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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Chapter 2
He was lying on something that felt like a camp bed, except that it was higher off the ground and that he was fixed1 down in some way so that he could not move. Light that seemed stronger than usual was falling on his face. O’Brien was standing2 at his side, looking down at him intently. At the other side of him stood a man in a white coat, holding a hypodermic syringe.
Even after his eyes were open he took in his surroundings only gradually. He had the impression of swimming up into this room from some quite different world, a sort of underwater world far beneath it. How long he had been down there he did not know. Since the moment when they arrested him he had not seen darkness or daylight. Besides, his memories were not continuous. There had been times when consciousness, even the sort of consciousness that one has in sleep, had stopped dead and started again after a blank interval3. But whether the intervals4 were of days or weeks or only seconds, there was no way of knowing.
With that first blow on the elbow the nightmare had started. Later he was to realize that all that then happened was merely a preliminary, a routine interrogation to which nearly all prisoners were subjected. There was a long range of crimes — espionage6, sabotage7, and the like — to which everyone had to confess as a matter of course. The confession8 was a formality, though the torture was real. How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued, he could not remember. Always there were five or six men in black uniforms at him simultaneously9. Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, sometimes it was boots. There were times when he rolled about the floor, as shameless as an animal, writhing10 his body this way and that in an endless, hopeless effort to dodge11 the kicks, and simply inviting12 more and yet more kicks, in his ribs13, in his belly14, on his elbows, on his shins, in his groin, in his testicles, on the bone at the base of his spine15. There were times when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the guards continued to beat him but that he could not force himself into losing consciousness. There were times when his nerve so forsook16 him that he began shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when the mere5 sight of a fist drawn17 back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth18 a confession of real and imaginary crimes. There were other times when he started out with the resolve of confessing nothing, when every word had to be forced out of him between gasps20 of pain, and there were times when he feebly tried to compromise, when he said to himself: ‘I will confess, but not yet. I must hold out till the pain becomes unbearable21. Three more kicks, two more kicks, and then I will tell them what they want.’ Sometimes he was beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack of potatoes on to the stone floor of a cell, left to recuperate22 for a few hours, and then taken out and beaten again. There were also longer periods of recovery. He remembered them dimly, because they were spent chiefly in sleep or stupor23. He remembered a cell with a plank24 bed, a sort of shelf sticking out from the wall, and a tin wash-basin, and meals of hot soup and bread and sometimes coffee. He remembered a surly barber arriving to scrape his chin and crop his hair, and businesslike, unsympathetic men in white coats feeling his pulse, tapping his reflexes, turning up his eyelids25, running harsh fingers over him in search for broken bones, and shooting needles into his arm to make him sleep.
The beatings grew less frequent, and became mainly a threat, a horror to which he could be sent back at any moment when his answers were unsatisfactory. His questioners now were not ruffians in black uniforms but Party intellectuals, little rotund men with quick movements and flashing spectacles, who worked on him in relays over periods which lasted — he thought, he could not be sure — ten or twelve hours at a stretch. These other questioners saw to it that he was in constant slight pain, but it was not chiefly pain that they relied on. They slapped his face, wrung26 his ears, pulled his hair, made him stand on one leg, refused him leave to urinate, shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water; but the aim of this was simply to humiliate27 him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning. Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on, hour after hour, tripping him up, laying traps for him, twisting everything that he said, convicting him at every step of lies and self-contradiction until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue28. Sometimes he would weep half a dozen times in a single session. Most of the time they screamed abuse at him and threatened at every hesitation29 to deliver him over to the guards again; but sometimes they would suddenly change their tune30, call him comrade, appeal to him in the name of Ingsoc and Big Brother, and ask him sorrowfully whether even now he had not enough loyalty31 to the Party left to make him wish to undo32 the evil he had done. When his nerves were in rags after hours of questioning, even this appeal could reduce him to snivelling tears. In the end the nagging33 voices broke him down more completely than the boots and fists of the guards. He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed, whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying34 started anew. He confessed to the assassination35 of eminent36 Party members, the distribution of seditious pamphlets, embezzlement37 of public funds, sale of military secrets, sabotage of every kind. He confessed that he had been a spy in the pay of the Eastasian government as far back as 1968. He confessed that he was a religious believer, an admirer of capitalism38, and a sexual pervert39. He confessed that he had murdered his wife, although he knew, and his questioners must have known, that his wife was still alive. He confessed that for years he had been in personal touch with Goldstein and had been a member of an underground organization which had included almost every human being he had ever known. It was easier to confess everything and implicate40 everybody. Besides, in a sense it was all true. It was true that he had been the enemy of the Party, and in the eyes of the Party there was no distinction between the thought and the deed.
