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Chapter 10
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  IN LATE AUGUST, I was washing clothes in the tin pan in the living room when I heard someone coming up the stairs singing. It was Lori. She burst into the living room, duffel bag over her shoulder, laughing and belting out one of those goofy summer-camp songs kids sing at night around the fire. I'd never heard Lori cut loose like this before. She positively1 glowed as she told me about the hot meals and the hot showers and all the friends she'd made. She'd even had a boyfriend who kissed her. "Everyone assumed I was a normal person," she said. "It was weird2." Then she told me that it had occurred to her that if she got out of Welch, and away from the family, she might have a shot at a happy life. From then on, she began looking forward to the day she'd leave Little Hobart Street and be on her own.

  A few days later, Mom came home. She seemed different, too. She had lived in a dorm on the university campus, without four kids to take care of, and she had loved it. She'd attended lectures and she'd painted. She'd read stacks of self-help books, and they had made her realize that she'd been living her life for other people. She intended to quit her teaching job and devote herself to her art. "It's time I did something for myself," she said. "It's time I started living my life for me.""Mom, you spent the whole summer renewing your certificate.""If I hadn't done that, I never would have had this breakthrough.""You can't quit your job," I said. "We need the money.""Why do I always have to be the one who earns the money?" Mom asked. "You have a job. You can earn money. Lori can earn money, too. I've got more important things to do."* * *I thought Mom was having another tantrum. I assumed that come opening day, she'd be off in Lucy Jo's Dart3 to Davy Elementary, even if we had to cajole her. But on that first day of school, Mom refused to get out of bed. Lori, Brian, and I pulled back the covers and tried to drag her out, but she wouldn't budge4.

  I told her she had responsibilities. I told her child welfare might come down on us again if she wasn't working. She folded her arms across her chest and stared us down. "I'm not going to school," she said.

  "Why not?" I asked.

  "I'm sick.""What's wrong?" I asked.

  "My mucus is yellow," Mom said.

  "If everyone who had yellow mucus stayed home, the schools would be pretty empty," I told her.

  Mom's head snapped up. "You can't talk to me like that," she said. "I'm your mother.""If you want to be treated like a mother," I said, "you should act like one."Mom rarely got angry. She was usually either singing or crying, but now her face twisted up with fury. We both knew I had crossed a line, but I didn't care. I'd also changed over the summer.

  "How dare you?" she shouted. "You're in trouble now梑ig trouble. I'm telling your dad. Just you wait until he comes home."* * *Mom's threat didn't worry me. The way I saw it, Dad owed me. I'd looked after his kids all summer, I'd kept him in beer and cigarette money, and I'd helped him fleece that miner Robbie. I figured I had Dad in my back pocket.

  When I got home from school that afternoon, Mom was still curled up on the sofa bed, a small pile of paperbacks5 next to her. Dad was sitting at the drafting table, rolling a cigarette. He beckoned6 to me to follow him into the kitchen. Mom watched us go.

  Dad closed the door and looked at me gravely. "Your mother claims you back-talked her.""Yes," I said. "It's true.""Yes, sir," he corrected me, but I didn't say anything.

  "I'm disappointed in you," he went on. "You know damn good and well that you are to respect your parents.""Dad, Mom's not sick, she's playing hooky," I said. "She has to take her obligations more seriously. She has to grow up a little.""Who do you think you are?" he asked. "She's your mother.""Then why doesn't she act like one?" I looked at Dad for what felt like a very long moment. Then I blurted8 out. "And why don't you act like a dad?"I could see the blood surge into his face. He grabbed me by the arm. "You apologize for that comment!""Or what?" I asked.

  Dad shoved me up against the wall. "Or by God I'll show you who's boss around here."His face was inches from mine. "What are you going to do to punish me?" I asked. "Stop taking me to bars?"Dad drew back his hand as if to smack9 me. "You watch your mouth, young lady. I can still whip your butt10, and don't think I won't.""You can't be serious," I said.

  Dad dropped his hand. He pulled his belt out of the loops on his work pants and wrapped it a couple of times around his knuckles11.

  "Apologize to me and to your mother," he said.

  "No."Dad raised the belt. "Apologize.""No.""Then bend over."Dad was standing12 between me and the door. There was no way out except through him. But it never occurred to me to either run or fight. The way I saw it, he was in a tighter spot than I was. He had to back down, because if he sided with Mom and gave me a whipping, he would lose me forever.

