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Chapter 5 The Bones of the Earth
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IT WAS RAINING AGAIN, and the wizard of Re Albi was sorely tempted1 to make a weather spell, just a little, small spell, to send the rain on round the mountain. His bones ached. They ached for the sun to come out and shine through his flesh and dry them out. Of course he could say a pain spell, but all that would do was hide the ache for a while. There was no cure for what ailed2 him. Old bones need the sun. The wizard stood still in the doorway3 of his house, between the dark room and the rain-streaked open air, preventing himself from making a spell, and angry at himself for preventing himself and for having to be prevented.
He never swore-men of power do not swear, it is not safe-but he cleared his throat with a coughing growl4, like a bear. A moment later a thunderclap rolled off the hidden upper slopes of Gont Mountain, echoing round from north to south, dying away in the cloud-filled forests.
A good sign, thunder, Dulse thought. It would stop raining soon. He pulled up his hood5 and went out into the rain to feed the chickens.
He checked the henhouse, finding three eggs. Red Bucca was setting. Her eggs were about due to hatch. The mites6 were bothering her, and she looked scruffy7 and jaded8. He said a few words against mites, told himself to remember to clean out the nest box as soon as the chicks hatched, and went on to the poultry9 yard, where Brown Bucca and Grey and Leggings and Candor10 and the King huddled11 under the eaves making soft, shrewish remarks about rain.
"It'll stop by midday," the wizard told the chickens. He fed them and squelched12 back to the house with three warm eggs. When he was a child he had liked to walk in mud. He remembered enjoying the cool of it rising between his toes. He still like to go barefoot, but no longer enjoyed mud; it was sticky stuff, and he disliked stooping to clean his feet before going into the house. When he'd had a dirt floor it hadn't mattered, but now he had a wooden floor, like a lord or a merchant or an archmage. To keep the cold and damp out of his bones. Not his own notion. Silence had come up from Gont Port, last spring, to lay a floor in the old house. They had had one of their arguments about it. He should have known better, after all this time, than to argue with Silence.
"I've walked on dirt for seventy-five years," Dulse had said. "A few more won't kill me!"
To which Silence of course had said nothing, letting him hear what he had said and feel its foolishness thoroughly13.
"Dirt's easier to keep clean," he said, knowing the struggle already lost. It was true that all you had to do with a good hard-packed clay floor was sweep it and now and then sprinkle it to keep the dust down. But it sounded silly all the same.
"Who's to lay this floor?" he said, now merely querulous.
Silence nodded, meaning himself.
The boy was in fact a workman of the first order, carpenter, cabinetmaker, stonelayer, roofer; he had proved that when he lived up here as Dulse's student, and his life with the rich folk of Gont Port had not softened15 his hands. He brought the boards from Sixth's mill in Re Albi, driving Gammer's ox-team; he laid the floor and polished it the next day, while the old wizard was up at Bog16 Lake gathering17 simples. When Dulse came home there it was, shining like a dark lake itself. "Have to wash my feet every time I come in," he grumbled18. He walked in gingerly. The wood was so smooth it seemed soft to the bare sole. "Satin," he said. "You didn't do all that in one day without a spell or two. A village hut with a palace floor. Well, it'll be a sight, come winter, to see the fire shine in that! Or do I have to get me a carpet now? A fleecefell, on a golden warp19?"
Silence smiled. He was pleased with himself.
He had turned up on Dulse's doorstep a few years ago. Well, no, twenty years ago it must be, or twenty-five. A while ago now. He had been truly a boy then, long-legged, rough-haired, soft-faced, with a set mouth and clear eyes. "What do you want?" the wizard had asked, knowing what he wanted, what they all wanted, and keeping his eyes from those clear eyes. He was a good teacher, the best on Gont, he knew that. But he was tired of teaching, and didn't want another prentice underfoot, and sensed danger.
"To learn," the boy whispered.
"Go to Roke," the wizard said. The boy wore shoes and a good leather vest. He could afford or earn ship's passage to the School.
"I've been there."
At that Dulse looked him over again. No cloak, no staff.
"Failed? Sent away? Ran away?"
The boy shook his head at each question. He shut his eyes; his mouth was already shut. He stood there, intensely gathered, suffering: drew breath: looked straight into the wizard's eyes.
"My mastery is here, on Gont," he said, still speaking hardly above a whisper. "My master is Heleth".
At that the wizard whose true name was Heleth stood as still as he did, looking back at him, till the boy's gaze dropped.
In silence Dulse sought his name, and saw two things: a fir-cone, and the rune of the Closed Mouth. Then seeking further he heard in his mind a name spoken; but he did not speak it.
"I'm tired of teaching and talking," he said. "I need silence. Is that enough for you?"
The boy nodded once.
"Then to me you are Silence," the wizard said. "You can sleep in the nook under the west window. There's an old pallet in the woodhouse. Air it. Don't bring mice in with it." And he stalked off towards the Overfell, angry with the boy for coming and with himself for giving in; but it was not anger that made his heart pound. Striding along-he could stride, then-with the seawind pushing at him always from the left and the early sunlight on the sea out past the vast shadow of the mountain, he thought of the Mages of Roke, the masters of the art magic, the professors of mystery and power. "He was too much for 'em, was he? And he'll be too much for me," he thought, and smiled. He was a peaceful man, but he did not mind a bit of danger.
He stopped and felt the dirt under his feet. He was barefoot, as usual. When he was a student on Roke, he had worn shoes. But he had come back home to Gont, to Re Albi, with his wizard's staff, and kicked his shoes off. He stood still and felt the dust and rock of the cliff-top path under his feet, and the cliffs under that, and the roots of the island in the dark under that. In the dark under the waters all islands touched and were one. So his teacher Ard had said, and so his teachers on Roke had said. But this was his island, his rock, dust, dirt. His wizardry grew out of it. "My mastery is here," the boy had said, but it went deeper than mastery. That, perhaps, was something Dulse could teach him: what went deeper than mastery. What he had learned here, on Gont, before he ever went to Roke.
And the boy must have a staff. Why had Nemmerle let him leave Roke without one, empty-handed as a prentice or a witch? Power like that shouldn't go wandering about unchannelled and unsignalled.
