant to go to Katerina Ivanovna’s first.”
“To her, and to father! Oo! what a coincidence! Why was I waiting for you? Hungering and thirsting for you in every cranny of my soul and even in my ribs42? Why, to send you to father and to her, Katerina Ivanovna, so as to have done with her and with father. To send an angel. I might have sent anyone, but I wanted to send an angel. And here you are on your way to see father and her.”
“Did you really mean to send me?” cried Alyosha with a distressed43 expression.
“Stay! You knew it And I see you understand it all at once. But be quiet, be quiet for a time. Don’t be sorry, and don’t cry.”
Dmitri stood up, thought a moment, and put his finger to his forehead.
“She’s asked you, written to you a letter or something, that’s why you’re going to her? You wouldn’t be going except for that?”
“Here is her note.” Alyosha took it out of his pocket. Mitya looked through it quickly.
“And you were going the backway! Oh, gods, I thank you for sending him by the backway, and he came to me like the golden fish to the silly old fishermen in the fable44! Listen, Alyosha, listen, brother! Now I mean to tell you everything, for I must tell someone. An angel in heaven I’ve told already; but I want to tell an angel on earth. You are an angel on earth. You will hear and judge and forgive. And that’s what I need, that someone above me should forgive. Listen! If two people break away from everything on earth and fly off into the unknown, or at least one of them, and before flying off or going to ruin he comes to someone else and says, ‘Do this for me’ — some favour never asked before that could only be asked on one’s deathbed — would that other refuse, if he were a friend or a brother?”
“I will do it, but tell me what it is, and make haste,” said Alyosha.
“Make haste! H’m! . . . Don’t be in a hurry, Alyosha, you hurry and worry yourself. There’s no need to hurry now. Now the world has taken a new turning. Ah, Alyosha, what a pity you can’t understand ecstasy. But what am I saying to him? As though you didn’t understand it. What an ass8 I am! What am I saying? ‘Be noble, O man!’— who says that?”
Alyosha made up his mind to wait. He felt that, perhaps, indeed, his work lay here. Mitya sank into thought for a moment, with his elbow on the table and his head in his hand. Both were silent.
“Alyosha,” said Mitya, “you’re the only one who won’t laugh. I should like to begin — my confession45 — with Schiller’s Hymn46 to Joy, An die Freude! I don’t know German, I only know it’s called that. Don’t think I’m talking nonsense because I’m drunk. I’m not a bit drunk. Brandy’s all very well, but I need two bottles to make me drunk:
Upon his stumbling ass.
But I’ve not drunk a quarter of a bottle, and I’m not Silenus. I’m not Silenus, though I am strong,3 for I’ve made a decision once for all. Forgive me the pun; you’ll have to forgive me a lot more than puns to-day. Don’t be uneasy. I’m not spinning it out. I’m talking sense, and I’ll come to the point in a minute. I won’t keep you in suspense48. Stay, how does it go?”
3 In Russian, silen.
He raised his head, thought a minute, and began with enthusiasm:
Wild and fearful in his cavern49
Hid the naked troglodyte50,
And the homeless nomad51 wandered
Laying waste the fertile plain.
Menacing with spear and arrow
In the woods the hunter strayed. . . .
Woe52 to all poor wretches53 stranded54
On those cruel and hostile shores!
From the peak of high Olympus
Came the mother Ceres down,
Seeking in those savage55 regions
Her lost daughter Proserpine.
But the Goddess found no refuge,
Found no kindly56 welcome there,
And no temple bearing witness
To the worship of the gods.
From the fields and from the vineyards
Came no fruits to deck the feasts,
Only flesh of bloodstained victims
Smouldered on the altar-fires,
And where’er the grieving goddess
Turns her melancholy57 gaze,
Sunk in vilest59 degradation60
Man his loathsomeness61 displays
Mitya broke into sobs62 and seized Alyosha’s hand.
“My dear, my dear, in degradation, in degradation now, too. There’s a terrible amount of suffering for man on earth, a terrible lot of trouble. Don’t think I’m only a brute63 in an officer’s uniform, wallowing in dirt and drink. I hardly think of anything but of that degraded man — if only I’m not lying. I pray God I’m not lying and showing off. I think about that man because I am that man myself.
Would he purge64 his soul from vileness65
And attain66 to light and worth,
He must turn and cling for ever
To his ancient Mother Earth.
But the difficulty is how am I to cling for ever to Mother Earth. I don’t kiss her. I don’t cleave67 to her bosom. Am I to become a peasant or a shepherd? I go on and I don’t know whether I’m going to shame or to light and joy. That’s the trouble, for everything in the world is a riddle68! And whenever I’ve happened to sink into the vilest degradation (and it’s always been happening) I always read that poem about Ceres and man. Has it reformed me? Never! For I’m a Karamazov. For when I do leap into the pit, I go headlong with my heels up, and am pleased to be falling in that degrading attitude, and pride myself upon it. And in the very depths of that degradation I begin a hymn of praise. Let me be accursed. Let me be vile58 and base, only let me kiss the hem28 of the veil in which my God is shrouded69. Though I may be following the devil, I am Thy son, O Lord, and I love Thee, and I feel the joy without which the world cannot stand.
