A useful and productive video game?
有用兼具生產力的電玩遊戲？
‧ 副標題單字
1) productive (a.) 有生產力的
2) video game (phr.) 電動遊戲
1.
Most people 1)assume that playing video games is a waste of time. And in many cases, it probably is. However, a researcher at M.I.T. has found an interesting exception to this rule in the popular game Tetris. It seems that if a player finds the perfect way to play Tetris, he or she will have 2)solved one of the 3)trickiest problems in 4)mathematics.
大部分的人認為打電玩是浪費時間，在許多情況下，可能真是這樣。不過，一位麻省理工學院的研究員發現，俄羅斯方塊這個流行的電玩遊戲是個有趣的例外。看起來似乎是，如果有玩家可以找出玩俄羅斯方塊的最佳方法，那他或她就等於解開了數學上一個最棘手的難題。
1) assume (v.) 以為，假設
2) solve (v.) 解決，解答
3) tricky (a.) 困難的，易出錯的
4) mathematics (n.) 數學
2.
In the 1800s an Irish mathematician 1)came up with the "Traveling 2)Salesman Problem," or TSP. It goes like this: given 3)a number of cities, and the distance between any two, find the shortest path that goes to every city and returns to the starting point. Got it?
一八○○年代，一位愛爾蘭數學家提出了「旅行推銷員問題」，簡稱 TSP。問題是這樣的：假設有若干城市，並且已知任何兩個城巿之間的距離，請找出一條通往每個城市並且返回出發點的最短路徑。懂了嗎？
1) come up with (phr.) 想出，提出
2) salesman (n.) 銷售員
3) a number of (phr.) 若干……
3.
The problem is easy if you're only considering a small number of cities, like 4 or 5. However, a TSP with 20 cities would have 2,432,902,008,176,640,000 possible answers! And the only way to prove that one answer is better than the rest is to show all the possible 1)solutions. No 2)satisfactory mathematical solution 3)currently 4)exists.
如果只是考慮少數幾個城市，好比四個或五個，那麼問題很容易解決。但是，一則有二十個城市的 TSP 會有 2,432,902,008,176,640,000 個可能的答案！而且，要想證明某個答案比別的答案都好，唯一的方法就是算出所有可能的解法。目前還沒有令人滿意的數學解法存在。
1) solution (n.) 解決（方案）
2) satisfactory (a.) 令人滿意的
3) currently (adv.) 目前
4) exist (v.) 存在
4.
And this brings us back to Tetris. Tetris has been found to be the same kind of problem as the TSP. A perfect 1)formula for solving this kind of problem would be very useful in the real world. 2)Scheduling 3)airlines, 4)delivering mail, and 5)packing 6)containers onto ships could all be done more 7)efficiently to save time and money. If you can come up with a working formula to 8)beat Tetris, you'll be doing 9)mankind a great service while making lots of money for yourself!
這又要談到俄羅斯方塊了。俄羅斯方塊被認為與 TSP 是同類的問題。解決此類問題的完美公式在現實世界中會非常有用。安排航空公司航線、遞送郵件與貨櫃裝船等工作都可以用更有效率的方式處理，達到省錢省時的目的。如果你可以找出可行的公式打敗俄羅斯方塊，對人類將是一大貢獻，而且你也可以賺很多的錢！
1) formula (n.) 公式
2) schedule (v.) 安排時間
3) airline (n.) 航線，航班
4) deliver (v.) 投遞，運送
5) pack (v.) 將……擠（塞，裝）入
6) container (n.) 貨櫃
7) efficiently (adv.) 有效率地
8) beat (v.) 打敗，勝過
9) mankind (n.) 人類
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