There were also memories of another kind. They stood out in his mind disconnectedly, like pictures with blackness all round them.
He was in a cell which might have been either dark or light, because he could see nothing except a pair of eyes. Near at hand some kind of instrument was ticking slowly and regularly. The eyes grew larger and more luminous41. Suddenly he floated out of his seat, dived into the eyes, and was swallowed up.
He was strapped42 into a chair surrounded by dials, under dazzling lights. A man in a white coat was reading the dials. There was a tramp of heavy boots outside. The door clanged open. The waxed-faced officer marched in, followed by two guards.
‘Room 101,’ said the officer.
The man in the white coat did not turn round. He did not look at Winston either; he was looking only at the dials.
He was rolling down a mighty43 corridor, a kilometre wide, full of glorious, golden light, roaring with laughter and shouting out confessions44 at the top of his voice. He was confessing everything, even the things he had succeeded in holding back under the torture. He was relating the entire history of his life to an audience who knew it already. With him were the guards, the other questioners, the men in white coats, O’Brien, Julia, Mr Charrington, all rolling down the corridor together and shouting with laughter. Some dreadful thing which had lain embedded45 in the future had somehow been skipped over and had not happened. Everything was all right, there was no more pain, the last detail of his life was laid bare, understood, forgiven.
He was starting up from the plank bed in the half-certainty that he had heard O’Brien’s voice. All through his interrogation, although he had never seen him, he had had the feeling that O’Brien was at his elbow, just out of sight. It was O’Brien who was directing everything. It was he who set the guards on to Winston and who prevented them from killing46 him. It was he who decided47 when Winston should scream with pain, when he should have a respite48, when he should be fed, when he should sleep, when the drugs should be pumped into his arm. It was he who asked the questions and suggested the answers. He was the tormentor49, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend. And once — Winston could not remember whether it was in drugged sleep, or in normal sleep, or even in a moment of wakefulness — a voice murmured in his ear: ‘Don’t worry, Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the turning-point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect.’ He was not sure whether it was O’Brien’s voice; but it was the same voice that had said to him, ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness,’ in that other dream, seven years ago.
He did not remember any ending to his interrogation. There was a period of blackness and then the cell, or room, in which he now was had gradually materialized round him. He was almost flat on his back, and unable to move. His body was held down at every essential point. Even the back of his head was gripped in some manner. O’Brien was looking down at him gravely and rather sadly. His face, seen from below, looked coarse and worn, with pouches50 under the eyes and tired lines from nose to chin. He was older than Winston had thought him; he was perhaps forty-eight or fifty. Under his hand there was a dial with a lever on top and figures running round the face.
‘I told you,’ said O’Brien, ‘that if we met again it would be here.’
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
Without any warning except a slight movement of O’Brien’s hand, a wave of pain flooded his body. It was a frightening pain, because he could not see what was happening, and he had the feeling that some mortal injury was being done to him. He did not know whether the thing was really happening, or whether the effect was electrically produced; but his body was being wrenched52 out of shape, the joints53 were being slowly torn apart. Although the pain had brought the sweat out on his forehead, the worst of all was the fear that his backbone54 was about to snap. He set his teeth and breathed hard through his nose, trying to keep silent as long as possible.
‘You are afraid,’ said O’Brien, watching his face, ‘that in another moment something is going to break. Your especial fear is that it will be your backbone. You have a vivid mental picture of the vertebrae snapping apart and the spinal55 fluid dripping out of them. That is what you are thinking, is it not, Winston?’
