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  3. In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians

In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians

游客2023-12-15  34
问题    In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians, a man stood one winter  night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within the range of his vision, and, later, of his rifle. But the game for whose presence he kept so keen an outlook was none that figured in the sportsman’s calendar as lawful and proper for the chase; Ulrich yon Gradwitz patrolled the dark forest in quest of a human enemy.
   The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous  woodland that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it harboured or the shooting it "afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of all its owner’s territorial possessions. A famous law suit, in the days of his grandfather, had wrested it from the illegal possession of a neighbouring family of petty landowners; the dispossessed party had never acquiesced in the judgment of the Courts, and a long series of poaching affrays and similar scandals had embittered the relationships between the families for three generations. The neighbour feud had grown into a personal one since Ulrich had come to be head of his family; if there was a man in the world whom he detested and wished ill to it was Georg Znaeym, the inheritor of the quarrel and the tireless game-snatcher and raider of the disputed border-forest. The feud might, perhaps, have died down or been compromised if the personal ill-will of the two men had not stood in the way. As boys they had thirsted for one another’s blood, as men each prayed that misfortune might fall on the other, and this windscourged winter night Ulrich had banded together his foresters to watch the dark forest, not in quest of fourfooted quarry, but to keep a look-out for the prowling thieves whom he suspected of being afoot from across the land boundary. The roebuck, which usually kept in the sheltered hollows during a storm-wind, were running like driven things tonight, and there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours. Assuredly there was a disturbing element in the forest, and Ulrich could guess the quarter from whence it came.
   The two enemies stood glaring at one another for a long silent moment. Each had a rifle in his hand,  each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind. The chance had come to give full play to the passions of a lifetime. But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining eivilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour. And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them. Ulrich yon Gradwitz found himself stretched on the ground, one arm numb beneath him and the other held almost as helplessly in a tight tangle of forked branches, while both legs were pinned beneath the fallen mass. His heavy shooting-boots had saved his feet from being crushed to pieces, but if his fractures were not as serious as they might have been, at least it was evident that he could not move from his present position till some one came to release him. The descending twig had slashed the skin of his face, and he had to wink away some drops of blood from his eyelashes before he could take in a general view of the disaster. At his side, so near that under ordinary circumstances he could almost have touched him, lay Georg Znaeym, alive and struggling, but obviously as helplessly pinioned down as himself. All round them lay a thick-strewn wreckage of splintered branches and broken twigs.  [br] Ulrich suspected somebody had intruded into the woodland because
选项 A、some animals made some unusual movement.
B、he was informed of the intrusion in advance.
C、his foresters detected the trace of the intruder.
D、there was suffocating quietness in the air.
答案 A
解析 细节题。由题干中的suspected定位至第二段结尾处。在倒数第三句指出the prowling thieves whom he suspeeted of being afoot from across the land boundary，之后给出他之所以怀疑的原因：The roebuck，which usually kept in the sheltered hollows during a storm-wind，were running like driven things tonight，and there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours，这是动物的反常行为引起了Ulrich的警觉，[A]符合文意，故为答案。这里提到了during a storm-wind和a disturbing element in the forest，显 然[D]与之矛盾，排除；倒数第三句提及Ulrich had banded together his foresters to watch the dark forest，但并没有说守林人发现蛛丝马迹，排除[C]；文中没有提及Ulrich预先得到通报，排除[B]。  
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