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Chapter 3
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Every hour wounds. The last one kills.
-old saying

There was a thin young woman behind the counter at the Motel America. She told Shadow he had already been checked in by his friend, and gave him his rectangular plastic room key. She had pale blonde hair and a rodentlike quality to her face that was most apparent when she looked suspicious, and eased when she smiled. She refused to tell him Wednesday's room number, and insisted on telephoning Wednesday on the house phone to let him know his guest was here.

Wednesday came out of a room down the hall, and beckoned2 to Shadow.

"How was the funeral?" he asked.

"It's over," said Shadow.

"You want to talk about it?"

"No," said Shadow.

"Good." Wednesday grinned. "Too much talking these days. Talk talk talk. This country would get along much better if people learned how to suffer in silence."

Wednesday led the way back to his room, which was across the hall from Shadow's. There were maps all over the room, unfolded, spread out on the bed, taped to the walls. Wednesday had drawn3 all over the maps in bright marking pens, fluorescent4 greens and painful pinks and vivid oranges.

"I got hijacked6 by a fat kid," said Shadow. "He says to tell you that you have been consigned7 to the dungheap of history while people like him ride in their limos down the superhighways of life. Something like that."

"Little snot," said Wednesday.

"You know him?"

Wednesday shrugged8. "I know who he is." He sat down, heavily, on the room's only chair. "They don't have a clue," he said. "They don't have a fucking clue. How much longer do you need to stay in town?"

"I don't know. Maybe another week. I guess I need to wrap up Laura's affairs. Take care of the apartment, get rid of her clothes, all that. It'll drive her mother nuts, but the woman deserves it."

Wednesday nodded his huge head. "Well, the sooner you're done, the sooner we can move out of Eagle Point. Goodnight."

Shadow walked across the hall. His room was a duplicate of Wednesday's room, down to the print of a bloody9 sunset on the wall above the bed. He ordered a cheese and meatball pizza, then he ran a bath, pouring all the motel's little plastic bottles of shampoo into the water, making it foam10.

He was too big to lie down in the bathtub, but he sat in it and luxuriated as best he could. Shadow had promised himself a bath when he got out of prison, and Shadow kept his promises.

The pizza arrived shortly after he got out of the bath, and Shadow ate it, washing it down with a can of root beer.

Shadow lay in bed, thinking, This is my first bed as a free man, and the thought gave him less pleasure than he had imagined that it would. He left the drapes open, watched the lights of the cars and of the fast food joints11 through the window glass, comforted to know there was another world out there, one he could walk to anytime he wanted.

Shadow could have been in his bed at home, he thought, in the apartment that he had shared with Laura-in the bed that he had shared with Laura. But the thought of being there without her, surrounded by her things, her scent5, her life, was simply too painful...

Don't go there, thought Shadow. He decided12 to think about something else. He thought about coin tricks. Shadow knew that he did not have the personality to be a magician: he could not weave the stories that were so necessary for belief, nor did he wish to do card tricks, nor produce paper flowers. But he just wanted to manipulate coins; he liked the craft of it. He started to list the coin vanishes he had mastered, which reminded him of the coin he had tossed into Laura's grave, and then, in his head, Audrey was telling him that Laura had died with Robbie's cock in her mouth, and once again he felt a small hurt in his heart.

Every hour wounds. The last one kills. Where had he heard that?

He thought of Wednesday's comment and smiled, despite himself: Shadow had heard too many people telling each other not to repress their feelings, to let their emotions out, let the pain go. Shadow thought there was a lot to be said for bottling up emotions. If you did it long enough and deep enough, he suspected, pretty soon you wouldn't feel anything at all.

Sleep took him then, without Shadow noticing.

He was walking...

He was walking through a room bigger than a city, and everywhere he looked there were statues and carvings13 and rough-hewn images. He was standing14 beside a statue of a womanlike thing: her naked breasts hung flat and pendulous15 on her chest, around her waist was a chain of severed16 hands, both of her own hands held sharp knives, and, instead of a head, rising from her neck there were twin serpents, their bodies arched, facing each other, ready to attack. There was something profoundly disturbing about the statue, a deep and violent wrongness. Shadow backed away from it.

He began to walk through the hall. The carved eyes of those statues that had eyes seemed to follow his every step.

