---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-3/36-a-chance-in-a-million.md
description: 新概念英语第三册：A Chance in a Million。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 百万分之一的机遇

## 课文学习台 {#study}

### 第1段

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.

中文理解：我们不再像以往那样轻易相信别人了。在19世纪，小说家常在小说结尾处给读者准备一系列的巧合——大部分是牵强附会 ，极不可能的。当时的读者却愉快地接受这样一些事实，一个默默无闻的女佣实际上是主人公的母亲；主人公一位长期失散的兄弟，大家都以为死了，实际上一直活着，并且正在策划暗算主人公；如此等等，现代读者会觉得这种天真的结局完全无法接受。不过，在现实生活中，有时确实会出现一些巧合，这些巧合除了19世纪小说家外谁也不会相信。

* **used to**：过去常常 / 习惯于；used to do 说过去习惯；be used to 后说已习惯的事，别混用。

* **all the time**：到……的时候 / 偶尔 / 一直 / 同时；时间词帮助组织先后关系，但不能仅凭一个时间词机械决定时态。

* **bring about**：引起 / 提出或养育；根据宾语分辨意思，避免把 up 与 about 当可替换小词。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①credulous = willing to believe without proof。②a conclusion = an ending。 ③improbable = not likely to happen, unlikely。④presumed = believed to be, assumed to be。⑤plotting = secretly planning。⑥totally = completely，本句中solution 前版有误，本处已改\[感谢@爱游泳的小黄鱼指出20210916]。⑦bring about = cause to happen。

### 第2段

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.

中文理解：当我是个孩子的时候，我祖父给我讲了一位德国出租汽车司机弗朗兹·巴斯曼如何找到了据信已在20年前死去的兄弟的事。一次，他与妻子徒步旅行。途中，停下来与一个工人交谈，接着他们继续往前走去。巴斯曼夫人说那工人与她丈夫相貌很像，甚至猜测他可能就是她丈夫的兄弟。弗朗兹对此不屑一顾，指出他兄弟已经在战争中阵亡了。尽管巴斯曼夫人熟知这个情况，但她仍然认为自己的想法仍有百万分之一的可能性。几天后，她派了一个男孩去问那人是否叫汉斯·巴斯曼。不出巴斯曼夫人所料，那人的名字真是汉斯·巴斯曼，他确实是弗朗兹失散多年的兄弟。兄弟俩团聚之时，汉斯说明了他活下来的经过，战争即将结束时，他负伤被送进医院，并与部队失去联系。医院遭到轰炸，汉斯步行回到了西德。与此同时，他所在部队被击溃，他的所有档案材料全部毁于战火。汉斯重返故里，但他的家已被炸毁，左邻右舍谁也不知原住户的下落。汉斯以为全家人都在空袭中遇难，于是在50英里外的一座村子里定居下来，直至当日。

* **on foot**：步行 / 处于困境 / 绝不 / 纳入考虑；by no means 是否定，复述时不能漏掉；考虑因素用 take into account。

* **ever since**：到目前为止 / 从那时起；它们常与完成时一起出现；回到原句看动作还是状态延续。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①宾语从句中包含一个主语从句。②settled down = took root。

#### Summary 摘要

Hans had been wounded towards the end of the war, taken to hospital and separated from his unit. When the hospital had been bombed, he had returned to West Germany on foot. Meantime, his unit had been lost and all records of him destroyed. He returned to the family home to find the house bombed. Assuming all his family were dead, he settled in a village 50 miles away where he had lived until he met Franz and his wife. (80 words)

#### Composition 作文 The Past 过往

\[1]When the war finished, Franz Bussman did everything he could to get information about his brother Hans. With no information, he reluctantly(ad.极不情愿地) assumed his brother was dead, and gave up the search.

\[2]With no family, and having been unable to find his brother, Franze found it difficult to settle down. Over the years he moved from place to place and from job to job, never staying very long in one place.

\[3]When he met Anna (now Mrs. Bussman), he was working as a waiter in a hotel. He and Anna got married and Franz settled down at last. He moved from the dinning room into the kitchen of the hotel and became a cook. But this did not last very long. He was talking to a friend one day, a taxi driver, who suggested that they should go into partnership. So they did, and Franz became a taxi driver. He and the friend drove taxis themselves, but they also soon owned four more taxis and employed four drivers.

\[4]He visited his home town once to visit his old house, but it was a sad visit. There was a large modern block of flats where his family house used to be. And although he spoke to some of the apartment owners, no one remembered him or his family. Now that(既然，这里是交待一个事实，Franz 找到了他的兄弟，然后做出了一起住的决定，但是怎么找到的并没有提及。) he has finally found his brother Hans, he and Anna are planning to invite Hans to come and live near them and work as a taxi driver in the company. (250 words)

## 学完这一课

保留原段的推进关系，换成自己的经历，写或说一段四五句的话。

[Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-3/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/)

*译文与解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；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。*