Lesson 33 A day to remember
難忘的一天
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
聽錄音，然后回答以下問題。
What incident began the series of traffic accidents?
We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong.
我們大家都有過事事不順心的日子。
A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control.
一天開始時，可能還不錯，但突然間似乎一切都失去了控制。
What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment.
情況經(jīng)常是這樣的，許許多多的事情都偏偏趕在同一時刻出問題，
It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions.
好像是一件無關緊要的小事引起了一連串的連鎖反應。
Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time.
假設你在做飯，同時又在照看孩子。
The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes.
這時電話鈴響了。它預示著一連串意想不到的災難的來臨。
While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table,
就在你接電話時，孩子把桌布從桌子上扯下來，
smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process.
將家中的陶瓷餐具半數(shù)摔碎，同時也弄傷了他自己。
You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc.
你急急忙忙掛上電話，趕去照看孩子和餐具。
Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt.
這時，飯又燒糊了。
As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.
好像這一切還不足以使你急得掉淚，你的丈夫接著回來了，事先沒打招呼就帶來3個客人吃飯。
Things can go wrong on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney.
就像許多人最近在悉尼郊區(qū)帕拉馬塔所發(fā)現(xiàn)的那樣，有時亂子會鬧得很大。
During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue.
一天傍晚交通最擁擠時，一輛汽車撞上前面一輛汽車，兩個司機爭吵起來。
The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner.
緊跟其后的一輛車上的司機碰巧是個初學者，
She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car.
她一驚之下突然把車停了下來。
This made the driver following her brake hard.
她這一停使得跟在后頭的司機也來個急剎車。
His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake.
司機妻子正坐在他身邊，手里托著塊大蛋糕。
As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road.
她往前一沖，蛋糕從擋風玻璃飛了出去掉到馬路上。此時，一輛卡車正好從后邊開到那輛汽車邊上，
Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden.
司機看見一塊蛋糕從天而降，緊急剎車。
The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road.
卡車上裝著空啤酒瓶。成百只瓶子順勢從卡車后面滑出車外落在馬路上。
This led to yet another angry argument.
這又引起了一場唇槍舌劍的爭吵。
Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind.
與此同時，后面的車輛排成了長龍，
It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again.
警察花了將近一個小時才使車輛又開起來。
In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles.
在這段時間里，卡車司機不得不清掃那幾百只破瓶子。
Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake.
只有兩只野狗從這一片混亂中得到了好處，它們貪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。
It was just one of those days!
這就是事事不順心的那么一天！