In his dream, he realized that each statue had a name burning on the floor in front of it. The man with the white hair, with a necklace of teeth about his neck, holding a drum, was Leucotios; the broad-hipped woman with monsters dropping from the vast gash17 between her legs was Hubur; the ram-headed man holding the golden ball was Hershef.

A precise voice, fussy18 and exact, was speaking to him, in his dream, but he could see no one.

"These are gods who have been forgotten, and now might as well be dead. They can be found only in dry histories. They are gone, all gone, but their names and their images remain with us."

Shadow turned a corner, and knew himself to be in another room, even vaster than the first. It went on farther than the eye could see. Close to him was the skull19 of a mammoth20, polished and brown, and a hairy ocher cloak, being worn by a small woman with a deformed21 left hand. Next to that were three women, each carved from the same granite22 boulder23, joined at the waist: their faces had an unfinished, hasty look to them, although their breasts and genitalia had been carved with elaborate care; and there was a flightless bird which Shadow did not recognize, twice his height, with a beak24 like a vulture's, but with human arms: and on, and on.

The voice spoke25 once more, as if it were addressing a class, saying, "These are the gods who have passed out of memory. Even their names are lost. The people who worshiped them are as forgotten as their gods. Their totems are long since broken and cast down. Their last priests died without passing on their secrets.

"Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end."

There was a whispering noise that began then to run through the hall, a low susurrus that caused Shadow, in his dream, to experience a chilling and inexplicable26 fear. An all-engulfing panic took him, there in the halls of the gods whose very existence had been forgotten-octopus-faced gods and gods who were only mummified hands or falling rocks or forest fires...

Shadow woke with his heart jackhammering in his chest, his forehead clammy, entirely27 awake. The red numerals on the bedside clock told him the time was 1:03 A.M. The light of the Motel America sign outside shone through his bedroom window. Disoriented, Shadow got up and walked into the tiny motel bathroom. He pissed without turning on the lights, and returned to the bedroom. The dream was still fresh and vivid in his mind's eye, but he could not explain to himself why it had scared him so.

The light that came into the room from outside was not bright, but Shadow's eyes had become used to the dark. There was a woman sitting on the side of his bed.

He knew her. He would have known her in a crowd of a thousand, or of a hundred thousand. She was still wearing the navy blue suit they had buried her in.

Her voice was a whisper, but a familiar line. "I guess," said Laura, "you're going to ask what I'm doing here."

Shadow said nothing.

He sat down on the room's only chair and, finally, asked, "Is that you?"

"Yes," she said. "I'm cold, puppy."

"You're dead, babe."

"Yes," she said. "Yes. I am." She patted the bed next to her. "Come and sit by me," she said.

"No," said Shadow. "I think I'll stay right here for now. We have some unresolved issues to address."

"Like me being dead?"

"Possibly, but I was thinking more of how you died. You and Robbie."

"Oh," she said. "That."

Shadow could smell-or perhaps, he thought, he simply imagined that he smelled-an odor of rot, of flowers and preservatives28. His wife-his ex-wife...no, he corrected himself, his late wife-sat on the bed and stared at him, unblinking.

"Puppy," she said. "Could you-do you think you could possibly get me-a cigarette?"

"I thought you gave them up."

"I did," she said. "But I'm no longer concerned about the health risks. And I think it would calm my nerves. There's a machine in the lobby."

Shadow pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt and went, barefoot, into the lobby. The night clerk was a middle-aged29 man, reading a book by John Grisham. Shadow bought a pack of Virginia Slims from the machine. He asked the night clerk for a book of matches.

"You're in a nonsmoking room," said the clerk. "You make sure you open the window, now." He passed Shadow a book of matches and a plastic ashtray30 with the Motel America logo on it.

"Got it," said Shadow.

He went back into his bedroom. She had stretched out now, on top of his rumpled31 covers. Shadow opened the window and then passed her the cigarettes and the matches. Her fingers were cold. She lit a match and he saw that her nails, usually pristine32, were battered33 and chewed, and there was mud under them.

Laura lit the cigarette, inhaled34, blew out the match. She took another puff35. "I can't taste it," she said. "I don't think this is doing anything."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Me too," said Laura. When she inhaled the cigarette tip glowed, and he was able to see her face.

"So," she said. "They let you out."

"Yes."

The tip of the cigarette glowed orange. "I'm still grateful. I should never have got you mixed up in it."

"Well," he said, "I agreed to do it. I could have said no." He wondered why he wasn't scared of her: why a dream of a museum could leave him terrified, while he seemed to be coping with a walking corpse36 without fear.

