第24课

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Who was Sebastian?

塞巴斯蒂安是谁？

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We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person

我们经常在小说中读到，一个看似体面的人

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or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years.

或家庭隐藏着某个可怕的秘密，多年来一直对陌生人保密。

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The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation.

英语中有一个生动的说法来描述这种情况。

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The terrible secret is called 'a skeleton in the cupboard'.

这个可怕的秘密被称为“橱柜里的骷髅”。

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

在故事的某个戏剧性时刻，这个可怕的秘密公诸于世，声誉也随之毁掉。

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The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine,

当读者在小说的最后几页读到女主人公——

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a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands.

一位一直对每个人都非常和蔼可亲的老太太，在年轻时毒死了她的五个丈夫时，会毛骨悚然。

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

这种事情发生在小说里是完全可以的。

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To varying degrees, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn,

在不同程度上，我们都有一些甚至不想让最亲密的朋友知道的秘密，

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but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard.

但我们中很少有人有“橱柜里的骷髅”。

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The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very proud of the fact.

我认识的唯一一个有“橱柜里的骷髅”的人是乔治·卡尔顿，他对此引以为豪。

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George studied medicine in his youth.

乔治年轻时学医。

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Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories.

然而，他没有成为一名医生，而是成为了一名成功的侦探小说作家。

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I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house.

我有一次在他家度过了一个令我永生难忘的不舒服的周末。

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George showed me to the guestroom which, he said, was rarely used.

乔治把我带到客房，他说那个房间很少用。

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He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner.

他让我把行李打开，然后下来吃饭。

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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.

我把衬衫和内衣叠放在两个空抽屉里后，决定把我带来的两套西装中的一套挂在橱柜里。

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I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified.

我打开橱柜门，然后僵在原地，吓呆了。

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A skeleton was dangling before my eyes.

一个骷髅在我眼前晃动。

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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.

门的突然移动使它轻轻摇晃，给我一种它要向我扑过来的感觉。

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Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George.

我扔下西装，冲下楼去告诉乔治。

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

这比“可怕的秘密”更糟糕；这是一个真正的骷髅！

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But George was unsympathetic.

但乔治无动于衷。

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

“哦，那个啊，”他微笑着说，好像在谈论一位老朋友。

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'That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.'

“那是塞巴斯蒂安。你忘了我以前也是个医学院的学生。”