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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
My housemate in Paris, August Dupin, was an interesting young man with a busy, forceful mind. This mind could, it seemed, look right through a man’s body into his deepest soul.
After reading in the newspaper about the terrible murder of a woman and her daughter, Dupin was consumed1 with the mystery. He questioned the ability of the Paris police to solve the crime2. I told Dupin that it seemed to me that it was not possible to explain the strange details surrounding the killings3.
“No, no. I think you are wrong. A mystery it is, yes. But there must be an answer. There must! Let us go to the house where it happened and see what we can see. I know the head of the police, and he will permit4 our visit. It will be interesting and give us some pleasure.”
I thought it strange that Dupin thought the activity would give us pleasure. But I said nothing.
It was late in the afternoon when we reached the house on the Rue5 Morgue. It was easily found, for there were still many persons — in fact, a crowd, standing6 there looking at it. Before going in, we walked all around it, and Dupin carefully looked at the neighboring houses as well. I could not understand the reason for such great care.
Finally, we entered the house. We went up the stairs to the room where the daughter’s body was found. Both bodies were in the room now. The police had left the room as they had found it in every other way. I saw nothing beyond what the newspaper had told us.
Dupin looked with great care at everything, at the bodies, the walls, the fireplace8, the windows. Then we went home. Dupin said nothing. I could see the cold look in his eyes, which told me that his mind was working, working busily, quickly.
Dupin said nothing about our exploration9 until the next morning when he suddenly asked me a question.
“Did you not notice something especially strange about what we saw at the house on the Rue Morgue?”
“Nothing more than what we both read in the newspaper, which was unusual indeed. How shall we explain the horrible10 force, the unusual strength used in these murders? And whose were the voices that were heard? No one was found except the dead women; yet there was no way for anyone to escape. And the wild condition of the room; the body which was found head-down in the chimney11; the terrible broken appearance12 of the body of the old lady, with its head cut off-- these are all so far from what might be expected that the police are standing still; they don’t know where to begin.”
“These things are unusual, indeed, but they are not deep mysteries. We should not ask, ‘What has happened?’ but ‘What has happened that has never happened before?’ In fact, the very things that the police think cannot possibly be explained are the things which will lead me to the answer. Indeed, I believe they have already led me to the answer.”
I was so surprised that I could not say a word. Dupin looked quickly at the door.
“I am now waiting for a person who will know something about these murders, these wild killings. I do not think he did them himself. But I think he will know the killer13. I hope I am right about this. If I am, then I expect to find the whole answer, today. I expect the man here — in this room — at any moment. It is true that he may not come, but he probably will.”
“But who is this person? How did you find him?”
“I’ll tell you. While we wait for this man we do not know — for I have never met him — while we wait, I will tell you how my thoughts went.”
Dupin began to talk. But it did not seem that he was trying to explain to me what he had thought. It seemed that he was talking to himself. He looked not at me, but at the wall.
“It has been fully7 proved that the voices heard by the neighbors were not the voices of the women who were killed. Someone else was in the room. It is therefore certain that the old woman did not first kill her daughter and then kill herself. She would not have been strong enough to put her daughter’s body where it was found. And the manner of the old lady’s death shows that she could not have caused it herself. A person can kill himself with a knife, yes. But he surely14 cannot cut his own head almost off, then drop the knife on the floor and jump out the window. It was murder, then, done by some third person — or persons. And the voices heard were the voices of these persons. Let us now think carefully about the things people said about those voices. Did you notice anything especially strange in what was told about them?”
“Well, yes. Everybody agreed that the low voice was the voice of a Frenchman15, but they could not agree about the high voice.”
“Ah! That was what they said, yes, but that was not what was so strange about what they said. You say you have noticed nothing that makes their stories very different from what might have been expected. Yet there was something. All these persons, as you say, agreed about the low voice, but not about the high hard voice. The strange thing here is that when an Italian, an Englishman16, a Spaniard, and a Frenchman tried to tell what the voice was like, each one said it sounded like the voice of a foreigner. How strangely unusual that voice really must have been! Here are four men from four big countries, and not one of them could understand what the voice said; each one gave it a different name.
