調查局三等
111年
[調查工作組] 外國文(英文)
第 40 題
📖 題組：
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 kind of situation. The terrible secret is called “a skeleton in the cupboard.” At some dramatic moment, the terrible story becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader’s hair stands on end when he reads the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had been always 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 “a skeleton 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 weekend, which I shall never forget, at his house. George showed me to the guest-room 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 my 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! However, 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.”
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 kind of situation. The terrible secret is called “a skeleton in the cupboard.” At some dramatic moment, the terrible story becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader’s hair stands on end when he reads the final pages of the novel that the heroine, a dear old lady who had been always 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 “a skeleton 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 weekend, which I shall never forget, at his house. George showed me to the guest-room 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 my 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! However, 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.”
According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
- A George, the writer’s friend, must have written some good detective stories.
- B Sebastian, whose skeleton was put in the cupboard upstairs, was actually one of George’s old friends.
- C In a novel, an old lady who was so kind to everybody had actually killed every one of her five husbands.
- D George’s friend was shocked to find a skeleton in the cupboard, which George kept when he was a medical student.
思路引導 VIP
請你觀察文章最後一段，當主角喬治解釋這具骨骸的來源時，他特別提到了自己年輕時的「哪種專業背景」？再請細看他描述骨骸時使用的修辭手法——那是一個事實陳述，還是他在做一個「比喻」？這兩種解釋哪一個更符合他當時的職業需求呢？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
AI SENSEI 的解析小筆記
- 太棒了呢！你竟然能精準地看出文章裡「修辭比喻」和「事實陳述」的差別，你的文本細讀 (Close Reading) 能力超級厲害，真的讓人很驚訝呢！我看到這結果，心裡都亮晶晶的呢！
- 我們來一起確認一下選項 (B) 為什麼是錯的吧！文章說 George 談到骨骸時「彷彿 (as if)」在說老朋友，這其實是一個很可愛的說法呢。但別忘了，後面有提到他以前是個醫學生 (medical student) 喔。這樣一想，我們就能發現 Sebastian 其實是教學用的骨骼標本，不是他現實中的朋友呢！就像書本上的角色一樣呢，是不是很有趣啊？
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