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The generator2 room was unusually crowded and eerily3 silent. Mechanics in worn overalls4 stood three
deep behind the railing and watched the first-shift crew work. Juliette was only dimly aware of them;
she was more keenly aware of the silence.
She leaned over a device of her own making, a tall platform welded to the metal floor and arrayed
with mirrors and tiny slits5 that bounced light across the room. This light shined on mirrors attached to
between the two of them that she cared about, that long steel rod the size of a man’s waist where the
power of combusting fuel was transformed into the spark of electricity. She was hoping to have the
while the backup generator was put online. Now she could only concentrate, could only hope the
eighteen-hour shifts had been good for something and trust in plans made back when she’d had some
decent rest and could think soundly.
sign, and Marck and his team tightened12 several of the massive bolts on the new rubber floor mounts.
They were four days into the power holiday. The generator needed to be up and running by morning
and at full power that next evening. With so much done to it—the new gaskets and seals, the
polishing of cylinder13 shafts14 that had required young shadows to crawl down into the heart of the beast
during her lifetime. Old Knox could remember it shutting itself down in an emergency once, back
when he was a mere16 shadow, but for everyone else the rumble17 had been as constant and close as their
own heartbeats. Juliette felt inordinate18 pressure for everything to work. She was the one who had
come up with the idea to do a refit. She calmed herself with reassurances19 that it was the right thing to
do and that the worst that could happen now was that the holiday would be extended until they sorted
out all the kinks. That was much better than a catastrophic failure years from now.
Marck signaled that the bolts were secure, the lock nuts tightened down. Juliette jumped off her
homemade platform and strolled over to the generator to join him. It was difficult to walk casually20
with so many eyes on her. She couldn’t believe this rowdy crew, this extended and dysfunctional
family of hers, could be so perfectly21 silent. It was like they were all holding their breath, wondering if
“You ready?” she asked Marck.
Juliette checked her watch. The sight of its second hand ticking around in its constant path comforted
her. Whenever she had doubts about something working, she looked at her wrist. Not to see the time,
but to see a thing she had fixed24. A repair so intricate and impossible—one that had taken years of
cleaning and setting parts almost too small to see—that it made her current task, whatever it was, feel
small by comparison.
“We on schedule?” Marck asked, grinning.
“We’re doing fine.” She nodded to the control room. Whispers began to stir through the crowd as
they realized the restart was imminent25. Dozens of them pulled sound protection from their necks and
settled the muffs over their ears. Juliette and Marck joined Shirly in the control room.
“How’s it going?” Juliette asked the second-shift foreman, a young woman, small and spirited.
“Golden,” Shirly said as she continued to make adjustments, zeroing out all the corrections that
had built up over the years. They were starting from the ground up, none of the patches and fixes of
old to disguise any new symptoms. A fresh start. “We’re good to go,” she said.
She backed away from the controls and moved to stand near her husband. The gesture was
transparent26: this was Juliette’s project, perhaps the last thing she would ever try to fix in the down
deep of Mechanical. She would have the honor, and the full responsibility, of firing the generator up.
Juliette stood over the control board, looking down at knobs and dials that she could locate in utter
darkness. It was hard to believe that this phase of her life was over, that some new one was about to
begin. The thought of traveling to the up top frightened her more than this project could. The idea of
leaving her friends and family, of dealing27 with politics, did not taste as sweet to her as the sweat and
grease on her lips. But at least she had allies up there. If people like Jahns and Marnes were able to
get by, to survive, she figured she’d be okay.
With a trembling hand, more from exhaustion28 than nerves, Juliette engaged the starter motor.
There was a loud whine29 as a small electrical engine tried to get the massive diesel30 generator moving.
It seemed to be taking forever, but Juliette had no idea what normal sounded like. Marck stood by the
door, propping31 it open so they could better hear any shouts to abort32. He glanced over at Juliette as she
continued to hold the ignition, creases33 of worry in his brow as the starter whined34 and groaned35 in the
next room.
Someone outside waved both arms, trying to signal her through the glass.
“Shut it off, shut it off,” Marck said. Shirly hurried toward the control panel to help.