Winston did not answer. O’Brien drew back the lever on the dial. The wave of pain receded56 almost as quickly as it had come.
‘That was forty,’ said O’Brien. ‘You can see that the numbers on this dial run up to a hundred. Will you please remember, throughout our conversation, that I have it in my power to inflict57 pain on you at any moment and to whatever degree I choose? If you tell me any lies, or attempt to prevaricate58 in any way, or even fall below your usual level of intelligence, you will cry out with pain, instantly. Do you understand that?’
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
O’Brien’s manner became less severe. He resettled his spectacles thoughtfully, and took a pace or two up and down. When he spoke59 his voice was gentle and patient. He had the air of a doctor, a teacher, even a priest, anxious to explain and persuade rather than to punish.
‘I am taking trouble with you, Winston,’ he said, ‘because you are worth trouble. You know perfectly60 well what is the matter with you. You have known it for years, though you have fought against the knowledge. You are mentally deranged61. You suffer from a defective62 memory. You are unable to remember real events and you persuade yourself that you remember other events which never happened. Fortunately it is curable. You have never cured yourself of it, because you did not choose to. There was a small effort of the will that you were not ready to make. Even now, I am well aware, you are clinging to your disease under the impression that it is a virtue63. Now we will take an example. At this moment, which power is Oceania at war with?’
‘When I was arrested, Oceania was at war with Eastasia.’
‘With Eastasia. Good. And Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia, has it not?’
Winston drew in his breath. He opened his mouth to speak and then did not speak. He could not take his eyes away from the dial.
‘The truth, please, Winston. YOUR truth. Tell me what you think you remember.’
‘I remember that until only a week before I was arrested, we were not at war with Eastasia at all. We were in alliance with them. The war was against Eurasia. That had lasted for four years. Before that ——’
O’Brien stopped him with a movement of the hand.
‘Another example,’ he said. ‘Some years ago you had a very serious delusion64 indeed. You believed that three men, three one-time Party members named Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford — men who were executed for treachery and sabotage after making the fullest possible confession — were not guilty of the crimes they were charged with. You believed that you had seen unmistakable documentary evidence proving that their confessions were false. There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.’
An oblong slip of newspaper had appeared between O’Brien’s fingers. For perhaps five seconds it was within the angle of Winston’s vision. It was a photograph, and there was no question of its identity. It was THE photograph. It was another copy of the photograph of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford at the party function in New York, which he had chanced upon eleven years ago and promptly65 destroyed. For only an instant it was before his eyes, then it was out of sight again. But he had seen it, unquestionably he had seen it! He made a desperate, agonizing66 effort to wrench51 the top half of his body free. It was impossible to move so much as a centimetre in any direction. For the moment he had even forgotten the dial. All he wanted was to hold the photograph in his fingers again, or at least to see it.
‘It exists!’ he cried.
‘No,’ said O’Brien.
He stepped across the room. There was a memory hole in the opposite wall. O’Brien lifted the grating. Unseen, the frail67 slip of paper was whirling away on the current of warm air; it was vanishing in a flash of flame. O’Brien turned away from the wall.
‘Ashes,’ he said. ‘Not even identifiable ashes. Dust. It does not exist. It never existed.’
‘But it did exist! It does exist! It exists in memory. I remember it. You remember it.’
‘I do not remember it,’ said O’Brien.
Winston’s heart sank. That was doublethink. He had a feeling of deadly helplessness. If he could have been certain that O’Brien was lying, it would not have seemed to matter. But it was perfectly possible that O’Brien had really forgotten the photograph. And if so, then already he would have forgotten his denial of remembering it, and forgotten the act of forgetting. How could one be sure that it was simple trickery? Perhaps that lunatic dislocation in the mind could really happen: that was the thought that defeated him.
O’Brien was looking down at him speculatively68. More than ever he had the air of a teacher taking pains with a wayward but promising69 child.
‘There is a Party slogan dealing70 with the control of the past,’ he said. ‘Repeat it, if you please.’
‘“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,”’ repeated Winston obediently.
‘“Who controls the present controls the past,”’ said O’Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. ‘Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?’