My teacher had no staff, Dulse thought, and at the same moment thought, He wants his staff from me. Gontish oak, from the hands of a Gontish wizard. Well, if he earns it I'll make him one. If he can keep his mouth closed. And I'll leave him my lore21-books. If he can clean out a henhouse, and understand the Glosses22 of Danemer, and keep his mouth closed.
The new student cleaned out the henhouse and hoed the bean-patch, learned the meaning of the Glosses of Danemer and the Arcana of the Enlades, and kept his mouth closed. He listened. He heard what Dulse said; sometimes he heard what Dulse thought. He did what Dulse wanted and what Dulse did not know he wanted. His gift was far beyond Dulse's guidance, yet he had been right to come to Re Albi, and they both knew it.
Dulse thought sometimes in those years about sons and fathers. He had quarreled with his own father, a sorcerer-prospector, over his choice of a teacher; his father had shouted that a student of Ard's was no son of his, had nursed his rage and died unforgiving.
Dulse had seen young men weep for joy at the birth of a first son. He had seen poor men pay witches a year's earnings23 for the promise of a healthy boy, and a rich man touch his gold-bedizened baby's face and whisper, adoring, "My immortality24!" He had seen men beat their sons, bully25 and humiliate26 them, spite and thwart27 them, hating the death they saw in them. He had seen the answering hatred28 in the son's eyes, the threat, the pitiless contempt. And seeing it, Dulse knew why he had never sought reconciliation29 with his father.
He had seen a father and son work together from daybreak to sundown, the old man guiding a blind ox, the middle-aged31 man driving the iron-bladed plough, never a word spoken; as they started home the old man laid his hand a moment on the son's shoulder.
He had always remembered that. He remembered it now, when he looked across the hearth32, winter evenings, at the dark face bent33 above a lore-book or a shirt that needed mending. The eyes cast down, the mouth closed, the spirit listening.
"Once in his lifetime, if he's lucky, a wizard finds somebody he can talk to." Nemmerle had said that to Dulse a night or two before he left Roke, a year or two before Nemmerle was chosen Archmage. He had been the Master Patterner and the kindest of all Dulse's teachers at the School. "I think, if you stayed, Heleth, we could talk."
Dulse had been unable to answer at all for a while. Then, stammering34, guilty at his ingratitude35 and incredulous at his obstinacy-"Master, I would stay, but my work is on Gont-I wish it was here, with you-"
"It's a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you've been to all the places you don't need to be. Well, send me a student now and then. Roke needs Gontish wizardry. I think we're leaving things out, here, things worth knowing...."
Dulse had sent students on to the School, three or four of them, nice lads with a gift for this or that; but the one Nemmerle waited for had come and gone of his own will, and what they had thought of him on Roke Dulse did not know. Silence did not say. He had learned there in two or three years what some boys learned in six or seven and many never learned at all, but to him it had been mere14 groundwork.
"Why didn't you come to me first?" Dulse had demanded. "And then Roke, to put a polish on it?"
"I didn't want to waste your time."
"Did Nemmerle know you were coming to work with me?"
Silence shook his head.
"If you'd deigned36 to tell him your intentions, he might have sent a message to me."
Silence looked stricken. "Was he your friend?"
Dulse paused. "He was my master. Would have been my friend, perhaps, if I'd stayed on Roke. Have wizards friends? No more than they have wives, or sons, some would say.... Once he said to me that in our trade it's a lucky man who finds someone to talk to. Keep that in mind. If you're lucky, one day you'll have to open your mouth."
Silence bowed his rough, thoughtful head.
"If it hasn't rusted37 shut," Dulse added.
"If you ask me to, I'll talk," the young man said, so earnest, so willing to deny his whole nature at Dulse's request that the wizard had to laugh.
"I asked you not to," he said, "and it's not my need I spoke20 of. I talk enough for two. Never mind. You'll know what to say when the time comes. That's the art, eh? What to say, and when to say it. And the rest is silence."
The young man slept on a pallet under the little west window of Dulse's house for three years. He learned wizardry, fed the chickens, milked the cow. He suggested, once, that Dulse keep goats. He had not said anything for a week or so, a cold, wet week of autumn. He said, "You might keep some goats."
Dulse had the big lore-book open on the table. He had been trying to reweave one of the Acastan Spells, much broken and made powerless by the Emanations of Fundaur centuries ago. He had just begun to get a sense of the missing word that might fill one of the gaps, he almost had it, and-"You might keep some goats," Silence said.
Dulse considered himself a wordy, impatient man with a short temper. The necessity of not swearing had been a burden to him in his youth, and for thirty years the imbecility of apprentices38, clients, cows, and chickens had tried him sorely. Apprentices and clients were afraid of his tongue, though cows and chickens paid no attention to his outbursts. He had never been angry at Silence before. There was a very long pause.
"What for?"
Silence apparently39 did not notice the pause or the extreme softness of Dulse's voice. "Milk, cheese, roast kid, company," he said.
"Have you ever kept goats?" Dulse asked, in the same soft, polite voice.
Silence shook his head.
He was in fact a town boy, born in Gont Port. He had said nothing about himself, but Dulse had asked around a bit. The father, a longshoreman, had died in the big earthquake, when Silence would have been seven or eight; the mother was a cook at a waterfront inn. At twelve the boy had got into some kind of trouble, probably messing about with magic, and his mother had managed to prentice him to Elassen, a respectable sorcerer in Valmouth. There the boy had picked up his true name, and some skill in carpentry and farmwork, if not much else; and Elassen had had the generosity40, after three years, to pay his passage to Roke. That was all Dulse knew about him.
"I dislike goat cheese," Dulse said.
Silence nodded, acceptant as always.
From time to time in the years since then, Dulse remembered how he hadn't lost his temper when Silence asked about keeping goats; and each time the memory gave him a quiet satisfaction, like that of finishing the last bite of a perfectly41 ripe pear.
After spending the next several days trying to recapture the missing word, he had set Silence to studying the Acastan Spells. Together they had finally worked it out, a long toil42. "Like ploughing with a blind ox," Dulse said.
Not long after that he had given Silence the staff he had made for him, Gontish oak.