"Yes," she said. "You could have. You big galoot." Smoke wreathed her face. She was very beautiful in the dim light. "You want to know about me and Robbie?"

"I guess."

She stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray. "You were in prison," she said. "And I needed someone to talk to. I needed a shoulder to cry on. You weren't there. I was upset."

"I'm sorry." Shadow realized something was different about her voice, and he tried to figure out what it was.

"I know. So we'd meet for coffee. Talk about what we'd do when you got out of prison. How good it would be to see you again. He really liked you, you know. He was looking forward to giving you back your old job."

"Yes."

"And then Audrey went to visit her sister for a week. This was, oh, a year, thirteen months after you'd gone away." Her voice lacked expression; each word was flat and dull, like pebbles37 dropped, one by one, into a deep well. "Robbie came over. We got drunk together. We did it on the floor of the bedroom. It was good. It was really good."

"I didn't need to hear that."

"No? I'm sorry. It's harder to pick and choose when you're dead. It's like a photograph, you know. It doesn't matter as much."

"It matters to me."

Laura lit another cigarette. Her movements were fluid and competent, not stiff. Shadow wondered, for a moment, if she was dead at all. Perhaps this was some kind of elaborate trick. "Yes," she said. "I see that. Well, we carried on our affair-although we didn't call it that, we did not call it anything-for most of the last two years."

"Were you going to leave me for him?"

"Why would I do that? You're my big bear. You're my puppy. You did what you did for me. I waited three years for you to come back to me. I love you."

He stopped himself from saying I love you, too. He wasn't going to say that. Not anymore. "So what happened the other night?"

"The night I was killed?"

"Yes."

"Well, Robbie and I went out to talk about your welcome-back surprise party. It would have been so good. And I told him that we were done. Finished. That now that you were back that was the way it had to be."

"Mm. Thank you, babe."

"You're welcome, darling." The ghost of a smile crossed her face. "We got maudlin38. It was sweet. We got stupid. I got very drunk. He didn't. He had to drive. We were driving home and I announced that I was going to give him a goodbye blowjob, one last time with feeling, and I unzipped his pants, and I did."

"Big mistake."

"Tell me about it. I knocked the gearshift with my shoulder, and then Robbie was trying to push me out of the way to put the car back in gear, and we were swerving39, and there was a loud crunch40 and I remember the world started to roll and to spin, and I thought, 'I'm going to die.' It was very dispassionate. I remember that. I wasn't scared. And then I don't remember anything more."

There was a smell like burning plastic. It was the cigarette, Shadow realized: it had burned down to the filter. Laura did not seem to have noticed.

"What are you doing here, Laura?"

"Can't a wife come and see her husband?"

"You're dead. I went to your funeral this afternoon."

"Yes." She stopped talking, stared into nothing. Shadow stood up and walked over to her. He took the smoldering41 cigarette butt42 from her fingers and threw it out of the window.

"Well?"

Her eyes sought his. "I don't know much more than I did when I was alive. Most of the stuff I know now that I didn't know then I can't put into words."

"Normally people who die stay in their graves," said Shadow.

"Do they? Do they really, puppy? I used to think they did too. Now I'm not so sure. Perhaps." She climbed off the bed and walked over to the window. Her face, in the light of the motel sign, was as beautiful as it had ever been. The face of the woman he had gone to prison for.

His heart hurt in his chest as if someone had taken it in a fist and squeezed. "Laura...?"

She did not look at him. "You've gotten yourself mixed up in some bad things, Shadow. You're going to screw it up, if someone isn't there to watch out for you. I'm watching out for you. And thank you for my present."

"What present?"

She reached into the pocket of her blouse, and pulled out the gold coin he had thrown into the grave earlier that day. There was still black dirt on it. "I may have it put on a chain. It was very sweet of you."

"You're welcome."

She turned then and looked at him with eyes that seemed both to see and not to see him. "I think there are several aspects of our marriage we're going to have to work on."

"Babes," he told her. "You're dead."

"That's one of those aspects, obviously." She paused. "Okay," she said. "I'm going now. It will be better if I go." And, naturally and easily, she turned and put her hands on Shadow's shoulders, and went up on tiptoes to kiss him goodbye, as she had always kissed him goodbye.

Awkwardly he bent43 to kiss her on the cheek, but she moved her mouth as he did so and pushed her lips against his. Her breath smelled, faintly, of mothballs.

