Lesson 36 A chance in a million
Listen to the tape then answer the question below. What was the chance in a million? 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.

百万分之一的机遇
听录音，然后回答以下问题。 百万分之一的机遇指的是什么？ 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。