3-63

63.

Soon after that day it was announced that the two royal households, Cambridge and Sussex, would

no longer share an office. We’d no longer be working together in any capacity. The Fab Four…

finis.

Reaction was about as expected. The public groaned¹, journalists brayed². The more

disheartening response was from my family. Silence. They never commented publicly, never said

anything privately³ to me. I never heard from Pa, never heard from Granny. It made me think,

really think, about the silence that surrounded everything else that happened to me and Meg. I’d

always told myself that, just because everyone in my family didn’t explicitly⁴ condemn⁵ press

attacks, it didn’t mean they condoned⁶ them. But now I asked: Is that true? How do I know? If they

never say anything, why do I so often assume that I know how they feel?

And that they’re unequivocally on our side?

Everything I’d been taught, everything I’d grown up believing about the family, and about the

monarchy⁷, about its essential fairness, its job of uniting rather than dividing, was being

undermined, called into question. Was it all fake? Was it all just a show? Because if we couldn’t

stand up for one another, rally around our newest member, our first biracial member, then what

were we really? Was that a true constitutional monarchy? Was that 

1 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 brayed   

v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的过去式和过去分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击

参考例句：

• He brayed with laughter. 他刺耳地大笑。
• His donkey threw up his head and brayed loudly. 他的驴扬起头大声叫。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

4 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

6 condoned   

v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Terrorism can never be condoned. 决不能容忍恐怖主义。
• They condoned his sins because he repented. 由于他的悔悟，他们宽恕了他的罪。 来自辞典例句

7 monarchy   

n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国

参考例句：

• The monarchy in England plays an important role in British culture.英格兰的君主政体在英国文化中起重要作用。
• The power of the monarchy in Britain today is more symbolical than real.今日英国君主的权力多为象徵性的，无甚实际意义。