A chance in a million
百万分之一的机会
What was the chance in a million?
一百万的机会是多少？
We are less credulous than we used to be.
我们不像以前那么轻信了.
In the nineteenth century, a novelist would bring his story to a conclusion
在十九世纪，一位小说家将结束他的故事
by presenting his readers with a series of coincidences --
通过向他的读者展示一系列巧合 --
most of them wildly improbable.
他们中的大多数都是不可能的.
Readers happily accepted the fact
读者高兴地接受了这个事实
that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother.
那位默默无闻的婢女，果然是英雄的母亲。
A long-lost brother, who was presumed dead, was really alive all the time
一个久违的兄弟，被认为已经死了，真的一直活着
and wickedly plotting to bring about the hero's downfall. And so on.
邪恶地密谋导致英雄的垮台。 等等。
Modern readers would find such naive solutions totally unacceptable.
现代读者会发现这种天真的解决方案完全不可接受。
Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences
然而，在现实生活中，情况有时会合谋带来巧合
which anyone but a nineteenth century novelist would find incredible.
除了十九世纪的小说家，任何人都会觉得不可思议。
When I was a boy, my grandfather told me how a German taxi driver, Franz Bussman,
当我还是个孩子的时候，我的祖父告诉我一个德国出租车司机弗朗茨*巴斯曼,
found a brother who was thought to have been killed twenty years before.
找到了一个被认为是二十年前被杀的兄弟。
While on a walking tour with his wife, he stopped to talk to a workman.
当他和妻子一起散步时，他停下来和一个工人交谈。
After they had gone on,
他们走了以后,
Mrs. Bussman commented on the workman's close resemblance to her husband
巴斯曼夫人评论说，工人与她丈夫的相似之处
and even suggested that he might be his brother.
甚至暗示他可能是他的兄弟。
Franz poured scorn on the idea,
弗朗茨对这个想法嗤之以鼻,
pointing out that his brother had been killed in action during the war.
指出他的兄弟在战争期间在行动中被杀。
Though Mrs. Bussman was fully acquainted with this story,
虽然巴斯曼太太对这个故事很熟悉,
she thought that there was a chance in a million that she might be right.
她认为有一百万的机会，她可能是对的。
A few days later, she sent a boy to the workman to ask him
几天后，她派一个男孩去找工人问他
if his name was Hans Bussman.
如果他叫汉斯*巴斯曼的话。
Needless to say, the man's name was Hans Bussman
不用说，这个人的名字是汉斯*巴斯曼
and he really was Franz's long-lost brother.
他真的是弗朗茨失散多年的兄弟。
When the brothers were reunited,
兄弟俩团聚的时候,
Hans explained how it was that he was still alive.
汉斯解释了他还活着的原因。
After having been wounded towards the end of the war,
在战争结束时受了伤,
he had been sent to hospital and was separated from his unit.
他已被送往医院，并与他的单位分开。
The hospital had been bombed and Hans had made his way back into Western Germany on foot.
医院被炸了，汉斯徒步回到了德国西部。
Meanwhile, his unit was lost and all records of him had been destroyed.
与此同时，他的部队丢失了，他的所有记录都被销毁了。
Hans returned to his family home, but the house had been bombed
汉斯回到了他的家，但房子已经被炸毁
and no one in the neighbourhood knew what had become of the inhabitants.
附近没有人知道居民的情况。
Assuming that his family had been killed during an air raid,
假设他的家人在空袭中丧生,
Hans settled down in a village fifty miles away where he had remained ever since.
汉斯在五十英里外的一个村庄里安顿下来,从此他就一直住在那里.
