同步拓展阅读：新概念英语第3册第24课
一、往期回顾
【参考答案】
31-35 FFTTT
二、本期内容
【课文主题】
第24课讲的是有关英语习语a skeleton in the cupboard（家丑；不可告人的丑事）的相关故事，为此我也选择了这篇有关家丑的文章。
【拓展阅读】
一、文章内容
Skeleton in the Cupboard is a short story covered in the book 'Secrets’ by Ruskin Bond. The story is all about solving a mystery that revolves around a skeleton found in the old storeroom of the Hotel Green’s. That time the young Ruskin was away in Shimla at his boarding school. He communicated with his mother, who was the manager of the hotel, through letters to gain extensive knowledge about the skeleton. Through letters it became clear that the skeleton was of a woman’s and some newspapers were found wrapped around it about in 1930.
The question was who could be that woman? The hotel’s first owner Mr. Green was a lady killer: he had charming persona and polished manners. He was into extra-marital affairs. His wife one day disappeared. Mr. Green died in a ship accident while going to England during the Second World War. Thus, Ruskin and his mother assumed that the skeleton was Mrs. Green’s. It was concluded that Mr. Green killed his wife to get the love of other women or he paid someone to do the dirty work. With the help of Padre Dutt, they gave a Christian burial to that skeleton thinking it was of Mrs. Green’s.
Well, after some days an English lady walked in the hotel and began inquiries about Mrs. Green’s burial. Then, she said that she was Mrs. Green. She narrated her tale that Mr. Green was a Casanova kind of person but not a killer. She was tired of him, thus she fled to West Africa to live with a cousin and there she fell in love with a black man.
About the skeleton, she revealed that it was for a medical college purpose because Mr. Green wanted to start a medical college in Dehradun. So that skeleton was brought from Delhi and probably it belonged to a roadside poor woman. Well, the irony was that Mrs. Green would have two tombstones in one birth. All efforts of child detective Ruskin went in vain to solve the mystery. It’s a fun read.
【词汇注释】
1. wrap：包裹
2. charming：吸引人的
3. persona：个性；形象
4. polished：优雅的
5. assume：假定；认为
6. burial：埋藏
7. inquire：询问
8. narrate：讲述
9. flee：逃跑(过去式为fled)
10. reveal：揭露
11. irony: 讽刺
12. tombstone: 墓碑
13. effort: 努力
14. in vain: 徒劳
15. mystery: 谜团
二、阅读题目
根据短文内容，回答下列问题：
1. Where did the story Skeleton in the Cupboard happen?
2. What did Mr. Green look like?
3. When did Mr. Green die?
4. Why did Mrs. Green flee to Africa?
5. What was the skeleton in the hotel’s storeroom used for?
三、参考答案