And the Lord of Gont Port had tried once again to get Dulse to come down to do what needed doing in Gont Port, and Dulse had sent Silence down instead, and there he had stayed.
And Dulse was standing43 on his own doorstep, three eggs in his hand and the rain running cold down his back.
How long had he been standing here? Why was he standing here? He had been thinking about mud, about the floor, about Silence. Had he been out walking on the path above the Overfell? No, that was years ago, years ago, in the sunlight. It was raining. He had fed the chickens, and come back to the house with three eggs, they were still warm in his hand, silky brown lukewarm eggs, and the sound of thunder was still in his mind, the vibration44 of thunder was in his bones, in his feet. Thunder?
No. There had been a thunderclap, a while ago. This was not thunder. He had had this queer feeling and had not recognized it, back then, before the earthquake that had sunk a half mile of the coast at Essary and swamped the wharfs46 at Gont Port.
He stepped down from the doorstep onto the dirt so that he could feel the ground with the nerves of his soles, but the mud slimed and fouled47 any messages the dirt had for him. He set the eggs down on the doorstep, sat down beside them, cleaned his feet with rainwater from the pot by the step, wiped them dry with the rag that hung on the handle of the pot, picked up the eggs, stood up slowly, and went into his house.
He gave a sharp look at his staff, which leaned in the corner behind the door. He put the eggs in the larder48, ate an apple quickly because he was hungry, and took his staff. It was yew49, bound at the foot with copper50, worn to silk at the grip. Nemmerle had given it to him.
 "Stand!" he said to it in its language, and let go of it. It stood as if he had driven it into a socket51.
"To the root," he said impatiently, in the language of the Making. "To the root!"
He watched the staff that stood on the shining floor. In a little while he saw it quiver very slightly, a shiver, a tremble.
"Ah, ah, ah," said the old wizard.
"What should I do?" he said aloud after a while.
The staff swayed, was still, shivered again.
"Enough of that, my dear," Dulse said, laying his hand on it. "Come now. No wonder I kept thinking about Silence. I should send for him ... send to him ... No. What did Ard say? Find the center, find the center. That's the question to ask. That's what to do..." As he muttered on to himself, routing out his heavy cloak, setting water to boil on the small fire he had lighted earlier, he wondered if he had always talked to himself, if he had talked all the time when Silence lived with him. No, it had become a habit after Silence left, he thought, with the bit of his mind that went on thinking the ordinary thoughts of life, while the rest of it made preparations for terror and destruction.
He hard-boiled the three new eggs and one already in the larder and put them into a pouch52 along with four apples and a bladder of resinated wine, in case he had to stay out all night. He shrugged53 arthritically into his heavy cloak, took up his staff, told the fire to go out, and left.
He no longer kept a cow. He stood looking into the poultry yard, considering. The fox had been visiting the orchard54 lately. But the birds would have to forage55 if he stayed away. They must take their chances, like everyone else. He opened their gate a little. Though the rain was no more than a misty56 drizzle57 now, they stayed hunched58 up under the henhouse eaves, disconsolate59. The King had not crowed once this morning.
"Have you anything to tell me?" Dulse asked them.
Brown Bucca, his favorite, shook herself and said her name a few times. The others said nothing.
"Well, take care. I saw the fox on the full-moon night," Dulse said, and went on his way.
As he walked he thought; he thought hard; he recalled. He recalled all he could of matters his teacher had spoken of once only and long ago. Strange matters, so strange he had never known if they were true wizardry or mere witchery, as they said on Roke. Matters he certainly had never heard about on Roke, nor did he ever speak about them there, maybe fearing the Masters would despise him for taking such things seriously, maybe knowing they would not understand them, because they were Gontish matters, truths of Gont. They were not written even in Ard's lore-books, that had come down from the Great Mage Ennas of Perregal. They were all word of mouth. They were home truths.
"If you need to read the Mountain," his teacher had told him, "go to the Dark Pond at the top of Semere's cow pasture. You can see the ways from there. You need to find the center. See where to go in."
"Go in?" the boy Dulse had whispered.
"What could you do from outside?"
Dulse was silent for a long time, and then said, "How?"
"Thus." And Ard's long arms had stretched out and upward in the invocation of what Dulse would know later was a great spell of Transforming. Ard spoke the words of the spell awry60, as teachers of wizardry must do lest the spell operate. Dulse knew the trick of hearing them aright and remembering them. At the end he repeated them in his mind in silence, sketching61 the strange, awkward gestures that were part of them. All at once his hand stopped.
"But you can't undo30 this!" he said aloud.
Ard nodded. "It is irrevocable".
Dulse knew no transformation62 that was irrevocable, no spell that could not be unsaid, except the Word of Unbinding, which is spoken only once.
"But why-?"
"At need," Ard said.
Dulse knew better than to ask for explanation. The need to speak such a spell could not come often; the chance of his ever having to use it was very slight. He let the terrible spell sink down in his mind and be hidden and layered over with a thousand useful or beautiful or enlightening mageries and charms, all the lore and rules of Roke, all the wisdom of the books Ard had bequeathed him. Crude, monstrous63, useless, it lay in the dark of his mind for sixty years, like the cornerstone of an earlier, forgotten house down in the cellar of a mansion64 full of lights and treasures and children.
The rain had ceased, though mist still hid the peak and shreds65 of cloud drifted through the high forests. Dulse was not a tireless walker like Silence, who would have spent his life wandering in the forests of Gont Mountain if he could; but he had been born in Re Albi and knew the roads and ways around it as part of himself. He took the shortcut66 at Rissi's well and came out before midday on Semere's high pasture, a level step on the mountainside. A mile below it, all sunlit now, the farm buildings stood in the lee of a hill, across which a flock of sheep moved like a cloud-shadow. Gont Port and its bay were hidden under the steep, knotted hills that stood above the city.
Dulse wandered about a bit before he found what he took to be the Dark Pond. It was small, half mud and reeds, with one vague, boggy67 path to the water, and no track on that but goat-hoofs. The water was dark, though it lay out under the bright sky and far above the peat soils. Dulse followed the goat-tracks, growling68 when his foot slipped in the mud and he wrenched69 his ankle to keep from falling. At the brink70 of the water he stood still. He stooped to rub his ankle. He listened.