  We stared at each other. Dad seemed to be waiting for me to drop my eyes, to apologize and tell him I was wrong so we could go back to being like we were, but I kept holding his gaze. Finally, to call his bluff13, I turned around, bent14 over slightly, and rested my hands on my knees.

  I expected him to turn and walk away, but there were six stinging blows on the backs of my thighs15, each accompanied by a whistle of air. I could feel the welts rising even before I straightened up.

  * * *I walked out of the kitchen without looking at Dad. Mom was outside the door. She'd been standing there, listening to everything. I didn't look at her, but I could see from the corner of my eye her triumphant16 expression. I bit my lip so I wouldn't cry.

  As soon as I got outside, I ran up into the woods, pushing tree branches and wild grape vines out of my face. I thought I'd start crying now that I was away from the house, but instead, I threw up. I ate some wild mint to get rid of the taste of bile, and I walked for what felt like hours through the silent hills. The air was clear and cool, and the forest floor was thick with leaves that had fallen from the buckeyes and poplars. Late in the afternoon, I sat down on a tree trunk, leaning forward because the backs of my thighs still stung. All through the long walk, the pain had kept me thinking, and by the time I reached the tree trunk, I had made two decisions.

  The first was that I'd had my last whipping. No one was ever going to do that to me again. The second was that, like Lori, I was going to get out of Welch. The sooner, the better. Before I finished high school, if I could. I had no idea where I would go, but I did know I was going. I also knew it would not be easy. People got stuck in Welch. I had been counting on Mom and Dad to get us out, but I now knew I had to do it on my own. It would take saving and planning. I decided17 the next day I'd go to G. C. Murphy and buy a pink plastic piggy bank I'd seen there. I'd put in the seventy-five dollars I had managed to save while working at Becker's Jewel Box. It would be the beginning of my escape fund.

  THAT FALL, TWO GUYS showed up in Welch who were different from anyone I'd ever met. They were filmmakers from New York City, and they'd been sent to Welch as part of a government program to bring cultural uplift to rural Appalachia. Their names were Ken18 Fink and Bob Gross.

  At first, I thought they were joking. Ken Fink and Bob Gross? As far as I was concerned, they might as well have said their names were Ken Stupid and Bob Ugly. But Ken and Bob weren't joking. They didn't think their names were funny at all, and they didn't smile when I asked if they were putting me on.

  Ken and Bob both talked so fast梩heir conversation filled with references to people I'd never heard of, like Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen梩hat it was sometimes hard to follow them. Although they had no sense of humor about their names, Ken and Bob did like to joke a lot. It wasn't the sort of Welch High humor I was used to桺olack jokes and guys cupping their hand under their armpit to make fart noises. Ken and Bob had this smart, competitive way of joking where one would make a wisecrack and the other would have a comeback and the first would have a retort to the comeback. They could keep it up until my head spun19.

  One weekend Ken and Bob showed a Swedish film in the school auditorium20. It was shot in black and white, and had subtitles21 and a plot heavy on symbolism, so fewer than a dozen people came, even though it was free. Afterward22, Lori showed Ken and Bob some of her illustrations. They told her she had talent and said if she was serious about becoming an artist, she needed to go to New York City. It was a place of energy and creativity and intellectual stimulation23 the likes of which we'd never seen. It was filled with people who, because they were such unique individuals, didn't fit in anywhere else.

  That night Lori and I lay in our rope beds and discussed New York City. The things I had heard always made it sound like a big, noisy place with a lot of pollution and mobs of people in suits elbowing one another on the sidewalks. But Lori began to see New York as a sort of Emerald City梩his glowing, bustling25 place at the end of a long road where she could become the person she was meant to be.

  What Lori liked most about Ken and Bob's description was that the city attracted people who were different. Lori was about as different as it was possible to be in Welch. While almost all the other kids wore jeans, Converse26 sneakers, and T-shirts, she showed up at school in army boots, a white dress with red polka dots, and a jean jacket with dark poetry she'd painted on the back. The other kids threw bars of soap at her, pushed one another into her path, and wrote graffiti about her on the bathroom walls. In return, she cursed them out in Latin.

