新概念英语第二册重点句子|新概念英语第三册重点句子及解析Lesson36

【课文】

　　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.

　　【课文翻译】

　　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，一个低贱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。

　　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，于是便在距此50英里外的一座村子里定居下来，直至当日。

　　【词汇】

　　credulous adj. 轻信的

　　improbable adj. 不大可能的

　　obscure adj. 不起眼的

　　maidservant n. 女仆，女佣

　　presume v. 假定

　　wickedly adv. 心眼坏地，居心叵测地

　　plot v. 密谋

　　downfall n. 倒台，垮台

　　naive adj. 天真的

　　unacceptable adj. 不能接受的

　　conspire v. (事件)巧合促成

　　incredible adj. 难以置信的

　　resemblance n. 相似

　　scorn n. 嘲弄，挖苦

　　acquaint v. 使了解

　　reunite v. 使团聚

　　assume v. 假定，认为

　　【重点词汇讲解】

　　【credulous】

　　例句：

　　1. Only the most credulous Apple fans will be holding their breaths.

　　只有那些最盲目迷信的苹果爱好者才会摒息期待。

　　2. The credulous investors believed in every word the analysts said.

　　轻信别人的投资者完全相信分析员所说的一切。

　　【obscure】

　　例句：

　　1. That is often the fate of champions of obscure and oppressed peoples.

　　这是那些地位卑微、受压迫人民经常遭受的命运。

　　2. Turning down an obscure street and entering an obscure lane, he went up to a smith's shop.

　　他拐进一个偏僻的街道，走进一条冷僻的小巷，向一家铁匠铺走去。

　　【presume】

　　英英：take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof

　　例句：

　　1. This is your first visit to the Fair, I presume.

　　我猜想，这是您头一次参观这个交易会。

　　2. I presume you will approve of the plan.

　　我相信你会支持这个计划。

　　3. We must not presume too mush on the reliability of such sources.

　　我们不应过分指望/相信这类消息来源的可靠性。

　　【wickedly】

　　例句：

　　1. The knife gleamed wickedly in the moonlight.

　　那把刀在月光下闪着凶光。

　　2. He that lives wickedly can hardly die honestly.

　　过着邪恶生活的人不会正直地死去。

　　【plot】

　　英英：plan secretly, usually something illegal

　　例句：

　　1. Senior White House advisers meet every Wednesday night to plot political strategy.

　　白宫高级顾问们每周三晚上开会密谋政治战略。

　　2. When you are sad, I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

　　你要是悲伤了，我会把你灌醉，帮你密谋一个复仇计划，好好教训一下那个让你伤心的浑蛋。

　　3. The Dalai Lama simultaneously intensified his efforts to incite and plot riots in Tibet.

　　与此同时，达赖喇嘛进一步加紧煽动和策划西藏地区的*活动。

　　【conspire】

　　英英：engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together

　　例句：

　　1. These two factors conspire to cause a loss of control.

　　这两个因素合起来引起了失控。

　　2. Yet several things could conspire to spoil that cooperation.

　　但是一些其他问题可能破坏这项合作。

　　3. Earnest and sincere cooperation, conspire together the development, create the brilliancy together!

　　精诚合作，同谋发展，共创辉煌!

　　【incredible】

　　构词：credible→incredible

　　例句：

　　1. The eagles' large size gives them incredible strength.

　　鹰的巨大体形赋予它们惊人的力量。

　　2. It's hard work to gain incredible growth of Japanese industry.

　　真是这种努力的付出才换来了日本工业令人难以置信的发展。

　　【scorn】

　　例句：

　　1. Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

　　沉默是藐视最完美的表达方式。

　　2. The big dog walked past the little dog with scorn.

　　大狗趾高气昂地走过小狗身边。

　　【acquaint】

　　英英：inform

　　例句：

　　1. Let me acquaint you with what has happened up until this point.

　　让我通知你到这一刻为止已经发生了什么事情。

　　2. Its purpose is to acquaint trainees with the work of department heads.

　　其目的是让受训人熟悉各部门主管的工作。

　　3. You should try to acquaint yourself with the facts, before you express an opinion.

　　在发表看法前，你应该先了解事实真相。

　　【assume】

　　英英：take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof

　　例句：

　　1. Scientists assume there is no animal life on Mars.

　　科学家们假定火星上没有生命存在。

　　2. You assume that he is innocent before hearing the evidence against him.

　　在未听到对他不利的证言之前，你假定他是无罪的。

　　3. They have tended to assume increasing opportunity costs.

　　他们往往假定机会成本是递增的。

　　【常用表达】

　　【a chance in a million】千载难逢

　　【bring to a conclusion】结束

　　【all the time】始终，一直

　　【bring about】引起，使得

　　【a walking tour】散步

　　【close resemblance】很相似

　　【pour scorn on】对...不屑

　　【point out】指出

　　【needless to say】毫无疑问

　　【become of】发生

　　【ever since】从此

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