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 widely improbable.
    我们往往不会像以前一样轻易相信了。在19世纪，某个小说家总是在他的小说结尾安排一系列巧合给读者—而这些巧合几乎不可能发生。
    PS: bring…to, 引向…
    PS++: a series of coincidences, 一系列巧合

    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.
    读者都乐于接受以下事实—一个低贱的女佣实际上是男主人公的母亲。一个长期失散、传说死了多年的兄弟，却一直活着而且正在暗中策划暗算主人公。如此等等。
    PS: plot to, 策划

    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.
    现在的读者就会发现这些简单的情节往往不能被人接受了。然而在现实生活中，有时确实会出现一些巧合，除了19世纪那些小说家，恐怕谁也不会相信了。
    PS: do something conspire, 出现巧合，do做强调

    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.
    在我小时候，我的祖父跟我讲了一个叫做弗朗兹·布斯曼的德国出租车司机，找到了他20年前被爆死亡的兄弟。一次他和妻子徒步旅行，途中和一个工人交谈。

    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.
    在他们分开之后，布斯曼夫人说这个工人长得很像它的丈夫，就提醒丈夫这可能是他的哥哥。弗朗兹觉得很可笑，说自己的哥哥早就在战争中阵亡了。
    PS: A is close resemblance to B, A长得很像B
    PS++: suggest, 这里翻译成暗示、提醒，后接宾语从句
    PS++++: pour score on, 讥笑

    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.
    虽然布斯曼夫人对这件事非常熟悉，但是她还是觉得这是真的，虽然只有很小几率。几天后，她派了一个男孩去问工人是不是叫汉斯·布斯曼，果然他叫汉斯·布斯曼，是弗朗兹失散多年的兄弟。
    PS: be fully acquainted with, 十分熟悉
    ps++: Needless to say, 无需多言、果然

    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.
    在他们兄弟重逢时，汉斯讲述了他是怎么活下来的。在战争末期负伤后，他被送去了医院并于部队失去了联系。后来医院被轰炸，他就独自走回了西德。
    PS: be separated from, 从哪里脱离

    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 on one in the neighborhood 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 had had remained ever since.
    同时，他所在的部队被击溃并且丢失了他的所有记录。汉斯回到了他家，但是他家已经被炸了，他的邻居谁也不知道原来的事情。他猜测他的家人都死于空袭了，汉斯就在离家50英里的村庄定居下来，一直到现在。
    PS: settle down, 定居。你可以去看《someone like you》歌词，第一句就是这个