Three（1）

Three
I
“Flight 108 to Paris. Air France. This way please.”
The persons in the lounge at Heathrow Airport rose to their feet. HilaryCraven picked up her small, lizard-skin travelling case and moved in thewake of the others, out on to the tarmac. The wind blew sharply cold afterthe heated air of the lounge.
Hilary shivered and drew her furs a little closer round her. She followedthe other passengers across to where the aircraft was waiting. This was it!
She was off, escaping! Out of the greyness, the coldness, the dead numbmisery. Escaping to sunshine and blue skies and a new life. She wouldleave all this weight behind, this dead weight of misery¹ and frustration².
She went up the gangway of her plane, bending her head as she passed in-side and was shown by the steward³ to her seat. For the first time inmonths she savoured relief from a pain that had been so sharply acute asalmost to be physical. “I shall get away,” she said to herself, hopefully. “Ishall get away.”
The roaring and the revolutions of the plane excited her. There seemeda kind of elemental savagery⁴ in it. Civilized⁵ misery, she thought, is theworst misery. Grey and hopeless. “But now,” she thought, “I shall escape.”
The plane taxied gently along the runway. The air hostess said:
“Fasten your belts, please.”
The plane made a half-turn and stood waiting its signal to depart. Hilarythought, “Perhaps the plane will crash .?.?. Perhaps it will never rise off theground. Then that will be the end, that will be the solution to everything.”
They seemed to wait for ages out on the airfield⁶. Waiting for the signal tostart off to freedom, Hilary thought, absurdly: “I shall never get away,never. I shall be kept here—a prisoner. .?.?.”
Ah, at last.
A final roar of engines, then the plane started forward. Quicker, quicker,racing along. Hilary thought: “It won’t rise. It can’t .?.?. this is the end.” Ah,they were above the ground now, it seemed. Not so much that the planerose as that the earth was falling away, dropping down, thrusting its prob-lems and its disappointments and its frustrations⁷ beneath the soaringcreature rising up so proudly into the clouds. Up they went, circlinground, the aerodrome looking like a ridiculous child’s toy beneath. Funnylittle roads, strange little railways with toy trains on them. A ridiculouschildish world where people loved and hated and broke their hearts. Noneof it mattered because they were all so ridiculous and so prettily⁸ small andunimportant. Now there were clouds below them, a dense⁹, greyish-whitemass. They must be over the Channel now. Hilary leaned back, closing hereyes. Escape. Escape. She had left England, left Nigel, left the sad littlemound that was Brenda’s grave. All left behind. She opened her eyes,closed them again with a long sigh. She slept. .?.?.

1 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

2 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

3 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

4 savagery   

n.野性

参考例句：

• The police were shocked by the savagery of the attacks.警察对这些惨无人道的袭击感到震惊。
• They threw away their advantage by their savagery to the black population.他们因为野蛮对待黑人居民而丧失了自己的有利地位。

5 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

6 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

7 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

8 prettily   

adv.优美地；可爱地

参考例句：

• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back.此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。
• She pouted prettily at him.她冲他撅着嘴，样子很可爱。

9 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。