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儿童英语读物 The Mystery of the Singing Ghost CHAPTER 9 The Back Stairs

时间:2017-07-24 09:08来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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The Aldens woke up early. The storm had moved on, and sun filled the house as they ate the breakfast of cold cereal1 and bananas and drank the milk Mrs. McGregor had packed. They tried the phone and were happy to find it was working again.

“There isn’t much more work we can do,” Violet said. “Let’s just clean up the kitchen.”

“I want to go upstairs again and make sure everything looks neat there,” Jessie said.

“We can use the back staircase,” Henry added.

The children walked up the back stairs, which Henry lit with the flashlight. Halfway2 up, Jessie stepped on something soft, and stumbled3. She bent4 down and picked up a gray and red sweater. “This is Mrs. Carter’s,” she said. “She had it on the first time we met her. Why is it here?”

“She must have been using this staircase,” Henry said.

“But how did she get in?” Violet asked. “We were always so careful to lock the doors.”

“Then she must have had a key,” Benny said. “But why does she have it?”

“I know what we should do,” Jessie said. “We’ll hide outside. If we close all the windows and pull down all the shades, the Carters will think we’ve gone home. If they’re the ones who’ve been trying to scare us, they’ll probably come back into the house again soon.”

The Aldens quickly packed their things and rolled up their sleeping bags. Henry looked out the window and spotted5 a couple of large bushes at the side of the house that would be a perfect hiding place. They were big enough for the children to hide in, and from there they’d be able to see anyone who might come up the front walk or use the back door.

The children locked up the house, and walked down the front walk as if they were going home. Then one by one they sneaked6 into the bushes. Jessie and Benny watched the front walk, and Henry and Violet watched the back door.

“Look!” Henry finally whispered. “Mr. and Mrs. Carter are going in the back door. And they do have a key.”

The Aldens stayed hidden and soon the Carters came out of the house carrying the tape player and a lacy pink dress.

“That’s the dress that was on the bed!” Violet said. “And the tape player.”

The children watched the Carters go back into their own house. “We have to tell Grandfather and Aunt Jane about this,” Henry said. “Come on, let’s call home.”

The Aldens went back into the house and phoned their grandfather. Jessie quickly told him what had happened and he said, “Just stay in the house. Aunt Jane and I will drive right over. Don’t talk to anyone. Just stay there.”

“What are we going to do until Grandfather gets here?” Benny asked.

“I know,” Violet said. “Let’s take some pictures with the camera you brought, Henry.”

They tried to forget about the Carters while they took pictures of each other in funny poses7. Finally, they heard a car pull up to the house. They ran out to Grandfather and Aunt Jane.

Grandfather looked very serious. “I think we have to talk to the Carters about what you saw and get an explanation from them.”

They walked up to the Carters’ front door and rang the bell. Mr. Carter answered, looking, as usual, very unfriendly. “Yes?” he said.

“We’d like to come in and talk to you and your wife about something very important,” Grandfather said.

“We don’t want any visitors,” Mr. Carter said.

Then Mrs. Carter appeared behind her husband at the door. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“We’d just like a few minutes with you and your husband,” Grandfather said.

Mrs. Carter looked at Mr. Alden’s serious, unsmiling face and her own face turned pale. She glanced at her husband and then said to the Aldens, “Come in.”

They all went into the Carters’ living room. “Won’t you sit down?” she said to Mr. Alden and Aunt Jane.

They sat and the children stood near them. “Why don’t you tell the Carters what has been happening and what you saw,” Grandfather said to Jessie.

Jessie began. “All sorts of strange things have been happening in the Roth house. We found roses we didn’t put there. An old dress was on the bed one day — and then it disappeared. A threatening note was in the mailbox. And there was this voice … the voice of a girl singing a song. Last night we found a tape player with a tape of the girl’s voice. And this morning, Mrs. Carter, we found your sweater on the back stairway. And then …” Jessie hesitated, “we saw you and your husband unlocking8 the back door and going into the house. You came out carrying the tape player and the dress.”

Mrs. Carter gasped9.

Grandfather said, “Since you knew where the tape player and the dress were, you must have put them there. You have been deliberately10 trying to frighten my grandchildren. Why? I don’t like people upsetting my family.”

Mrs. Carter began to weep softly. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I knew this wasn’t right.”

“I think you’d better explain,” Mr. Alden said.

Mr. Carter, now as pale as his wife, began to talk. “It was the house. We had wanted to buy the Roth house and the land for a long time. But we never had enough money to do so. We thought if we made sure the house stayed empty long enough, we would manage to save the money to buy it.”

Mrs. Carter took up the story. “When we heard that Joe and Alice Alden had bought the house, we thought that if they could be made to believe the house was haunted11, they wouldn’t move in. Then we would have a chance to buy the house someday. So we did all the things Jessie mentioned. But I guess the children were smarter than we were.”

