海底兩萬里 第18期 第2章 正與反(7)
All right then! Imagine this weapon to be ten times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful, launch it at a speed of twenty miles per hour, multiply its mass times its velocity1, and you get just the collision we need to cause the specified catastrophe.
好吧!現在假定那武器還要厲害十倍，那動物的力量還要大十倍，如果它的前進速度是每小時二十英里，那么拿它的體重去乘它的速度平方，就能求出憧壞斯各脫亞號的那股沖擊力。
So, until information becomes more abundant, I plump for a sea unicorn of colossaldimensions,
因此，在還沒有得到更多的材料之前，我認為這是一只海麒麟，這只海麒麟身軀非常巨大，
no longer armed with a mere lance but with an actual spur, like ironclad frigates7 or those warships called 'rams,' whose mass and motor power it would possesssimultaneously.
身上的武裝不是劍戟，而是真正的沖角，像鐵甲船或戰(zhàn)艦上所裝有的那樣，它同時又具備有戰(zhàn)艦的重量和動力。
This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away--unless it's something elseentirely, which, despite everything that has been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!
這樣便說明了這種神秘不可解的現象?；蛘呦喾吹?，不管人們所見到的、所感到的是怎樣，實際上什么都不是;那也是可能的。
These last words were cowardly of me; but as far as I could, I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously.
最后幾句話只能說明我沒有主見，看問題搖擺不定;這是為了在一定程度上保全我教授的身份，同時不愿意讓美國人笑話，因為美國人笑起來，是笑得很厲害的。
I had left myself a loophole. Yet deep down, I had accepted the existence of the monster.
我于是自下這一條退路。其實我是承認這個怪物的存在的。
