慢着！先停火！

A cry of: waiter! And the fighting stopped

Can you believe: at Christmas, 1914. British and German troops climbed out of the trenches¹[战壕] to play soccer in no man's land. Then the war resumed²...

你能相信吗，1914年的圣诞节，英德两军阵前士兵爬出战壕，在两军中间的无人地带玩起了足球。之后战争再继续……

 
A new book by a German historian[历史学家] last night cast fresh light on one of the most extraordinary episodes[插曲] of the first world war and revealed[披露] that the celebrated³ 1914 Christmas truce[休战] took place only because many of the Germans stationed on the front had worked in England.

德国历史学家的一本新书，给一次世界大战中最奇异的一段事件带来了一个崭新的解释。它披露了1914年的庆圣诞休战的原因是，大多驻扎前线的德军曾在英国工作。

The book, Der Kleine Frieden im Grossen Krieg, or The Small Peace in the Big War, shows that the German and British soldiers who famously played football with each other in no man's land[两阵间的无人区] on Christmas Day 1914 didn't always have a ball. Instead, they improvised[临时准备的]. On certain sections of the front, soldiers kicked around a lump⁴ of straw[麦杆] tied together with string, or even an empty jam box.

这本书——《大战中的小和平》——告诉我们，1914年圣诞英德两军德士兵踢的那场著名的球赛并非事先准备有球，而是临时准备的。在前线的一些地方，士兵们踢一些麦杆编的球，甚至直接踢空罐头盒。

According to previously⁵ unseen letters and diaries sent home by Germans from the trenches, many of the passes[传球] went wildly astray[走偏] and shot off the icy pitch. The soldiers used sticks of wood, their caps and steel helmets[钢盔] as goalposts[门柱]. The games lasted about an hour. The sleep-deprived[缺乏睡眠的] players then collapsed[体力不支], exhausted[精疲力竭].

根据一些未曾被发现过的德军战士从前线寄回的信笺和日记，很多传球偏得踢倒了冰冷的帐篷。士兵们用木棍、帽子、钢盔来做门柱。比赛持续了一个小时，这些缺乏睡眠的运动员们就精疲力竭了。

1 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

2 resumed   

v.重新开始( resume的过去式和过去分词 )；重新获得；重新占用；恢复

参考例句：

• Play resumed quickly after the stoppage. 比赛中断后不久又继续进行。
• The violinist resumed playing after the intermission. 幕间休息之后，那小提琴手又重新开始演奏。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 lump   

n.块状，瘤，很多；v.使...成块状，混在一起，忍耐

参考例句：

• I thanked him with a lump in my throat.我哽咽着向他道谢。
• If you don't like it,you may lump it.你不喜欢，也得容忍一下。

5 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。