Laura's tongue flickered44 into Shadow's mouth. It was cold, and dry, and it tasted of cigarettes and of bile. If Shadow had had any doubts as to whether his wife was dead or not, they ended then.

He pulled back.

"I love you," she said, simply. "I'll be looking out for you." She walked over to the motel room door. There was a strange taste in his mouth. "Get some sleep, puppy," she told him. "And stay out of trouble."

She opened the door to the hall. The fluorescent light in the hallway was not kind: beneath it, Laura looked dead, but then, it did that to everyone.

"You could have asked me to stay the night," she said, in her cold-stone voice.

"I don't think I could," said Shadow.

"You will, hon," she said. "Before all this is over. You will." She turned away from him, and walked down the corridor.

Shadow looked out of the doorway45. The night clerk kept on reading his John Grisham novel, and barely looked up as she walked past him. There was thick graveyard46 mud clinging to her shoes. And then she was gone.

Shadow breathed out, a slow sigh. His heart was pounding arrhythmically in his chest. He walked across the hall and knocked on Wednesday's door. As he knocked he got the weirdest47 notion, that he was being buffeted48 by black wings, as if an enormous crow was flying through him, out into the hall and the world beyond.

Wednesday opened the door. He had a white motel towel wrapped around his waist, but was otherwise naked. "What the hell do you want?" he asked.

"Something you should know," said Shadow. "Maybe it was a dream-but it wasn't-or maybe I inhaled some of the fat kid's synthetic49 toad-skin smoke, or probably I'm just going mad..."

"Yeah, yeah. Spit it out," said Wednesday. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

Shadow glanced into the room. He could see that there was someone in the bed, watching him. A sheet pulled up over small breasts. Pale blonde hair, something rattish about the face. He lowered his voice. "I just saw my wife," he said. "She was in my room."

"A ghost, you mean? You saw a ghost?"

"No. Not a ghost. She was solid. It was her. She's dead all right, but it wasn't any kind of a ghost. I touched her. She kissed me."

"I see." Wednesday darted50 a look at the woman in the bed. "Be right back, m'dear," he said.

They crossed the hall to Shadow's room. Wednesday turned on the lamps. He looked at the cigarette butt in the ashtray. He scratched his chest. His nipples were dark, old-man nipples, and his chest hair was grizzled. There was a white scar down one side of his torso. He sniffed51 the air. Then he shrugged.

"Okay," he said. "So your dead wife showed up. You scared?"

"A little."

"Very wise. The dead always give me the screaming mimis. Anything else?"

"I'm ready to leave Eagle Point. Laura's mother can sort out the apartment, all that. She hates me anyway. I'm ready to go when you are."

Wednesday smiled. "Good news, my boy. We'll leave in the morning. Now, you should get some sleep. I have some scotch52 in my room, if you need help sleeping. Yes?"

"No. I'll be fine."

"Then do not disturb me further. I have a long night ahead of me."

"Good night," said Shadow.

"Exactly," said Wednesday, and he closed the door as he went out.

Shadow sat down on the bed. The smell of cigarettes and preservatives lingered in the air. He wished that he were mourning Laura: it seemed more appropriate than being troubled by her or, he admitted it to himself now that she had gone, just a little scared by her. It was time to mourn. He turned the lights out, and lay on the bed, and thought of Laura as she was before he went to prison. He remembered their marriage when they were young and happy and stupid and unable to keep their hands off each other.

It had been a very long time since Shadow had cried, so long he thought he had forgotten how. He had not even wept when his mother died.

But he began to cry now, in painful, lurching sobs53, and for the first time since he was a small boy, Shadow cried himself to sleep.

Coming To America
A.D. 813

They navigated54 the green sea by the stars and by the shore, and when the shore was only a memory and the night sky was overcast55 and dark they navigated by faith, and they called on the All-Father to bring them safely to land once more.

A bad journey they had of it, their fingers numb1 and with a shiver in their bones that not even wine could burn off. They would wake in the morning to see that the hoarfrost had touched their beards, and, until the sun warmed them, they looked like old men, white-bearded before their time.

Teeth were loosening and eyes were deep-sunken in their sockets56 when they made landfall on the green land to the west. The men said, "We are far, far from our homes and our hearths57, far from the seas we know and the lands we love. Here on the edge of the world we will be forgotten by our gods."

