【饥饿游戏】50

If a mentor¹ mistreats his tributes, he’ll be held accountable by the 

viewers, by the people back in District 12. Even Haymitch wouldn’t 

risk that, would he? Say what you will about my fellow traders in

the Hob, but I don’t think they’d welcome him back there if he

let me die this way. And then where would he get his liquor?

So . . . what? Is he trying to make me suffer for defying him? Is

he directing all the sponsors toward Peeta? Is he just too

drunk to even notice what’s going on at the moment? Somehow

I don’t believe that and I don’t believe he’s trying to kill

me off by neglect, either. He has, in fact, in his own unpleasant

way, genuinely been trying to prepare me for this. Then what

is going on?

I bury my face in my hands. There’s no danger of tears now,

I couldn’t produce one to save my life. What is Haymitch

doing? Despite my anger, hatred², and suspicions, a small voice

in the back of my head whispers an answer.

Maybe he’s sending you a message, it says. A message. Saying

what? Then I know. There’s only one good reason Haymitch

could be withholding³ water from me. Because he knows

I’ve almost found it.

I grit⁴ my teeth and pull myself to my feet. My backpack

seems to have tripled in weight. I find a broken branch that

will do for a walking stick and I start off. The sun’s beating

down, even more searing than the first two days. I feel like an

old piece of leather, drying and cracking in the heat. every

step is an effort, but I refuse to stop. I refuse to sit down. If I

sit, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to get up again, that I

won’t even remember my task.

What easy prey⁵ I am! Any tribute, even tiny Rue⁶, could take

me right now, merely shove me over and kill me with my own

knife, and I’d have little strength to resist. But if anyone is in

my part of the woods, they ignore me. The truth is, I feel a 

million miles from another living soul.

Not alone though. No, they’ve surely got a camera tracking

me now. I think back to the years of watching tributes starve,

freeze, bleed, and dehydrate⁷ to death. Unless there’s a really

good fight going on somewhere, I’m being featured.

My thoughts turn to Prim⁸. It’s likely she won’t be watching

me live, but they’ll show updates at the school during lunch.

For her sake, I try to look as least desperate as I can.

But by afternoon, I know the end is coming. My legs are

shaking and my heart too quick. I keep forgetting, exactly

what I’m doing. I’ve stumbled repeatedly and managed to 

regain⁹ my feet, but when the stick slides out from under me, 

I finallytumble to the ground unable to get up. I let my eyes 

close. I have misjudged Haymitch. He has no intention of 

helping¹⁰ me at all. This is all right, I think. This is not so bad 

here. The air is less hot, signifying evening’s approach. There’s 

a slight, sweet scent¹¹ that reminds me of lilies. My fingers stroke 

the smooth ground, sliding easily across the top. This is an okay 

place to die, I think. My fingertips make small swirling¹² patterns 

in the cool, slippery earth. I love mud, I think. How many times 

I’ve tracked game with the help of its soft, readable surface. Good

for bee stings, too. Mud. Mud. Mud! My eyes fly open and I dig

my fingers into the earth. It is mud! My nose lifts in the air.

And those are lilies! Pond lilies!

I crawl now, through the mud, dragging myself toward the

scent. Five yards from where I fell, I crawl through a tangle¹³ of

plants into a pond. Floating on the top, yellow flowers in

bloom, are my beautiful lilies.

It’s all I can do not to plunge¹⁴ my face into the water and

gulp¹⁵ down as much as I can hold. But I have jus enough sense

left to abstain¹⁶. With trembling hands, I get out my flask¹⁷ and fill

it with water. I add what I remember to be the right number of

drops of iodine¹⁸ for purifying it. The half an hour of waiting is

agony, but I do it. At least, I think it’s a half an hour, but it’s 

certainly as long as I can stand.

Slowly, easy now, I tell myself. I take one swallow and make

myself wait. Then another. Over the next couple of hours, I

drink the entire half gallon. Then a second. I prepare another

before I retire to a tree where I continue sipping¹⁹, eating rabbit,

and even indulge in one of my precious crackers²⁰. By the

time the anthem²¹ plays, I feel remarkably²² better. There are no

faces tonight, no tributes died today. Tomorrow I’ll stay here,

resting, camouflaging²³ my backpack with mud, catching²⁴ some

of those little fish I saw as I sipped²⁵, digging up the roots of the

pond lilies to make a nice meal. I snuggle down in my sleeping

bag, hanging on to my water bottle for dear life, which, of

course, it is. A few hours later, the stampede of feet shakes me 

from slumber²⁶. I look around in bewilderment. It’s not yet dawn, 

but my stinging eyes can see it.

It would be hard to miss the wall of fire descending²⁷ on me.

1 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

2 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

3 withholding   

扣缴税款

参考例句：

• She was accused of withholding information from the police. 她被指控对警方知情不报。
• The judge suspected the witness was withholding information. 法官怀疑见证人在隐瞒情况。

4 grit   

n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The soldiers showed that they had plenty of grit. 士兵们表现得很有勇气。
• I've got some grit in my shoe.我的鞋子里弄进了一些砂子。

5 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

6 rue   

n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔

参考例句：

• You'll rue having failed in the examination.你会悔恨考试失败。
• You're going to rue this the longest day that you live.你要终身悔恨不尽呢。

7 dehydrate   

vt.使脱水

参考例句：

• People can very quickly dehydrate in the desert.人在沙漠里很快就会脱水。
• Without these structures, many warm-blooded animals would quickly dehydrate,especially in dry climates.没有这样的结构，许多温血动物将很快脱水，特别是在干燥的气候条件下。

8 prim   

adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地

参考例句：

• She's too prim to enjoy rude jokes!她太古板，不喜欢听粗野的笑话！
• He is prim and precise in manner.他的态度一本正经而严谨

9 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

12 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

13 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

14 plunge   

v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲

参考例句：

• Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
• That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。

15 gulp   

vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽

参考例句：

• She took down the tablets in one gulp.她把那些药片一口吞了下去。
• Don't gulp your food,chew it before you swallow it.吃东西不要狼吞虎咽，要嚼碎了再咽下去。

16 abstain   

v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免

参考例句：

• His doctor ordered him to abstain from beer and wine.他的医生嘱咐他戒酒。
• Three Conservative MPs abstained in the vote.三位保守党下院议员投了弃权票。

17 flask   

n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱

参考例句：

• There is some deposit in the bottom of the flask.这只烧杯的底部有些沉淀物。
• He took out a metal flask from a canvas bag.他从帆布包里拿出一个金属瓶子。

18 iodine   

n.碘，碘酒

参考例句：

• The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
• Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。

19 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

20 crackers   

adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘

参考例句：

• That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
• We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

22 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

23 camouflaging   

v.隐蔽( camouflage的现在分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰

参考例句：

• Camouflaging an ammunition ship with the red cross is a filthy trick. 用红十字伪装一艘弹药船是下流的勾当。 来自辞典例句
• Lecture 2: Prefrontal Cortex and the Neural Basis of Cognitive Control. 课程单元2：额前皮质与认知控制的神经基础。 来自互联网

24 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

25 sipped   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sipped his coffee pleasurably. 他怡然地品味着咖啡。
• I sipped the hot chocolate she had made. 我小口喝着她调制的巧克力热饮。 来自辞典例句

26 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。

27 descending   

n. 下行 adj. 下降的

参考例句：

• The results are expressed in descending numerical order . 结果按数字降序列出。
• The climbers stopped to orient themselves before descending the mountain. 登山者先停下来确定所在的位置，然后再下山。