36 A chance in a million

We are less credulous than we used to be.

我们不再像以往那样轻易相信别人了。

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.

在19世纪,小说家常在小说结尾处给读者准备一系列巧合-大部分是牵强附会,极不可能的。

Readers happily accepted the fact that an obscure maidservant was really the hero's mother.

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;

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.

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。

Modern readers would find such naive solutions totally unacceptable.

现代读者会觉得这种天真的结局完全无法接受。

Yet, in real life, circumstances do sometimes conspire to bring about coincidences which anyone but a nineteenth century novelist would find incredible.

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。