Avowel with a straight line over it is a vowel sound.

short
long

The answer to the question above would be that a vowel with a straight line over it is a long vowel sound. In Latin, long vowels are indicated with a straight line over the vowel. This line is referred to as macron. On the contrary, short vowels do not have any sort of characteristic indicating the lenght of time they should be held.

are you kidding? from that description of two mansions, you can't figure out which one is bleak and desolate? maybe you should consider looking those words up in a dictionary, if you don't know what they mean already.