第一篇 回顾与展望 - the Educator Login page!

They won, of course, but it was a grueling affair, with the battleroom so filled with a labyrinth of stars thathunting down the enemy during mop-up took forty-five minutes. It was Pol Slattery's Badger Army, and theyrefused to give up. There was a new wrinkle in the game, too -- when they disabled or damaged an enemy, hethawed in about five minutes, the way it worked in practice. Only when the enemy was completely frozen did hestay out of action the whole time. But the gradual thawing did not work for Dragon Army. Crazy Tom was theone who realized what was happening, when they started getting hit from behind by people they thought weresafely out of the way. And at the end of the battle, Slattery shook Ender's hand and said, "I'm glad you won. If Iever beat you, Ender, I want to do it fair.""Use what they give you," Ender said. "If you've ever got an advantage over the enemy, use it.""Oh, I did," said Slattery. He grinned. "I'm only fair-minded before and after battles."The battle took so long that breakfast was over. Ender looked at his hot, sweating, tired soldiers waiting in thecorridor and said, "Today you know everything. No practice. Get some rest. Have some fun. Pass a test." It was ameasure of their weariness that they didn't even cheer or laugh or smile, just walked into the barracks andstripped off their clothes. They would have practiced if he had asked them to, but they were reaching the end oftheir strength, and going without breakfast was one unfairness too many.Ender meant to shower right away, but he was also tired. He lay down on his bed in his flash suit, just for amoment, and woke up at the beginning of lunchtime. So much for his idea of studying more about the buggersthis morning. Just time to clean up, go eat, and head for class.He peeled off his flash suit, which stank from his sweat. His body felt cold, his joints oddly weak. Shouldn'thave slept in the middle of the day. I'm beginning to slack off. I'm beginning to wear down. Can't let it get to me.So he jogged to the gym and forced himself to climb the rope three times before going to the bathroom toshower. It didn't occur to him that his absence in the commanders' mess would be noticed, that showering duringthe noon hour, when his own army would be wolfing down their first meal of the day, he would he completely,helplessly alone.第 217 页 共 340 页http://www.en8848.com.cn/ 原 版 英 语 阅 读 网