  At home she read and painted late into the night, by candlelight or kerosene27 lamp if the electricity was turned off. She liked Gothic details: mist hanging over a silent lake, gnarled roots heaving up from the earth, a solitary28 crow in the branches of a bare tree on the shoreline. I thought Lori was amazing, and I had no doubt she would become a successful artist, but only if she could get to New York. I decided I wanted to go there, too, and that winter we came up with a plan. Lori would leave by herself for New York in June, after she graduated. She'd settle in, find a place for us, and I'd follow her as soon as I could.

  I told Lori about my escape fund, the seventy-five dollars I'd saved. From now on, I said, it would be our joint29 fund. We'd take on extra work after school and put everything we earned into the piggy bank. Lori could take it to New York and use it to get established, so that by the time I arrived, everything would be set.

  Lori had always made very good posters, for football rallies, for the plays the drama club put on, and for candidates running for student council. Now she started doing commissioned posters for a dollar-fifty apiece. She was too shy to solicit30 orders, so I did it for her. Lots of kids at Welch High wanted customized posters to hang on their bedroom walls梠f their boyfriend's or girlfriend's name, of their car or their astrological sign or their favorite band. Lori designed the names in big fat overlapping31 three-dimensional letters like the kind on rock albums, then painted them in Day-Glo colors, outlined in india ink so the letters popped, and surrounded them with stars and dots and squiggly lines that made the letters seem like they were moving. The posters were so good that word of mouth spread, and soon Lori had such a backlog32 of orders that she was up working until one or two every morning.

  I made money babysitting and doing other kids' homework. I did book reports, science essays, and math. I charged a dollar per assignment and guaranteed at least an A?or the customer was entitled to a full refund33. After school, I babysat for a dollar an hour and could usually do the homework then. I also tutored kids for two dollars an hour.

  We told Brian about the escape fund, and he pitched in, even though we hadn't included him in our plans because he was only in the seventh grade. He mowed34 lawns or chopped wood or cut hillside weeds with a scythe35. He worked after school until the sun went down and all day Saturday and Sunday and came home with his arms and face scratched from the brush he'd cleared. Without looking for thanks or praise, he quietly added his earnings36 to the pig, which we named Oz.

  We kept Oz on the old sewing machine in the bedroom. Oz had no plugged hole on the bottom, and the slot on the top was too narrow to work bills out, even if you used a knife, so once you'd put money into Oz, it stayed there. We tested it to make sure. We couldn't count the money, but because Oz was translucent37, we could see our cash accumulating inside when we held him up to the light.

  * * *One day that winter, when I came home from school, a gold Cadillac Coupe DeVille was parked in front of the house. I wondered if the welfare agency had found some millionaires to be our foster parents and they had arrived to take us away, but Dad was inside the house, twirling a set of keys on his finger. He explained that the Cadillac was the new official Walls family vehicle. Mom was carrying on about how it was one thing to live in a three-room shack38 with no electricity, since there was a certain dignity in poverty, but to live in a three-room shack and own a gold Cadillac meant you were bona fide poor white trash.

  "How'd you get it?" I asked Dad.

  "One helluva good poker39 hand," he said. "and an even better bluff."We'd owned a couple of cars since we'd been in Welch, but they were true buckets of bolts, with shuddering40 engines and cracked windshields, and as we drove along, we could see the blur7 of the asphalt through the rusted-out floor panels. Those cars never lasted more than a couple of months, and like the Oldsmobile we'd driven from Phoenix41, we never named them, much less got them registered and inspected. The Coupe DeVille actually had an unexpired inspection42 sticker. It was such a beauty that Dad declared the time had come to revive the tradition of naming our cars. "That there Caddy," he said. "strikes me as Elvis."It crossed my mind that Dad ought to sell Elvis and use the money to install an indoor toilet and buy us all new clothes. The black leather shoes I had bought for fifty cents at the Dollar General Store were held together with safety pins, which I'd tried to blacken with a Magic Marker so you wouldn't notice them. I'd also used Magic Markers to make colored blotches44 on my legs that I hoped would camouflage45 the holes in my pants. I figured that was less noticeable than if I sewed on patches. I had one blue pair and one green pair, so my legs, when I took my pants off, were covered with blue and green spots.

  But Dad loved Elvis too dearly to consider selling it. And the truth was, I loved Elvis almost as much. Elvis was as long and sleek46 as a racing47 yacht. It had air-conditioning, gold shag upholstery, windows that went up and down with the push of a button, and a working turn signal, so Dad didn't have to stick his arm out. Every time we drove through town in Elvis, I'd nod graciously and smile at the people on the sidewalk, feeling like an heiress. "You've got true noblesse oblige, Mountain Goat," Dad would say.

