Napoleon and Chess
After the Waterloo Campaign, Napoleon was banished (流放) onto a lonely island named St Helena in South Atlantic. He became a prisoner for life. Facing the vast sea, he always thought of escaping from the island, but that was impossible. He knew nothing about the topography (地形) of the island!
Once a good friend of his went to see him. Since there wa always someone keeping watch on them, they talked about only the old days. When they parted, the friend took out a set of chess made of tusk and nephrite (软玉), and said to Napoleon, "I give this to you. Maybe it will be of some help." Napoleon liked it very much. He used to play with the chessmen (棋子) and study chess manuals (棋谱), to pass the last days of his life.
After his death, many of the things he had ever used were auctioned (拍卖). The set of chess was also sold and resold several times at very high prices. Finally it was collected by the National Museum in France. When the staff members were cleaning the chessmen, they found the bottom of Black King could be twisted off (拧开). They opened it and, to their great surprise, in it there was a detailed map about how to escape from the island. It was a great pity that Napoleon had never discovered the secret, and thus he nulified (使......无用) his friend＇ s effort.
[点评]
文章的语言非常有变化。分词短语，从句及转接词的运用使文章条理清楚，紧凑连贯。读者从中了解了拿破仑最后的日子，不禁要问：假如象棋里的秘密被拿破仑发现了，历史是否要被改写?
[参考译文]
拿破仑与国际象棋
滑铁卢战役之后，拿破仑被流放到南大西洋上一个叫做海伦娜的孤岛上。他成为了终身囚犯。面对浩瀚的大海，他常想从岛上逃走，可那是不可能的，他对岛上的地形一无所知!
有一次，他的一位好朋友去看他。因为总是有人看着他们，所以他们只是回忆谈论旧日的时光。分手时，那位朋友拿山一副象牙和软玉做的象棋，对拿破仑说：“我把这个送给你。也许能用得上。”拿破仑非常喜欢这副棋。他经常摆弄棋子，研究棋谱以打发他的余生。
他死后，生前所用过的部分东西都被拍卖。那副象棋也以不菲的价格几经买卖，最后被法国国家博物馆收藏。工作人员在清洗棋子的时候，发现黑国王的底部可以拧开。他们将它打开，大吃一惊，里面竟是一张逃离孤岛的详细地图。遗憾无比，拿破仑没能发现这个秘密，因此也就枉费了他朋友的良苦用心。