Again the feeling of helplessness descended71 upon Winston. His eyes flitted towards the dial. He not only did not know whether ‘yes’ or ‘no’ was the answer that would save him from pain; he did not even know which answer he believed to be the true one.
O’Brien smiled faintly. ‘You are no metaphysician, Winston,’ he said. ‘Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely72. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?’
‘No.’
‘Then where does the past exist, if at all?’
‘In records. It is written down.’
‘In records. And ——?’
‘In the mind. In human memories.’
‘In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?’
‘But how can you stop people remembering things?’ cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. ‘It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!’
O’Brien’s manner grew stern again. He laid his hand on the dial.
‘On the contrary,’ he said, ‘YOU have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility73, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission74 which is the price of sanity75. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude76 yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal77. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble78 yourself before you can become sane79.’
He paused for a few moments, as though to allow what he had been saying to sink in.
‘Do you remember,’ he went on, ‘writing in your diary, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four”?’
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
O’Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.
‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’
‘Four.’
‘And if the party says that it is not four but five — then how many?’
‘Four.’
The word ended in a gasp19 of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans80 which even by clenching81 his teeth he could not stop. O’Brien watched him, the four fingers still extended. He drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased.
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Four.’
The needle went up to sixty.
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!’
The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry82, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Four! Four!’
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Five! Five! Five!’
‘No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?’
‘Four! five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!’
Abruptly83 he was sitting up with O’Brien’s arm round his shoulders. He had perhaps lost consciousness for a few seconds. The bonds that had held his body down were loosened. He felt very cold, he was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering84, the tears were rolling down his cheeks. For a moment he clung to O’Brien like a baby, curiously85 comforted by the heavy arm round his shoulders. He had the feeling that O’Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O’Brien who would save him from it.
‘You are a slow learner, Winston,’ said O’Brien gently.
‘How can I help it?’ he blubbered. ‘How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.’
‘Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.’
He laid Winston down on the bed. The grip of his limbs tightened86 again, but the pain had ebbed87 away and the trembling had stopped, leaving him merely weak and cold. O’Brien motioned with his head to the man in the white coat, who had stood immobile throughout the proceedings88. The man in the white coat bent89 down and looked closely into Winston’s eyes, felt his pulse, laid an ear against his chest, tapped here and there, then he nodded to O’Brien.
‘Again,’ said O’Brien.
The pain flowed into Winston’s body. The needle must be at seventy, seventy-five. He had shut his eyes this time. He knew that the fingers were still there, and still four. All that mattered was somehow to stay alive until the spasm90 was over. He had ceased to notice whether he was crying out or not. The pain lessened91 again. He opened his eyes. O’Brien had drawn back the lever.
‘How many fingers, Winston?’
‘Four. I suppose there are four. I would see five if I could. I am trying to see five.’
‘Which do you wish: to persuade me that you see five, or really to see them?’
‘Really to see them.’
‘Again,’ said O’Brien.
Perhaps the needle was eighty — ninety. Winston could not intermittently92 remember why the pain was happening. Behind his screwed-up eyelids a forest of fingers seemed to be moving in a sort of dance, weaving in and out, disappearing behind one another and reappearing again. He was trying to count them, he could not remember why. He knew only that it was impossible to count them, and that this was somehow due to the mysterious identity between five and four. The pain died down again. When he opened his eyes it was to find that he was still seeing the same thing. Innumerable fingers, like moving trees, were still streaming past in either direction, crossing and recrossing. He shut his eyes again.
‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six — in all honesty I don’t know.’
‘Better,’ said O’Brien.
A needle slid into Winston’s arm. Almost in the same instant a blissful, healing warmth spread all through his body. The pain was already half-forgotten. He opened his eyes and looked up gratefully at O’Brien. At sight of the heavy, lined face, so ugly and so intelligent, his heart seemed to turn over. If he could have moved he would have stretched out a hand and laid it on O’Brien’s arm. He had never loved him so deeply as at this moment, and not merely because he had stopped the pain. The old feeling, that at bottom it did not matter whether O’Brien was a friend or an enemy, had come back. O’Brien was a person who could be talked to. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. O’Brien had tortured him to the edge of lunacy, and in a little while, it was certain, he would send him to his death. It made no difference. In some sense that went deeper than friendship, they were intimates: somewhere or other, although the actual words might never be spoken, there was a place where they could meet and talk. O’Brien was looking down at him with an expression which suggested that the same thought might be in his own mind. When he spoke it was in an easy, conversational93 tone.
