纪录片《为何无法预测地震》 第7期:地震预测根本没戏

Our guess was basically, what you'd call...

我们的预测基本上 怎么说呢...

um, ambitious¹ or optimistic.

太大胆或者太乐观了

It wasn't until September 28th 2004

直到2004年9月28日

that the earthquake finally struck,

地震终于来袭了

and when it came,

而当它来临时

it wasn't what the scientists were hoping for.

并不像科学家所希望的那样

It was like the fault was quiet quiet quiet

断层一直悄无声息

and then it broke,

然后突然断裂了

and it was sort of, it was a fairly negative result.

可以说是一个相当令人失望的结果

You know, we were sort of waiting to catch that precursor²

我们一直在等待时机想利用设备

with all these instruments, and nothing happened.

捕获前兆迹象 但却什么都没有发生

Instead of finding signals that might predict an earthquake,

没有找到能够预测地震的信号

all that the Parkfield experiment seemed to prove

相反 所有帕克菲尔德实验结果似乎都

was that these natural disasters

证明了这种自然灾害

were far more complex than anyone had ever imagined.

超乎想象地复杂

You know it was sort of taken as a negative result

实验结果被认为是失败的

and some people were saying

有人开始说

"Time to put the nail in the coffin³.

可以盖棺论定了

"Earthquake prediction is dead. "

地震预测根本没戏

And I think that's a bit extreme.

我认为这样说有些极端

1 ambitious   

adj.有雄心的，劲头十足的，有野心的

参考例句：

• One may be poor but never ceases to be ambitious.人穷志不穷。
• He is an ambitious young man full of enthusiasm and vitality.他是个充满热情与活力的有远大抱负的青年。

2 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

3 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。