TED演讲:哲学早餐俱乐部(5)

 　　Herschel helped by making tidal observations off the coast of South Africa, 赫歇尔帮助在南非海岸建立了潮汐观察站，

　　and, as he complained to Whewell,  有一次，他向胡威立抱怨，

　　he was knocked off the docks during a violent high tide for his trouble.  他有一次因为失误而在码头被一个大浪冲倒了。

　　The four men really helped each other in every way.  这四个人真的做到了相互帮助。

　　They also relentlessly¹ lobbied the British government for the money to build Babbage's engines 他们不知疲倦的游说英国政府拨款建造巴贝奇的差分机

　　because they believed these engines would have a huge practical impact on society. 因为他们相信这些引擎能够对社会产生非常大的积极影响。

　　In the days before pocket calculators, the numbers that most professionals needed 在没有电子计算器的年代，很多行业需要用到数据

　　bankers, insurance agents, ship captains, engineers, were to be found in lookup books like this, filled with tables of figures. 银行家、保险代理人、船长、工程师都只能通过这样的大部头书中查找，书里面是预先计算好的各种数字表格。

　　These tables were calculated using a fixed² procedure over and over 这些表格都是由一些临时工--被称作“人工计算机”--

　　by part-time workers known as -- and this is amazing -- computers,  依据固定的计算过程一遍一遍算出来的，

　　but these calculations were really difficult.  但是这些计算真的很复杂。

　　I mean, this nautical⁴ almanac published the lunar differences for every month of the year. 例如这份航海历就计算了一年中每个月份的月相差异。

　　Each month required 1,365 calculations, so these tables were filled with mistakes. 每个月都需要1365个计算结果，所以这些表格里面错误重重。

　　Babbage's difference engine was the first mechanical calculator devised to accurately⁵ compute³ any of these tables. 巴贝奇的差分机是第一个能够用来精确计算表格中任何结果的机器。

　　Two models of his engine were built in the last 20 years  二十年前，伦敦科学博物馆的

　　by a team from the Science Museum of London using his own plans. 一个团队根据他的图纸建造了两台差分机。

　　This is the one now at the Computer History Museum in California, and it calculates accurately. It actually works. 图中这个现在位于加州计算机历史博物馆，它现在仍可精确进行计算。它实际还是可以使用的。

1 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 compute   

v./n.计算，估计

参考例句：

• I compute my losses at 500 dollars.我估计我的损失有五百元。
• The losses caused by the floods were beyond compute.洪水造成的损失难以估量。

4 nautical   

adj.海上的，航海的，船员的

参考例句：

• A nautical mile is 1,852 meters.一海里等于1852米。
• It is 206 nautical miles from our present location.距离我们现在的位置有206海里。

5 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。