We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years.我们在小说中经常看到这样的情节：一个表面上看起来很体面、值得尊敬的人……或者这个家庭隐藏着一个可怕的秘密，这个秘密多年来一直被对外人隐瞒着。
The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation.英语中有一句非常生动的表达，用来形容这种情况。
The terrible secret is called 'a skeleton in the cupboard'.这个可怕的秘密就叫“柜中骷髅”。
At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined.在故事中的某个关键时刻，那个可怕的秘密被揭露了，从而导致一个人的声誉彻底毁掉。
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.当读者读到小说最后几页，发现女主角……一位一直对所有人都非常友善的善良老妇人，在她年轻时，竟然毒死了她的五位丈夫。
It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction.这种事发生在小说里倒也罢了。
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.在某种程度上，我们每个人都有自己不想让最亲密的朋友知道的秘密。但我们中很少有人真有“柜中骷髅”。
The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very proud of the fact.我认识的唯一有“柜中骷髅”的人是乔治·卡尔顿，而且他还对此引以为豪。
George studied medicine in his youth.乔治年轻时学习过医学。
Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories.然而，他并没有成为医生，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.我曾在他的家里度过了一个极其不愉快的周末，那个经历我永远都不会忘记。
George showed me to the guestroom which, he said, was rarely used.乔治带我去了客房，他说这个房间很少有人使用。
He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner.他让我先把行李收拾好，然后再下来吃晚饭。
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.我把衬衫和内衣整理好后，放进了两个空抽屉里；接着，我决定把带来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.我打开了橱柜的门，然后站在那里，吓得动弹不得。
A skeleton was dangling before my eyes.一具骷髅悬挂在我的眼前。
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.门的突然晃动让它也跟着摇摆起来，给我的感觉是它好像要朝我扑过来似的。
Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George.我立刻放下西装，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；那简直是一具真正的骷髅！
But George was unsympathetic.但乔治却毫无同情之心。
'Oh, that,' he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend.“哦，那个啊，”他笑着说，仿佛在谈论一个老朋友一样，
'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，我曾经也是一名医学生。”