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 cup board '. 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 week-end 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 in the cupboard one of the two suits I had brought with me. 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.'
last saturday,I came to UC English corner and one guy said it was a good way to read and read again,and many people also recommend to recite the lessons,I never do it like that..
在英文中，一个词或词组通常有两层含义，一层是literal meaning字面意义，另外一层是figurative meaning引申意义。这篇课文使用了一个具有引申意义的成语a skeleton in the cupboard不为人知的家丑，来讲述一件真事，而讲述的事情又借用了这个成语的字面意义literal meaning。 The whole story is actually built upon the play of a word literal and figuative meaning,it's not a hard story.But anyway what a strange man George was? Maybe when he was a medical student,he used the skeleton to find out the secret of human bodies.Now he was a detective story writer,he kept the skeleton in order to find out the secret of human minds.基督教中的确有过一个传说，说到有个圣人叫Saint S多次起死回生，George给他的骷髅起了这么一个名字，也许是说骷髅随时对他都可以起死回生吧。
/1 
