36 · 百万分之一的机遇
A Chance in a Million
读懂长句与段落衔接，分清事实、推断和观点，再连贯复述或说明。
原稿有一处人名写成 Busssman，多出一个 s；同课其他位置为 Bussman。请理解为同一人物。
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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 solutions totally unacceptable. Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a nineteenth 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 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 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. Busssman 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 fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
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整篇课文
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 solutions totally unacceptable. Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a nineteenth 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 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 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. Busssman 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 fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
我们已经不像过去那样容易轻信了。19世纪的小说家，常用一连串巧合来给故事收尾，其中多数巧合都离奇得难以置信。可当年的读者却乐于接受：一个不起眼的女仆，其实是男主人公的母亲；一个失散多年、被认为已经死去的兄弟，其实一直活着，还在阴险地谋划如何让男主人公身败名裂。诸如此类。现代读者完全无法接受这种天真的处理方式。然而，现实生活中，种种情况偶尔也会凑在一起，造成某些巧合，恐怕除了19世纪的小说家，谁都会觉得不可思议。
我小时候，祖父给我讲过一个故事：德国出租车司机弗朗茨·布斯曼，找到了一个人们以为二十年前就已死去的兄弟。有一次，他和妻子徒步旅行，途中停下来和一名工人交谈。离开后，布斯曼太太说，那工人和丈夫长得太像了，甚至可能就是他的兄弟。弗朗茨对这个想法嗤之以鼻，指出自己的兄弟早已在战争中阵亡。妻子虽然熟知这件事，却仍觉得，哪怕只有百万分之一的可能，自己也未必猜错。几天后，她派一个男孩去问那名工人，是不是叫汉斯·布斯曼。不用说，对方正叫这个名字，而且确实就是弗朗茨失散多年的兄弟。兄弟重逢后，汉斯解释了自己为何还活着：战争快结束时，他受伤住院，与部队失去了联系。后来医院遭到轰炸，他步行回到德国西部。与此同时，原部队已经覆灭，所有关于他的档案也被毁掉了。汉斯回到老家，却发现房子也被炸毁，邻居没人知道家里人去了哪里。他以为亲人都在空袭中遇难，便在五十英里外的一个村庄定居，从此一直住在那里。
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用 do sometimes… 承认一个反例，避免从“有时”跳到“总是”。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第119—121页，2022年2月第3版。