 Seismology [sʌɪzˈmɒlədʒi] 地震学  Their answer is an unconditional “no”.他们的答案是斩钉截铁的“不能”。Unconditional无条件的，此处灵活翻译为斩钉截铁的  No scientist has ever predicted a big quake, nor do they know how such a prediction might be made. 从未有科学家成功预测过一场大地震，而且他们也不知道如何能做出这样的预测。熟读这个句型，写作时熟练运用。  But that may soon cease to be true.但事情可能很快会有变化。此处是根据文意灵活翻译。■ Cease to be停止成为、不再是；e.g. When it is looked upon as vulgar , it will cease to be popular. 当它被人认为庸俗的时候，它便不会再流行了。  It is nevertheless the case that…然而事实确实如此/但不可否认的是；■相当于it is a fact that…/it is true that…  Stick-slip 粘滑运动/粘滑现象  First, there is little movement on a fault as strain builds up. 开始时，应变在积累，断层上几乎没有活动。■fault断层；strain应变  Seismic activity地震活动  Slow-slip events, sometimes called silent earthquakes, are also caused by the movement of plates. 慢滑事件，有时被称为无声地震，也是由板块运动引起的。■plate板块；movement of plates板块运动  Geophysicist地质物理学家  Machine-learning techniques do indeed work with seismic events, and might thus be extended to include earthquakes if only there were a way to compensate for the lack of data. 机器学习技术确实适用于地震活动，因此只要找到方法来弥补数据上的不足，这项技术就可能被扩展到地震（研究领域）。学习句式！  If it all comes to naught, nothing will have been lost, for Dr Johnson’s work will certainly provide a better understanding of the physics of big earthquakes, and that is valuable in and of itself. 就算这一切化为泡影，也不会有任何损失，因为约翰逊的工作肯定能让人们更好地理解大地震的物理特性，这本身就很有价值。■come to naught化为泡影；in and of itself本身；■拓展：set… at naught无视、忽视相当于disregard；e.g. He set my advice at naught. / He disregarded my advice. 他无视我的忠告。All for naught徒劳的/白费的；e.g. Their work went all for naught. 他们的工作都白干了。 注: 外刊观点与本人无关，仅用于英语学习