Shortly after the war, my brother and I were invited to spend a few days holiday with an uncle who had just returned from abroad. He had rented a cottage in the country, although he rarely spent much time there. We understood the reason for this after our arrival: the cottage had no comfortable furniture in it, many of the windows were broken and the roof leaked, making the whole house damp.
战争结束后不久，我和哥哥应邀到一位刚从国外回来的叔叔家度假几天。他在乡下租了一间小屋，尽管他很少在那里呆很久。我们到达后才明白原因:小屋里没有舒适的家具，很多窗户都破了，屋顶漏雨，整个房子都很潮湿。
On our first evening, we sat around the fire after supper listening to the stories which our uncle had to tell of his many adventures in distant countries. I was so tired after the long train journey that I would have preferred to go to bed; but I could not bear to miss any of my uncle’s exciting tales.
第一天晚上，晚饭后我们围坐在火炉旁，听叔叔讲述他在遥远国家的许多冒险经历。经过长途火车旅行，我太累了，真想上床睡觉。但我不忍心错过叔叔讲的任何一个激动人心的故事。
He was just in the middle of describing a rather terrifying experience he had once had when his small sinking boat was carried out the sea storm when there was a loud crash from the bedroom above, the one where my brother and I were going to sleep. "It sounds as if the roof has fallen in!" explained my uncle, with a loud laugh. When we got to the top of the stairs and opened the bedroom door, we could see nothing at first because of the thick clouds of dust which filled the room. When the dust began to clear, a strange sight met our eyes. A large part of the ceiling had collapsed, falling right on to the pillow of my bed. I was glad that I had stayed up late to listen to my uncle’s stories, otherwise I should certainly have been seriously injured, perhaps killed. That night we all slept on the floor in the sitting room downstairs, not wishing to risk our lives by sleeping under a roof which might at any moment collapsed on our heads. We left for London the very next morning and my uncle gave up his cottage in the country. This was not the kind of adventure he cared for either!
他正在描述他曾经有过的一次相当可怕的经历，当时他的小船在海上风暴中被拖走了，就在这时，楼上的卧室里传来一声巨响，我和弟弟正要睡的那间卧室。“听起来好像屋顶塌下来了!”叔叔大声笑着解释说。当我们走到楼梯顶上，打开卧室的门时，我们起初什么也看不见，因为房间里充满了厚厚的灰尘。当灰尘开始散去时，我们看到了一幅奇怪的景象。天花板的很大一部分塌了下来，正好落在我的枕头上。我很庆幸自己熬夜听了叔叔的故事，否则我一定会受重伤，甚至丧命。那天晚上，我们都睡在楼下客厅的地板上，不想冒着生命危险睡在一个随时可能塌下来砸在我们头上的屋顶下。我们第二天早上出发去伦敦，我叔叔放弃了他在乡下的小屋。这也不是他喜欢的那种冒险!