---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-3/24-a-skeleton-in-the-cupboard.md
description: 新概念英语第三册：A Skeleton in the Cupboard “。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 家丑”

## 课文学习台 {#study}

### 第1段

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 every one of her five husbands.

中文理解：在小说中，我们经常读到一个表面上受人尊重的人物或家庭，却藏着某种多年不为人所知的骇人听闻的秘密。英语中有一个生动的说法来形容这种情况。惊人的秘密称作“柜中骷髅”。在小说的某个戏剧性时刻，可怕的秘密泄漏出来，接着便是某人的声誉扫地。当读者读到小说最后几页，了解到书中女主人公—— 那位一向待大家很好的可爱的老妇人年轻时一连毒死了她的5个丈夫时，不禁会毛骨悚然。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①seemingly = apparently。②concealed = hidden。③vivid saying = a memorable expression。④reputation = a good name。⑤ruined = destroyed。

### 第2段

It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction. To varying 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 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 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 made it sway slightly and it gave me the impression that it was about to 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 he were talking about an old friend. "That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time."

中文理解：这种事写在小说里，倒也无妨。在某种程度上可以说我们都有各种秘密，哪怕是最亲密的朋友也不愿让他们知道，但我们当中极少有人柜中藏着骷髅。我认识的唯一一个便是乔治·卡尔顿，他甚至引以为豪。乔治年轻时学过医，然而，他后来没当上医生，却成了一位成功的侦探小说家。有一次，我在他家里过周末，过得很不愉快。这事我永远不会忘记。乔治把我领进客房，说这间房很少使用。他让我放好行李后下楼吃饭。我将衬衫、内衣放进两个空抽屉里，然后我想把随身带来的两套西服中的一套挂到大衣柜里去。我站在柜子前一开门，我惊呆了。一具骷髅悬挂在眼前，由于柜门突然打开，它也随之轻微摇晃起来，让我觉得它好像马上要跳出柜门朝我扑过来似的。我扔下西服冲下楼去告诉乔治。这是比“骇人听闻的秘密”更加惊人的东西，这是一具真正的骷髅！但乔治却无动于衷。“噢，是它呀！”他笑着说道，俨然在谈论一位老朋友。“那是塞巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前是学医的吗。”

* **Instead of**：代替 / 而不是；两边尽量保持可比较的形式，并说明你真正选择了什么。

* **as if**：以便或以致 / 尽管 / 即使 / 仿佛；先判断两部分的关系；even though 说已知情况，even if 常说假设。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①fiction = invented stories。 ②To varying degrees = sometimes more, sometimes less。

#### Summary 摘要

The writer started to unpack and put his shirts and underclothes into drawers and then decided to hang a suit in the cupboard. He opened the cupboard and stood petrified: there, dangling in front of him, was a skeleton. It was swaying and ready to leap out at him. He dropped his suit and dashed downstairs to tell George. George was unsympathetic and told the writer it was Sebastian, a skeleton he had when he was a medical student. (79 words)

#### Composition 作文 A Weekend With Sebastian 与骷髅共处的周末

\[1]Now that George had explained about the skeleton, I felt better, but I still didn't want to sleep in the room with a skeleton hanging in the cupboard. I asked George to remove him, but he refused. "There's nowhere else to put him," said George, "so he'll have to stay."

\[2]I couldn't disagree of course, but the moment I lay down to sleep, I knew it was going to be an uncomfortable night. In the end, I decided that I would take Sebastian somewhere for the night and bring him back up to my room early in the morning. So I took him out of cupboard and walked around the house with him trying to find somewhere to put him.

\[3]George's maid was just going to bed as I walked along the landing. She saw Sebastian apparently walking around, screamed and fainted. She had obviously woken Carlton who appeared from his bedroom and, when the girl had regained consciousness, explained everything to her. He accused me of being stupid and sent me and Sebastian back to "our" room where I hung him up in the cupboard again.

\[4]Imagine my surprise when I picked up one of Carlton's detective stories two years later. There I was, with Sebastian the skeleton, as the main characters in one of his stories for the whole world to read. Still, he didn't use my real name, so I should be glad of that! (240 words)

## 学完这一课

保留原段的推进关系，换成自己的经历，写或说一段四五句的话。

[Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-3/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/)

*译文与解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第82—84页，2022年2月第3版。*