TED演讲:你能解开爱因斯坦之谜吗(3)

 　　Now that the only spot in the grid¹ without a cigar and a drink is in the fifth column,  现在只剩下一栋房子的主人还不知道喝什么饮料，抽什么雪茄，也就是第五栋房子，

　　that must be the home of the person in clue twelve. 这就肯定是线索十二里的人的家了。

　　And since this leaves only the second house without a drink, the tea-drinking Dane must live there. 只有第二栋房子的主人还不知道喝什么饮料，喝茶的丹麦人肯定住在这儿。

　　The fourth house is now the only one missing a nationality and a cigar brand,  第四栋房子是唯一一栋不知道国籍和雪茄牌子的房子了

　　so the Prince-smoking German from clue thirteen must live there. 所以，根据线索十三，抽Pinrce雪茄的德国人肯定住在这里。

　　Through elimination², you can conclude that the Brit smokes Pall³ Mall and the Swede lives in the fifth house,  通过排除法，你可以总结英国人抽Pall Mall，并且瑞典人住在第五栋房子里，

　　while clue six and clue two tell you that these two have a bird and a dog, respectively. 线索二和六告诉你这两个人分别养鸟和狗。

　　Clue ten tells you that the cat owner lives next to the Blend-smoking Dane, putting him in the first house. 线索十告诉你养猫的人是抽Blend的丹麦人的邻居也就是第一栋房子里。

　　Now with only one spot left on the grid, you know that the German in the green-walled house must be the culprit. 现在表格里只有一个空白位置，你就能知道绿墙房子里的德国人是罪魁祸首。

　　You and the police burst into the house, catching⁴ the thief fish-handed. 你和警察冲进屋内，抓住盗鱼的小偷。

　　While that explanation was straightforward⁵, solving puzzles like this often involves false starts and dead ends. 虽然这个解释简单明了，解开这样的谜题通常会开头不妙或者碰上死路。

　　Part of the trick is to use the process of elimination and lots of trial and error to hone in on the right pieces,  常用的技巧就是排除法和多次尝试去找到正确的方向，

　　and the more logic⁶ puzzles you solve,  解开的谜题越多，

　　the better your intuition will be for when and where there's enough information to make your deductions⁷. 你的直觉就会更加敏锐，你就知道如何使用已知信息推断。

　　And did young Einstein really write this puzzle? Probably not. 真的是年轻的爱因斯坦自己写下这个谜题吗？应该不是。

　　There's no evidence he did, and some of the brands mentioned are too recent. 没有证据指明是他写的，而且有些雪茄牌子是近代的。

　　But the logic here is not so different from what you'd use to solve equations with multiple variables,  但是这里使用的逻辑性和你解多元方程时的逻辑没有什么不同，

　　even those describing the nature of the universe. 甚至和描述宇宙中的自然现象是一样的。

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

3 pall   

v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕

参考例句：

• Already the allure of meals in restaurants had begun to pall.饭店里的饭菜已经不像以前那样诱人。
• I find his books begin to pall on me after a while.我发觉他的书读过一阵子就开始对我失去吸引力。

4 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

5 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

6 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

7 deductions   

扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演

参考例句：

• Many of the older officers trusted agents sightings more than cryptanalysts'deductions. 许多年纪比较大的军官往往相信特务的发现，而不怎么相信密码分析员的推断。
• You know how you rush at things,jump to conclusions without proper deductions. 你知道你处理问题是多么仓促，毫无合适的演绎就仓促下结论。