时间:2018-11-30 作者:英语课 分类:听美文故事记6级单词


英语课

3. Waiting for the Breeze


Lying in bed by an open window and listen.“No air conditioning?How can you sleep?”a friend asks, horrified 1.I've just revealed that my family has decided 2 to shut the air conditioner off and trim our electric bill.


  “Nobody opens a window,day or night,”warns another friend, whose windows have been painted shut for a decade.“This is the 1990s.It's not safe.”


  On this first night of our cost-cutting adventure,it's only 85 degrees.we're not going to suffer, but the three kids grumble 3 anyway. They've grown up in 72-degree comfort,insulated from the world outside.


  “How do you open these windows?” my husband asks.Jiggling the metal tabs, he finally releases one. A potpourri 4 of bug 5 decorates the sill. As we spring the windows one by one, the night noises howl outside and in.“It's too hot to sleep,”my 13-year-old daughter moans.


  “I'm about to die from this heat,”her brother hollers down the hall.“Just try it tonigt.”I tell them.


  In truth I'm too tired to argue for long. My face is sweaty, but I lie quietly listening to the cricket choirs 7 outside that remind me of childhood.The neighbor's dog howls.Probably a trespassing 8 squirrel.It's been years since I've taken the time to really listen to the night.


  I think about Grandma,who lived to 92 and still supervised Mom's gardening until just a few weeks before she died.


  And then,I'm back there at her house in the summer heat of my childhood.


  I move my pillow to the foot of Grandma's bed and angle my face toward the open window.I flip 9 the pillow, hunting for the cooler side.


  Grandma sees me thrashing.“If you'll just watch for the breeze,”she says,“you'll cool off and fall asleep.”


  She cranks up the Venetian blinds.I stare at the filmy white curtain, willing it to flutter.


  Lying still, waiting, I suddenly notice the life outside the window. The bug chorus ,neighbors, porch-sitting late, speak in hazy 10 words with sanded edges that soothe 11 me.


    “MOM,DID Y0U HEAR THAT?”my seven-year-o1d blurts 12.“I think it was an owl 6 family.”


  “Probably” I tell him.“Just keep listening…”


  Without the droning air condition,the house is oddly peaceful,and the unfiltered night noises seem close enough to touch.


  I hope I'm awake tonight when the first breeze sneaks 13 in.



1 horrified
a.(表现出)恐惧的
  • The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
  • We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。
2 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
3 grumble
vi.抱怨;咕哝;n.抱怨,牢骚;咕哝,隆隆声
  • I don't want to hear another grumble from you.我不愿再听到你的抱怨。
  • He could do nothing but grumble over the situation.他除了埋怨局势之外别无他法。
4 potpourri
n.混合之事物;百花香
  • As tobacco cigarette burns,a potpourri of 4000 chemicals is released,including carbon monoxide and hydrocyanic acid.当烟被点燃时,融合了四千种化学品的气体被释放出来,其中包括一氧化碳和氢氰酸。
  • Even so,there is a slight odour of potpourri emanating from Longfellow.纵然如此,也还是可以闻到来自朗费罗的一种轻微的杂烩的味道。
5 bug
n.虫子;故障;窃听器;vt.纠缠;装窃听器
  • There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
  • The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。
6 owl
n.猫头鹰,枭
  • Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
  • I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚,经常半夜后才睡觉。
7 choirs
n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 );唱诗队;公开表演的合唱团;(教堂)唱经楼
  • They ran the three churches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs and the parishioners. 她们管理着自己所属的那三家教堂、牧师、唱诗班和教区居民。 来自飘(部分)
  • Since 1935, several village choirs skilled in this music have been created. 1935以来,数支熟练掌握这种音乐的乡村唱诗班相继建立起来。 来自互联网
8 trespassing
[法]非法入侵
  • He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
  • Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。
9 flip
vt.快速翻动;轻抛;轻拍;n.轻抛;adj.轻浮的
  • I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书,看来似乎很有趣。
  • Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。
10 hazy
adj.有薄雾的,朦胧的;不肯定的,模糊的
  • We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
  • I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。
11 soothe
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承
  • I've managed to soothe him down a bit.我想方设法使他平静了一点。
  • This medicine should soothe your sore throat.这种药会减轻你的喉痛。
12 blurts
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的第三人称单数 )
  • He blurts out all he hears. 他漏嘴说出了他听到的一切。 来自辞典例句
  • If a user blurts out an interesting idea, ask "What problem would that solve for you?" 如果用户不假思索地冒出一个有趣的想法,则询问他:“这可以解决哪些问题?” 来自互联网
13 sneaks
abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋(网球鞋)v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状
  • Typhoid fever sneaks in when sanitation fails. 环境卫生搞不好,伤寒就会乘虚而入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Honest boys scorn sneaks and liars. 诚实的人看不起狡诈和撒谎的人。 来自辞典例句
学英语单词
-teenth
angular motion
appointment-only
ash-greys
autocratic leader
automatic data processing systems
Ban Nong Yang
Bandwidth-on-demand
bare the metal
basilar membranae
bonnett
catalogable permanent file
cheek retractor
chloroethylaminoanthraquinones
classical-styles
closure of simplex
collective body
community residents
copius
coraebus aesopus
crummy
cystomyxoma
dispension
disproportionateness
distrbuted processing
electro-gas arc welding
excitaton source
exhibition expenditures
false myxoma
fear-stricken
fibre grease
firiming agent
fix things up
fluidized layer
forage for
fund levy
go on an outing
graphic kernel system
gravity spectrum
gravity tectonics
green cormorant
guilt-trip
heliocentric declination
heterodyne interference
high speed steel end mill
Igo
in one piece nozzle
income-expenditures
interpretation of dreams
island-dwellers
Knelston
laid lower
lead crown glass
Leo III
linen fiber
load up on sth
lyme-hound
make gains
manufacturer's rep
mechano-chemical system
medical diagnostic radiation
metallographs
Middleton Stoney
missel-bird
Mogogelo
noas
note to the accounts
number identification
off-colo(u)r product
oystered
pal(a)eohydrology
Palespotted
pasta rocket
pasteur pipet
permineralised
planetary landing
plant room
plumbaginaceous
pulsed lasers
re-taining part of the extra profit
reed sweep
Resia
ring-a-ring
screen scarifier
sewerage of separate system
site autonomy
taint-hook
take springs out from
testing of soil
tetrazoles
think no small bear of
Tolbukhinski Okrǔg
toona sureni(bl.)merr.
total color blindness
Tristars
wages fund
wooden bridge
written calculation
yeast-liked
zero-zero gel
zhishi xiebai guizhi decoction