Lesson 24

We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years.
我们经常在小说中读到，一个看似体面的个人或家庭如何有着一个对陌生人隐瞒多年的可怕秘密。
The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation.
英语中有一个生动的谚语来描述这种情况。
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”（家丑）。
At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined.
在故事中的某个戏剧性时刻，那个可怕的秘密为人所知，一个人的名声也随之毁掉了。
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.
当读者读到小说的最后几页，发现那个一直以来对大家都那么好、亲爱的老太太，竟然在年轻时毒死了她的每一个丈夫时，他的头发都竖起来了。
It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction.
这类事情发生在小说中固然很好。
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.
在不同程度上，我们都有甚至不愿让最亲密的朋友知道的秘密，但我们中很少有人有不可告人的家丑。
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家丑的人是乔治·卡尔顿，而且他对此感到非常自豪。
George studied medicine in his youth.
乔治年轻时学过医。
Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories.
然而，他没有成为医生，而是成为了一名成功的侦探小说作家。
I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house.
我曾经在他家里度过了一个令我永生难忘的不愉快周末。
George showed me to the guestroom which, he said, was rarely used.
乔治带我到客房，他说道，那间房很少有人住。
He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner.
他告诉我把行李打开，然后下来吃晚饭。
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.
在我把衬衫和内衣叠放在两个空格子里之后，我决定把随身带的两套西装中的一套挂在衣柜里。
I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified.
我打开橱柜门，然后站在门前惊呆了。
A skeleton was dangling before my eyes.
一副骨架正悬挂在我的眼前。
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微摇晃，给我一种它即将冲向我跳出来的印象。
Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George.
脱掉西装，我冲下楼去告诉乔治。
This was worse than 'a terrible secret'; this was a real skeleton!
这比“一个可怕的秘密”还要糟糕；这是一个真正的家丑！
But George was unsympathetic.
但是乔治并不表示同情。
'Oh, that,' he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend.
“噢，那个，”他带着微笑说道，仿佛在谈论一位老朋友。
That's Sebastian.
那是塞巴斯蒂安。
You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.
你忘了我很久以前也曾是一名医学生。