‘Do you know where you are, Winston?’ he said.
‘Do you know how long you have been here?’
‘I don’t know. Days, weeks, months — I think it is months.’
‘And why do you imagine that we bring people to this place?’
‘To make them confess.’
‘No, that is not the reason. Try again.’
‘To punish them.’
‘No!’ exclaimed O’Brien. His voice had changed extraordinarily95, and his face had suddenly become both stern and animated96. ‘No! Not merely to extract your confession, not to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leaves our hands uncured? We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt97 act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I mean by that?’
He was bending over Winston. His face looked enormous because of its nearness, and hideously98 ugly because it was seen from below. Moreover it was filled with a sort of exaltation, a lunatic intensity99. Again Winston’s heart shrank. If it had been possible he would have cowered100 deeper into the bed. He felt certain that O’Brien was about to twist the dial out of sheer wantonness. At this moment, however, O’Brien turned away. He took a pace or two up and down. Then he continued less vehemently101:
‘The first thing for you to understand is that in this place there are no martyrdoms. You have read of the religious persecutions of the past. In the Middle Ages there was the Inquisition. It was a failure. It set out to eradicate102 heresy103, and ended by perpetuating104 it. For every heretic it burned at the stake, thousands of others rose up. Why was that? Because the Inquisition killed its enemies in the open, and killed them while they were still unrepentant: in fact, it killed them because they were unrepentant. Men were dying because they would not abandon their true beliefs. Naturally all the glory belonged to the victim and all the shame to the Inquisitor who burned him. Later, in the twentieth century, there were the totalitarians, as they were called. There were the German Nazis105 and the Russian Communists. The Russians persecuted106 heresy more cruelly than the Inquisition had done. And they imagined that they had learned from the mistakes of the past; they knew, at any rate, that one must not make martyrs107. Before they exposed their victims to public trial, they deliberately108 set themselves to destroy their dignity. They wore them down by torture and solitude109 until they were despicable, cringing110 wretches111, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy. And yet after only a few years the same thing had happened over again. The dead men had become martyrs and their degradation112 was forgotten. Once again, why was it? In the first place, because the confessions that they had made were obviously extorted113 and untrue. We do not make mistakes of that kind. All the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true. And above all we do not allow the dead to rise up against us. You must stop imagining that posterity114 will vindicate115 you, Winston. Posterity will never hear of you. You will be lifted clean out from the stream of history. We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you, not a name in a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated116 in the past as well as in the future. You will never have existed.’
Then why bother to torture me? thought Winston, with a momentary117 bitterness. O’Brien checked his step as though Winston had uttered the thought aloud. His large ugly face came nearer, with the eyes a little narrowed.
‘You are thinking,’ he said, ‘that since we intend to destroy you utterly118, so that nothing that you say or do can make the smallest difference — in that case, why do we go to the trouble of interrogating119 you first? That is what you were thinking, was it not?’
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
O’Brien smiled slightly. ‘You are a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out. Did I not tell you just now that we are different from the persecutors of the past? We are not content with negative obedience120, nor even with the most abject121 submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation122. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting123 in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges124 could carry rebellion locked up in his skull125 as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out. The command of the old despotisms was “Thou shalt not”. The command of the totalitarians was “Thou shalt”. Our command is “THOU ART”. No one whom we bring to this place ever stands out against us. Everyone is washed clean. Even those three miserable126 traitors127 in whose innocence128 you once believed — Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford — in the end we broke them down. I took part in their interrogation myself. I saw them gradually worn down, whimpering, grovelling129, weeping — and in the end it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence130. By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching131 to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean.’
