Lieutenant¹ Collet helped himself to a Perrier from Teabing's refrigerator and strode back outthrough the drawing room. Rather than accompanying Fache to London where the action was, hewas now baby-sitting the PTS team that had spread out through Chateau² Villette.

　　So far, the evidence they had uncovered was unhelpful: a single bullet buried in the floor; a paperwith several symbols scrawled³ on it along with the words blade and chalice⁴; and a bloody⁵ spikedbelt that PTS had told Collet was associated with the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, whichhad caused a stir recently when a news program exposed their aggressive recruiting practices inParis.

　　Collet sighed. Good luck making sense of this unlikely mélange.

　　Moving down a lavish⁶ hallway, Collet entered the vast ballroom⁷ study, where the chief PTSexaminer was busy dusting for fingerprints⁸. He was a corpulent man in suspenders.

　　"Anything?" Collet asked, entering.

　　The examiner shook his head. "Nothing new. Multiple sets matching those in the rest of the house.""How about the prints on the cilice belt?""Interpol is still working. I uploaded everything we found."Collet motioned to two sealed evidence bags on the desk. "And this?"The man shrugged⁹. "Force of habit. I bag anything peculiar¹⁰."Collet walked over. Peculiar?

　　"This Brit's a strange one," the examiner said. "Have a look at this." He

点击收听单词发音  

1 lieutenant
n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员
参考例句：
He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。 He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

2 chateau
n.城堡，别墅
参考例句：
The house was modelled on a French chateau.这房子是模仿一座法国大别墅建造的。 The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn.那府第便径自腾起大火燃烧下去。

3 scrawled
乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。 Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字：“请你收下吧，我多得是哩。”

4 chalice
n.圣餐杯；金杯毒酒
参考例句：
He inherited a poisoned chalice when he took over the job as union leader.他接手工会领导职务，看似风光，实则会给他带来很多麻烦。 She was essentially feminine,in other words,a parasite and a chalice.她在本质上是个女人，换句话说，是一个食客和一只酒杯。

5 bloody
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。

6 lavish
adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍
参考例句：
He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。 The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

7 ballroom
n.舞厅
参考例句：
The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。 I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

8 fingerprints
n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )
参考例句：
Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。 They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 shrugged
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》

10 peculiar
adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的
参考例句：
He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。 He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

11 sifted
v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审
参考例句：
She sifted through her papers to find the lost letter. 她仔细在文件中寻找那封丢失的信。 来自《简明英汉词典》 She sifted thistles through her thistle-sifter. 她用蓟筛筛蓟。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 recessed
v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的过去式和过去分词 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭
参考例句：
My rooms were large, with deeply recessed windows and painted, eighteenth-century panellin. 我住的房间很宽敞，有向里凹陷很深的窗户，油漆过的十八世纪的镶花地板。 来自辞典例句 The Geneva meeting recessed while Kennety and Khrushchev met in Vienna. 肯尼迪同赫鲁晓夫在维也纳会晤时，日内瓦会议已经休会。 来自辞典例句

13 doorway
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。

14 notation
n.记号法，表示法，注释；[计算机]记法
参考例句：
Music has a special system of notation.音乐有一套特殊的标记法。 We shall find it convenient to adopt the following notation.采用下面的记号是方便的。

15 notations
记号，标记法( notation的名词复数 )
参考例句：
He was frowning and wishing he could decode the notations on the slips. 他皱着眉，挖空心思地想认出赌签上的记号。 来自教父部分 In section 2, we give some notations and some lemmas. 在本文第二部分，我们给出一些符号及引理。

16 receding
v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题
参考例句：
Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句 Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

17 labial
adj.唇的；唇音的；n.唇音，风琴管
参考例句：
Why to eat mango to you can cause labial allergy?吃芒果为什么会引发嘴唇过敏？ I feel my labial color fantastic!我感觉自己的唇色棒极了！

18 ridges
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊
参考例句：
The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。 Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。

19 abreast
adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地
参考例句：
She kept abreast with the flood of communications that had poured in.她及时回复如雪片般飞来的大批信件。 We can't keep abreast of the developing situation unless we study harder.我们如果不加强学习，就会跟不上形势。

20 timbre
n.音色，音质
参考例句：
His voice had a deep timbre.他嗓音低沉。 The timbre of the violin is far richer than that of the mouth organ.小提琴的音色远比口琴丰富。

21 investigation
n.调查，调查研究
参考例句：
In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。 He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

22 gasp
n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说
参考例句：
She gave a gasp of surprise.她吃惊得大口喘气。 The enemy are at their last gasp.敌人在做垂死的挣扎。

23 blatantly
ad.公开地
参考例句：
Safety guidelines had been blatantly ignored. 安全规章被公然置之不顾。 They walked grandly through the lobby, blatantly arm in arm, pretending they were not defeated. 他们大大方方地穿过门厅，故意炫耀地挎着胳膊，假装他们没有被打败。

24 instinctively
adv.本能地
参考例句：
As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》 He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 shred
v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少
参考例句：
There is not a shred of truth in what he says.他说的全是骗人的鬼话。 The food processor can shred all kinds of vegetables.这架食品加工机可将各种蔬菜切丝切条。