“ALLOW me, gentlemen of the jury, to remind you that a man’s life is at stake and that you must be careful. We have heard the prosecutor1 himself admit that until to-day he hesitated to accuse the prisoner of a full and conscious premeditation of the crime; he hesitated till he saw that fatal drunken letter which was produced in court to-day. ‘All was done as written.’ But, I repeat again, he was running to her, to seek her, solely2 to find out where she was. That’s a fact that can’t be disputed. Had she been at home, he would not have run away, but would have remained at her side, and so would not have done what he promised in the letter. He ran unexpectedly and accidentally, and by that time very likely he did not even remember his drunken letter. ‘He snatched up the pestle3,’ they say, and you will remember how a whole edifice4 of psychology5 was built on that pestle — why he was bound to look at that pestle as a weapon, to snatch it up, and so on, and so on. A very commonplace idea occurs to me at this point: What if that pestle had not been in sight, had not been lying on the shelf from which it was snatched by the prisoner, but had been put away in a cupboard? It would not have caught the prisoner’s eye, and he would have run away without a weapon, with empty hands, and then he would certainly not have killed anyone. How then can I look upon the pestle as a proof of premeditation?
“Yes, but he talked in the taverns7 of murdering his father, and two days before, on the evening when he wrote his drunken letter, he was quiet and only quarrelled with a shopman in the tavern6, because a Karamazov could not help quarrelling, forsooth! But my answer to that is, that, if he was planning such a murder in accordance with his letter, he certainly would not have quarrelled even with a shopman, and probably would not have gone into the tavern at all, because a person plotting such a crime seeks quiet and retirement8, seeks to efface9 himself, to avoid being seen and heard, and that not from calculation, but from instinct. Gentlemen of the jury, the psychological method is a two-edged weapon, and we, too, can use it. As for all this shouting in taverns throughout the month, don’t we often hear children, or drunkards coming out of taverns shout, ‘I’ll kill you’? but they don’t murder anyone. And that fatal letter — isn’t that simply drunken irritability11, too? Isn’t that simply the shout of the brawler12 outside the tavern, ‘I’ll kill you! I’ll kill the lot of you!’ Why not, why could it not be that? What reason have we to call that letter ‘fatal’ rather than absurd? Because his father has been found murdered, because a witness saw the prisoner running out of the garden with a weapon in his hand, and was knocked down by him: therefore, we are told, everything was done as he had planned in writing, and the letter was not ‘absurd,’ but ‘fatal.’
“Now, thank God! we’ve come to the real point: ‘since he was in the garden, he must have murdered him.’ In those few words: ‘since he was, then he must’ lies the whole case for the prosecution13. He was there, so he must have. And what if there is no must about it, even if he was there? Oh, I admit that the chain of evidence — the coincidences — are really suggestive. But examine all these facts separately, regardless of their connection. Why, for instance, does the prosecution refuse to admit the truth of the prisoner’s statement that he ran away from his father’s window? Remember the sarcasms14 in which the prosecutor indulged at the expense of the respectful and ‘pious’ sentiments which suddenly came over the murderer. But what if there were something of the sort, a feeling of religious awe15, if not of filial respect? ‘My mother must have been praying for me at that moment,’ were the prisoner’s words at the preliminary inquiry16, and so he ran away as soon as he convinced himself that Madame Svyetlov was not in his father’s house. ‘But he could not convince himself by looking through the window,’ the prosecutor objects. But why couldn’t he? Why? The window opened at the signals given by the prisoner. Some word might have been uttered by Fyodor Pavlovitch, some exclamation17 which showed the prisoner that she was not there. Why should we assume everything as we imagine it, as we make up our minds to imagine it? A thousand things may happen in reality which elude18 the subtlest imagination.
“‘Yes, but Grigory saw the door open and so the prisoner certainly was in the house, therefore he killed him.’ Now about that door, gentlemen of the jury. . . . Observe that we have only the statement of one witness as to that door, and he was at the time in such a condition, that — but supposing the door was open; supposing the prisoner has lied in denying it, from an instinct of self-defence, natural in his position; supposing he did go into the house — well, what then? How does it follow that because he was there he committed the murder? He might have dashed in, run through the rooms; might have pushed his father away; might have struck him; but as soon as he had made sure Madame Svyetlov was not there, he may have run away rejoicing that she was not there and that he had not killed his father. And it was perhaps just because he had escaped from the temptation to kill his father, because he had a clear conscience and was rejoicing at not having killed him, that he was capable of a pure feeling, the feeling of pity and compassion19, and leapt off the fence a minute later to the assistance of Grigory after he had, in his excitement, knocked him down.
