What incident began the series of traffic accidents?是什么事件引发了这一连串的交通事故？
We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong.我们都经历过那些一切都出错的日子。
A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control.一天可能开始得很顺利，但突然间，一切似乎都失控了。
What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment.不可避免的是，许多事情会在同一时刻同时出错。
It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions.就好像某个看似微不足道的事件引发了一连串的连锁反应。
Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time.假设你一边准备饭菜，一边还要照看婴儿。
The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes.电话突然响了，而这成了随后一系列意外事件的导火线。
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.你在打电话时，婴儿把桌布从桌子上扯了下来，打碎了你一半最好的餐具，还把自己划伤了。
You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby, crockery, etc.你匆忙挂断电话，然后开始处理婴儿和餐具的问题……
Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt.与此同时，饭菜被烧焦了。
As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.仿佛这些还不够让你心烦意乱似的，你的丈夫突然回来了，还带着三位客人一起来吃晚饭。
Things can go wrong on a big scale as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney.最近，在悉尼的郊区帕拉马塔，许多人发现事情也可能在大范围内出错。
During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue.一天晚上的高峰时段，两辆车发生了碰撞，两名司机随即开始争吵。
The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner.就坐在那两辆车后面的那位女士，恰好是一名正在学习驾驶的新手。
She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car.她突然陷入了恐慌，立刻停下了车子。
This made the driver following her brake hard.这导致跟在她后面的司机也紧急踩下了刹车。
His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake.他的妻子坐在他旁边，手里拿着一个大蛋糕。
As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road.当她被向前抛出时……蛋糕直接穿过了挡风玻璃，落在了路上。
Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden.看到一个蛋糕在空中飞过……一名正在靠近那辆汽车的卡车司机突然停了下来。
The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road.卡车上装满了空啤酒瓶，结果有数百个瓶子从卡车后部滑落到了路上。
This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind.这又引发了一场激烈的争吵。与此同时，后面的交通也陷入了堵塞。
It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again.警察花了将近一个小时才让交通恢复正常。
In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles.在此期间，卡车司机不得不把那些破碎的瓶子全部清理干净。
Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake.只有两只流浪狗从这场混乱中得到了好处——它们贪婪地吃掉了剩下的蛋糕。