Their leader clambered to the top of a great rock, and he mocked them for their lack of faith. "The All-Father made the world," he shouted. "He built it with his hands from the shattered bones and the flesh of Ymir, his grandfather. He placed Ymir's brains in the sky as clouds, and his salt blood became the seas we crossed. If he made the world, do you not realize that he created this land as well? And if we die here as men, shall we not be received into his hall?"

And the men cheered and laughed. They set to, with a will, to build a hall out of split trees and mud, inside a small stockade58 of sharpened logs, although as far as they knew they were the only men in the new land.

On the day that the hall was finished there was a storm: the sky at midday became as dark as night, and the sky was rent with forks of white flame, and the thunder-crashes were so loud that the men were almost deafened59 by them, and the ship's cat they had brought with them for good fortune hid beneath their beached longboat. The storm was hard enough and vicious enough that the men laughed and clapped each other on the back, and they said, "The thunderer is here with us, in this distant land," and they gave thanks, and rejoiced, and they drank until they were reeling.

In the smoky darkness of their hall, that night, the bard60 sang them the old songs. He sang of Odin, the All-Father, who was sacrificed to himself as bravely and as nobly as others were sacrificed to him. He sang of the nine days that the All-Father hung from the world-tree, his side pierced and dripping from the spear-point's wound, and he sang them all the things the All-Father had learned in his agony: nine names, and nine runes, and twice-nine charms. When he told them of the spear piercing Odin's side, the bard shrieked61 in pain as the All-Father himself had called out in his agony, and all the men shivered, imagining his pain.

They found the scraeling the following day, which was the all-father's own day. He was a small man, his long hair black as a crow's wing, his skin the color of rich red clay. He spoke in words none of them could understand, not even their bard, who had been on a ship that had sailed through the pillars of Hercules and who could speak the trader's pidgin men spoke all across the Mediterranean62. The stranger was dressed in feathers and in furs, and there were small bones braided into his long hair.

They led him into their encampment, and they gave him roasted meat to eat, and strong drink to quench63 his thirst. They laughed riotously64 at the man as he stumbled and sang, at the way his head rolled and lolled, and this on less than a drinking-horn of mead65. They gave him more drink, and soon enough he lay beneath the table with his head curled under his arm.

Then they picked him up, a man at each shoulder, a man at each leg, carried him at shoulder height, the four men making him an eight-legged horse, and they carried him at the head of a procession to an ash tree on the hill overlooking the bay, where they put a rope around his neck and hung him high in the wind, their tribute to the All-Father, the gallows66 lord. The scraeling's body swung in the wind, his face blackening, his tongue protruding67, his eyes popping, his penis hard enough to hang a leather helmet on, while the men cheered and shouted and laughed, proud to be sending their sacrifice to the heavens.

And, the next day, when two huge ravens68 landed upon the scraeling's corpse, one on each shoulder, and commenced to peck at its cheeks and eyes, the men knew their sacrifice had been accepted.

It was a long winter, and they were hungry, but they were cheered by the thought that, when spring came, they would send the boat back to the northlands, and it would bring settlers, and bring women. As the weather became colder, and the days became shorter, some of the men took to searching for the scraeling village, hoping to find food, and women. They found nothing, save for the places where fires had been, where small encampments had been abandoned.

One midwinter's day, when the sun was as distant and cold as a dull silver coin, they saw that the remains69 of the scraeling's body had been removed from the ash tree. That afternoon it began to snow, in huge, slow flakes70.

The men from the northlands closed the gates of their encampment, retreated behind their wooden wall.

The scraeling war party fell upon them that night: five hundred men to thirty. They climbed the wall, and over the following seven days, they killed each of the thirty men, in thirty different ways. And the sailors were forgotten, by history and their people.

The wall they tore down, the war party, and the village they burned. The longboat, upside down and pulled high on the shingle71, they also burned, hoping that the pale strangers had but one boat, and that by burning it they were ensuring that no other Northmen would come to their shores.

It was more than a hundred years before Leif the Fortunate, son of Erik the Red, rediscovered that land, which he would call Vineland. His gods were already waiting for him when he arrived: Tyr, one-handed, and gray Odin gallows-god, and Thor of the thunders.

They were there.

