The story is called Appointment in Samarra. A Baghdad merchant sends a servant to buy provisions. While at the market, the servant ___1___ Death, who makes a threatening gesture. The servant races back to the merchant, borrows a horse and ___2___ the city of Samarra for safety.

The Somerset Maughan version of the old fable about fate continues, with Death narrating: “Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, ‘Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?’ ‘That was not a threatening gesture,’ I said, ‘it was only ___3___. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.’”

I was reminded of this story by a detail in the accounts of the killing of Osama Bin Laden: his opulent hiding place had no telephone or internet service. Presumably to minimize the risk of ___4___ through contact with the outside world. But the very lack of such modern technology, intended to avoid attention, attracted it instead. And enabled authorities to ___5___.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
bumps into flees to a start of surprise revealing his location keep their long-standing appointment
《相約薩馬拉》講的是這樣一個故事：一位巴格達(dá)商人派仆人去買東西。仆人不巧在集市碰到了兇神惡煞的死神，于是急忙跑回商人那里借了匹馬，飛奔到薩馬拉城避難去了。 薩默賽特?毛姆版的這個關(guān)于命運(yùn)的故事還有后續(xù)——死神說：“后來，商人來到集市，看到我站在人群中，于是他走過來對我說：‘你今天早上遇到我仆人的時候?yàn)槭裁匆獓樆Ｋ兀俊覜]有嚇唬他’，我說，‘那只是驚訝罷了，我看見他在巴格達(dá)所以很驚訝，因?yàn)槲冶緛砀s好今晚薩馬拉見面?！? 本拉登之死的一些細(xì)節(jié)讓我想起了這個故事：他的藏身之所雖奢華，卻沒有電話和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。這樣做很可能是為了盡可能不讓外界發(fā)現(xiàn)他的行蹤吧。不過，正是因?yàn)樗淖∷狈ΜF(xiàn)代設(shè)備，反倒成為重點(diǎn)目標(biāo)，讓政府終于得償所愿。