“Now, I know that there are other countries in the world. You will say that perhaps it was the voice of someone from one of those other lands — Russia, perhaps. But remember, not one of these people heard anything that sounded like a separate17 word.
Here, Dupin turned and looked into my eyes.
“This is what we have learned18 from the newspaper. I don’t know what I have led you to think. But I believe that in this much of the story there are enough facts to lead us in the one and only direction to the right answer. What this answer is, I will not say…not yet. But I want you to keep in mind that this much was enough to tell me what I must look for when we were in that house on the Rue Morgue. And I found it!
“What did I first look for? The path of escape, of course. I mean, we agree the killers19 were not ghosts; they could not move through walls. So, how did they escape?
“At first I saw no way out. It had been necessary for the neighbors to break down the door in order to enter the room. There was no other door. The opening above the fireplace is too narrow for even a child to go through. That leaves only the windows. We must make that exit somehow possible.
“Remember, there are two windows in the room. Both of them, you will remember, are made of two parts; to open the window one must lift up the bottom half. One of these windows is easily seen; the lower20 part of the other is out of sight behind the big bed. I looked carefully at the first of these windows. It was firmly closed, fastened, like the door, on the inside. To keep the window closed, to fasten it, someone had put a strong iron21 nail22 into the wood at the side of the window in such a way that the window could not be raised. At least it seemed that the nail held the window closed. The nail was easy to see. There it was. And the people who discovered the killings used their greatest strength and could not raise the window. I, too, tried to raise the window and could not.
“I went to the second window and looked behind the bed at the lower half of the window. There was a nail here, too, which held the window closed. Without moving the bed, I tried to open this window also, and again I could not do so. But I did not stop looking for an answer there.”
Words in This Story
housemate – n. a person who lives in the same house with another person but is not a part of that person's family
consume(d) – v. to take all of a person's attention, energy or time
neighboring – adj. near or next to something or someone
moment – n. a very short period of time
certain – adj. used with it to say that something is known23 to be true or correct
notice – v. to become aware of something or someone by seeing or hearing it
perhaps – adv. possibly but not certainly
ghost(s) – n. the soul of a dead person thought of as living in an unseen world or as appearing to living people
fasten(ed) – v. to attach24 something or join two things or two parts of something especially by using a pin, nail or something else
nail – n. a long, thin piece of metal that is sharp at one end and flat at the other end and that is used chiefly to attach things to wood
收听单词发音 |
1
consumed
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| v.消耗( consume的过去式和过去分词 )；烧毁；大吃；使充满（强烈的感情） | |
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2
crime
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| n.犯罪，罪行，罪恶 | |
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killings
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| 谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发 | |
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permit
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| n.许可证，许可，执照；vt.允许，容许；vi.容许 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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fireplace
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| n.壁炉，炉灶 | |
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exploration
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| n.探险，踏勘，探测 | |
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horrible
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| adj.可怕的，极可憎的，极可厌的 | |
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chimney
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| n.烟囱，烟筒；玻璃罩 | |
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appearance
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| n.出现，露面；容貌 | |
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killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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surely
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| adv.确实地，无疑地；必定地，一定地 | |
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Frenchman
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| n.法国人（男） (复 Frenchmen) | |
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Englishman
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| n.(pl.Englishmen)英国人；英国男人 | |
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separate
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| n.分开，抽印本；adj.分开的，各自的，单独的；v.分开，隔开，分居 | |
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learned
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| adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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killers
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| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
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lower
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| adj.较低的；地位较低的，低等的；低年级的；下游的；vt.放下，降下，放低；减低 | |
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iron
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| n.铁，熨斗，坚强，烙铁，镣铐；vt.烫平，熨，用铁包；vi. 烫衣服 | |
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nail
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| n.钉子，指甲；vt.用钉钉牢，使固定，使集中于，揭露 | |
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known
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| adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的 | |
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attach
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| v.附上，使依恋，爱慕 | |
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