第36课

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We are less credulous than we used to be.

我们不像以前那样轻信了。

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In the nineteenth century, a novelist would bring his story to a conclusion

在19世纪，小说家在故事的结尾

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by presenting his readers with a series of coincidences--most of them wildly improbable.

会给读者安排一连串的巧合——其中大部分都是极不可能发生的。

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Readers happily accepted the fact that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother.

读者们欣然接受一个默默无闻的女仆竟然是主人公的母亲这一事实。

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A long-lost brother, who was presumed dead, was really alive all the time

一个被认为已死去的失散多年的兄弟，实际上一直活着，

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and wickedly plotting to bring about the hero's downfall. And so on.

并且阴险地策划着让主人公垮台。诸如此类。

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Modern readers would find such naive solutions totally unacceptable.

现代读者会觉得这种天真的结局完全不能接受。

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Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a nineteenth century novelist would find incredible.

然而，在现实生活中，情况有时确实会凑巧地导致巧合的发生，除了19世纪的小说家，其他任何人都觉得不可思议。

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

我小时候，祖父给我讲了一个德国出租车司机弗朗兹·布斯曼的故事，

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found a brother who was thought to have been killed twenty years before.

他找到了一个被认为在20年前阵亡的兄弟。

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While on a walking tour with his wife, he stopped to talk to a workman.

在和妻子徒步旅行时，他停下来和一名工人交谈。

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After they had gone on, Mrs. Bussman commented on the workman's close resemblance to her husband

他们继续前行后，布斯曼夫人评论说那个工人长得很像她丈夫，

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and even suggested that he might be his brother.

甚至猜测他可能是她丈夫的兄弟。

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Franz poured scorn on the idea,

弗朗兹对这个想法嗤之以鼻，

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pointing out that his brother had been killed in action during the war.

指出他兄弟在战争中阵亡了。

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Though Mrs. Bussman was fully acquainted with this story,

尽管布斯曼夫人完全了解这个故事，

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she thought that there was a chance in a million that she might be right.

她觉得她有可能说对了，尽管几率是百万分之一。

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A few days later, she sent a boy to the workman to ask him if his name was Hans Bussman.

几天后，她派了一个男孩去问那个工人，他是否叫汉斯·布斯曼。

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Needless to say, the man's name was Hans Bussman and he really was Franz's long-lost brother.

不用说，那个人的名字就是汉斯·布斯曼，他确实是弗朗兹失散多年的兄弟。

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When the brothers were reunited,

兄弟俩团聚后，

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Hans explained how it was that he was still alive.

汉斯解释了他为什么还活着。

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After having been wounded towards the end of the war,

在战争快结束时受伤后，

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he had been sent to hospital and was separated from his unit.

他被送往医院，与部队失散了。

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The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot.

医院被轰炸了，汉斯徒步回到了西德。

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Meanwhile, his unit was lost and all records of him had been destroyed.

同时，他的部队失散了，所有关于他的记录都被销毁了。

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Hans returned to his family home, but the house had been bombed

汉斯回到了他的老家，但是房子被炸毁了，

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and no one in the neighbourhood knew what had become of the inhabitants.

邻居们也不知道住户们怎么样了。

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Assuming that his family had been killed during an air raid,

以为他的家人在空袭中丧生，

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Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.

汉斯在一个五十英里外的小村庄安顿下来，自此一直住在那里。