  Mom grew to love Elvis, too. She hadn't gone back to teaching and instead spent her time painting, and on the weekends we began to drive to craft fairs all throughout West Virginia: shows where bearded men in overalls48 played dulcimers and women in granny dresses sold corncob back scratchers and coal sculptures of black bears and miners. We filled Elvis's trunk with Mom's paintings and tried to sell them at the fairs. Mom also drew pastel portraits on the spot for anyone willing to pay eighteen dollars, and every now and then she got a commission.

  We all slept in Elvis on those trips, because a lot of times we made only enough to pay for the gas, or not even that. Still, it felt good to be on the move again. Our trips in Elvis reminded me how easy it was to pick up and move on when the urge struck. Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

  AS SPRING APPROACHED and the day of Lori's graduation drew closer, I lay awake at night, thinking about her life in New York City. "In exactly three months," I said to her, "you'll be living in New York." The following week, I said. "In exactly two months and three weeks, you'll be living in New York.""Would you please shut up," she said.

  "You're not nervous, are you?" I asked.

  "What do you think?"Lori was terrified. She was not sure what she was supposed to do once she got to New York. That had always been the vaguest part of our escape plan. Back in the fall, I'd had no doubt that she could get a scholarship to one of the city's universities. She'd been a finalist for a National Merit Scholarship, but she'd had to hitchhike into Bluefield to take the test, and she got rattled49 when the trucker who picked her up put the moves on her; she arrived nearly an hour late and botched the test.

  Mom, who supported Lori's New York plans and kept saying she wished she were going to the big city herself, suggested that Lori apply to the Cooper Union art school. Lori put together a portfolio50 of her drawings and paintings, but just before the submissions51 deadline, she spilled a pot of coffee on them, which made Mom wonder aloud if Lori had a fear of success.

  Then Lori heard about a scholarship sponsored by a literary society for the student who created the best work of art inspired by one of the geniuses of the English language. She decided to make a clay bust24 of Shakespeare. She worked on it for a week, using a sharpened Popsicle stick to shape the slightly bulging52 eyes and the goatee and earring53 and longish hair. When it was finished, it looked exactly like Shakespeare.

  That night we were all sitting at the drafting table watching Lori put the final touches on Shakespeare's hair when Dad came home drunk. "That does indeed resemble old Billy," Dad said. "Only thing is, as I been telling you, he was a goddamn fake."For years, every time Mom brought out Shakespeare's plays, Dad would carry on about how they'd been written not by William Shakespeare of Avon but by a bunch of people, including someone named the Earl of Oxford54, because no single person in Elizabethan England could have had Shakespeare's thirty-thousand-word vocabulary. All this bunk55 about little Billy Shakespeare, Dad would say, the great genius despite his grammar-school education, his small Latin and less Greek, was a lot of sentimental56 mythology57.

  "You're helping58 perpetuate59 this fraud," he told Lori.

  "Dad, it's just a bust," Lori said.

  "That's the problem," Dad said.

  He studied the sculpture, then suddenly reached over and smeared60 off Shakespeare's mouth with his thumb.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Lori cried out.

  "It's no longer just a bust," Dad said. "Now it has symbolic61 value. You can call it Mute Bard62.""I spent days on that," Lori shouted. "And you've ruined it!""I elevated it," Dad said. He told Lori he would help her write a paper that would demonstrate that Shakespeare's plays had multiple authors, like Rembrandt's paintings. "By God, you'll set the literary world on edge," he said.

  "I don't want to set the world on edge!" Lori screamed. "I just want to win a stupid little scholarship!""Goddammit, you're in a horse race, but you're thinking like a sheep," Dad said. "Sheep don't win horse races."* * *Lori didn't have the spirit to rework the bust. The next day she smushed the clay into a big glob and left it on the drafting table. I told Lori that if she hadn't been accepted into an art school by the time she graduated, she should go to New York anyway. She could support herself with the money we'd saved up until she found a job, and then she could apply to a school. That became our new plan.