His voice had grown almost dreamy. The exaltation, the lunatic enthusiasm, was still in his face. He is not pretending, thought Winston, he is not a hypocrite, he believes every word he says. What most oppressed him was the consciousness of his own intellectual inferiority. He watched the heavy yet graceful132 form strolling to and fro, in and out of the range of his vision. O’Brien was a being in all ways larger than himself. There was no idea that he had ever had, or could have, that O’Brien had not long ago known, examined, and rejected. His mind CONTAINED Winston’s mind. But in that case how could it be true that O’Brien was mad? It must be he, Winston, who was mad. O’Brien halted and looked down at him. His voice had grown stern again.
‘Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.’
He paused and signed to the man in the white coat. Winston was aware of some heavy piece of apparatus133 being pushed into place behind his head. O’Brien had sat down beside the bed, so that his face was almost on a level with Winston’s.
‘Three thousand,’ he said, speaking over Winston’s head to the man in the white coat.
Two soft pads, which felt slightly moist, clamped themselves against Winston’s temples. He quailed134. There was pain coming, a new kind of pain. O’Brien laid a hand reassuringly135, almost kindly136, on his.
‘This time it will not hurt,’ he said. ‘Keep your eyes fixed on mine.’
At this moment there was a devastating137 explosion, or what seemed like an explosion, though it was not certain whether there was any noise. There was undoubtedly138 a blinding flash of light. Winston was not hurt, only prostrated139. Although he had already been lying on his back when the thing happened, he had a curious feeling that he had been knocked into that position. A terrific painless blow had flattened140 him out. Also something had happened inside his head. As his eyes regained141 their focus he remembered who he was, and where he was, and recognized the face that was gazing into his own; but somewhere or other there was a large patch of emptiness, as though a piece had been taken out of his brain.
‘It will not last,’ said O’Brien. ‘Look me in the eyes. What country is Oceania at war with?’
Winston thought. He knew what was meant by Oceania and that he himself was a citizen of Oceania. He also remembered Eurasia and Eastasia; but who was at war with whom he did not know. In fact he had not been aware that there was any war.
‘I don’t remember.’
‘Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Do you remember that now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war. Do you remember that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Eleven years ago you created a legend about three men who had been condemned142 to death for treachery. You pretended that you had seen a piece of paper which proved them innocent. No such piece of paper ever existed. You invented it, and later you grew to believe in it. You remember now the very moment at which you first invented it. Do you remember that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?’
‘Yes.’
‘There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?’
‘Yes.’
And he did see them, for a fleeting144 instant, before the scenery of his mind changed. He saw five fingers, and there was no deformity. Then everything was normal again, and the old fear, the hatred145, and the bewilderment came crowding back again. But there had been a moment — he did not know how long, thirty seconds, perhaps — of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if that were what was needed. It had faded but before O’Brien had dropped his hand; but though he could not recapture it, he could remember it, as one remembers a vivid experience at some period of one’s life when one was in effect a different person.
‘You see now,’ said O’Brien, ‘that it is at any rate possible.’
‘Yes,’ said Winston.
O’Brien stood up with a satisfied air. Over to his left Winston saw the man in the white coat break an ampoule and draw back the plunger of a syringe. O’Brien turned to Winston with a smile. In almost the old manner he resettled his spectacles on his nose.
‘Do you remember writing in your diary,’ he said, ‘that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane. Before we bring the session to an end you can ask me a few questions, if you choose.’
‘Any question I like?’
‘Anything.’ He saw that Winston’s eyes were upon the dial. ‘It is switched off. What is your first question?’
‘What have you done with Julia?’ said Winston.
O’Brien smiled again. ‘She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately — unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness146, her deceit, her folly147, her dirty-mindedness — everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion148, a textbook case.’
‘You tortured her?’
O’Brien left this unanswered. ‘Next question,’ he said.
‘Does Big Brother exist?’
‘Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party.’
‘Does he exist in the same way as I exist?’
‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien.
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed149 him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, ‘You do not exist’, contain a logical absurdity150? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish151 him.
‘I think I exist,’ he said wearily. ‘I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?’
‘It is of no importance. He exists.’
‘Will Big Brother ever die?’
‘Of course not. How could he die? Next question.’