It was absolutely silent.
No wind. No birdcall. No distant lowing or bleating71 or call of voice. As if all the island had gone still. Not a fly buzzed.
He looked at the dark water. It reflected nothing.
Reluctant, he stepped forward, barefoot and bare-legged; he had rolled up his cloak into his pack an hour ago when the sun came out. Reeds brushed his legs. The mud was soft and sucking under his feet, full of tangling72 reed-roots. He made no noise as he moved slowly out into the pool, and the circles of ripples73 from his movement were slight and small. It was shallow for a long way. Then his cautious foot felt no bottom, and he paused.
The water shivered. He felt it first on his thighs74, a lapping like the tickling75 touch of fur; then he saw it, the trembling of the surface all over the pond. Not the round ripples he made, which had already died away, but a ruffling76, a roughening, a shudder77, again, and again.
"Where?" he whispered, and then said the word aloud in the language all things understand that have no other language.
There was the silence. Then a fish leapt from the black, shaking water, a white-grey fish the length of his hand, and as it leapt it cried out in a small, clear voice, in that same language, "Yaved!"
The old wizard stood there. He recollected78 all he knew of the names of Gont, and after a while he saw where Yaved was. It was the place where the ridges79 parted, just inland from Gont Port; the hinge of the headlands above the city; the place of the fault. An earthquake centered there could shake the city down, bring avalanche80 and tidal wave, close the cliffs of the bay together like hands clapping. Dulse shivered, shuddered81 all over like the water of the pool.
He turned and made for the shore, hasty, careless where he set his feet and not caring if he broke the silence by splashing and breathing hard. He slogged back up the path through the reeds till he reached dry ground and coarse grass, and heard the buzz of midges and crickets. He sat down then on the ground, rather hard, for his legs were shaking.
"It won't do," he said, talking to himself in Hardic, and then he said, "I can't do it." Then he said, "I can't do it by myself."
He was so distraught that when he made up his mind to call Silence he could not think of the opening of the spell, which he had known for sixty years; then when he thought he had it, he began to speak a Summoning instead, and the spell had begun to work before he realised what he was doing and stopped and undid82 it word by word.
He pulled up some grass and rubbed at the slimy mud on his feet and legs. It was not dry yet, and only smeared83 about on his skin. "I hate mud," he whispered. Then he snapped his jaws84 and stopped trying to clean his legs. "Dirt, dirt," he said, gently patting the ground he sat on. Then, very slow, very careful, he began to speak the spell of calling.

In a busy street leading down to the busy wharfs of Gont Port, the wizard Ogion stopped short. The ship's captain beside him walked on several steps and turned to see Ogion talking to the air.
"But I will come, master!" he said. And then after a pause, "How soon?" And after a longer pause, he told the air something in a language the ship's captain did not understand, and made a gesture that darkened the air about him for an instant.
"Captain," he said, "I'm sorry, I must wait to spell your sails. An earthquake is near. I must warn the city. Do you tell them down there, every ship that can sail make for the open sea. Clear out, past the Armed Cliffs! Good luck to you." And he turned and ran back up the street, a tall, strong man with rough greying hair, running now like a stag.

Gont Port lies at the inner end of a long narrow bay between steep shores. Its entrance from the sea is between two great headlands, the Gates of the Port, the Armed Cliffs, not a hundred feet apart. They are safe from sea-pirates in Gont Port. But their safety is their danger; the long bay follows a fault in the earth, and jaws that have opened may shut.
When he had done what he could to warn the city, and seen all the gate-guards and port-guards doing what they could to keep the few roads out from becoming choked and murderous with panicky people, Ogion shut himself into a room in the signal tower of the Port, locked the door, for everybody wanted him at once, and sent a sending to the Dark Pond in Semere's cow pasture up on the Mountain.
His old master was sitting in the grass near the pond, eating an apple. Bits of eggshell flecked the ground near his legs, which were caked with drying mud. When he looked up and saw Ogion's sending he smiled a wide, sweet smile. But he looked old. He had never looked so old. Ogion had not seen him for over a year, having been busy; he was always busy in Gont Port, doing the business of the lords and people, never a chance to walk in the forests on the mountainside or to come sit with Heleth in the little house at Re Albi and listen and be still. Heleth was an old man, near eighty now; and he was frightened. He smiled with joy to see Ogion, but he was frightened.
"I think what we have to do," he said without preamble85, "is try to hold the fault from slipping much, you at the Gates and me at the inner end, in the Mountain. Working together, you know. We might be able to. I can feel it building up, can you?"
Ogion shook his head. He let his sending sit down in the grass near Heleth, though it did not bend the stems of the grass where it stepped or sat. "I've done nothing but set the city in a panic," he said. "And send the ships out of the bay. What is it you feel? How do you feel it?"
They were technical questions, mage to mage. Heleth hesitated before answering.
"I learned about this from Ard," he said, and paused again.
He had never told Ogion anything about his first teacher, a sorcerer of no fame, even in Gont, and perhaps of ill fame. There was some mystery or shame connected with Ard. Though he was talkative, for a wizard, Heleth was silent as a stone about some things. Ogion, who respected silence, had never asked him about his teacher.
"It's not Roke magic," the old man said. His voice was dry, a little forced. "Not to do with the Old Powers, either. Nothing of that sort. Nothing sticky."
That had always been his word for evil doings, spells for gain, curses, black magic: "sticky stuff."
After a while, searching for words, he went on: "Dirt. Rocks. It's a dirty magic. Old. Very old. As old as Gont Island."
"The Old Powers?" Ogion murmured.
Heleth said. "I'm not sure."
"Will it control the earth itself?"
"More a mater of getting in with it, I think." The old man was burying the core of his apple and the larger bits of eggshell under loose dirt, patting it over them neatly86. "Of course I know the words, but I'll have to learn what to do as I go. That's the trouble with the big spells, isn't it? You learn what you're doing while you do it. No chance to practice. "Ah-there! You feel that?"
Ogion shook his head.
