原文视听

It's still early days for QuakeFinder,
震动探测仪还处于早期阶段
but it may have already had a minor breakthrough.
但它也许已取得零的突破
In October 2007,
07年10月
the little white boxes picked up electromagnetic signals
在阿蓝岩发生地震前不久 这些仪器
shortly before an earthquake struck Alum Rock.
接收到该地区的电磁信号
A small community south of San Francisco.
那是一个位于旧金山南部的小镇
This is the, er, the actual data from the,
如果你感兴趣的话
er, Alum Rock earthquake, if you're interested in that,
这些都是阿蓝岩地震的历史数据
these are the days prior to the earthquake,
从这里我们可以看到在地震之前
so the, er, magnetic pulsations that we see are very,
磁脉动的变化不大
very few and far between,
波动很小
this large one here is a calibration signal
这个大幅度波动是我们手动
that we generated ourselves
生成的校准信号
just to make sure everything was working ok.
是为了检测仪器是否正常运作
About two weeks before the earthquake,
大概在地震前两周
we started to get these very large pulsations,
我们监测到振幅很大的磁脉动
the next few days, it got busier and busier,
在接下来的几天 波动渐趋频密
it spread out over more of the day,
每天的波动分布更为频繁
until finally, right there, the earthquake hit.
直到地震发生
But was there a moment, Tom, when this data was, you know,
汤姆 当来自阿蓝岩的数据不断增多
more and more data's coming in from Alum Rock,
你是否曾有一刻想到
were you thinking, "Crikey, this must be an earthquake?"
"唉呀 这次准是地震"
I'll be honest with you, no.
坦白说 没有
Because we're still trying to discover what the pattern is,
因为我们仍致力于找出地震的模式
we're not quite sure how many days it should be there.
所以并不确定地震发生的时间
This was, we didn't know if it was a large earthquake
也就是说我们不知道将会发生
or a small earthquake, all we knew was that
多大规模的地震 我们只知道
it was only happening at that one station,
某一地区将会发生地震
not at any of the other stations.
而不是其他地区

重点解释

just to make sure everything was working ok.是为了检测仪器是否正常运作

make sure:弄明白； 设法确保

I'm going to make sure if I'm going to Macao.

我要拿定主意我是否去澳门。

I'll make sure of the time of the flight.

我要核实一下这班飞机的时间。

it spread out over more of the day,每天的波动分布更为频繁

spread out:传播开

The news of shipwreck soon spread out widely.

船只失事的消息很快就广泛地传开了。

The search party spread out over the moor.

搜索队在荒草地分散行动。

I'll be honest with you, no.坦白说,没有

be honest with:对 ... 说老实话

Above all, you should be honest with me right now.

最重要的是,你现在必须对我实话实说。

To be honest with you, I don't remember what he said.

跟你说实话，我不记得他说过什么了。