The Rise of Haunted◆ Houses 鬼屋的崛起 鬼屋是從哪來的，而人們為何喜歡它們呢？
Do you like listening to horror stories on a dark night? Sometimes it’s fun to feel scared, and people have enjoyed scaring each other for a long time with pranks◆, horror novels, and scary movies. Haunted houses have also been a popular way to excite and frighten people.
Haunted houses have been around for over a century. At first, people created them in their basements for children on Halloween. This helped keep kids busy so they wouldn’t play tricks on adults. About 50 years ago, the Haunted Mansion◆ opened in Disneyland and helped haunted houses become very popular. Instead of using plain white sheets for ghosts, Disney used special lights and mirrors to create frightening effects.
Yet, if haunted houses are so scary, why do people enjoy them? It turns out that a lot of people like the excited feeling they get when they’re frightened. Haunted houses also provide a good scare within a safe environment where visitors can feel frightened without worrying about getting hurt. Do you enjoy haunted houses, or do you think they’re too scary?
1. horror n. 恐怖；令人驚恐的事物
Horror movies do not appeal to Jason. He hates to be scared.
恐怖片不怎麼吸引傑森。他不喜歡被嚇。
2. excite vt. 使興奮；使激動
The thought of having a new episode of Game of Thrones to watch every week really excites Stella.
想到每週都有新一集的《權力遊戲》可看讓史黛拉很興奮。
* episode n. 一集（電視劇、節目）
3. frighten vt. 使害怕；使驚嚇
frightening a. 令人害怕的；嚇人的
Harry loves snakes, so he is never frightened by them.
哈利很愛蛇，所以他從來不會被牠們嚇到。
That urban legend is frightening because it seems so close to our lives.
那個都市傳說很嚇人，因為它看似如此接近我們的生活。
* urban legend n. 都市傳說
4. basement n. 地下室
Can you help me move these heavy boxes of books down to the basement?
你能幫我把這些裝書的沉重紙箱搬到地下室嗎？
5. play tricks on sb 捉弄某人；對某人惡作劇
Linda is a naughty girl who likes to play tricks on other kids.
琳達是個愛對其他小孩惡作劇的調皮女孩。
6. plain a. 樸素的；單純的
Simon put a plain wooden chair on the balcony so he could drink coffee on it.
賽門在陽臺放了一張簡單樸素的木椅，如此一來他才能在上面喝咖啡。
7. It turns out that... 發現是……；結果……
It turns out that Ethan was adopted, but was never told.
結果發現伊森是領養來的，但他從未被告知。
* adopted a. 領養的
8. provide vt. 提供；供給
Mandy wanted to provide her children with as much love as possible.
曼蒂想要盡可能地提供她的孩子們關愛。
◆haunted a. 鬧鬼的 ◆prank n. 惡作劇；玩笑 ◆mansion n. 富麗堂皇的房子；大廈
鏡子的一詞多義
本文中的名詞 mirror 除了最常見的意思「鏡子」之外，還有「真實的反映；寫照」的意思，相關片語為 a mirror of sth。mirror 也能作為動詞使用表「反映，映照；反射」。例：
The novels of Charles Dickens are a mirror of society in hard times.
（查爾斯•狄更斯的小說是社會於艱辛時期的寫照。）
The water in this huge lake beautifully mirrors the blue sky.
（這座龐大湖泊的水美麗地反映出藍天。）
