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So impressive was this invention, so difficult was it to exceed this speed limit, that nearly 3,500 years later, when the first mail coach began operating in England in 1784, it averaged a mere ten mph. The first steam locomotive, introduced in 1825, could have a top speed of only thirteen mph and the great sailing ships of the time labored along at less than half thatspeed. It was probably not until the 1880's that man, with the help of a more advanced steamlocomotive, managed to reach a speed of one hundred mph. It took the human race millions of years to attain that record.
雙輪馬拉戰車是一項非常突出的發明，要超過它的最高速度實在困難。過了將近3千5百年，到了公元1784年，第一輛郵車在英國運行，其時速平均只有10英里。1825年問世的第一輛蒸汽機車，最高時速僅為13英里，而當時的大帆船僅以不到火車一半的速度在海上慢慢顛簸。大概直到19世紀80年代，人類借助一種更為先進的蒸汽機車，才達到每小時100英里的速度。達到這一記錄，人類花了數百萬年的時間。
It took only fifty-eight years, however, to go four times that fast, so that by 1938 men in airplanes were traveling at better than 400 mph. It took a mere twenty-year flick of time to double the limit again. And by the 1960's rocket plants approached speeds of 4,000 mph, and men in space capsules were circling the earth at 18,000 mph.
然而，此后只用58年，就把這一速度提高到原先的4倍。到1938年，人們乘坐飛機旅行，時速超過400英里。后來，只用了20年瞬息功夫，這個速度就又翻了一番。到了20世紀60年代，火箭飛機的時速接近4千英里，而人們乘坐宇宙飛船則以1萬8千英里的時速繞地球運行。