"Straining," Heleth said, his hand still absently, gently patting the dirt as one might pat a scared cow. "Quite soon now, I think. Can you hold the Gates open, my dear?"
"Tell me what you'll be doing-"
But Heleth was shaking his head: "No," he said, "no time. Not your kind of thing." He was more and more distracted by whatever it was he sensed in the earth or air, and through him Ogion felt that gathering, intolerable tension.
They sat unspeaking. The crisis passed. Heleth relaxed a little and even smiled. "Very old stuff," he said, "what I'll be doing. I wish now I'd thought about it more. Passed it on to you. But it seemed a bit crude. Heavy-handed ... She didn't say where she'd learned it. Here, of course ... There are different kinds of knowledge, after all."
"She?"
"Ard. My teacher." Heleth looked up, his face unreadable, its expression possibly sly. "You didn't know that? No, I suppose I never mentioned it. But it doesn't make much difference, after all. Since we none of us have any sex, us wizards, do we? What matters is whose house we live in. It seems we may have left out a good deal worth knowing. This kind of thing-There! There again-"
His sudden tension and immobility, the strained face and inward look, were like those of a woman in labor87 when her womb contracts. That was Ogion's thought, even as he said, "What did you mean, "in the Mountain'?"
The spasm88 passed; Heleth answered, "Inside it. There at Yaved." He pointed89 to the knotted hills below them. "I'll go in, try to keep things from sliding around, eh? I'll find out when I'm doing it, no doubt. I think you should be getting back to yourself. Things are tightening90 up." He stopped again, looking as if he were in intense pain, hunched and clenched91. He struggled to stand up. Unthinking, Ogion held out his hand to help him.
"No use," said the old wizard, grinning, "you're only wind and sunlight. Now I'm going to be dirt and stone. You'd best go on. Farewell, Aihal. Keep the-keep the mouth open, for once, eh?"
Ogion, obedient, bringing himself back to himself in the stuffy92, tapestried93 room in Gont Port, did not understand the old man's joke until he turned to the window and saw the Armed Cliffs down at the end of the long bay, the jaws ready to snap shut. "I will," he said, and set to it.

"What I have to do, you see," the old wizard said, still talking to Silence because it was a comfort to talk to him even if he was no longer there, "is get into the mountain, right inside; but not the way a sorcerer-prospector does; not just slipping about between things and looking and tasting. Deeper. All the way in. Not the veins94, but the bones. So," and standing there alone in the high pasture, in the noon light, Heleth opened his arms wide in the gesture of invocation that opens all the greater spells; and he spoke.
Nothing happened as he said the words Ard had taught him, his old witch-teacher with her bitter mouth and her long, lean arms, the words spoken awry then, spoken truly now.
Nothing happened, and he had time to regret the sunlight and the seawind, and to doubt the spell, and to doubt himself, before the earth rose up around him, dry, warm, and dark.
In there he knew he should hurry, that the bones of the earth ached to move, and that he must become them to guide them, but he could not hurry. There was on him the bewilderment of any transformation. He had in his day been fox, and bull, and dragonfly, and knew what it was to change being. But this was different, this slow enlargement. I am vastening, he thought.
He reached out towards Yaved, towards the ache, the suffering. As he came closer to it he felt a great strength flow into him from the west, as if Silence had taken him by the hand after all. Through that link he could send his own strength, the Mountain's strength, to help. I didn't tell him I wasn't coming back, he thought, his last words in Hardic, his last grief, for he was in the bones of the mountain now. He knew the arteries95 of fire, and the beat of the great heart. He knew what to do. It was in no tongue of man that he said, "Be quiet, be easy. There now, there. Hold fast. So, there. We can be easy."
 And he was easy, he was still, he held fast, rock in rock and earth in earth in the fiery96 dark of the mountain.

It was their mage Ogion whom the people saw stand alone on the roof of the signal tower on the wharf45, when the streets ran up and down in waves, the cobbles bursting out of them, and walls of clay brick puffed97 into dust, and the Armed Cliffs leaned together, groaning98. It was Ogion they saw, his hands held out before him, straining, parting: and the cliffs parted with them, and stood straight, unmoved. The city shuddered and stood still. It was Ogion who stopped the earthquake. They saw it, they said it.
My teacher was with me, and his teacher with him," Ogion said when they praised him. "I could hold the Gate open because he held the Mountain still." They praised his modesty99 and did not listen to him. Listening is a rare gift, and men will have their heroes.
When the city was in order again, and the ships had all come back, and the walls were being rebuilt, Ogion escaped from praise and went up into the hills above Gont Port. He found the queer little valley called Trimmer's Dell, the true name of which in the language of the Making was Yaved, as Ogion's true name was Aihal. He walked about there all one day, as if seeking something. In the evening he lay down on the ground and talked to it. "You should have told me, I could have said goodbye," he said. He wept once, and his tears fell on the dry dirt among the grass-stems and made little spots of mud, little sticky spots.
He slept there, on the ground. At sunrise he got up and walked by the high road over to Re Albi. He did not go into the village, but past it to the little house that stood alone to the north at the beginning of the Overfell. The door of the house stood open.
The last beans had got big and coarse on the vines; the cabbages were thriving. Three hens came clucking and pecking around the dusty dooryard, a red, a brown, a white; a grey hen was setting her clutch in the henhouse. There were no chicks, and no sign of the cock, the King, Heleth had called him. The king is dead, Ogion thought. Maybe a chick is hatching even now to take his place. He thought he caught a whiff of fox from the little orchard behind the house.
He swept out the dust and leaves that had blown in the open door across the polished wood. He set Heleth's mattress100 and blanket in the sun to air. "I'll stay here a while," he thought. "It's a good house." After a while he thought, "I might keep some goats."


