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● sneakers（美国俗语）：橡皮底帆布鞋。他自己穿的是皮靴，上段已说过。
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● rift：云的缝隙。nub：馒头状地隆起一块，他们现在立足之处，已然见冰，可是主峰还是刚刚在云端里隐隐约约露出一小块而已。然而那里是不是就是主峰，现在还没有十分把握。
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But the wind had us. Not the gusty autumnal wind, nor the tree-bending, whirling blasts of earth—not anything known to men or the world of men; rather, it was the released power of all creation, the one irresistible force, a nothing so intensified and materialized and charged that up there on the high cone of the mountain it became the all. In wind like that, no other life existed.
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● 第一句的have（俗语）=hold at a disadvantage（此解根据The American College Dictionary）。风把我们“制住”了，或“吃住”了。
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● 山顶上的风非同小可，它不是劲疾的秋风，也不是地面上普通把树吹弯盘旋作势的狂风（blasts），这种风是人类从未见识过，人世也从未吹过的。它是宇宙万物所郁结的力量的总发泄（released），它是一种不可抵抗的力量，它本身空洞，并无一物（a nothing），可是在山顶尖峰（cone）高处，它的声势增强（intensified）了，它成了有形有体（materialized），它充满了活力（charge：充电），以致这种空无一物的风，在这里成宇宙间一切生命力量的总汇（the all）。在这种风底下，别无他种生物（草木鸟兽），风就是一切。
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We tried to duck back out of it and prepare. Caps, sweaters, jackets—we fumbled them on, feeling the touch of ice on our skin, in fingers and toes.
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Turn back? No one said it. Give it a try, anyway. There’s the top, right ahead—a straight and easy slope.
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● duck：低头闪避。prepare：准备应付。
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● fumbled them on：把它们瞎摸瞎拉地戴上穿上。
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● Give it a try, anyway：不管有风没风，还是往前走着瞧吧。主峰就在前面，山坡很平，不难走。
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We crouched, waiting and beginning to shiver. The wind blast would have to relent, we thought; nothing like that could keep on and on. Sun still shone and the sight of it warmed us. We couldn’t feel it.
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● crouched：佝偻着身子，等风过去，可是身上已经颤抖不已了。
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● relent：缓和。would：表示“将来”；have to：表示“一定”；风一定会缓和下来的，像这样猛烈的东西，不会永久维持下去的。
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● the sight of it warmed us：看见了太阳，心里还觉得有点温暖，可是实际上一点暖气都觉不到。
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So the plunge across the rock fields. Tommy shouted, and from the hiss of syllables I decided he was trying to say “excelsior!” Blood and sinews responded, pushed us buoyantly against the wall of wind. We had to bend low and breathe in quick gulps, turning our mouths under the lee of our shoulders. Our lungs felt the raw cold.
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● 笫一句不完整，完整的形式大约是“So we started the plunge…”。plunge：往前直冲。rock fields：乱石岗。
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● 风大得连话都说不清楚了。Tommy在叫，听不清楚他在说些什么，只是他的音节里丝丝音很多，猜想上去，他一定是想说“excelsior”（=still higher，再往上爬呀！加油！）。
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● sinews：肌肉（常用复数形式）。responded：响应；努力以赴。buoyantly：满怀希望地（此字本有“往上浮”之意）。wall of wind：风之阻力极大，犹如墙壁挡路。
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● breathe in quick gulps：很快地用嘴咽气，鼻子已经无能为力。under the lee of our shoulders：拿肩膀挡住风，嘴才可以呼吸。
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● raw cold：极冷。寒冷彻骨，连肺里都感觉到了。
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The old notion that it was a cold autumn day still persisted; the gust, we felt, would pass, and our working muscles would spread warmth and life through our bodies. We kept pushing upward with slow and fumbling steps, slipping on ice surfaces like old men. It took a half hour or so for the thought to settle in my mind that we ought not to be there, that the windwall was coming at us more relentlessly, that we were stooping lower and fighting to stay on our feet, and especially that all warmth had withdrawn from feet and legs and hands.
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● old notion：旧观念。persisted：不退，仍在心头。天虽冷，究竟不过是秋天，冷不到哪里去的。我们觉得疾风就会过去，我们的肌肉活动之后（working muscles），暖气生机，即能布满全身。
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● the thought to settle in my mind：瞎爬了大约半个钟头之后，我方才认清了——第一，我们根本不应该到这里来的；第二，风墙给我们的压力是更汹涌可怕了；第三，我们身子愈俯愈低，拼了命才勉强把脚头站住；第四，我们尤其觉得脚上腿上手上的暖气已经全给吹跑了。
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I tried to speak, then to yell, but made no sound. John Somes went on ahead. Tommy had dropped behind and seemed hardly to be moving. I crouched and waited.
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When he came close he put his mouth to my ear and shouted, “I think we’re damn fools.” The words came faintly and stiffly, but I heard them and nodded. Back to the wind, we looked down the rough slope. My watery eyes were closed slits, and a fine spindrift of snow blew like white smoke over the rocks, but I could still see where the headwall fell away into cold space.
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