They were waiting.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 numb 0RIzK     
adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木
参考例句:
  • His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
  • Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵,催着疲惫的马继续往前走。
2 beckoned b70f83e57673dfe30be1c577dd8520bc     
v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He beckoned to the waiter to bring the bill. 他招手示意服务生把账单送过来。
  • The seated figure in the corner beckoned me over. 那个坐在角落里的人向我招手让我过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
4 fluorescent Zz2y3     
adj.荧光的,发出荧光的
参考例句:
  • They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
  • This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。
5 scent WThzs     
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉
参考例句:
  • The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
  • The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。
6 hijacked 54f3e68c506e45e75f9a155a27738c2f     
劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 ); 绑架; 拦路抢劫; 操纵(会议等,以推销自己的意图)
参考例句:
  • The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
  • The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。
7 consigned 9dc22c154336e2c50aa2b71897ceceed     
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃
参考例句:
  • I consigned her letter to the waste basket. 我把她的信丢进了废纸篓。
  • The father consigned the child to his sister's care. 那位父亲把孩子托付给他妹妹照看。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
8 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》
9 bloody kWHza     
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染
参考例句:
  • He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
  • He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。
10 foam LjOxI     
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫
参考例句:
  • The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
  • The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。
11 joints d97dcffd67eca7255ca514e4084b746e     
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语)
参考例句:
  • Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
  • Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。
12 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
13 carvings 3ccde9120da2aaa238c9785046cb8f86     
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物
参考例句:
  • The desk was ornamented with many carvings. 这桌子装饰有很多雕刻物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Shell carvings are a specialty of the town. 贝雕是该城的特产。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 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。
15 pendulous 83nzg     
adj.下垂的;摆动的
参考例句:
  • The oriole builds a pendulous nest.金莺鸟筑一个悬垂的巢。
  • Her lip grew pendulous as she aged.由于老迈,她的嘴唇往下坠了。
16 severed 832a75b146a8d9eacac9030fd16c0222     
v.切断,断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 );断,裂
参考例句:
  • The doctor said I'd severed a vessel in my leg. 医生说我割断了腿上的一根血管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • We have severed diplomatic relations with that country. 我们与那个国家断绝了外交关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
17 gash HhCxU     
v.深切,划开;n.(深长的)切(伤)口;裂缝
参考例句:
  • The deep gash in his arm would take weeks to heal over.他胳膊上的割伤很深,需要几个星期的时间才能痊愈。
  • After the collision,the body of the ship had a big gash.船被撞后,船身裂开了一个大口子。
18 fussy Ff5z3     
adj.为琐事担忧的,过分装饰的,爱挑剔的
参考例句:
  • He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
  • The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。
19 skull CETyO     
n.头骨;颅骨
参考例句:
  • The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
  • He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去,跌裂了颅骨。
20 mammoth u2wy8     
n.长毛象;adj.长毛象似的,巨大的
参考例句:
  • You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
  • Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。
21 deformed iutzwV     
adj.畸形的;变形的;丑的,破相了的
参考例句:
  • He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
  • His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。
22 granite Kyqyu     
adj.花岗岩,花岗石
参考例句:
  • They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
  • The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。
23 boulder BNbzS     
n.巨砾;卵石,圆石
参考例句:
  • We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲,把大石头搬开了。
  • He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。
24 beak 8y1zGA     
n.鸟嘴,茶壶嘴,钩形鼻
参考例句:
  • The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
  • This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。
25 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。
26 inexplicable tbCzf     
adj.无法解释的,难理解的
参考例句:
  • It is now inexplicable how that development was misinterpreted.当时对这一事态发展的错误理解究竟是怎么产生的,现在已经无法说清楚了。