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tempted b0182e969d369add1b9ce2353d3c6ad6     
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词)
参考例句:
  • I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚,但还是没开口。
  • I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。
2 ailed 50a34636157e2b6a2de665d07aaa43c4     
v.生病( ail的过去式和过去分词 );感到不舒服;处境困难;境况不佳
参考例句:
  • Never in his life had Robin ailed before. 罗宾过去从未生过病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I wasn't in form, that's what ailed me.\" 我的竞技状态不佳,我输就输在这一点上。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
3 doorway 2s0xK     
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径
参考例句:
  • They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
  • Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。
4 growl VeHzE     
v.(狗等)嗥叫,(炮等)轰鸣;n.嗥叫,轰鸣
参考例句:
  • The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫,尾巴也跟着摇摆。
  • The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。
5 hood ddwzJ     
n.头巾,兜帽,覆盖;v.罩上,以头巾覆盖
参考例句:
  • She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
  • The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。
6 mites d5df57c25d6a534a9cab886a451cde43     
n.(尤指令人怜悯的)小孩( mite的名词复数 );一点点;一文钱;螨
参考例句:
  • The only discovered animals are water bears, mites, microscopic rotifers. 能够发现的动物只有海蜘蛛、螨和微小的轮虫。 来自辞典例句
  • Mites are frequently found on eggs. 螨会经常出现在蛋上。 来自辞典例句
7 scruffy YsWyG     
adj.肮脏的,不洁的
参考例句:
  • Despite her scruffy clothes,there was an air of sophistication about her.尽管她衣衫褴褛,但神态老练世故。
  • His scruffy appearance does not reflect his character.他邋遢的外表并不反映他的性格。
8 jaded fqnzXN     
adj.精疲力竭的;厌倦的;(因过饱或过多而)腻烦的;迟钝的
参考例句:
  • I felt terribly jaded after working all weekend. 整个周末工作之后我感到疲惫不堪。
  • Here is a dish that will revive jaded palates. 这道菜简直可以恢复迟钝的味觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 poultry GPQxh     
n.家禽,禽肉
参考例句:
  • There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
  • What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?
10 candor CN8zZ     
n.坦白,率真
参考例句:
  • He covered a wide range of topics with unusual candor.他极其坦率地谈了许多问题。
  • He and his wife had avoided candor,and they had drained their marriage.他们夫妻间不坦率,已使婚姻奄奄一息。
11 huddled 39b87f9ca342d61fe478b5034beb4139     
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
  • We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。
12 squelched 904cdd7ae791d767354939bd309ea2ce     
v.发吧唧声,发扑哧声( squelch的过去式和过去分词 );制止;压制;遏制
参考例句:
  • We squelched over the soggy ground. 我们咕唧咕唧地走过泥泞的土地。
  • The mud squelched as I walked through it. 我扑哧扑哧地穿过泥泞。
13 thoroughly sgmz0J     
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地
参考例句:
  • The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
  • The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。
14 mere rC1xE     
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
参考例句:
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
15 softened 19151c4e3297eb1618bed6a05d92b4fe     
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰
参考例句:
  • His smile softened slightly. 他的微笑稍柔和了些。
  • The ice cream softened and began to melt. 冰淇淋开始变软并开始融化。
16 bog QtfzF     
n.沼泽;室...陷入泥淖
参考例句:
  • We were able to pass him a rope before the bog sucked him under.我们终于得以在沼泽把他吞没前把绳子扔给他。
  • The path goes across an area of bog.这条小路穿过一片沼泽。
17 gathering ChmxZ     
n.集会,聚会,聚集
参考例句:
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
18 grumbled ed735a7f7af37489d7db1a9ef3b64f91     
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声
参考例句:
  • He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低。
  • The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 天热得让人发昏,水手们边干活边发着牢骚。
19 warp KgBwx     
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见
参考例句:
  • The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
  • A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。
20 spoke XryyC     
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
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
21 lore Y0YxW     
n.传说;学问,经验,知识
参考例句:
  • I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他,向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
  • Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。
22 glosses 06b65dbe6857b06a7a412502c293fc2e     
n.(页末或书后的)注释( gloss的名词复数 );(表面的)光滑;虚假的外表;用以产生光泽的物质v.注解( gloss的第三人称单数 );掩饰(错误);粉饰;把…搪塞过去
参考例句:
  • The movie glosses over the real issues of the war. 这部电影掩饰了这次战争的真正问题。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Time inevitably glosses over the particularities of each situation. 时间不可避免地掩饰了每种情形的特质。 来自互联网
23 earnings rrWxJ     
n.工资收人;利润,利益,所得
参考例句:
  • That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
  • Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。
24 immortality hkuys     
n.不死,不朽
参考例句:
  • belief in the immortality of the soul 灵魂不灭的信念
  • It was like having immortality while you were still alive. 仿佛是当你仍然活着的时候就得到了永生。
25 bully bully     
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
参考例句:
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
26 humiliate odGzW     
v.使羞辱,使丢脸[同]disgrace
参考例句:
  • What right had they to bully and humiliate people like this?凭什么把人欺侮到这个地步呢?
