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.'

19. This was worse than a terrible secret; this was a real skeleton!

這是比 “駭人聽聞的秘密 ”更加驚人的東西，這是一具真正的骷髏啊！

語言點:句子結構分析:分號之后的內容為補充說明，解釋“為什么駭人聽聞”。

20. But George was unsympathetic.

但喬治卻無動于衷。

語言點:句子結構分析:but引導的句子與上文的說法形成轉折，引出下文George對這件事情的不同看法。

21. ‘Oh, that,’he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend.

“噢，是它呀！他笑著說道，儼然在談論一位老朋友。

語言點1:句子結構分析:that指代上文中提到的skeleton。as if引導虛擬語氣—“好像在談論一位老朋友”。

語言點2:said with a smile的意思是“笑著說”，with a smile作方式狀語，指的是“以笑的方式說”。

22. ‘That’s Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.’
“那是塞巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前是學醫的了。”

語言點1:句子結構分析:that引導賓語從句，說明forget的內容是什么。

語言點2:once upon a time指的是“過去，曾經”，即以前的事情。