Lesson 36 A chance in a million
We are less credulous than we used to be. In the nineteenth century, a novelist would bring his story to a conclusion by presenting his readers with a series of coincidences -- most of them wildly improbable. Readers happily accepted the fact that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother. A long-lost brother, who was presumed dead, was really alive all the time and wickedly plotting to bring about the hero's downfall. And so on. Modern readers would find such naive solution totally unacceptable. Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a nineteenth century novelist would find incredible.
A German taxi driver, Franz Bussman, found a brother who was thought to have been killed twenty years before. While on a walking tour with his wife, he stopped to talk to a workman. After they had gone on, Mrs. Bussman commented on the workman's close resemblance to her hu*****and and even suggested that he might be his brother. Franz poured scorn on the idea, pointing out that his brother had been killed in action during the war. Though Mrs. Busssman fully acquainted with this story, she thought that there was a chance in a million that she might be right. A few days later, she sent a boy to the workman to ask him if his name was Hans Bussman. Needless to say, the man's name was Hans Bussman and he really was Franz's long-lost brother. When the brothers were reunited, Hans explained how it was that he was still alive. After having been wounded towards the end of the war, he had been sent to hospital and was separated from his unit. The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot. Meanwhile, his unit was lost and all records of him had been destroyed. Hans returned to his family home, but the house had been bombed and no one in the neighbourhood knew what had become of the inhabitants. Assuming that his family had been killed during an air raid, Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
credulous
adj. 輕信的
improbable
adj. 不大可能的
obscure
adj. 不起眼的
maidservant
n. 女仆，女傭
presume
v. 假定
wickedly
adv. 心眼壞地，居心叵測地
plot
v. 密謀
downfall
n. 倒台，垮台
naive
adj. 天真的
unacceptable
adj. 不能接受的
conspire
v. （事件）巧合促成
incredible
adj. 難以置信的
scorn
n. 嘲弄，挖苦
acquaint
v. 使了解
reunite
v. 使團聚
assume
v. 假定，認為
參考譯文
我們不再像以往那樣輕易相信別人了。在19世紀，小說家常在小說結尾處給讀者準備一係列的巧合——大部分是牽強附會，極不可能的。當時的讀者卻愉快地接受這樣一些事實，一個低賤的女傭實際上是主人公的母親；主人公一位長期失散的兄弟，大家都以為死了，實際上一直活著，並且正在策劃暗算主人公；如此等等，現代讀者會覺得這種天真的結局完全無法接受。不過，在現實生活中，有時確實會出現一些巧合，這些巧合除了19世紀小說家外誰也不會相信。
當我是個孩子的時候，我祖父給我講了一位德國出租汽車司機弗朗茲。巴斯曼如何找到了據信已在20年前死去的兄弟的事。一次，他與妻子徒步旅行。途中，停下來與一個工人交談，接著他們繼續往前走去。巴斯曼夫人說那工人與她丈夫相貌很像，甚至猜測他可能就是她丈夫的兄弟。弗朗茲對此不屑一顧，指出他兄弟已經在戰爭中陣亡了。盡管巴斯曼夫人熟知這個情況，但她仍然認為自己的想法仍有百萬分之一的可能性。幾天後，她派了一個男孩去問那人是否叫漢斯.巴斯曼。不出巴斯曼夫人所料，那人的名字真是漢斯.巴斯曼，他確實是弗朗茲失散多年的兄弟。兄弟倆團聚之時，漢斯說明了他活下來的經過，戰爭即將結束時，他負傷被送進醫院，並與部隊失去聯係。醫院遭到轟炸，漢斯步行回到了西德。與此同時，他所在部隊被擊潰，他的所有檔案材料全部毀於戰火。漢斯重返故裏，但他的家已被炸毀，左鄰右舍誰也不知原住戶的下落，漢斯以為全家人都在空襲中遇難，於是便在距此50英裏外的一座村子裏定居下來，直至當日。
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