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___.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
bumps into flees to a start of surprise revealing his location keep their long-standing appointment
《相约萨马拉》讲的是这样一个故事：一位巴格达商人派仆人去买东西。仆人不巧在集市碰到了凶神恶煞的死神，于是急忙跑回商人那里借了匹马，飞奔到萨马拉城避难去了。 萨默赛特•毛姆版的这个关于命运的故事还有后续——死神说：“后来，商人来到集市，看到我站在人群中，于是他走过来对我说：‘你今天早上遇到我仆人的时候为什么要吓唬他呢？’‘我没有吓唬他’，我说，‘那只是惊讶罢了，我看见他在巴格达所以很惊讶，因为我本来跟他约好今晚萨马拉见面。’” 本拉登之死的一些细节让我想起了这个故事：他的藏身之所虽奢华，却没有电话和互联网。这样做很可能是为了尽可能不让外界发现他的行踪吧。不过，正是因为他的住所太缺乏现代设备，反倒成为重点目标，让政府终于得偿所愿。