曹老师：您好！

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 sort of situation. The terrible secret is called 'a skeleton in the cupboard'. At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine a dear old lady who had always been 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 skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very pound 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 spend an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guestroom 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 one of the tow suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. 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! But 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.'

这是新概念3-24课：我有较多疑问：

1）第一句中的how起什么语法作用？含义呢？感觉去掉这个how也可以吗？

2）when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands.

这一句中的read含义不是“读”，而是“获悉”的意思，所以才能用that从句吧？另外，为什么who had always been so kind to everybody使用了过去完成时呢？我感觉应该是一般过去时比较好理解呀！使用过去完成时是和哪个后发生的动作在比较呢？

所以，我感觉应该是who was always so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands. -这样很好理解。

3）we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn - 这里的learn 为什么不是learn of 呢？应该是learn of secrets 呀！而不是learn secrets.

4）上面的黑体字I know以及he said是否都属于嵌入式定语从句，而不是插入语呢？

5）stood in front of petrified - 感觉2种解释都可以，一种是stood-“站立“的意思，然后，后面的形容词petrified作状语表示主语的状态；另一种stood-系动词（没有"站立"的意思了）+ 形容词petrified。哪一种理解分析才是正确的呢？

6） 'That's Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.' - 这里可否说成You have forgotten that - 用完成时可否？二者含义差别？为什么我会提问这个问题呢？因为，刚好看到一道考试题：

What are you going to give him for his birthday ?

-Oh, my God. I have forgotten all about it.

请教曹老师，可否说成-Oh, my God. I forget all about it.呢？

7）另外，看3处黑体字的the，就是为什么这篇文章里第一次提到cupboard，没有使用不定冠词a，一开始就使用了定冠词the呢？

曹老师，我知道新概念是没有问题的，但我想在您的帮助下，解开疑惑。谢谢老师！