A Day to Remember 難忘的一天

We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes. While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc. Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.
Things can go wrong on a big scale as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!

16. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake.

司機妻子正坐在他身邊，手里托著塊大蛋糕。

語言點:句子結構分析:holding a large cake作方式狀語，意即“拿著一塊大蛋糕”。

17. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road.

她往前一沖，蛋糕從擋風玻璃飛了出去掉到馬路上。

語言點:此處的right是副詞，意思是“正好”，修飾through the windscreen。

18. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden.

此時，一輛卡車正好從后邊開到那輛汽車邊上，司機看見一塊蛋糕從天而降，緊急剎車。

語言點1:句子結構分析:seeing a cake flying through the air是現在分詞短語，作原因狀語。flying through the air作賓語cake的補足語。

語言點2:pull up的意思是“使（車）停下”，與draw up的意思相同。

語言點3:all of a sudden表示“突然”。