死里逃生(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
死里逃生
at one time during world war i churchill visited france to observe the fighting. in his shelter at the front line, he received a message from a general, a former acquaintance, who wanted to see him. he was to walk to a crossroads some three miles away, where a car would meet him. after he had waited at the crossroads for an hour, an officer came and told him that the car had gone to the wrong crossroads, and now it was too late for the meeting.
cursing the general, churchill trudged back to the shelter in the dark and the rain, only to find that five minutes after he had left a shell had come through its roof and killed the man inside. churchill records:"suddenly i felt my irritation against general x pass completely from my mind." if anything, he felt grateful to the general.

第一次世界大战期间，丘吉尔曾到法国观察战情，在前线藏身处，接到一位过去相识的将军传言，邀约见面。他得步行大约三英里，到一十字路口，有汽车会前来接他。丘吉尔在路口等了一小时之后，一个军官到来，告诉他说，汽车错去了另一十字路口，而会面时间已经过去。
丘吉尔一边咒骂那将军，一边冒雨在黑夜里辛辛苦苦往回走，走到藏身处，才知道他出发五分钟之后，一枚炮弹落下来，藏身处屋顶洞穿，藏身处内那个男人也被炸死。丘吉尔后来有记述说：「我对 x将军的愤恨突然冰消。」不但如此，他还对那将军十分感激。