‘Does the Brotherhood152 exist?’
‘That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to set you free when we have finished with you, and if you live to be ninety years old, still you will never learn whether the answer to that question is Yes or No. As long as you live it will be an unsolved riddle153 in your mind.’
Winston lay silent. His breast rose and fell a little faster. He still had not asked the question that had come into his mind the first. He had got to ask it, and yet it was as though his tongue would not utter it. There was a trace of amusement in O’Brien’s face. Even his spectacles seemed to wear an ironical154 gleam. He knows, thought Winston suddenly, he knows what I am going to ask! At the thought the words burst out of him:
‘What is in Room 101?’
The expression on O’Brien’s face did not change. He answered drily:
‘You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101.’
He raised a finger to the man in the white coat. Evidently the session was at an end. A needle jerked into Winston’s arm. He sank almost instantly into deep sleep.
点击收听单词发音
1 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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2 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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3 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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4 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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5 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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6 espionage | |
n.间谍行为,谍报活动 | |
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7 sabotage | |
n.怠工,破坏活动,破坏;v.从事破坏活动,妨害,破坏 | |
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8 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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9 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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10 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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11 dodge | |
v.闪开,躲开,避开;n.妙计,诡计 | |
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12 inviting | |
adj.诱人的,引人注目的 | |
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13 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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14 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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15 spine | |
n.脊柱,脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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16 forsook | |
forsake的过去式 | |
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17 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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18 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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19 gasp | |
n.喘息,气喘;v.喘息;气吁吁他说 | |
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20 gasps | |
v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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21 unbearable | |
adj.不能容忍的;忍受不住的 | |
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22 recuperate | |
v.恢复 | |
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23 stupor | |
v.昏迷;不省人事 | |
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24 plank | |
n.板条,木板,政策要点,政纲条目 | |
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25 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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26 wrung | |
绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 ); 握紧(尤指别人的手); 把(湿衣服)拧干; 绞掉(水) | |
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27 humiliate | |
v.使羞辱,使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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28 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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29 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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30 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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31 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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32 undo | |
vt.解开,松开;取消,撤销 | |
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33 nagging | |
adj.唠叨的,挑剔的;使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评(某人)( nag的现在分词 );不断地烦扰或伤害(某人);无休止地抱怨;不断指责 | |
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34 bullying | |
v.恐吓,威逼( bully的现在分词 );豪;跋扈 | |
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35 assassination | |
n.暗杀;暗杀事件 | |
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36 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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37 embezzlement | |
n.盗用,贪污 | |
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38 capitalism | |
n.资本主义 | |
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39 pervert | |
n.堕落者,反常者;vt.误用,滥用;使人堕落,使入邪路 | |
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40 implicate | |
vt.使牵连其中,涉嫌 | |
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41 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
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42 strapped | |
adj.用皮带捆住的,用皮带装饰的;身无分文的;缺钱;手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词);用皮带抽打;包扎;给…打绷带 | |
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43 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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44 confessions | |
n.承认( confession的名词复数 );自首;声明;(向神父的)忏悔 | |
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45 embedded | |
a.扎牢的 | |
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46 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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47 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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48 respite | |
n.休息,中止,暂缓 | |
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49 tormentor | |
n. 使苦痛之人, 使苦恼之物, 侧幕 =tormenter | |
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50 pouches | |
n.(放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的)小袋( pouch的名词复数 );(袋鼠等的)育儿袋;邮袋;(某些动物贮存食物的)颊袋 | |
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51 wrench | |
v.猛拧;挣脱;使扭伤;n.扳手;痛苦,难受 | |
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52 wrenched | |
v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛 | |
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53 joints | |
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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54 backbone | |
n.脊骨,脊柱,骨干;刚毅,骨气 | |
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55 spinal | |
adj.针的,尖刺的,尖刺状突起的;adj.脊骨的,脊髓的 | |
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56 receded | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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57 inflict | |
vt.(on)把…强加给,使遭受,使承担 | |
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58 prevaricate | |
v.支吾其词;说谎;n.推诿的人;撒谎的人 | |
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59 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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60 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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61 deranged | |
adj.疯狂的 | |
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62 defective | |
adj.有毛病的,有问题的,有瑕疵的 | |
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63 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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64 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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65 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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66 agonizing | |
adj.痛苦难忍的;使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦;折磨(agonize的ing形式) | |
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67 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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68 speculatively | |
adv.思考地,思索地;投机地 | |
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69 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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70 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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71 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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72 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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73 humility | |
n.谦逊,谦恭 | |
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74 submission | |