  • They pay me empty compliments which only humiliate me.他们虚情假意地恭维我,这只能使我感到羞辱。
27 thwart wIRzZ     
v.阻挠,妨碍,反对;adj.横(断的)
参考例句:
  • We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
  • I don't think that will thwart our purposes.我认为那不会使我们的目的受到挫折。
28 hatred T5Gyg     
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨
参考例句:
  • He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
  • The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。
29 reconciliation DUhxh     
n.和解,和谐,一致
参考例句:
  • He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
  • Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。
30 undo Ok5wj     
vt.解开,松开;取消,撤销
参考例句:
  • His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
  • I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。
31 middle-aged UopzSS     
adj.中年的
参考例句:
  • I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
  • The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。
32 hearth n5by9     
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面
参考例句:
  • She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来,在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
  • She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里,打开电灯。
33 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
34 stammering 232ca7f6dbf756abab168ca65627c748     
v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • He betrayed nervousness by stammering. 他说话结结巴巴说明他胆子小。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • \"Why,\" he said, actually stammering, \"how do you do?\" “哎呀,\"他说,真的有些结结巴巴,\"你好啊?” 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
35 ingratitude O4TyG     
n.忘恩负义
参考例句:
  • Tim's parents were rather hurt by his ingratitude.蒂姆的父母对他的忘恩负义很痛心。
  • His friends were shocked by his ingratitude to his parents.他对父母不孝,令他的朋友们大为吃惊。
36 deigned 8217aa94d4db9a2202bbca75c27b7acd     
v.屈尊,俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Carrie deigned no suggestion of hearing this. 嘉莉不屑一听。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • Carrie scarcely deigned to reply. 嘉莉不屑回答。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
37 rusted 79e453270dbdbb2c5fc11d284e95ff6e     
v.(使)生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝,它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了,需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》
38 apprentices e0646768af2b65d716a2024e19b5f15e     
学徒,徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • They were mere apprentices to piracy. 他们干海盗仅仅是嫩角儿。
  • He has two good apprentices working with him. 他身边有两个好徒弟。
39 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
40 generosity Jf8zS     
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为
参考例句:
  • We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
  • We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。
41 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
42 toil WJezp     
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事
参考例句:
  • The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
  • Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。
43 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
44 vibration nLDza     
n.颤动,振动;摆动
参考例句:
  • There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
  • The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。
45 wharf RMGzd     
n.码头,停泊处
参考例句:
  • We fetch up at the wharf exactly on time.我们准时到达码头。
  • We reached the wharf gasping for breath.我们气喘吁吁地抵达了码头。
46 wharfs 8321849b18b6ec48fc8ac01b78bad8a7     
码头,停泊处
参考例句:
  • Meanwhile, technological renovation of multi-purpose wharfs at various ports will be accelerated. 同时加快港口多用途码头的技术改造。 来自互联网
  • At present there are many wharfs with sheet-pile framework in China. 目前国内已建有许多采用板桩结构的码头。 来自互联网
47 fouled e3aea4b0e24d5219b3ee13ab76c137ae     
v.使污秽( foul的过去式和过去分词 );弄脏;击球出界;(通常用废物)弄脏
参考例句:
  • Blue suit and reddish-brown socks!He had fouled up again. 蓝衣服和红褐色短袜!他又搞错了。
  • The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories. 整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
48 larder m9tzb     
n.食物贮藏室,食品橱
参考例句:
  • Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
  • They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。
49 yew yew     
n.紫杉属树木
参考例句:
  • The leaves of yew trees are poisonous to cattle.紫杉树叶会令牛中毒。
  • All parts of the yew tree are poisonous,including the berries.紫杉的各个部分都有毒,包括浆果。
50 copper HZXyU     
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的
参考例句:
  • The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
  • Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。
51 socket jw9wm     
n.窝,穴,孔,插座,插口
参考例句:
  • He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
  • The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。
52 pouch Oi1y1     
n.小袋,小包,囊状袋;vt.装...入袋中,用袋运输;vi.用袋送信件
参考例句:
  • He was going to make a tobacco pouch out of them. 他要用它们缝制一个烟草袋。
  • The old man is always carrying a tobacco pouch with him.这老汉总是随身带着烟袋。
53 shrugged 497904474a48f991a3d1961b0476ebce     
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀,什么也没说。
  • She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩,装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
54 orchard UJzxu     
n.果园,果园里的全部果树,(美俚)棒球场
参考例句:
  • My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
  • Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。
55 forage QgyzP     
n.(牛马的)饲料,粮草;v.搜寻,翻寻
参考例句:
  • They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.他们不得不去寻找衣服和燃料。
  • Now the nutritive value of the forage is reduced.此时牧草的营养价值也下降了。
56 misty l6mzx     
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的
参考例句:
  • He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿,看看是不是还有雾霭。
  • The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。
57 drizzle Mrdxn     
v.下毛毛雨;n.毛毛雨,蒙蒙细雨
参考例句:
  • The shower tailed off into a drizzle.阵雨越来越小,最后变成了毛毛雨。
  • Yesterday the radio forecast drizzle,and today it is indeed raining.昨天预报有小雨,今天果然下起来了。
58 hunched 532924f1646c4c5850b7c607069be416     
(常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦)耸肩弓身的,伏首前倾的
参考例句:
  • He sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。
  • Stephen hunched down to light a cigarette. 斯蒂芬弓着身子点燃一支烟。
59 disconsolate OuOxR     
adj.忧郁的,不快的
参考例句:
  • He looked so disconsolate that It'scared her.他看上去情绪很坏,吓了她一跳。
  • At the dress rehearsal she was disconsolate.彩排时她闷闷不乐。
60 awry Mu0ze     
adj.扭曲的,错的
参考例句:
  • She was in a fury over a plan that had gone awry. 计划出了问题,她很愤怒。
  • Something has gone awry in our plans.我们的计划出差错了。
61 sketching 2df579f3d044331e74dce85d6a365dd7     
n.草图
参考例句:
  • They are sketching out proposals for a new road. 他们正在草拟修建新路的计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • "Imagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. “飞舞驰骋的想象描绘出一幅幅玫瑰色欢乐的场景。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
62 transformation SnFwO     
n.变化;改造;转变
参考例句:
  • Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
  • He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。
63 monstrous vwFyM     
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的
参考例句:
  • The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升,形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
  • Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人!