Joy everlasting70 fostereth
The soul of all creation,
It is her secret ferment71 fires
The cup of life with flame.
’Tis at her beck the grass hath turned
Each blade towards the light
And solar systems have evolved
Filling the realms of boundless73 space
Beyond the sage’s sight.
At bounteous74 Nature’s kindly breast,
All things that breathe drink Joy,
And birds and beasts and creeping things
All follow where She leads.
Her gifts to man are friends in need,
The wreath, the foaming75 must,
To angels — vision of God’s throne,
But enough poetry! I am in tears; let me cry. It may be foolishness that everyone would laugh at. But you won’t laugh. Your eyes are shining, too. Enough poetry. I want to tell you now about the insects to whom God gave ‘sensual lust.’
To insects — sensual lust.
I am that insect, brother, and it is said of me specially77. All we Karamazovs are such insects, and, angel as you are, that insect lives in you, too, and will stir up a tempest in your blood. Tempests, because sensual lust is a tempest worse than a tempest! Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed78 and never can be fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles79. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side. I am a cultivated man, brother, but I’ve thought a lot about this. It’s terrible what mysteries there are! Too many riddles weigh men down on earth. We must solve them as we can, and try to keep a dry skin in the water. Beauty! I can’t endure the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom. What’s still more awful is that a man with the ideal of Sodom in his soul does not renounce80 the ideal of the Madonna, and his heart may be on fire with that ideal, genuinely on fire, just as in his days of youth and innocence81. Yes, man is broad, too broad, indeed. I’d have him narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! What to the mind is shameful82 is beauty and nothing else to the heart. Is there beauty in Sodom? Believe me, that for the immense mass of mankind beauty is found in Sodom. Did you know that secret? The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man. But a man always talks of his own ache. Listen, now to come to facts.”
1 irresolute | |
adj.无决断的,优柔寡断的,踌躇不定的 | |
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2 tormenting | |
使痛苦的,使苦恼的 | |
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3 mattress | |
n.床垫,床褥 | |
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4 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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5 peremptory | |
adj.紧急的,专横的,断然的 | |
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6 monastery | |
n.修道院,僧院,寺院 | |
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7 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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8 ass | |
n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人 | |
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9 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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10 formulate | |
v.用公式表示;规划;设计;系统地阐述 | |
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11 entreated | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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13 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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14 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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15 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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16 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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17 resolutely | |
adj.坚决地,果断地 | |
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18 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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19 unreasonable | |
adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
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20 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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21 hurdle | |
n.跳栏,栏架;障碍,困难;vi.进行跨栏赛 | |
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22 hurdles | |
n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 );跳栏;(供人或马跳跃的)栏架;跨栏赛 | |
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23 beckoning | |
adj.引诱人的,令人心动的v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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24 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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25 agility | |
n.敏捷,活泼 | |
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26 urchin | |
n.顽童;海胆 | |
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27 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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28 hem | |
n.贴边,镶边;vt.缝贴边;(in)包围,限制 | |
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29 maples | |
槭树,枫树( maple的名词复数 ); 槭木 | |
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30 plantations | |
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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31 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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32 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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33 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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34 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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35 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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36 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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37 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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38 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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39 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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40 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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41 ecstasy | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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42 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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43 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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44 fable | |
n.寓言;童话;神话 | |
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45 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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46 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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47 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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48 suspense | |
n.(对可能发生的事)紧张感,担心,挂虑 | |
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49 cavern | |
n.洞穴,大山洞 | |
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50 troglodyte | |
n.古代穴居者;井底之蛙 | |
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51 nomad | |
n.游牧部落的人,流浪者,游牧民 | |
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52 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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53 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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54 stranded | |
a.搁浅的,进退两难的 | |
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55 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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56 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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57 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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58 vile | |
adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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59 vilest | |
adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 );可耻的;极坏的;非常讨厌的 | |
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60 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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61 loathsomeness | |
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62 sobs | |
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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63 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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64 purge | |
n.整肃,清除,泻药,净化;vt.净化,清除,摆脱;vi.清除,通便,腹泻,变得清洁 | |
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65 vileness | |
n.讨厌,卑劣 | |
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66 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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67 cleave | |
v.(clave;cleaved)粘着,粘住;坚持;依恋 | |
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68 riddle | |
n.谜,谜语,粗筛;vt.解谜,给…出谜,筛,检查,鉴定,非难,充满于;vi.出谜 | |
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69 shrouded | |
v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 );保密 | |
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70 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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71 ferment | |
vt.使发酵;n./vt.(使)激动,(使)动乱 | |
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72 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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73 boundless | |
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的 | |
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74 bounteous | |
adj.丰富的 | |
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75 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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76 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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77 specially | |
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地 | |
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78 fathomed | |
理解…的真意( fathom的过去式和过去分词 ); 彻底了解; 弄清真相 | |
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79 riddles | |
n.谜(语)( riddle的名词复数 );猜不透的难题,难解之谜 | |
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80 renounce | |
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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81 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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82 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
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