  • There are many things which are inexplicable by science.有很多事科学还无法解释。
27 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
28 preservatives fab08b2f7b02c895323967c3d2849c5c     
n.防腐剂( preservative的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The juice contains no artificial preservatives. 这种果汁不含人工防腐剂。
  • Meat spoils more quickly without preservatives. 不加防腐剂,肉会坏得快。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
29 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。
30 ashtray 6eoyI     
n.烟灰缸
参考例句:
  • He knocked out his pipe in the big glass ashtray.他在大玻璃烟灰缸里磕净烟斗。
  • She threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray.她把烟头扔进烟灰缸。
31 rumpled 86d497fd85370afd8a55db59ea16ef4a     
v.弄皱,使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She rumpled his hair playfully. 她顽皮地弄乱他的头发。
  • The bed was rumpled and strewn with phonograph records. 那张床上凌乱不堪,散放着一些唱片。 来自辞典例句
32 pristine 5BQyC     
adj.原来的,古时的,原始的,纯净的,无垢的
参考例句:
  • He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
  • He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。
33 battered NyezEM     
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损
参考例句:
  • He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
  • The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。
34 inhaled 1072d9232d676d367b2f48410158ae32     
v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. 她合上双眼,深深吸了一口气。
  • Janet inhaled sharply when she saw him. 珍妮特看到他时猛地吸了口气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
35 puff y0cz8     
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气
参考例句:
  • He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
  • They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。
36 corpse JYiz4     
n.尸体,死尸
参考例句:
  • What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
  • The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。
37 pebbles e4aa8eab2296e27a327354cbb0b2c5d2     
[复数]鹅卵石; 沙砾; 卵石,小圆石( pebble的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The pebbles of the drive crunched under his feet. 汽车道上的小石子在他脚底下喀嚓作响。
  • Line the pots with pebbles to ensure good drainage. 在罐子里铺一层鹅卵石,以确保排水良好。
38 maudlin NBwxQ     
adj.感情脆弱的,爱哭的
参考例句:
  • He always becomes maudlin after he's had a few drinks.他喝了几杯酒后总是变得多愁善感。
  • She continued in the same rather maudlin tone.她继续用那种颇带几分伤感的语调说话。
39 swerving 2985a28465f4fed001065d9efe723271     
v.(使)改变方向,改变目的( swerve的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • It may stand as an example of the fitful swerving of his passion. 这是一个例子,说明他的情绪往往变化不定,忽冷忽热。 来自辞典例句
  • Mrs Merkel would be foolish to placate her base by swerving right. 默克尔夫人如果为了安抚她的根基所在而转到右翼就太愚蠢了。 来自互联网
40 crunch uOgzM     
n.关键时刻;艰难局面;v.发出碎裂声
参考例句:
  • If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
  • People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。
41 smoldering e8630fc937f347478071b5257ae5f3a3     
v.用文火焖烧,熏烧,慢燃( smolder的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The mat was smoldering where the burning log had fallen. 燃烧的木棒落下的地方垫子慢慢燃烧起来。 来自辞典例句
  • The wood was smoldering in the fireplace. 木柴在壁炉中闷烧。 来自辞典例句
42 butt uSjyM     
n.笑柄;烟蒂;枪托;臀部;v.用头撞或顶
参考例句:
  • The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
  • He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。
43 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。
44 flickered 93ec527d68268e88777d6ca26683cc82     
(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
  • These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。
45 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。
46 graveyard 9rFztV     
n.坟场
参考例句:
  • All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
  • Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。
47 weirdest 1420dbd419e940f3a92df683409afc4e     
怪诞的( weird的最高级 ); 神秘而可怕的; 超然的; 古怪的
参考例句:
  • Think of the weirdest, craziest shit you'd like to see chicks do. 想想这最怪异,最疯狂的屁事。你会喜欢看这些鸡巴表演的。
  • It's still the weirdest damn sound I ever heard out of a Jersey boy. 这是我所听过新泽西人最为怪异的音调了。
48 buffeted 2484040e69c5816c25c65e8310465688     
反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 ); 连续猛击; 打来打去; 推来搡去
参考例句:
  • to be buffeted by the wind 被风吹得左右摇摆
  • We were buffeted by the wind and the rain. 我们遭到风雨的袭击。
49 synthetic zHtzY     
adj.合成的,人工的;综合的;n.人工制品
参考例句:
  • We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
  • It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。
50 darted d83f9716cd75da6af48046d29f4dd248     
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔
参考例句:
  • The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了,瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