“What you did wasn’t very nice,” Benny said. “I really was scared.”

“I’m sorry, Benny. I know what we did was wrong,” Mrs. Carter said.

“Where did you get a key to the house from?” Violet asked.

“Once the real estate agent gave us a key to let some people in to see the house, on a day she couldn’t show it herself. We just made a duplicate12 of the key.”

“The dress, and the roses … you did all that?” Violet asked.

“Yes,” Mrs. Carter said. “I found that dress in an antique13 clothing store, and it seemed like the kind of thing Celia might have worn. Mr. Farley had told us about the Roth’s beautiful rose garden, so the roses seemed to make sense, too.”

“And the singing?” Benny asked directly.

“We used the back stairs to turn on the tape recorder,” Mr. Carter explained.

“But other people thought the house was haunted,” Henry said.

“We started the rumor14 about the house and Celia’s singing years ago,” Mr. Carter said. “It worked with some people, like Mr. Farley. And even some people who bought the house didn’t stay very long. They just thought that every funny sound that you normally hear in an old house came from a ghost. We were successful for a long time. Until you children came to the house,” Mr. Carter said.

“We are sorry. Really. And we do hope your cousins will be very happy here. We really do,” Mrs. Carter said.

“I agree with my wife,” Mr. Carter said. “I want them to be happy, too. We know what we did was wrong, and I hope we can make it up to you all. If your cousins ever need anything, I hope they’ll call on us.”

“We accept your apologies,” Violet said generously. “There was no real harm done.”

The Aldens got into Grandfather’s station wagon15 and they rode home. Jessie was frowning. “What about Celia? Where do you suppose she went? And do you think she is still alive?”

“She would be a very old lady,” Aunt Jane said.

“We can’t just forget about her,” said Violet.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 cereal Wrzz1     
n.谷类,五谷,禾谷
参考例句:
  • I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
  • Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。
2 halfway Xrvzdq     
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
参考例句:
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
3 stumbled 751eb0f28b037bba254403e21733879c     
v.(不顺畅地)说( stumble的过去式和过去分词 );跌跌撞撞地走;绊脚;(说话、演奏等)出错
参考例句:
  • I stumbled and sprained my ankle. 我摔了一跤,把脚脖子扭了。
  • The child stumbled and fell. 孩子绊了一下,摔倒了。
4 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
5 spotted 7FEyj     
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
参考例句:
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
6 sneaked fcb2f62c486b1c2ed19664da4b5204be     
v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 );偷偷溜走;(儿童向成人)打小报告;告状
参考例句:
  • I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
  • She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。
7 poses 3de56b841449b9655e822e23f288b059     
使摆姿势( pose的第三人称单数 ); 以…身份出现; 招摇; 炫耀
参考例句:
  • This poses a threat to agriculture and the food chain, and consequently to human health. 这会对农业和食物链造成威胁,由此而危及人的健康。
  • The high cost of oil poses serious problems for industry. 昂贵的石油价格给工业造成了严重困难。
8 unlocking a3b0f3cd1976814b426b08d9775a6a5f     
n.接通,开放,解锁v.开锁( unlock的现在分词 );开启;揭开;开着,解开
参考例句:
  • Unlocking DaVinci's Code separates the facts from the fiction. 《解开达西密码》将事实与小说区隔开来。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年5月号
  • All of these questions will be answered on Unlocking DaVinci's Code. 这些问题将于《解开达文西密码》中一一解答。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年5月号
9 gasped e6af294d8a7477229d6749fa9e8f5b80     
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
参考例句:
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
10 deliberately Gulzvq     
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
参考例句:
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
11 haunted 5rEz4M     
adj.闹鬼的;受到折磨的;令人烦恼的v.“haunt”的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • There was a haunted look in his eyes. 他眼中透露出忧虑的神色。
  • The country is haunted by the spectre of civil war. 内战仿佛一触即发,举国上下一片恐慌。
12 duplicate SZgz4     
n.复制品;v.复写,使加倍;adj.复制的,二倍的
参考例句:
  • The manager asks the secretary to duplicate the document.经理让秘书复印这份文件。
  • This agreement is done in duplicate.本协议书一式两份。
13 antique cNCzc     
adj.古时的,古代的;n.古物,古器,古玩
参考例句:
  • The Sunday antique market is a happy hunting ground for collectors.周日的古董市场是收藏家的淘物乐园。
  • I saw the vase in the window of an antique shop.我在一家古玩店的橱窗里看见了这个花瓶。
14 rumor qS0zZ     
n.谣言,谣传,传说
参考例句:
  • The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
  • The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。
15 wagon XhUwP     
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
参考例句:
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
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