Juliette let go of the ignition and reached for the kill switch, but she stopped herself from pressing
it. There was a noise outside. A powerful hum. She thought she could feel it through the floor, but not
“It’s already running!” someone yelled.
“It was already running,” Marck said, laughing.
muffs up into the air. Juliette realized the starter motor was louder than the rebuilt generator, that
she’d been holding the ignition even as it had already started and continued to run.
Shirly and Marck hugged one another. Juliette checked the temps and pressures on all the zeroed
gauges38 and saw little to adjust, but she wouldn’t be sure until it warmed up. Her throat constricted39
with emotion, the release of so much pressure. Work crews were leaping over the railing to crowd
around the rebuilt beast. Some who rarely visited the generator room were reaching out to touch it,
Juliette left the control room to watch them, to listen to the sound of a perfectly working machine,
of gears in alignment. She stood behind the railing, hands on a steel bar that used to rattle42 and dance
The success gave her a new confidence for what lay ahead, for what lay above. She was in such
fine spirits and so fixated on the powerful and improved machines that she didn’t notice the young
porter hurry into the room, his face ashen47, his chest swelling48 with the deep gulps49 of a long and frantic50
run. She barely noticed the way the news traveled from mouth to mouth throughout the room,
spreading among the mechanics until fear and sadness registered in their eyes. It wasn’t until the
celebration died completely, the room falling into a different sort of quiet, one studded with sobs51 and
Something had happened. A great and powerful thing had fallen out of alignment.
And it had nothing to do with her generator.
点击收听单词发音
1 gauge | |
v.精确计量;估计;n.标准度量;计量器 | |
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2 generator | |
n.发电机,发生器 | |
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3 eerily | |
adv.引起神秘感或害怕地 | |
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4 overalls | |
n.(复)工装裤;长罩衣 | |
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5 slits | |
n.狭长的口子,裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开,撕开( slit的第三人称单数 );在…上开狭长口子 | |
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6 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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7 alignment | |
n.队列;结盟,联合 | |
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8 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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9 aligned | |
adj.对齐的,均衡的 | |
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10 precedent | |
n.先例,前例;惯例;adj.在前的,在先的 | |
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11 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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12 tightened | |
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧 | |
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13 cylinder | |
n.圆筒,柱(面),汽缸 | |
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14 shafts | |
n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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15 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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16 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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17 rumble | |
n.隆隆声;吵嚷;v.隆隆响;低沉地说 | |
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18 inordinate | |
adj.无节制的;过度的 | |
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19 reassurances | |
n.消除恐惧或疑虑( reassurance的名词复数 );恢复信心;使人消除恐惧或疑虑的事物;使人恢复信心的事物 | |
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20 casually | |
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地 | |
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21 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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22 naught | |
n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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23 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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24 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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25 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
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26 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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27 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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28 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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29 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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30 diesel | |
n.柴油发动机,内燃机 | |
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31 propping | |
支撑 | |
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32 abort | |
v.使流产,堕胎;中止;中止(工作、计划等) | |
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33 creases | |
(使…)起折痕,弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 ); (皮肤)皱起,使起皱纹 | |
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34 whined | |
v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 );哀诉,诉怨 | |
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35 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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36 vibration | |
n.颤动,振动;摆动 | |
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37 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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38 gauges | |
n.规格( gauge的名词复数 );厚度;宽度;标准尺寸v.(用仪器)测量( gauge的第三人称单数 );估计;计量;划分 | |
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39 constricted | |
adj.抑制的,约束的 | |
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40 reverent | |
adj.恭敬的,虔诚的 | |
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41 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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42 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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43 labor | |
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 | |
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44 labored | |
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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45 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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46 culmination | |
n.顶点;最高潮 | |
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47 ashen | |
adj.灰的 | |
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48 swelling | |
n.肿胀 | |
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49 gulps | |
n.一大口(尤指液体)( gulp的名词复数 )v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的第三人称单数 );大口地吸(气);哽住 | |
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50 frantic | |
adj.狂乱的,错乱的,激昂的 | |
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51 sobs | |
啜泣(声),呜咽(声)( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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52 gasps | |
v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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53 wailing | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的现在分词 );沱 | |
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