16. Obviously, there would be no point in investing in a computer if you had to check all its answers, but people should also rely on their own internal computers and check the machine when they have the feeling that something has gone wrong.
顯然,如果你不得不檢查計算機提供的所有答案的話,對它投資就沒有任何意義了。但是當人們覺的計算機確實出了一些問題的時候,應該靠自己內部的“計算機”來檢查機器。
17. Certainly Newton considered some theoretical aspects of it in his writings, but he was reluctant to go to sea to further his work.
當然牛頓在他的作品中寫到了一些理論方面的東西,但他不愿進行更加深刻的研究。
18. For most people the sea was remote, and with the exception of early intercontinental travellers or others who earned a living from the sea, there was little reason to ask many questions about it , let alone to ask what lay beneath the surface.
除了一些洲際旅行者和以大海為生的人,對于大多數人來說,大海是遙遠的,沒有什么必要提出太多問題,更別說思考大海海底的東西了。
19. The first time that the question “ What is at the bottom of the oceans?” had to be answered with any commercial consequence was when the laying of a telegraph cable from Europe to America was proposed.
當鋪設一條從歐洲到美洲的海底電報光纜的時候,出于商業動機,人們第一次不得不回答這個問題“海底是什么東西”。
20. At the early attempts, the cable failed and when it was taken out for repairs it was found to be covered in living growths, a fact which defied contemporary scientific opinion that there was no life in the deeper parts of the sea.
在早期的嘗試中,光纜鋪設失敗,不得不取出來維修。這時人們發現上面覆蓋有生物,這推翻了當時科學界認為深海沒有生命的理論。