新概念英语第三册课堂笔记 第二十四课
 
Lesson 24 A skeleton in the cupboard

We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years. The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation. The terrible secret is called ‘a skeleton in the cupboard’. At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader’s hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned毒死 every one of her five husbands.
It is all very for such things to occur(=happen) in fiction. To <I>var</I>ying degrees, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very proud of the fact. George studied medicine in his youth. Instead of没有 becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories. I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guestroom which, he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner. After I had stacked装 my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the two suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified. A skeleton was dangling before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door make it sway slightly and it gave me the impression印象 that it was about to即将 leap out at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George. This was worse than ‘a terrible secret’; this was a real skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. ‘Oh, that,’ he said with a smile as if仿佛 he were talking about an old friend. ‘That’s Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.’

New words and expressions
skeleton        骷髅，素描
seemingly        表面上地
respectable        受人尊重的
conceal        隐藏
vivid            生动的
dramatic        扣人心弦的
ruin    毁坏（名誉等），使破产
heroine            女主人公
fiction            小说
<I>var</I>ying        不同的
medicine        医学的
guestroom        客房
unpack            取出
stack            （整齐地）堆放
underclothes    内衣
drawer            抽屉
petrify            使惊呆
dangle            悬挂
sway            摇摆
unsympathetic    无动于衷的
medical        医学的

Notes on the text
A ske

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