  Everyone was mad at Dad, which gave him a case of the sulks. He said he didn't know why he even bothered to come home anymore, since he no longer got the slightest bit of appreciation63 for his ideas. He insisted he wasn't trying to keep Lori from leaving for New York, but if she had the sense that God gave a goose, she would stay put. "New York is a sorry-ass sinkhole," he said more than once. "filled with faggots and rapists." She'd get mugged and find herself on the streets, he warned, forced into prostitution and winding64 up a drug addict65 like all those runaway66 teenagers. "I'm only telling you this because I love you," he said. "And I don't want to see you hurt."One evening in May, when we'd been saving our money for almost nine months, I came home with a couple of dollars I'd made babysitting and went into the bedroom to stash67 them in Oz. The pig was not on the old sewing machine. I began looking through all the junk in the bedroom and finally found Oz on the floor. Someone had slashed68 him apart with a knife and stolen all the money.

  I knew it was Dad, but at the same time, I couldn't believe he'd stoop this low. Lori obviously didn't know yet. She was in the living room humming away as she worked on a poster. My first impulse was to hide Oz. I had this wild thought that I could somehow replace the money before Lori discovered it was missing. But I knew how ridiculous that was; three of us had spent the better part of a year accumulating the money. It would be impossible for me to replace it in the month before Lori graduated.

  I went into the living room and stood beside her, trying to think of what to say. She was working on a poster that said TAMMY! in Day-Glo colors. After a moment, she looked up. "What?" she said.

  Lori could tell by my face that something was wrong. She stood up so abruptly69 she knocked over a bottle of india ink, and ran into the bedroom. I braced70 myself, expecting to hear a scream, but there was only silence and then a small, broken whimpering.

  * * *Lori stayed up all night to confront Dad, but he didn't come home. She skipped school the following day in case he returned, but Dad was AWOL for three days before we heard him climbing the rickety staircase to the porch.

  "You bastard71!" Lori shouted. "You stole our money!""What the goddamn hell are you talking about?" Dad asked. "And watch your language." He leaned against the door and lit a cigarette.

  Lori held up the slashed pig and threw it as hard as she could at Dad, but it was empty and nearly weightless. It struck his shoulder lightly, then bounced to the floor. He bent down carefully, as if the floor beneath him could shift at any moment, picked up our ravaged72 piggy bank, and turned it over in his hands. "Someone sure as hell gutted73 old Oz, didn't they?" He turned to me. "Jeannette, do you know what happened?"He was actually half grinning at me. After the whipping, Dad had jacked up the charm with me, and even though I was planning to leave, he could make me laugh when he tried, and he still considered me an ally. But now I wanted to knock him over the head. "You took our money," I said. "That's what happened.""Well, don't that beat all," Dad said. He started going on about how a man comes home from slaying74 dragons, trying to keep his family safe, and all he wants in return for his toil43 and sacrifice is a little love and respect, but it seemed these days that was just too damn much to ask for. He said he didn't take our New York money, but if Lori was hell-bent on living in that cesspool, he'd finance her trip himself.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few wadded dollar bills. We just stared at him, so he let the crumpled75 money fall to the floor. "Suit yourself," he said.

  "Why are you doing this to us, Dad?" I asked. "Why?"His face tightened76 with anger, then he staggered to the sofa bed and passed out.

  "I'll never get out of here," Lori kept saying. "I'll never get out of here.""You will," I said. "I swear it." I believed she would. Because I knew that if Lori never got out of Welch, neither would I.

  * * *I went back to G. C. Murphy the next day and stared at the shelf of piggy banks. They were all either plastic or porcelain77 or glass, easily broken. I studied a collection of metal boxes with locks and keys. The hinges were too flimsy. Dad could pry78 them apart. I bought a blue change purse. I wore it on a belt under my clothes at all times. When it got too full, I put the money in a sock that I hid in a hole in the wall below my bunk.

  We started saving again, but Lori felt too defeated to paint much, and the money didn't come as quickly. A week before school was out, we had only $37.20 in the sock. Then one of the women I'd been babysitting for, a teacher named Mrs. Sanders, told me she and her family were moving back to their hometown in Iowa and asked if I wanted to spend the summer with them there. If I came along and helped look after her two toddlers, she said she'd pay me two hundred dollars at the end of the summer and buy me a bus ticket back to Welch.

  I thought about her offer. "Take Lori instead of me," I said. "And at the end of the summer, buy her a bus ticket to New York City."Mrs. Sanders agreed.

  * * *Low-lying pewter-colored clouds rested on the mountaintops around Welch on the morning of Lori's departure. They were there most mornings, and when I noticed them, they reminded me of how isolated79 and forgotten the town was, a sad, lost place adrift in the clouds. The clouds usually burned away by midmorning, when the sun climbed above the steep hills, but some days, like the one Lori left, they clung to the mountains, and a fine mist formed in the valley that turned your hair and face damp.

