A chance in a million

原文

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 solution 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 stooped 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 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.

译文

我们不像过去那样轻信了。在十九世纪，小说家们常常通过一连串的巧合来结束他们的故事——这些巧合大都荒诞不经。读者们欣然接受这样一个事实：一个不起眼的侍女竟然是主人公的母亲。一个失散多年的兄弟，本来被认为已经死了，其实一直活着，并且阴险地图谋着主人公的 downfall。以此类推。现代读者会觉得这样的天真解决办法完全无法接受。然而，在现实生活中，情况有时确实会 conspire to bring about 一些巧合，这些巧合除了十九世纪的小说家，谁都会觉得难以置信。

当我还是个孩子的时候，我祖父告诉我一个德国出租车司机弗朗茨·布斯曼是如何找到他那个被认为二十年前就已阵亡的兄弟的。一次，他和妻子一起外出徒步旅行，他停下来和一个工人攀谈。继续往前走后，布斯曼夫人评论说那个工人长得非常像她的丈夫，甚至暗示他可能是他的兄弟。弗朗茨对这个想法不屑一顾，指出来他的兄弟在战争中阵亡了。尽管布斯曼夫人完全知道这个故事，她还是认为有一百万分之一的可能她是对的。几天后，她派一个男孩去问那个工人他的名字是否是汉斯·布斯曼。不用说，那人的名字 indeed 是汉斯·布斯曼，而且他真是弗朗茨失散多年的兄弟。当兄弟俩团聚时，汉斯解释了他为什么还活着。战争快结束时，他受了伤，被送往医院，与他的部队失散了。医院被轰炸，汉斯步行回到了西德。与此同时，他的部队失踪了，他的一切记录都 destroyed 了。汉斯回到他家的老地方，但是房子被轰炸了，邻居们都不知道居民们怎么样了。以为他的家人都在空袭中丧生了，汉斯在五十英里外的一个村子里安顿了下来，从那以后就一直住在那儿。

词汇表

credulous

形容词

英:/ˈkredjʊləs/

美:/ˈkrɛdʒələs/

定义

1. 易相信的；轻信的 - Willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper evidence.

例子: People in the nineteenth century were more credulous about coincidences in stories.

例子: She is too credulous and often falls for scams.

近义词

gullible: 强调容易上当受骗，常用于负面语境，而 'credulous' 更侧重于过度信任。

naive: 暗示缺乏经验或世故，'credulous' 则更具体地指向相信不实信息。

trusting: 更中性，强调对人的信任，'credulous' 可能带有轻信的负面含义。

反义词:

skeptical, doubtful, cynical

用法

常用于描述人们对信息的态度，尤其在文学或日常对话中，语境通常是非正式的，常搭配如 'credulous readers'（轻信的读者）。

形式:

副词形式: credulously, 名词形式: credulity

关键句型 "Subject + would + base form of verb"

定义

此句型的基本结构是 Subject（主语）+ would（情态动词）+ base form of verb（动词原形），常用于表达过去习惯、假设情景或礼貌请求。根据《剑桥英语语法》教材，这种结构通常表示反复发生的过去行为或对过去的虚拟情况。例如，在文章中如 "a novelist would bring his story to a conclusion"，would 这里表示19世纪小说家常见的写作习惯。

它是一种灵活的句型，帮助学习者描述过去的常规活动或推测可能的情景，同时使语言更委婉。

用法

此句型主要用于描述过去经常发生的动作、习惯或在条件句中表达假设。在语法体系中，它属于情态动词 would 的应用，与过去时态紧密相关，常出现在叙述故事或讨论假设时。规则包括：would 后必须接动词原形，不能加 -ed 或其他变化；例如，"He would walk to work every day" 表示过去的习惯。

横向比较：与简单过去时（如 "He walked to work"）相比，would + verb 更强调反复性或习惯性，而非一次性事件；与 used to + verb 类似，二者都表示过去的习惯，但 would + verb 更适合动态动作，而 used to 可用于状态（如 "I used to live there"）。在跨语法联系上，它常与条件句结合，如 "If I were rich, I would travel"，这与第二条件句相关，帮助学生连接虚拟语气和过去习惯。

此外，在文章中，would 还用于现代语境如 "Modern readers would find..."，表示推测或假设，区别于 will 的未来预测，would 让语气更柔和。

