A house holds two times at once
Living and unseen couples move through the same rooms, while the house gathers their memories into one quiet search.
Story 04 / Student reader
A Haunted House
Follow two ghosts through an old house and decide what they are searching for. In this story, a clue can be a sound, an image or a feeling.
Original source. The complete public-domain text is provided by Project Gutenberg Australia.
Open Project Gutenberg Australia /01 / Read first
Read the complete original.
The public-domain text opens below. Read slowly, then use the phrase list and tools to revisit any sentence that changes your picture of the house.
“Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure, a ghostly couple.”
Opening passage / Virginia Woolf
02 / Plot map
Trace how the story moves.
Build the story from setting to turning point. The final node stays closed until you finish the original text.
- 01 / Beginning
A couple lives in the house
The present-day couple hears movement and feels that another pair is travelling through the old rooms.
- 02 / Conflict
Unseen visitors keep searching
The ghosts open doors and move from room to room, looking for something they once knew in the house.
- 03 / Key development
Light links the rooms
Doors, lamps, windows and repeated phrases join past and present, making the search feel shared rather than separate.
- 04 / Turning point
The search gathers close
The movement through the house slows around one intimate point, asking the reader to rethink what a “treasure” could be.
- 05 / Ending & meaning
Love is the treasure
The treasure is not an object: it is the emotional memory of love, preserved across time in the light of the living couple.
Open each event in order. Before the ending, decide what the repeated light may be helping the house remember.
03 / Vocabulary
Build the words you need.
These 50 K12-friendly words and phrases come from the story world. Read the part of speech and IPA first, then read the English explanation before checking the Chinese meaning. Use Listen for Google's English pronunciation.
- from room to room从一个房间到另一个房间a repeated movement through a building
- making sure确认一切无误checking carefully
- read on继续读下去continue reading
- see for oneself亲自去看check directly
- spread about the floor散落在地板各处scattered around
- sunk beneath the surface沉入表面之下gone down below
- seek their joy寻找他们的快乐look for something with purpose
- the light in the heart心中的光a symbolic image of love or inner life
- haunted闹鬼的，萦绕不去的visited by ghosts, or filled with a lasting feeling
- ghost鬼魂the spirit of a dead person in a story
- couple一对夫妇，两个人two people together, often partners
- wander漫游move without a clear direction
- whisper低语speak very quietly
- rustle沙沙声a soft sound made by moving leaves or cloth
- shadow影子a dark shape made when light is blocked
- moonlight月光light from the moon
- threshold门槛the floor or entrance at a doorway
- staircase楼梯a set of steps between floors
- chamber房间，卧室a private room in an old house
- ceiling天花板the top inside surface of a room
- attic阁楼a room or space under a roof
- corridor走廊a long passage inside a building
- hearth壁炉炉床the floor area in front of a fireplace
- treasure宝藏valuable objects or something deeply precious
- buried埋藏的covered by earth or another material
- hidden隐藏的kept where it cannot easily be seen
- search寻找，搜索look carefully for someone or something
- remember记得，记住keep a fact or experience in your mind
- forget忘记fail to keep something in your memory
- beneath在……下面in or to a lower position than something
- no longer不再not now, although it was true before
- linger逗留，持续stay longer than expected
- echo回声a sound heard again after it reflects
- familiar熟悉的known from earlier experience
- strange奇怪的，陌生的unusual or difficult to understand
- peaceful平静的quiet and free from trouble
- flicker闪烁shine with an unsteady light
- beam光束；横梁a line of light, or a strong piece of wood
- dust灰尘very small dry pieces of dirt
- sorrow悲伤a deep feeling of sadness
- joy喜悦a strong feeling of happiness
- marriage婚姻the relationship between married people
- alive活着的living, not dead
- dead死去的no longer living
- discover发现find something for the first time
- follow跟随go after someone or something
- in vain徒劳地without success
- suddenly突然地quickly and unexpectedly
- wonder想知道；惊奇think about something you do not know
- truth真相，事实the facts about a situation
- memory记忆something remembered from the past
- look for寻找try to find something
- come to light显露，真相大白become known after being hidden
- hold on to紧紧保留keep something instead of letting it go
- in the dark在黑暗中；不了解情况without light or without information
04 / Reading quiz
Show what you noticed.
Answer in short, clear English. Start speaking within five seconds, use one detail from the story, and do not worry about a perfect answer.
05 / After class
One small repeat keeps the skill.
Spend 5-8 minutes this week. Say the core answer, retell the story in four sentences, then change one sentence and say it again.
5-8 minutesComplete after the lesson.
What is the biggest problem in this story?
Drafts save on this device.