  When the Sanders family pulled up in their station wagon80, Lori was ready. She had packed her clothes, her favorite books, and her art supplies in a single cardboard box. She hugged all of us except Dad梥he had refused to speak a word to him since he plundered81 Oz梡romised to write, and climbed into the station wagon.

  We all stood watching as the car disappeared down Little Hobart Street. Lori never once looked back. I took that as a good sign. When I climbed the staircase to the house, Dad was standing on the porch, smoking a cigarette.

  "This family is falling apart," he said.

  "It sure is," I told him.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 positively vPTxw     
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实
参考例句:
  • She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
  • The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。
2 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
3 dart oydxK     
v.猛冲,投掷;n.飞镖,猛冲
参考例句:
  • The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
  • Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。
4 budge eSRy5     
v.移动一点儿;改变立场
参考例句:
  • We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来,但它连动都没动一下。
  • She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。
5 paperbacks d747667a9a2e4a29bff93951a8105f8e     
n.平装本,平装书( paperback的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • This shop only sells paperbacks. 这家书店只出售平装本的书。 来自辞典例句
  • Other paperbacks were selling for ten or 15 cents each. 其它的平装书每本才卖十或十五美分。 来自互联网
6 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》
7 blur JtgzC     
n.模糊不清的事物;vt.使模糊,使看不清楚
参考例句:
  • The houses appeared as a blur in the mist.房子在薄雾中隐隐约约看不清。
  • If you move your eyes and your head,the picture will blur.如果你的眼睛或头动了,图像就会变得模糊不清。
8 blurted fa8352b3313c0b88e537aab1fcd30988     
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止,她已脱口而出。
  • He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相,说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
9 smack XEqzV     
vt.拍,打,掴;咂嘴;vi.含有…意味;n.拍
参考例句:
  • She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
  • I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。
10 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。
11 knuckles c726698620762d88f738be4a294fae79     
n.(指人)指关节( knuckle的名词复数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝
参考例句:
  • He gripped the wheel until his knuckles whitened. 他紧紧握住方向盘,握得指关节都变白了。
  • Her thin hands were twisted by swollen knuckles. 她那双纤手因肿大的指关节而变了形。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 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。
13 bluff ftZzB     
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗
参考例句:
  • His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
  • John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。
14 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。
15 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》
16 triumphant JpQys     
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的
参考例句:
  • The army made a triumphant entry into the enemy's capital.部队胜利地进入了敌方首都。
  • There was a positively triumphant note in her voice.她的声音里带有一种极为得意的语气。
17 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。
18 ken k3WxV     
n.视野,知识领域
参考例句:
  • Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
  • Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.
19 spun kvjwT     
v.纺,杜撰,急转身
参考例句:
  • His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
  • Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。
20 auditorium HO6yK     
n.观众席,听众席;会堂,礼堂
参考例句:
  • The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
  • The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出,伸入观众席。
21 subtitles 2ed599c1a6d0321e20001bc46d236f37     
n.说明字幕,印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕,译文对白字幕;小标题,副标题( subtitle的名词复数 );(电影的)字幕
参考例句:
  • subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
  • a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片
22 afterward fK6y3     
adv.后来;以后
参考例句:
  • Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏,然后吃饭。
  • Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来,这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
23 stimulation BuIwL     
n.刺激,激励,鼓舞
参考例句:
  • The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
  • You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。
24 bust WszzB     
vt.打破;vi.爆裂;n.半身像;胸部
参考例句:
  • I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
  • She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。
25 bustling LxgzEl     
adj.喧闹的
参考例句:
  • The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
  • This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。
26 converse 7ZwyI     
vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反
参考例句:
  • He can converse in three languages.他可以用3种语言谈话。
  • I wanted to appear friendly and approachable but I think I gave the converse impression.我想显得友好、平易近人些,却发觉给人的印象恰恰相反。
27 kerosene G3uxW     
n.(kerosine)煤油,火油
参考例句:
  • It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
  • Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电,有煤油灯。
