From Narnia book 1 chapter 1:
"Is Mr Ketterley really mad?"
"Well either he's mad," said Digory,
"or there's some other mystery. He has
a study on the top floor and Aunt
Letty says I must never go up there.
Well, that looks fishy to begin with.
And then there's another thing.
Whenever he tries to say anything to
me at meal times – he never even tries
to talk to her – she always shuts him
up. She says, "Don't worry the boy,
Andrew" or "I'm sure Digory doesn't
want to hear about that" or else "Now,
Digory, wouldn't you like to go out
and play in the garden?""What sort of things does he try to
say?""I don't know. He never gets far
enough. But there's more than that.
One night – it was last night in fact
– as I was going past the foot of the attic-stairs on my way to bed (and I
don't much care for going past them
either) I'm sure I heard a yell.""Perhaps he keeps a mad wife shut up
there.""Yes, I've thought of that."
"Or perhaps he's a coiner."
"Or he might have been a pirate, like
the man at the beginning of Treasure
Island, and be always hiding from his
old shipmates.""How exciting!" said Polly, "I never
knew your house was so interesting." ."You may think it interesting," said
Digory. "But you wouldn't like it if
you had to sleep there. How would you
like to lie awake listening for Uncle
Andrew's step to come creeping along
the passage to your room? And he has
such awful eyes."That was how Polly and Digory got to
know one another: and as it was just
the beginning of the summer holidays
and neither of them was going to the
sea that year, they met nearly every
day.Their adventures began chiefly because
it was one of the wettest and coldest
summers there had been for years. That
drove them to do indoor things: you
might say, indoor exploration. It is
wonderful how much exploring you can
do with a stump of candle in a big
house, or in a row of houses. Polly
had discovered long ago that if you
opened a certain little door in the
box-room attic of her house you would find the cistern and a
dark place behind it which you
could get into by a little careful
climbing. The dark place was like a
long tunnel with brick wall on one
side and sloping roof on the other. In
the roof there were little chunks of
light between the slates. There was no
floor in this tunnel: you had to step
from rafter to rafter, and between
them there was only plaster. If you
stepped on this you would find
yourself falling through the ceiling
of the room below. Polly had used the
bit of the tunnel just beside the
cistern as a smugglers' cave. She had
brought up bits of old packing cases
and the seats of broken kitchen
chairs, and things of that sort, and
spread them across from rafter to
rafter so as to make a bit of floor.
Here she kept a cash-box containing
various treasures, and a story she was
writing and usually a few apples. She
had often drunk a quiet bottle of
ginger-beer in there: the old bottles
made it look more like a smugglers'
cave.Digory quite liked the cave (she
wouldn't let him see the story) but he
was more interested in exploring."Look here," he said. "How long does
this tunnel go on for? I mean, does it
stop where your house ends?""No," said Polly. "The walls don't go
out to the roof. It goes on. I don't
know how far.""Then we could get the length of the
whole row of houses.""So we could," said Polly, "And oh, I
say!""What?"
"We could get into the other houses."
"Yes, and get taken up for burglars!
No thanks.""Don't be so jolly clever. I was
thinking of the house beyond yours." ,"What about it?"
"Why, it's the empty one. Daddy says
it's always been empty since we came
here.""I suppose we ought to have a look at
it then," said Digory. He was a good
deal more excited than you'd have
thought from the way he spoke. For
of course he was thinking, just as you
would have been, of all the reasons
why the house might have been empty so
long. So was Polly. Neither of them
said the word "haunted". And both felt
that once the thing had been
suggested, it would be feeble not to
do it."Shall we go and try it now?" said
Digory."Alright," said Polly.
"Don't if you'd rather not," said
Digory."I'm game if you are," said she.
The words in bold and italic, I've looked up the dictionary, but I cannot find a good explanation:
coiner, no idea at all.
box-room attic, I know what is attic, but box-room I have no idea.
cistern, dictionary said it is a big water tank, do these people keep a water tank in their house?
Where is the dark place it is talking about? How come there is a tunnel in a house? Where is it?
I am not native English, and I live building with 35 floors, so I cannot imagine what does the above tunnel/house/attic look like, would you give me a guide on this? I don't understand where are they and where are the tunnel. If the tunnel are in the roof, why can it connect to other houses?
And the later sentence in bold, "For of course…." is a new grammar expression I've never seen. What is the function of "For" and "of course" in here? What does it trying to express?
Best Answer
"coiner" - one who counterfeits coins. Not something we hear of much today, but in earlier times was a reasonably familiar sort of criminal.
"box-room" - a room in a house (usually a small room) which is just used for storing things, usually things that are not wanted very often. The collocation "box-room attic" is unusual, because these two words mean nearly the same thing. (Not quite, because a box-room could be anywhere in a house, not just under the roof).
"cistern": yes, it is still quite common for British houses to have a water-tank in the roof space - sometimes two (hot and cold). This was partly to provide a head of pressure for taps and showers, and partly to guard against interruptions in supply (and in the case of hot tanks, to provide a reservoir of heated water for when you needed it quickly, as in a bath).
There is not a literal tunnel, it is saying that between the tank and the sloping roof there is a long and narrow dark place (dark because it is behind the cistern).
"of course" is a parenthetical remark meaning "as you already know", or "as is obvious". It is much more common in speech than in writing, but of course this writing is meant to suggest somebody is speaking, and telling a story.
"For" says that the sentence is a reason or explanation of what precedes. So the meaning of "For of course he was thinking .. " is something like "(He was excited) because, as you probably realise, he was thinking ... "