胡敏讀故事記單詞新GRE核心詞匯 001 The Road to Royston Valley

You'll never find the village of Royston Valley on maps. Traditionally, locals do not abbreviate it to "R.V." or abridge it to "Royston". This would be to abandon a tradition. Royston Valley is an aberration and its inhabitants, who consider themselves aboriginals, are aberrant. Strangers arriving in Royston Valley cannot abscond. Locals abominate them, their situation is abject and they are at the mercy of the local people, who are aboveboard with each other, but hold rules in abeyance with regard to strangers. Rumors abound that hikers in the nearby hills have been abducted and...well, who knows?

The villagers live in almost absolute isolation and don't want the outside world to absorb them. They are abstemious and abstain from most of the modern things that other English people, who are now rarely abstentious, enjoy. Their abstention would be famous if anyone knew of it. A few people keep abreast of events in the outside world, in case anything that could affect the village happens. One of these people discovered that a road to Royston Valley was being built. The locals thought this abominable. How could they stop the abhorrent road? They would have to fight until the threat abated and construction was abrogated. Everyone discussed the abolition of the road to their centuries old abode. Several attempts to stop the road were made, but these failed, abashing the locals, forcing the mayor to abdicate, and leading to rumors that a villager was abetting the road builders. As a result, each villager publicly abnegated any connection to the road builders through ablution.

One woman refused to abide by this and abase herself in this way. She claimed to abhor the road, wanted to abolish it, and would give a verbal abnegation. Others villagers tried to reason with her, saying that, to abjure, ablution was necessary, but the discussion soon became abrasive. Someone pointed out her frequent absenteeism from the village in recent days and the woman was forced to tell her story to absolve herself. Though a series of abscissions and abrasions, she had created a single body from the dead bodies of farm animals. Put together, the body looked frightening. She had left it in the path of the road. A few days later, the road builders discovered it and abraded the mud from it. What they saw horrified them and work came to an abrupt halt on the now abortive road.