28 solitary 7FUyx     
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士
参考例句:
  • I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
  • The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际,显得十分壮美。
29 joint m3lx4     
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合
参考例句:
  • I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
  • We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
30 solicit AFrzc     
vi.勾引;乞求;vt.请求,乞求;招揽(生意)
参考例句:
  • Beggars are not allowed to solicit in public places.乞丐不得在公共场所乞讨。
  • We should often solicit opinions from the masses.我们应该经常征求群众意见。
31 overlapping Gmqz4t     
adj./n.交迭(的)
参考例句:
  • There is no overlapping question between the two courses. 这两门课程之间不存在重叠的问题。
  • A trimetrogon strip is composed of three rows of overlapping. 三镜头摄影航线为三排重迭的象片所组成。
32 backlog bPiyc     
n.积压未办之事
参考例句:
  • It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
  • Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。
33 refund WkvzPB     
v.退还,偿还;n.归还,偿还额,退款
参考例句:
  • They demand a refund on unsatisfactory goods.他们对不满意的货品要求退款。
  • We'll refund your money if you aren't satisfied.你若不满意,我们愿意退款给你。
34 mowed 19a6e054ba8c2bc553dcc339ac433294     
v.刈,割( mow的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The enemy were mowed down with machine-gun fire. 敌人被机枪的火力扫倒。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • Men mowed the wide lawns and seeded them. 人们割了大片草地的草,然后在上面播种。 来自辞典例句
35 scythe GDez1     
n. 长柄的大镰刀,战车镰; v. 以大镰刀割
参考例句:
  • He's cutting grass with a scythe.他正在用一把大镰刀割草。
  • Two men were attempting to scythe the long grass.两个人正试图割掉疯长的草。
36 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%。
37 translucent yniwY     
adj.半透明的;透明的
参考例句:
  • The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
  • A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。
38 shack aE3zq     
adj.简陋的小屋,窝棚
参考例句:
  • He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前,他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
  • The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。
39 poker ilozCG     
n.扑克;vt.烙制
参考例句:
  • He was cleared out in the poker game.他打扑克牌,把钱都输光了。
  • I'm old enough to play poker and do something with it.我打扑克是老手了,可以玩些花样。
40 shuddering 7cc81262357e0332a505af2c19a03b06     
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动
参考例句:
  • 'I am afraid of it,'she answered, shuddering. “我害怕,”她发着抖,说。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
  • She drew a deep shuddering breath. 她不由得打了个寒噤,深深吸了口气。 来自飘(部分)
41 phoenix 7Njxf     
n.凤凰,长生(不死)鸟;引申为重生
参考例句:
  • The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
  • The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。
42 inspection y6TxG     
n.检查,审查,检阅
参考例句:
  • On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查,发现肉变质了。
  • The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。
43 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。
44 blotches 8774b940cca40b77d41e782c6a462e49     
n.(皮肤上的)红斑,疹块( blotch的名词复数 );大滴 [大片](墨水或颜色的)污渍
参考例句:
  • His skin was covered with unsightly blotches. 他的皮肤上长满了难看的疹块。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • His face was covered in red blotches, seemingly a nasty case of acne. 他满脸红斑,像是起了很严重的粉刺。 来自辞典例句
45 camouflage NsnzR     
n./v.掩饰,伪装
参考例句:
  • The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
  • The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。
46 sleek zESzJ     
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢
参考例句:
  • Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
  • The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。
47 racing 1ksz3w     
n.竞赛,赛马;adj.竞赛用的,赛马用的
参考例句:
  • I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
  • The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。
48 overalls 2mCz6w     
n.(复)工装裤;长罩衣
参考例句:
  • He is in overalls today.他今天穿的是工作裤。
  • He changed his overalls for a suit.他脱下工装裤,换上了一套西服。
49 rattled b4606e4247aadf3467575ffedf66305b     
慌乱的,恼火的
参考例句:
  • The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
  • Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里,窗户都格格作响。
50 portfolio 9OzxZ     
n.公事包;文件夹;大臣及部长职位
参考例句:
  • He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
  • He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。
51 submissions 073d6f2167f8d9a96d86b9fe6b9d5b37     
n.提交( submission的名词复数 );屈从;归顺;向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据
参考例句:
  • The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
  • Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第(四)款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
52 bulging daa6dc27701a595ab18024cbb7b30c25     
膨胀; 凸出(部); 打气; 折皱
参考例句:
  • Her pockets were bulging with presents. 她的口袋里装满了礼物。
  • Conscious of the bulging red folder, Nim told her,"Ask if it's important." 尼姆想到那个鼓鼓囊囊的红色文件夹便告诉她:“问问是不是重要的事。”
53 earring xrOxK     
n.耳环,耳饰
参考例句:
  • How long have you worn that earring?你戴那个耳环多久了?
  • I have an earring but can't find its companion.我现在只有一只耳环,找不到另一只了。
54 Oxford Wmmz0a     
n.牛津(英国城市)
参考例句:
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
55 bunk zWyzS     