64 mansion 8BYxn     
n.大厦,大楼;宅第
参考例句:
  • The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
  • The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。
65 shreds 0288daa27f5fcbe882c0eaedf23db832     
v.撕碎,切碎( shred的第三人称单数 );用撕毁机撕毁(文件)
参考例句:
  • Peel the carrots and cut them into shreds. 将胡罗卜削皮,切成丝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I want to take this diary and rip it into shreds. 我真想一赌气扯了这日记。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
66 shortcut Cyswg     
n.近路,捷径
参考例句:
  • He was always looking for a shortcut to fame and fortune.他总是在找成名发财的捷径。
  • If you take the shortcut,it will be two li closer.走抄道去要近2里路。
67 boggy boggy     
adj.沼泽多的
参考例句:
  • Of, resembling, or characterized by a marsh or marshes; boggy. 沼泽般的,湿软的:类似沼泽地的,沼泽地所特有的;多沼泽的。 来自互联网
  • The boggy is out of order, would be instead another one! 球车坏了,需要更换一部。 来自互联网
68 growling growling     
n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼
参考例句:
  • We heard thunder growling in the distance. 我们听见远处有隆隆雷声。
  • The lay about the deck growling together in talk. 他们在甲板上到处游荡,聚集在一起发牢骚。
69 wrenched c171af0af094a9c29fad8d3390564401     
v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛
参考例句:
  • The bag was wrenched from her grasp. 那只包从她紧握的手里被夺了出来。
  • He wrenched the book from her hands. 他从她的手中把书拧抢了过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
70 brink OWazM     
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿
参考例句:
  • The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
  • The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。
71 bleating ba46da1dd0448d69e0fab1a7ebe21b34     
v.(羊,小牛)叫( bleat的现在分词 );哭诉;发出羊叫似的声音;轻声诉说
参考例句:
  • I don't like people who go around bleating out things like that. 我不喜欢跑来跑去讲那种蠢话的人。 来自辞典例句
  • He heard the tinny phonograph bleating as he walked in. 他步入室内时听到那架蹩脚的留声机在呜咽。 来自辞典例句
72 tangling 06e2d6380988bb94672d6dde48f3ec3c     
(使)缠结, (使)乱作一团( tangle的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • During match with football, sportsman is like tangling on the football field. 足球比赛时,运动员似在足球场上混战。
  • Furthermore the built in cable rewind prevents tangling and prolongs cable life. 此外,在防止缠绕电缆退建,延长电缆使用寿命。
73 ripples 10e54c54305aebf3deca20a1472f4b96     
逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The moon danced on the ripples. 月亮在涟漪上舞动。
  • The sea leaves ripples on the sand. 海水在沙滩上留下了波痕。
74 thighs e4741ffc827755fcb63c8b296150ab4e     
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿
参考例句:
  • He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
75 tickling 8e56dcc9f1e9847a8eeb18aa2a8e7098     
反馈,回授,自旋挠痒法
参考例句:
  • Was It'spring tickling her senses? 是不是春意撩人呢?
  • Its origin is in tickling and rough-and-tumble play, he says. 他说,笑的起源来自于挠痒痒以及杂乱无章的游戏。
76 ruffling f5a3df16ac01b1e31d38c8ab7061c27b     
弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 ); 弄乱; 激怒; 扰乱
参考例句:
  • A cool breeze brushed his face, ruffling his hair. 一阵凉风迎面拂来,吹乱了他的头发。
  • "Indeed, they do not,'said Pitty, ruffling. "说真的,那倒不一定。" 皮蒂皱皱眉头,表示异议。
77 shudder JEqy8     
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动
参考例句:
  • The sight of the coffin sent a shudder through him.看到那副棺材,他浑身一阵战栗。
  • We all shudder at the thought of the dreadful dirty place.我们一想到那可怕的肮脏地方就浑身战惊。
78 recollected 38b448634cd20e21c8e5752d2b820002     
adj.冷静的;镇定的;被回忆起的;沉思默想的v.记起,想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • I recollected that she had red hair. 我记得她有一头红发。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • His efforts, the Duke recollected many years later, were distinctly half-hearted. 据公爵许多年之后的回忆,他当时明显只是敷衍了事。 来自辞典例句
79 ridges 9198b24606843d31204907681f48436b     
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 );山脊;脊状突起;大气层的)高压脊
参考例句:
  • The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
  • Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上,这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。
80 avalanche 8ujzl     
n.雪崩,大量涌来
参考例句:
  • They were killed by an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.他们在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的一次雪崩中罹难。
  • Higher still the snow was ready to avalanche.在更高处积雪随时都会崩塌。
81 shuddered 70137c95ff493fbfede89987ee46ab86     
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动
参考例句:
  • He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车,车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
82 Undid 596b2322b213e046510e91f0af6a64ad     
v. 解开, 复原
参考例句:
  • The officer undid the flap of his holster and drew his gun. 军官打开枪套盖拔出了手枪。
  • He did wrong, and in the end his wrongs undid him. 行恶者终以其恶毁其身。
83 smeared c767e97773b70cc726f08526efd20e83     
弄脏; 玷污; 涂抹; 擦上
参考例句:
  • The children had smeared mud on the walls. 那几个孩子往墙上抹了泥巴。
  • A few words were smeared. 有写字被涂模糊了。
84 jaws cq9zZq     
n.口部;嘴
参考例句:
  • The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
  • The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。
85 preamble 218ze     
n.前言;序文
参考例句:
  • He spoke without preamble.他没有开场白地讲起来。
  • The controversy has arisen over the text of the preamble to the unification treaty.针对统一条约的序文出现了争论。
86 neatly ynZzBp     
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地
参考例句:
  • Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
  • The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。
87 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
88 spasm dFJzH     
n.痉挛,抽搐;一阵发作
参考例句:
  • When the spasm passed,it left him weak and sweating.一阵痉挛之后,他虚弱无力,一直冒汗。
  • He kicked the chair in a spasm of impatience.他突然变得不耐烦,一脚踢向椅子。
89 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
90 tightening 19aa014b47fbdfbc013e5abf18b64642     
上紧,固定,紧密
参考例句:
  • Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前,检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
  • It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。
91 clenched clenched     
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
  • She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上,以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
92 stuffy BtZw0     
adj.不透气的,闷热的
参考例句:
  • It's really hot and stuffy in here.这里实在太热太闷了。
  • It was so stuffy in the tent that we could sense the air was heavy with moisture.帐篷里很闷热,我们感到空气都是潮的。
93 tapestried 0b70f83ba57614082e48e89644f012b9     
adj.饰挂绣帷的,织在绣帷上的v.用挂毯(或绣帷)装饰( tapestry的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
94 veins 65827206226d9e2d78ea2bfe697c6329     
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理
参考例句:
  • The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的,感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》
95 arteries 821b60db0d5e4edc87fdf5fc263ba3f5     
n.动脉( artery的名词复数 );干线,要道
参考例句:
  • Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
96 fiery ElEye     
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的
参考例句:
  • She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
  • His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。
97 puffed 72b91de7f5a5b3f6bdcac0d30e24f8ca     
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧
参考例句:
  • He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟,狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了,便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
98 groaning groaning     
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
  • The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着,无人救助。
99 modesty REmxo     
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素
参考例句:
  • Industry and modesty are the chief factors of his success.勤奋和谦虚是他成功的主要因素。
  • As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后,谦虚使人进步。
100 mattress Z7wzi     
n.床垫,床褥
参考例句:
  • The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
  • The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。


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