新概念英语第三册36 A chance in a million

2021-09-24 14:53:00来源：网络

【资料库】第一册语法逐句精讲新概念英语2第三册经典句子解析新概念英语30天寒假学习计划
【课后题及答案解析】新概念英语第一册新概念英语第二册新概念英语第三册新概念英语第四册
【经验分享】学习新概念英语如何提升英语水平? 自学四大经典学习方法新概念学习方法及经验

　　新东方在线新概念小编为大家带来一文，希望对大家的新概念英语学习有所帮助。更多精彩尽请关注新东方在线新概念英语学习网(http://nce.koolearn.com )!

　　What was the chance in a million?

　　We are less credulous than we used to be. In the 19th 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 solutions totally unacceptable. Yet, in real life, circumstances

　　do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a 19th

　　century novelist would find incredible.

　　When I was a boy, my grandfather told me how a German taxi driver, Franz

　　Bussman, found a brother who was thought to have been killed 20 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 husband 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. Bussman was 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 50 miles away where he had remained

　　ever since.

　　New words and expressions 生词与短语

　　credulous

　　adj. 轻信的

　　improbable

　　adj. 不大可能的

　　obscure

　　adj. 不起眼的

　　maidservant

　　n. 女仆，女佣

　　presume

　　v. 假定

　　wickedly

　　adv. 心眼坏地，居心叵测地

　　plot

　　v. 密谋

　　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. 难以置信的

　　scorn

　　n. 嘲弄，挖苦

　　acquaint

　　v. 使了解

　　reunite

　　v. 使团聚

　　assume

　　v. 假定，认为

　　本文参考译文

　　我们不再像以往那样轻易相信别人了。在19世纪，小说家常在小说结尾处给读者准备一系列的巧合——大部分是牵强附会，极不可能的。当时的读者却愉快地接受这样一些事实，一个低贱的女佣实际上是主人公的母亲;主人公一位长期失散的兄弟，大家都以为死了，实际上一直活着，并且正在策划暗算主人公;如此等等，现代读者会觉得这种天真的结局完全无法接受。不过，在现实生活中，有时确实会出现一些巧合，这些巧合除了19世纪小说家外谁也不会相信。

　　当我是个孩子的时候，我祖父给我讲了一位德国出租汽车司机弗朗兹。巴斯曼如何找到了据信已在20年前死去的兄弟的事。一次，他与妻子徒步旅行。途中，停下来与一个工人交谈，接着他们继续往前走去。巴斯曼夫人说那工人与她丈夫相貌很像，甚至猜测他可能就是她丈夫的兄弟。弗朗兹对此不屑一顾，指出他兄弟已经在战争中阵亡了。尽管巴斯曼夫人熟知这个情况，但她仍然认为自己的想法仍有百万分之一的可能性。几天后，她派了一个男孩去问那人是否叫汉斯.巴斯曼。不出巴斯曼夫人所料，那人的名字真是汉斯.巴斯曼，他确实是弗朗兹失散多年的兄弟。兄弟俩团聚之时，汉斯说明了他活下来的经过，战争即将结束时，他负伤被送进医院，并与部队失去联系。医院遭到轰炸，汉斯步行回到了西德。与此同时，他所在部队被击溃，他的所有档案材料全部毁于战火。汉斯重返故里，但他的家已被炸毁，左邻右舍谁也不知原住户的下落，汉斯以为全家人都在空袭中遇难，于是便在距此50英里外的一座村子里定居下来，直至当日。

　　以上就是新东方在线新概念英语学习网为你带来的，更多精彩内容。敬请关注新东方在线新概念英语学习网(http://nce.koolearn.com)。

新东方在线英语水平测试