n.服从,投降;温顺,谦虚;提出 | |
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75 sanity | |
n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确 | |
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76 delude | |
vt.欺骗;哄骗 | |
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77 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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78 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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79 sane | |
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的 | |
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80 groans | |
n.呻吟,叹息( groan的名词复数 );呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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81 clenching | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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82 blurry | |
adj.模糊的;污脏的,污斑的 | |
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83 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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84 chattering | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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85 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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86 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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87 ebbed | |
(指潮水)退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 ); 落; 减少; 衰落 | |
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88 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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89 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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90 spasm | |
n.痉挛,抽搐;一阵发作 | |
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91 lessened | |
减少的,减弱的 | |
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92 intermittently | |
adv.间歇地;断断续续 | |
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93 conversational | |
adj.对话的,会话的 | |
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94 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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95 extraordinarily | |
adv.格外地;极端地 | |
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96 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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97 overt | |
adj.公开的,明显的,公然的 | |
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98 hideously | |
adv.可怕地,非常讨厌地 | |
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99 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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100 cowered | |
v.畏缩,抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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101 vehemently | |
adv. 热烈地 | |
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102 eradicate | |
v.根除,消灭,杜绝 | |
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103 heresy | |
n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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104 perpetuating | |
perpetuate的现在进行式 | |
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105 Nazis | |
n.(德国的)纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 );纳粹主义 | |
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106 persecuted | |
(尤指宗教或政治信仰的)迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 ); 烦扰,困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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107 martyrs | |
n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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108 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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109 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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110 cringing | |
adj.谄媚,奉承 | |
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111 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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112 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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113 extorted | |
v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 );曲解 | |
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114 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
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115 vindicate | |
v.为…辩护或辩解,辩明;证明…正确 | |
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116 annihilated | |
v.(彻底)消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 );使无效;废止;彻底击溃 | |
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117 momentary | |
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
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118 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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119 interrogating | |
n.询问技术v.询问( interrogate的现在分词 );审问;(在计算机或其他机器上)查询 | |
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120 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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121 abject | |
adj.极可怜的,卑屈的 | |
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122 deviation | |
n.背离,偏离;偏差,偏向;离题 | |
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123 exulting | |
vi. 欢欣鼓舞,狂喜 | |
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124 purges | |
清除异己( purge的名词复数 ); 整肃(行动); 清洗; 泻药 | |
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125 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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126 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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127 traitors | |
卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 ); 叛徒; 背叛者; 背信弃义的人 | |
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128 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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129 grovelling | |
adj.卑下的,奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节,奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 );趴 | |
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130 penitence | |
n.忏悔,赎罪;悔过 | |
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131 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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132 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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133 apparatus | |
n.装置,器械;器具,设备 | |
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134 quailed | |
害怕,发抖,畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135 reassuringly | |
ad.安心,可靠 | |
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136 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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137 devastating | |
adj.毁灭性的,令人震惊的,强有力的 | |
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138 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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139 prostrated | |
v.使俯伏,使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 );(指疾病、天气等)使某人无能为力 | |
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140 flattened | |
[医](水)平扁的,弄平的 | |
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141 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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142 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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143 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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144 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
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145 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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146 rebelliousness | |
n. 造反,难以控制 | |
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147 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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148 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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149 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
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150 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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151 demolish | |
v.拆毁(建筑物等),推翻(计划、制度等) | |
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152 brotherhood | |
n.兄弟般的关系,手中情谊 | |
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153 riddle | |
n.谜,谜语,粗筛;vt.解谜,给…出谜,筛,检查,鉴定,非难,充满于;vi.出谜 | |
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154 ironical | |
adj.讽刺的,冷嘲的 | |
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