Seven
Mrs. Reynolds was a complete contrast to Mrs. Drake. There was no air of poised¹ competenceabout her, nor indeed was there ever likely to be.
She was wearing conventional black, had a moist handkerchief clasped in her hand and wasclearly prepared to dissolve into tears at any moment.
“It’s very kind of you, I’m sure,” she said to Mrs. Oliver, “to bring a friend of yours down hereto help us.” She put a damp hand into Poirot’s and looked at him doubtfully. “And if he can helpin any way I’m sure I’ll be very grateful, though I don’t see what anyone can do. Nothing willbring her back, poor child. It’s awful to think of. How anyone could deliberately² kill anyone ofthat age. If she had only cried out—though I suppose he rammed³ her head under water straightaway and held it there. Oh, I can’t bear to think of it. I really can’t.”
“Indeed, Madame, I do not want to distress⁴ you. Please do not think of it. I only want to ask youa few questions that might help—help, that is, to find your daughter’s murderer. You’ve no ideayourself, I suppose, who it can possibly be?”
“How could I have any idea? I shouldn’t have thought there was anyone, anyone living here, Imean. This is such a nice place. And the people living here are such nice people. I suppose it wasjust someone—some awful man who came in through one of the windows. Perhaps he’d takendrugs or something. He saw the light and that it was a party, so he gate-crashed.”
“You are quite sure that the assailant was male?”
“Oh, it must have been.” Mrs. Reynolds sounded shocked. “I’m sure it was. It couldn’t havebeen a woman, could it?”
“A woman might have been strong enough.”
“Well, I suppose in a way I know what you mean. You mean women are much more athleticnowadays and all that. But they wouldn’t do a thing like this, I’m sure. Joyce was only a child—thirteen years old.”
“I don’t want to distress you by staying here too long, Madame, or to ask you difficultquestions. That already, I am sure, the police are doing elsewhere, and I don’t want to upset youby dwelling

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1 poised
a.摆好姿势不动的
参考例句：
The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。 Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

2 deliberately
adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地
参考例句：
The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。 They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

3 rammed
v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输
参考例句：
Two passengers were injured when their taxi was rammed from behind by a bus. 公共汽车从后面撞来，出租车上的两位乘客受了伤。 I rammed down the earth around the newly-planted tree. 我将新栽的树周围的土捣硬。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 distress
n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛
参考例句：
Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。 Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

5 dwelling
n.住宅，住所，寓所
参考例句：
Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。 He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

6 abridge
v.删减，删节，节略，缩短
参考例句：
They are going to abridge that dictionary.他们将要精简那本字典。 He decided to abridge his stay here after he received a letter from home.他接到家信后决定缩短在这里的逗留时间。

7 jeer
vi.嘲弄，揶揄；vt.奚落；n.嘲笑，讥评
参考例句：
Do not jeer at the mistakes or misfortunes of others.不要嘲笑别人的错误或不幸。 The children liked to jeer at the awkward students.孩子们喜欢嘲笑笨拙的学生。

8 sensational
adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的
参考例句：
Papers of this kind are full of sensational news reports.这类报纸满是耸人听闻的新闻报道。 Their performance was sensational.他们的演出妙极了。

9 positively
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。

10 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。

11 winding
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。

12 awfully
adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地
参考例句：
Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。 I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

13 liar
n.说谎的人
参考例句：
I know you for a thief and a liar!我算认识你了，一个又偷又骗的家伙！ She was wrongly labelled a liar.她被错误地扣上说谎者的帽子。