注意事项

学生容易犯的错误包括将 would 与动词的过去式混淆，例如说 "He would walked" 而非 "He would walk"，这会使句子 grammatically incorrect。另一个常见偏误是过度使用 would 在非习惯性描述中，如用它描述一次性事件（错误："Yesterday, I would go to the store"，正确："Yesterday, I went to the store"）。纠正建议：通过练习区分 would 的不同用法，并注意语境——如果是过去习惯，就用 would + verb；如果是礼貌请求，如 "Would you help me?"，则强调语气。

具体例句展示：

错误示例：In the past, I would eated dinner at 6.
正确示例：In the past, I would eat dinner at 6.  // 表示过去的习惯

记住，would 在否定句中如 "would not" 或 "wouldn't"，要确保逻辑一致。

练习

一个原创例子是："When I was a child, I would spend hours reading books in the library." 这贴近实际场景，描述过去的个人习惯。学生可以替换关键词，例如将 "spend hours reading" 改为 "play soccer"，变成 "When I was a child, I would play soccer every weekend." 这能帮助学生应用到自己的生活经历中，鼓励他们创建类似句子，如在讲述家庭故事时说："My grandparents would tell me stories before bed." 通过这种替换，学生能加深对句型的掌握，并在对话中自然使用。

额外内容

背景知识：would + verb 起源于英语中情态动词的演变，源自古英语的条件表达，在19世纪小说中常见，用于营造叙事氛围。对比分析：与中文的 "过去常常..." 类似，但英语通过 would 结构更精确地传达反复性；在法语中，类似结构如 "je voudrais"（我想要），强调礼貌，但英语的 would 更侧重过去。这点对比能帮助学生理解英语在表达假设时的独特方式，同时扩展到其他情态动词如 could 或 should，丰富语言表达。

关键句型 "find + object + adjective/complement"

定义

此句型结构为 find（发现）+ object（宾语）+ adjective/complement（形容词或补语），用于表达对某事物的发现或评价，常带有主观判断。根据《牛津现代英语语法》，它表示主语对宾语的感知或意见，如文章中的 "Modern readers would find such naive solution totally unacceptable"，这里 find 后跟宾语 "such naive solution" 和补语 "totally unacceptable"，整体意思是认为某事令人无法接受。

这种句型在英语中常见于描述反应或评估，帮助学习者清晰表达观点。

用法

此句型主要用于陈述发现某物时的状态、感受或意见，在语法体系中属于感官动词结构，与其他动词如 think 或 consider 相关。规则：find 后接宾语，然后是形容词、名词或从句作为补语；例如，"I find this book interesting"。它常出现在正式或叙述性语言中，如文章描述读者对小说的态度。

横向比较：与 think + object + adjective（如 "I think this is interesting"）相比，find + object + adjective 更强调基于观察或经验的发现，而非单纯意见；与 make + object + adjective（如 "This makes it difficult"）不同，find 焦点在主语的感知上。跨语法联系：它可扩展到复杂结构，如 "find + object + to be + adjective"（例如 "find it hard to believe"），这与不定式结构相关，帮助学生连接到更高级的表达。

在文章中，它用于突出对比，连接过去和现在观点。

注意事项

学生常犯的错误是遗漏补语，使句子不完整，例如说 "I find the book" 而非 "I find the book boring"，导致意思模糊。另一个偏误是将 find 与 find out 混淆——find out 更侧重发现信息（如 "I found out the truth"），而 find + complement 强调状态。纠正建议：练习时，确保补语清晰，并注意语境——如果是描述感受，就用这个句型。多读示例句子以避免错误。

具体例句：

错误示例：People find the story, but not say if it's good.
正确示例：People would find the story totally unbelievable.  // 如文章风格

此外，注意 find 在不同时态中的一致性，以保持句子流畅。

练习

原创例子：在日常对话中，可以说："I find this new app very useful for learning languages." 这贴近实际场景，帮助学生表达对工具的评价。学生可替换对象和补语，例如改为 "I find this movie quite boring"，或扩展到 "Travelers often find foreign cultures fascinating." 鼓励他们用自己的经历，如 "In the story, I find the coincidences hard to believe." 通过替换关键词，学生能将句型应用到阅读讨论或个人叙述中，加深实际运用。

额外内容

背景知识：这种句型源于英语中感官动词的表达方式，在文学如文章中用于增强叙事深度。对比分析：与西班牙语的 "encontrar + objeto + adjetivo" 类似，但英语更灵活，可以添加从句；在中文中，类似 "觉得..."，但英语结构更正式。这对比能让学生欣赏英语的精确性，并扩展到相关句型如 "consider + object + complement"，从而提升整体语言技能。