51 sniffed ccb6bd83c4e9592715e6230a90f76b72     
v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说
参考例句:
  • When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣,吸了吸鼻子,擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
52 scotch ZZ3x8     
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的
参考例句:
  • Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
  • Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景,真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。
53 sobs d4349f86cad43cb1a5579b1ef269d0cb     
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • She was struggling to suppress her sobs. 她拼命不让自己哭出来。
  • She burst into a convulsive sobs. 她突然抽泣起来。
54 navigated f7986e1365f5d08b7ef8f2073a90bf4e     
v.给(船舶、飞机等)引航,导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 );(从海上、空中等)横越;横渡;飞跃
参考例句:
  • He navigated the plane through the clouds. 他驾驶飞机穿越云层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The ship was navigated by the North Star. 那只船靠北极星来导航。 来自《简明英汉词典》
55 overcast cJ2xV     
adj.阴天的,阴暗的,愁闷的;v.遮盖,(使)变暗,包边缝;n.覆盖,阴天
参考例句:
  • The overcast and rainy weather found out his arthritis.阴雨天使他的关节炎发作了。
  • The sky is overcast with dark clouds.乌云满天。
56 sockets ffe33a3f6e35505faba01d17fd07d641     
n.套接字,使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 );孔( socket的名词复数 );(电器上的)插口;托座;凹穴
参考例句:
  • All new PCs now have USB sockets. 新的个人计算机现在都有通用串行总线插孔。
  • Make sure the sockets in your house are fingerproof. 确保你房中的插座是防触电的。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
57 hearths b78773a32d02430068a37bdf3c6dc19a     
壁炉前的地板,炉床,壁炉边( hearth的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The soldiers longed for their own hearths. 战士想家。
  • In the hearths the fires down and the meat stopped cooking. 在壁炉的火平息和肉停止做饭。
58 stockade FucwR     
n.栅栏,围栏;v.用栅栏防护
参考例句:
  • I had not gone a hundred yards when I reached the stockade.我跑了不到一百码,就到了栅栏前。
  • A heavy stockade around the cabin protected the pioneer from attack.小屋周围的厚厚的栅栏保护拓荒者免受攻击。
59 deafened 8c4a2d9d25b27f92f895a8294bb85b2f     
使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 ); 使隔音
参考例句:
  • A hard blow on the ear deafened him for life. 耳朵上挨的一记猛击使他耳聋了一辈子。
  • The noise deafened us. 嘈杂声把我们吵聋了。
60 bard QPCyM     
n.吟游诗人
参考例句:
  • I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神!
  • I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。
61 shrieked dc12d0d25b0f5d980f524cd70c1de8fe     
v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
  • Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫,陆子潇尖声叫:“告诉什么? 来自汉英文学 - 围城
62 Mediterranean ezuzT     
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的
参考例句:
  • The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
  • Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。
63 quench ii3yQ     
vt.熄灭,扑灭;压制
参考例句:
  • The firemen were unable to quench the fire.消防人员无法扑灭这场大火。
  • Having a bottle of soft drink is not enough to quench my thirst.喝一瓶汽水不够解渴。
64 riotously 2c55ec2208d9a60b81d359df6835cd13     
adv.骚动地,暴乱地
参考例句:
  • Humboldt riotously picketed Von Trenk but the play was a hit. 尽管洪堡肆意破坏《冯·特伦克》的上演,然而这个剧还是轰动一时。 来自辞典例句
  • Flung roses, roses, riotously with the throng. 随着人群欢舞,狂热地抛撒玫瑰,玫瑰。 来自互联网
65 mead BotzAK     
n.蜂蜜酒
参考例句:
  • He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
  • He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。
66 gallows UfLzE     
n.绞刑架,绞台
参考例句:
  • The murderer was sent to the gallows for his crimes.谋杀犯由于罪大恶极被处以绞刑。
  • Now I was to expiate all my offences at the gallows.现在我将在绞刑架上赎我一切的罪过。
67 protruding e7480908ef1e5355b3418870e3d0812f     
v.(使某物)伸出,(使某物)突出( protrude的现在分词 );凸
参考例句:
  • He hung his coat on a nail protruding from the wall. 他把上衣挂在凸出墙面的一根钉子上。
  • There is a protruding shelf over a fireplace. 壁炉上方有个突出的架子。 来自辞典例句
68 ravens afa492e2603cd239f272185511eefeb8     
n.低质煤;渡鸦( raven的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Wheresoever the carcase is,there will the ravens be gathered together. 哪里有死尸,哪里就有乌鸦麇集。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • A couple of ravens croaked above our boat. 两只乌鸦在我们小船的上空嘎嘎叫着。 来自辞典例句
69 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
70 flakes d80cf306deb4a89b84c9efdce8809c78     
小薄片( flake的名词复数 ); (尤指)碎片; 雪花; 古怪的人
参考例句:
  • It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
  • It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。
71 shingle 8yKwr     
n.木瓦板;小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌);v.用木瓦板盖(屋顶);把(女子头发)剪短
参考例句:
  • He scraped away the dirt,and exposed a pine shingle.他刨去泥土,下面露出一块松木瓦块。
  • He hung out his grandfather's shingle.他挂出了祖父的行医招牌。


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