Well now, before we go any further-- in your Herodotus readings and elsewhere, you will come across many a story in which an oracle is consulted and gives an answer.

现在,在我们深入这个问题之前,当你们阅读希罗多德或其他作品时,里面有大量的故事,都跟某些请示神谕,寻求答案有关

耶鲁公开课 - 古希腊历史简介课程节选

Because there the god Apollo had established an oracle.

因为太阳神阿波罗的旨意,人们建立了神示所

耶鲁公开课 - 古希腊历史简介课程节选

Second thing we've got to worry about is, what's a basic step? All right, if I bury a whole lot of computation inside of something, I can say, wow, this program, you know, runs in one step. Unfortunately, that one step calls the Oracle at Delphi and gets an answer back. Maybe not quite what you want.

我们需要担心的第二件事情就是，什么该作为一个基本的步骤呢？,如果我把一大堆的计算过程放到里面，我可以说，噢，这个程序你知道的，一步就完成了，不幸的是,这一步可能要靠预言家才能得到答案,这可能跟你想要的结果不太相同吧。

麻省理工公开课 - 计算机科学及编程导论课程节选

Now, ask yourself this, especially if you're talking about Greeks, are they going to keep shelling out money for an oracle that gives them answers that turn out to be wrong? No.

现在想想这个,尤其说到古希腊人,为了得到神谕,他们会不停地破费,而这些神谕最后还是错的吗,当然不会

耶鲁公开课 - 古希腊历史简介课程节选