Early September morning in Oxford Street. The smell of charred dust hangs on what should be crystal pure air. Sun, just up, floods the once more innocent sky, strikes silver balloons and the intact building-tops. The whole length of Oxford Street, west to east, is empty, looks polished like ballroom, glitters with smashed glass. Down the distances, natural mists of morning are brown with the last of smoke. Fumes still come from the shell of a shop. At this is now the enormous thing – it appears to amaze the street. Sections and blocks have been roped off; there is no traffic; the men in the helmets say not a person may pass (but some sneak through). Besides the high explosives that did the work, this quarter has been seeded with time bombs – so we are headed, waiting for those to go off. This is the top of Oxford Street, near where it joins the corner of Hyde Park at Marble Arch.
We people have come up out of the ground, or out from the bottom floors of the damaged houses: we now see what we heard happen throughout the night.

湖南名校试卷

(from London, 1940 by Elizabeth Bowen) Dusk
charred  烧成炭的
crystal  如水晶般清澈的，透明的
intact  未受损的，完整的
polished  打磨过的，发光的
ballroom  舞厅
glitter  闪耀，发光
smashed  砸碎的
fume  烟雾
shell  骨架，建筑处壳
gas main  煤气总管道
rope off  用强围起
helmet  头盔
explosive  炸药，爆炸物
quarter  住宅区，地区
time bomb  定时炸弹
herd  聚集在一起，成群

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