A Skeleton in the Cupboard 櫥柜里的骷髏

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.
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 make 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.'

4.At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined.

在小說的某個戲劇性時刻，可怕的秘密泄漏出來，接著便是某人的聲譽掃地。

語言點:英語中的被動語態在譯成漢語時必須作出適當的調整，譯為主動語態更符合漢語的邏輯和表達習慣，a reputation is ruined不可直譯為“一個聲譽被毀了”，而是“聲譽掃地”。

5.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.

當讀者到小說最后幾頁了解到書中女主人公，那位一向待大家很好的可愛的老婦人年輕時一連毒死了她的 5個丈夫時，不禁會毛骨悚然。

語言點:句子結構分析:這是一個超長的復合句，主句為The reader's hair stands on end,when引導時間狀語從句，其中又有一個由that引導的賓語從句，賓語從句中含有由who引導的定語從句，修飾lady。此外，a dear old lady作heroine的同位語，in her youth是插入語。

6.It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction.

這種事發生在小說中是無可非議的。

語言點:句子結構分析:it充當形式主語，真正的主語是動詞不定式短語to occur in fiction。此句可以還原為:To occur in fiction is all very well for such things.但還原后的句子頭重腳輕，故使用it作形式主語，而將句子的真正主語移到后面。