A Chance in a million 百萬分之一的幾率
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 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 fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
1.We are less credulous than we used to be.
我們不再像以往那樣輕易相信別人了。
語言點1:句子結構分析:less…than引導比較狀語從句。
語言點2:used to be的意思是“過去曾經(jīng)是”。
2.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.
在19世紀，小說家常在小說結尾處給讀者準備一系列的巧合—大部分是牽強附會，極不可能的。
語言點1:句子結構分析: by presenting his readers with a series of coincidences作方式狀語，交代如何“給小說結尾”，破折號后面的內(nèi)容起進一步解釋說明的作用。
語言點2:wildly improbable的意思是“極其不可能的”，比impossible的程度更深。
3.Readers happily accepted the fact that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother.
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。
語言點1:句子結構分析:that引導同位語從句，解釋說明fact是什么。
語言點2:請?zhí)貏e注意，本句中的hero不做“英雄”來理解，而是指“主人公”。
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 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 fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
1.We are less credulous than we used to be.
我們不再像以往那樣輕易相信別人了。
語言點1:句子結構分析:less…than引導比較狀語從句。
語言點2:used to be的意思是“過去曾經(jīng)是”。
2.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.
在19世紀，小說家常在小說結尾處給讀者準備一系列的巧合—大部分是牽強附會，極不可能的。
語言點1:句子結構分析: by presenting his readers with a series of coincidences作方式狀語，交代如何“給小說結尾”，破折號后面的內(nèi)容起進一步解釋說明的作用。
語言點2:wildly improbable的意思是“極其不可能的”，比impossible的程度更深。
3.Readers happily accepted the fact that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother.
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。
語言點1:句子結構分析:that引導同位語從句，解釋說明fact是什么。
語言點2:請?zhí)貏e注意，本句中的hero不做“英雄”來理解，而是指“主人公”。