“With terrible eloquence20 the prosecutor has described to us the dreadful state of the prisoner’s mind at Mokroe when love again lay before him calling him to new life, while love was impossible for him because he had his father’s bloodstained corpse21 behind him and beyond that corpse — retribution. And yet the prosecutor allowed him love, which he explained, according to his method, talking about this drunken condition, about a criminal being taken to execution, about it being still far off, and so on and so on. But again I ask, Mr. Prosecutor, have you not invented a new personality? Is the prisoner so coarse and heartless as to be able to think at that moment of love and of dodges22 to escape punishment, if his hands were really stained with his father’s blood? No, no, no! As soon as it was made plain to him that she loved him and called him to her side, promising23 him new happiness, oh! then, I protest he must have felt the impulse to suicide doubled, trebled, and must have killed himself, if he had his father’s murder on his conscience. Oh, no! he would not have forgotten where his pistols lay! I know the prisoner: the savage24, stony25 heartlessness ascribed to him by the prosecutor is inconsistent with his character. He would have killed himself, that’s certain. He did not kill himself just because ‘his mother’s prayers had saved him,’ and he was innocent of his father’s blood. He was troubled, he was grieving that night at Mokroe only about old Grigory and praying to God that the old man would recover, that his blow had not been fatal, and that he would not have to suffer for it. Why not accept such an interpretation26 of the facts? What trustworthy proof have we that the prisoner is lying?
“But we shall be told at once again, ‘There is his father’s corpse! If he ran away without murdering him, who did murder him?’ Here, I repeat, you have the whole logic10 of the prosecution. Who murdered him, if not he? There’s no one to put in his place.
“Gentlemen of the jury, is that really so? Is it positively27, actually true that there is no one else at all? We’ve heard the prosecutor count on his fingers all the persons who were in that house that night. They were five in number; three of them, I agree, could not have been responsible — the murdered man himself, old Grigory, and his wife. There are left then the prisoner and Smerdyakov, and the prosecutor dramatically exclaims that the prisoner pointed28 to Smerdyakov because he had no one else to fix on, that had there been a sixth person, even a phantom29 of a sixth person, he would have abandoned the charge against Smerdyakov at once in shame and have accused that other. But, gentlemen of the jury, why may I not draw the very opposite conclusion? There are two persons — the prisoner and Smerdyakov. Why can I not say that you accuse my client, simply because you have no one else to accuse? And you have no one else only because you have determined30 to exclude Smerdyakov from all suspicion.
“It’s true, indeed, Smerdyakov is accused only by the prisoner, his two brothers, and Madame Svyetlov. But there are others who accuse him: there are vague rumours31 of a question, of a suspicion, an obscure report, a feeling of expectation. Finally, we have the evidence of a combination of facts very suggestive, though, I admit, inconclusive. In the first place we have precisely32 on the day of the catastrophe33 that fit, for the genuineness of which the prosecutor, for some reason, has felt obliged to make a careful defence. Then Smerdyakov’s sudden suicide on the eve of the trial. Then the equally startling evidence given in court to-day by the elder of the prisoner’s brothers, who had believed in his guilt34, but has to-day produced a bundle of notes and proclaimed Smerdyakov as the murderer. Oh, I fully35 share the court’s and the prosecutor’s conviction that Ivan Karamazov is suffering from brain fever, that his statement may really be a desperate effort, planned in delirium36, to save his brother by throwing the guilt on the dead man. But again Smerdyakov’s name is pronounced, again there is a suggestion of mystery. There is something unexplained, incomplete. And perhaps it may one day be explained. But we won’t go into that now. Of that later.
“The court has resolved to go on with the trial, but, meantime, I might make a few remarks about the character-sketch of Smerdyakov drawn37 with subtlety38 and talent by the prosecutor. But while I admire his talent I cannot agree with him. I have visited Smerdyakov, I have seen him and talked to him, and he made a very different impression on me. He was weak in health, it is true; but in character, in spirit, he was by no means the weak man the prosecutor has made him out to be. I found in him no trace of the timidity on which the prosecutor so insisted. There was no simplicity39 about him, either. I found in him, on the contrary, an extreme mistrustfulness concealed40 under a mask of naivete, and an intelligence of considerable range. The prosecutor was too simple in taking him for weak-minded. He made a very definite impression on me: I left him with the conviction that he was a distinctly spiteful creature, excessively ambitious, vindictive41, and intensely envious42. I made some inquiries43: he resented his parentage, was ashamed of it, and would clench44 his teeth when he remembered that he was the son of ‘stinking Lizaveta.’ He was disrespectful to the servant Grigory and his wife, who had cared for him in his childhood. He cursed and jeered45 at Russia. He dreamed of going to France and becoming a Frenchman. He used often to say that he hadn’t the means to do so. I fancy he loved no one but himself and had a strangely high opinion of himself. His conception of culture was limited to good clothes, clean shirt-fronts and polished boots. Believing himself to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor Pavlovitch (there is evidence of this), he might well have resented his position, compared with that of his master’s legitimate46 sons. They had everything, he nothing. They had all the rights, they had the inheritance, while he was only the cook. He told me himself that he had helped Fyodor Pavlovitch to put the notes in the envelope. The destination of that sum — a sum which would have made his career — must have been hateful to him. Moreover, he saw three thousand roubles in new rainbow-coloured notes. (I asked him about that on purpose.) Oh, beware of showing an ambitious and envious man a large sum of money at once! And it was the first time he had seen so much money in the hands of one man. The sight of the rainbow-coloured notes may have made a morbid47 impression on his imagination, but with no immediate48 results.
