走近有声世界
共听英文原著

 今日书目 

书名： 

The Phantom of

the Opera

《歌声魅影》

作者：

Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera

Chapter One: The Opera Ghost

Strange things were happening at the Paris Opera House that season. There were rumours① about a ghost in the building. No one knew when the rumours had started. Some people said it was Joseph Buquet who began it all.

Joseph Buquet was one of the scene-shifters②, a quiet, reliable③ man. He said that he had seen a frightening figure in the corridors of the building. He said the figure was wearing a dress-suit. At first he thought the man was just one of the audiences. Then he looked again. He saw that the figure had no face —it was a skull④! The skin was yellow, the eyes were black holes, and the whole figure was terribly thin.

Soon everyone at the Opera began to see strange things. One of the firemen, Pampin, said that he had gone down into the cellars⑤ of the building. When he was down there, he had seen a head of fire coming towards him! He was very clear about it. He had seen a head of fire, but the head had no body at all.

The people who worked at the Opera House were disturbed and excited by all these stories. The young girls in the corps de ballet⑥ were particularly thrilled⑦ by the stories. They said the ghost was responsible for all the little accidents that happened at the Opera House.

One evening one of the Opera's principal dancers, La Sorelli, was sitting in her dressing room⑧. It was an important evening for her. She was going to perform at a special gala⑨ performance for the two managers who were retiring⑩.

The peace and quiet of the dressing room was suddenly disturbed by the entry of a group of young girls from the corps de ballet. The girls were talking excitedly.

'We've seen him, we've seen him!' one of them announced.

'We've seen the ghost!'

Sorelli did not really believe the girls, but she was very superstitious⑪. She was easily frightened by stories of the ghost, but she tried to be brave.

'Pull yourselves together⑫,' she told the girls.

'But we've seen him — we've really seen him!' one of the girls insisted.

'And Gabriel's seen him, too,' the girl added.

'Gabriel, the chorus-master?' asked Sorelli. 'What did he say?'

'He said he was talking to that strange Persian man ... you know the one?'

'Yes,' said Sorelli, 'I know the Persian.'

Everyone at the Opera House knew the Persian. The girls were convinced that he had the evil eye⑬. They were frightened of him.

'So what happened?' Sorelli asked.

'Gabriel was talking to the Persian. He looked over the Persian's shoulder, and he saw the ghost standing behind him! Gabriel was terrified!'

'What did the ghost look like?' Sorelli wanted to know.

'He was wearing a dress-suit, just as Joseph Buquet described him. And his head was like a skull!' one of the girls said.

'My mother says Joseph Buquet shouldn't talk so much,' one of the girls said quietly. It was Meg, whose mother Madame Giry also worked at the Opera. She was a box-keeper⑭.

'What did your mother tell you?' the girls asked Meg.

'She said the ghost doesn't like people to talk about him,' Meg replied slowly. 'She says it's because of Box 5. Mum's in charge of Box 5, you see. Box 5 is the ghost's box,' she told them. 'That's where he goes during performances. No one else can go there.'

'Has your mother seen him, then?' the girls asked.

'No,' Meg explained, 'you can't see him. All that talk about his dress-suit, and the skeleton⑮, and the head of fire, is all just nonsense⑯. Mother's never seen him. She just hears him when he's in the box.'

The girls looked at each other. They could not make sense of⑰ Meg's story at all.

'That's what I meant about Joseph Buquet,' Meg told them. 'He shouldn't tell all those stories. The ghost won't like it at all. He might ...'

Suddenly the dressing-room door opened, and a woman came in. 

Her eyes were wide open, and she looked really frightened.

'Joseph Buquet!' she gasped⑱. 'He's dead. Someone found his body in the cellar. He was hanged!'

旺

财

旺

福

Words

① rumours：谣言。

② scene-shifters：布景工。

③ reliable：可靠的。

④ skull：头骨。

⑤ cellars：地窖。

⑥ corps de ballet：芭蕾舞团。

⑦ thrilled：被吓坏。

⑧ dressing room：更衣室。

⑨ gala：欢庆。

⑩ retiring：即将退休。

⑪ superstitious：迷信。

⑫ pull yourselves together：保持镇定。

⑬ he had the evil eye：他又一双邪恶的眼睛，看别人的一眼，就会给他们带来噩运。

⑭ box-keeper：戏剧包厢服务员。

⑮ skeleton：骷髅。

⑯ nonsense：胡说。

⑰ make sense of：理解。

⑱ gasped：喘着气说。

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