Plague - Feb 22

A pestilence isn’t ________(以人的尺度创造的); therefore, we tell ourselves that pestilence is ________(只是庸人自扰), a bad dream that will pass away.

Stupidity ________(总是能够随心所欲); as we should see if we were not always so much ________(关注我们自己).

Meanwhile, government and municipal officials were ________(集体思考/集思广益). So long as each individual doctor had come across only two or three cases, no one had thought of taking action.

In a very few days the number of cases had risen ________(突飞猛进), and it became evident to all observers of this strange malady that a real epidemic had ________(开始/到来).

In fact, like our fellow citizens, Rieux was ________(让他猝不及防), and we should understand his hesitations in the light of this fact; and similarly understand how he was torn between conflicting fears and confidence.

Everybody knows that pestilences ________([某事经常会]以某种形式发生) recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that ________(灾难从天而降，大难临头).

They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have ________(认真考虑某事) anything like plague, which ________(使某事不可能发生，此处意译为毁了我们的未来) any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views.

“Well, I know. And I don’t need any post-mortems. I was in China ________(职业生活的大部分时间), and I saw some cases in Paris twenty years ago.