“The talented prosecutor, with extraordinary subtlety, sketched49 for us all the arguments for and against the hypothesis of Smerdyakov’s guilt, and asked us in particular what motive50 he had in feigning51 a fit. But he may not have been feigning at all, the fit may have happened quite naturally, but it may have passed off quite naturally, and the sick man may have recovered, not completely perhaps, but still regaining52 consciousness, as happens with epileptics.
“The prosecutor asks at what moment could Smerdyakov have committed the murder. But it is very easy to point out that moment. He might have waked up from deep sleep (for he was only asleep — an epileptic fit is always followed by a deep sleep) at that moment when the old Grigory shouted at the top of his voice ‘Parricide53!’ That shout in the dark and stillness may have waked Smerdyakov whose sleep may have been less sound at the moment: he might naturally have waked up an hour before.
“Getting out of bed, he goes almost unconsciously and with no definite motive towards the sound to see what’s the matter. His head is still clouded with his attack, his faculties54 are half asleep; but, once in the garden, he walks to the lighted windows and he hears terrible news from his master, who would be, of course, glad to see him. His mind sets to work at once. He hears all the details from his frightened master, and gradually in his disordered brain there shapes itself an idea — terrible, but seductive and irresistibly55 logical. To kill the old man, take the three thousand, and throw all the blame on to his young master. A terrible lust56 of money, of booty, might seize upon him as he realised his security from detection. Oh! these sudden and irresistible57 impulses come so often when there is a favourable58 opportunity, and especially with murderers who have had no idea of committing a murder beforehand. And Smerdyakov may have gone in and carried out his plan. With what weapon? Why, with any stone picked up in the garden. But what for, with what object? Why, the three thousand which means a career for him. Oh, I am not contradicting myself — the money may have existed. And perhaps Smerdyakov alone knew where to find it, where his master kept it. And the covering of the money — the torn envelope on the floor?
“Just now, when the prosecutor was explaining his subtle theory that only an inexperienced thief like Karamazov would have left the envelope on the floor, and not one like Smerdyakov, who would have avoided leaving a piece of evidence against himself, I thought as I listened that I was hearing something very familiar, and, would you believe it, I have heard that very argument, that very conjecture59, of how Karamazov would have behaved, precisely two days before, from Smerdyakov himself. What’s more, it struck me at the time. I fancied that there was an artificial simplicity about him; that he was in a hurry to suggest this idea to me that I might fancy it was my own. He insinuated61 it, as it were. Did he not insinuate60 the same idea at the inquiry and suggest it to the talented prosecutor?
“I shall be asked, ‘What about the old woman, Grigory’s wife? She heard the sick man moaning close by, all night.’ Yes, she heard it, but that evidence is extremely unreliable. I knew a lady who complained bitterly that she had been kept awake all night by a dog in the yard. Yet the poor beast, it appeared, had only yelped62 once or twice in the night. And that’s natural. If anyone is asleep and hears a groan63 he wakes up, annoyed at being waked, but instantly falls asleep again. Two hours later, again a groan, he wakes up and falls asleep again; and the same thing again two hours later — three times altogether in the night. Next morning the sleeper64 wakes up and complains that someone has been groaning65 all night and keeping him awake. And it is bound to seem so to him: the intervals66 of two hours of sleep he does not remember, he only remembers the moments of waking, so he feels he has been waked up all night.
“But why, why, asks the prosecutor, did not Smerdyakov confess in his last letter? Why did his conscience prompt him to one step and not to both? But, excuse me, conscience implies penitence67, and the suicide may not have felt penitence, but only despair. Despair and penitence are two very different things. Despair may be vindictive and irreconcilable68, and the suicide, laying his hands on himself, may well have felt redoubled hatred69 for those whom he had envied all his life.
