Sorelli, one of the most important dancers at the Opera, sat in her dressing room. She was getting ready for the gala performance for the two retiring managers of the Opera. She was enjoying the peace and quiet, but was suddenly interrupted when a group of young girls came running into her room. The girls were talking excitedly.

"The ghost! We've seen him!" one of them cried out. "We've seen the ghost!"

Sorelli was very superstitious. She was easily frightened by stories of the ghost, but she tried to be brave.

"That's ridiculous!" she told the girls. "You are just being foolish."

"No, no! It's true. We really all saw him," the girls cried out. The chorus girls all claimed to have seen him. In fact, whenever anything unfortunate happened in the building, the girls always said, "It was the ghost!"

For a while, many didn't believe the girls. Some thought it was just their crazy imaginations. However, this changed when Joseph Buquet, one of the scene-shifters, said, "I saw the most terrible thing in the corridor. It was a figure wearing a dress-suit. At first, I thought he was from the audience. Then, I looked at him more closely. It had no face- it was a skull! The skin was yellow, the eyes were black holes, and the whole figure was terribly thin." Joseph was a very reliable man, so no one doubted him.

Soon everyone at the Opera began to see strange things. One of the firemen, Pampin, said, "I went down into the cellars yesterday morning. When I was down there, I saw the most horrifying thing. I saw a head of fire coming toward me! It was so clear. I remember it very distinctly. It had a head of fire, but the head had no body at all!"

In Sorelli's dressing room, the girls continued their story. "We really saw him!" one of the girls insisted. "It was the ghost!"

Sorelli's dressing room became deathly quiet. All that could be heard was the breathing of the frightened girls. One of the girls put her ear to the wall to try to hear any noise from outside. Her face turned white.

"Listen!" she whispered in a terrified voice. There was a rustling sound outside the door. Then, suddenly, it stopped.

Sorelli slowly walked to the door and called out, "Who...who...is there?" There was no answer. "Is there anyone at my door?"

"There is. There is," said Meg, one of the girls. "We all heard the noise. But don't open the door. He can come in if you open the door." Sorelli did not listen to her.

Sorelli always kept a knife with her and she now took this out from her ankle sheath. She held it in one hand while she cautiously opened the door. All of the chorus girls had gathered into a corner of the room. Sorelli looked in the corridor, but she saw nothing. "There is nothing there," she told the girls.

Sorelli, trying to be brave, said, "Calm down girls. No one has seen a ghost."

"But we did see him. And Gabriel saw him, too," another girl added.

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

"He was in the stage manager's office when that strange Persian man, you know the one, came into the room..."

"Yes," said Sorelli, "I know the Persian." Everyone at the Opera House knew the Persian. The girls were afraid of him.

"So what happened?" Sorelli asked.

"As soon as he saw the Persian, Gabriel became crazy and he rushed out of the office. Unfortunately, he slipped in the stairwell and fell all the way down the stairs. Mother and I found him at the bottom of the stairs. He was covered with blood and bruises. He finally told us why he was so frightened. You see, he had 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 like Joseph Buquet described him. And his head was like a skull!" the girl said.

"My mother says Joseph Buquet shouldn't talk so much," Meg said quietly. Meg's mother, Madame Giry, also worked at the Opera as a box keeper.

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

"She said the ghost didn't like people talking about him," Meg replied slowly. "It's because of Box 5. Mom'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 skeleton, and the head of fire, is all just nonsense. Mother's never seen him. She just hears him when he's in the box. She also gives him his program."

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

Suddenly, the dressing-room door opened, and a woman came rushing in. Her eyes were wide open, and full of terror. "Joseph Buquet!" she gasped. "He's dead. Someone found his body in the cellar. He was hanged!"

The room was full of shocked faces.

"The ghost did it," Meg blurted out. She then quickly covered her mouth trying to take back her words. She feared the ghost might hurt her, too. "I didn't say that," she said. "I didn't say anything at all." But other people agreed with her. "Yes, it must have been the ghost."

Later, there was an investigation. However, it was decided that it was 'natural suicide.' Then the strangest thing happened. The rope by which Joseph was hanged suddenly disappeared! The managers said, "Somebody must have taken it for a souvenir. We will find out what happened to it eventually."

KEY WORDS

dressing room 化妆间

get ready for 为……做准备

gala n. 盛大的演出

performance n. 演出

retire v. 退休

manager n. 经理

interrupt v. 打断

excitedly adv. 兴奋地

superstitious adj. 迷信的

frightened adj. 受惊的

ridiculous adj. 荒谬的

chorus girl 歌剧合唱队女演员

claim v. 声称，主张

in fact 事实上

unfortunate adj. 不幸的

for a while 一段时间内

imagination n. 想象，空想

scene-shifter n. 布景工人

corridor n. 走廊

figure n. 外形，形状

dress-suit n. 晚礼服

audience n. 听众，观众

closely adv. 接近地

skull n. 头骨

reliable adj. 可靠的，可信赖的

doubt v. 怀疑

fireman n. 消防队员

cellar n. 地下室

horrifying adj. 可怕的，恐怖的

clear adj. 清楚的，清晰的

distinctly adv. 清楚地

insist v. 坚持

deathly adv. 死一般的

breathing n. 呼吸

whisper v. 低声说

rustling n. 沙沙声

keep v. 存放

ankle n. 脚踝

sheath n. 鞘

cautiously adv. 小心翼翼地

gather v. 聚集

calm down 平静

add v. 补充说

chorus-master n. 合唱团指挥

stage manager 舞台监督

Persian n. 波斯人

rush v. 冲，奔

slip v. 滑倒

stairwell n. 楼梯间

bruise n. 瘀伤，擦伤

describe v. 描述

box keeper 包厢侍者

in charge of 负责

skeleton n. 骷髅

program n. 节目单

nonsense n. 胡说，废话

make sense of 理解

wide open 睁得很大，瞪着

terror n. 惊骇

gasp v. 气喘吁吁地说

body n. 尸体

hang v. 绞死

shocked adj. 震惊的

blurt out 脱口而出

take back 收回

investigation n. 调查

suicide n. 自杀

rope n. 绳，绳索

disappear v. 消失

souvenir n. 纪念品

eventually adv. 最后，最终

One Point Lesson

Sorelli, trying to be brave , said, "Calm down girls. No one has seen a ghost."

索雷丽试着壮起胆子，说：“冷静点儿，姑娘们！没人见过幽灵。”

trying to be brave：现在分词表示状态。

e.g. Folding arms , he was sitting alone.

他双臂交叉，独自坐着。 yvik/tm6BooTwBmc7IOl/j6xOrKisgx4vuzcscN57yd+PViqam9nCfThdNJtdR+X