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话
参考例句:
  • He left his bunk and went up on deck again.他离开自己的铺位再次走到甲板上。
  • Most economists think his theories are sheer bunk.大多数经济学家认为他的理论纯属胡说。
56 sentimental dDuzS     
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的
参考例句:
  • She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人,她相信姻缘命中注定。
  • We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。
57 mythology I6zzV     
n.神话,神话学,神话集
参考例句:
  • In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中,宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
  • He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。
58 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
59 perpetuate Q3Cz2     
v.使永存,使永记不忘
参考例句:
  • This monument was built to perpetuate the memory of the national hero.这个纪念碑建造的意义在于纪念民族英雄永垂不朽。
  • We must perpetuate the system.我们必须将此制度永久保持。
60 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。
61 symbolic ErgwS     
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的
参考例句:
  • It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
  • The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。
62 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。
63 appreciation Pv9zs     
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨
参考例句:
  • I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
  • I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。
64 winding Ue7z09     
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈
参考例句:
  • A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
  • The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。
65 addict my4zS     
v.使沉溺;使上瘾;n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人
参考例句:
  • He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博,最终输掉了全部家产。
  • He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。
66 runaway jD4y5     
n.逃走的人,逃亡,亡命者;adj.逃亡的,逃走的
参考例句:
  • The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
  • He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。
67 stash zFmya     
v.藏或贮存于一秘密处所;n.隐藏处
参考例句:
  • Stash away both what you lost and gained,for life continues on.将得失深藏心底吧,为了那未来的生活。
  • That's supposed to be in our private stash.这是我的私人珍藏。
68 slashed 8ff3ba5a4258d9c9f9590cbbb804f2db     
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减
参考例句:
  • Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
  • He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》
69 abruptly iINyJ     
adv.突然地,出其不意地
参考例句:
  • He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
  • I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。
70 braced 4e05e688cf12c64dbb7ab31b49f741c5     
adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 );撑牢;使自己站稳;振作起来
参考例句:
  • They braced up the old house with balks of timber. 他们用梁木加固旧房子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The house has a wooden frame which is braced with brick. 这幢房子是木结构的砖瓦房。 来自《简明英汉词典》
71 bastard MuSzK     
n.坏蛋,混蛋;私生子
参考例句:
  • He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
  • There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。
72 ravaged 0e2e6833d453fc0fa95986bdf06ea0e2     
毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 ); 蹂躏; 劫掠; 抢劫
参考例句:
  • a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
  • The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。
73 gutted c134ad44a9236700645177c1ee9a895f     
adj.容易消化的v.毁坏(建筑物等)的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 );取出…的内脏
参考例句:
  • Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望?我是伤心透了!
  • The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
74 slaying 4ce8e7b4134fbeb566658660b6a9b0a9     
杀戮。
参考例句:
  • The man mimed the slaying of an enemy. 此人比手划脚地表演砍死一个敌人的情况。
  • He is suspected of having been an accomplice in the slaying,butthey can't pin it on him. 他有嫌疑曾参与该杀人案,但他们找不到证据来指控他。
75 crumpled crumpled     
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句:
  • She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire. 她把那封信揉成一团扔进了火里。
  • She flattened out the crumpled letter on the desk. 她在写字台上把皱巴巴的信展平。
76 tightened bd3d8363419d9ff838bae0ba51722ee9     
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
参考例句:
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
77 porcelain USvz9     
n.瓷;adj.瓷的,瓷制的
参考例句:
  • These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
  • The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。
78 pry yBqyX     
vi.窥(刺)探,打听;vt.撬动(开,起)
参考例句:
  • He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
  • We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。
79 isolated bqmzTd     
adj.与世隔绝的
参考例句:
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
80 wagon XhUwP     
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
参考例句:
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
81 plundered 02a25bdd3ac6ea3804fb41777f366245     
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Many of our cultural treasures have been plundered by imperialists. 我国许多珍贵文物被帝国主义掠走了。
  • The imperialists plundered many valuable works of art. 帝国主义列强掠夺了许多珍贵的艺术品。


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