“Gentlemen of the jury, beware of a miscarriage70 of justice! What is there unlikely in all I have put before you just now? Find the error in my reasoning; find the impossibility, the absurdity71. And if there is but a shade of possibility, but a shade of probability in my propositions, do not condemn72 him. And is there only a shade? I swear by all that is sacred, I fully believe in the explanation of the murder I have just put forward. What troubles me and makes me indignant is that of all the mass of facts heaped up by the prosecution against the prisoner, there is not a single one certain and irrefutable. And yet the unhappy man is to be ruined by the accumulation of these facts. Yes, the accumulated effect is awful: the blood, the blood dripping from his fingers, the bloodstained shirt, the dark night resounding73 with the shout ‘Parricide!’ and the old man falling with a broken head. And then the mass of phrases, statements, gestures, shouts! Oh! this has so much influence, it can so bias74 the mind; but, gentlemen of the jury, can it bias your minds? Remember, you have been given absolute power to bind75 and to loose, but the greater the power, the more terrible its responsibility.
“I do not draw back one iota76 from what I have said just now, but suppose for one moment I agreed with the prosecution that my luckless client had stained his hands with his father’s blood. This is only hypothesis, I repeat; I never for one instant doubt of his innocence77. But, so be it, I assume that my client is guilty of parricide. Even so, hear what I have to say. I have it in my heart to say something more to you, for I feel that there must be a great conflict in your hearts and minds. . . . Forgive my referring to your hearts and minds, gentlemen of the jury, but I want to be truthful78 and sincere to the end. Let us all be sincere!”
At this point the speech was interrupted by rather loud applause. The last words, indeed, were pronounced with a note of such sincerity79 that everyone felt that he really might have something to say, and that what he was about to say would be of the greatest consequence. But the President, hearing the applause, in a loud voice threatened to clear the court if such an incident were repeated. Every sound was hushed and Fetyukovitch began in a voice full of feeling quite unlike the tone he had used hitherto.
1 prosecutor | |
n.起诉人;检察官,公诉人 | |
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2 solely | |
adv.仅仅,唯一地 | |
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3 pestle | |
n.杵 | |
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4 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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5 psychology | |
n.心理,心理学,心理状态 | |
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6 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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7 taverns | |
n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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8 retirement | |
n.退休,退职 | |
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9 efface | |
v.擦掉,抹去 | |
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10 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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11 irritability | |
n.易怒 | |
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12 brawler | |
争吵者,打架者 | |
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13 prosecution | |
n.起诉,告发,检举,执行,经营 | |
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14 sarcasms | |
n.讥讽,讽刺,挖苦( sarcasm的名词复数 ) | |
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15 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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16 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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17 exclamation | |
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词 | |
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18 elude | |
v.躲避,困惑 | |
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19 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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20 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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21 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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22 dodges | |
n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 );躲避;伎俩;妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 );回避 | |
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23 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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24 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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25 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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26 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
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27 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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28 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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29 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
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30 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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31 rumours | |
n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 );风闻;谣言;谣传 | |
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32 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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33 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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34 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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35 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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36 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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37 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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38 subtlety | |
n.微妙,敏锐,精巧;微妙之处,细微的区别 | |
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39 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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40 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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41 vindictive | |
adj.有报仇心的,怀恨的,惩罚的 | |
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42 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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43 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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44 clench | |
vt.捏紧(拳头等),咬紧(牙齿等),紧紧握住 | |
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45 jeered | |
v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 legitimate | |
adj.合法的,合理的,合乎逻辑的;v.使合法 | |
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47 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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48 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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49 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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50 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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51 feigning | |
假装,伪装( feign的现在分词 ); 捏造(借口、理由等) | |
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52 regaining | |
复得( regain的现在分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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53 parricide | |
n.杀父母;杀亲罪 | |
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54 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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55 irresistibly | |
adv.无法抵抗地,不能自持地;极为诱惑人地 | |
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56 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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57 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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58 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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59 conjecture | |
n./v.推测,猜测 | |
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60 insinuate | |
vt.含沙射影地说,暗示 | |
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61 insinuated | |
v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 );巧妙或迂回地潜入;(使)缓慢进入;慢慢伸入 | |
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62 yelped | |
v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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64 sleeper | |
n.睡眠者,卧车,卧铺 | |
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65 groaning | |
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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66 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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67 penitence | |
n.忏悔,赎罪;悔过 | |
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68 irreconcilable | |
adj.(指人)难和解的,势不两立的 | |
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69 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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70 miscarriage | |
n.失败,未达到预期的结果;流产 | |
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71 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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72 condemn | |
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑 | |
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73 resounding | |
adj. 响亮的 | |
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74 bias | |
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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75 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
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76 iota | |
n.些微,一点儿 | |
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77 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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78 truthful | |
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的 | |
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79 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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