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 生詞與短語

credulous

adj. 輕信的

improbable

adj. 不大可能的

obscure

adj. 不起眼的

maidservant

n. 女仆，女傭

presume

v. 假定

wickedly

adv. 心眼壞地，居心叵測地

plot

v. 密謀

downfall

n. 倒臺，垮臺

naive

adj. 天真的

unacceptable

adj. 不能接受的

conspire

v. (事件)巧合促成

incredible

adj. 難以置信的

scorn

n. 嘲弄，挖苦

acquaint

v. 使了解

reunite

v. 使團聚

assume

v. 假定，認(rèn)為

本文參考譯文

我們不再像以往那樣輕易相信別人了。在19世紀(jì)，小說家常在小說結(jié)尾處給讀者準(zhǔn)備一系列的巧合——大部分是牽強附會，極不可能的。當(dāng)時的讀者卻愉快地接受這樣一些事實，一個低賤的女傭?qū)嶋H上是主人公的母親;主人公一位長期失散的兄弟，大家都以為死了，實際上一直活著，并且正在策劃暗算主人公;如此等等，現(xiàn)代讀者會覺得這種天真的結(jié)局完全無法接受。不過，在現(xiàn)實生活中，有時確實會出現(xiàn)一些巧合，這些巧合除了19世紀(jì)小說家外誰也不會相信。

當(dāng)我是個孩子的時候，我祖父給我講了一位德國出租汽車司機弗朗茲。巴斯曼如何找到了據(jù)信已在20年前死去的兄弟的事。一次，他與妻子徒步旅行。途中，停下來與一個工人交談，接著他們繼續(xù)往前走去。巴斯曼夫人說那工人與她丈夫相貌很像，甚至猜測他可能就是她丈夫的兄弟。弗朗茲對此不屑一顧，指出他兄弟已經(jīng)在戰(zhàn)爭中陣亡了。盡管巴斯曼夫人熟知這個情況，但她仍然認(rèn)為自己的想法仍有百萬分之一的可能性。幾天后，她派了一個男孩去問那人是否叫漢斯.巴斯曼。不出巴斯曼夫人所料，那人的名字真是漢斯.巴斯曼，他確實是弗朗茲失散多年的兄弟。兄弟倆團聚之時，漢斯說明了他活下來的經(jīng)過，戰(zhàn)爭即將結(jié)束時，他負(fù)傷被送進醫(yī)院，并與部隊失去聯(lián)系。醫(yī)院遭到轟炸，漢斯步行回到了西德。與此同時，他所在部隊被擊潰，他的所有檔案材料全部毀于戰(zhàn)火。漢斯重返故里，但他的家已被炸毀，左鄰右舍誰也不知原住戶的下落，漢斯以為全家人都在空襲中遇難，于是便在距此50英里外的一座村子里定居下來，直至當(dāng)日。

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