I think for the moment it should be plain to you that this is a good way of understanding what the difference between a useful preconception and a useless preconception brought to bear on an interpretative act might consist in.

我想大家现在都能够,从这个例子中明白,解读中有益先见,和无益先见,之间的区别了。

耶鲁公开课 - 文学理论导论课程节选

If you just scramble a sentence, it's pretty useless because the recipients are never going to be able to reverse the process.

如果你只是加密一个句子，这是毫无用处的,因为收件人没法将这个句子,反加密出来。

哈佛公开课 - 计算机科学课程节选

But the problem is if you use the word "Language" impossibly, incredibly broadly, then from a scientific point of view it becomes useless to ask interesting questions about it.

但问题是,如果你无限宽泛地使用"语言"一词,那么从科学的角度来看,探究语言就变得毫无意义了

耶鲁公开课 - 心理学导论课程节选

In addition Aristotle tells us such a person will possess beautiful but useless things suggesting the possession not only of wealth but of a kind of cultivated aesthetic sense.

此外，亚里士多德告诉我们,这类的人还将会拥有一些美丽,但无用的东西,不只拥有财富,还有一种经教化的美感。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

It's not a cyclical and useless definition.

这不是一个循环式的,没有意义的定义

耶鲁公开课 - 基础物理课程节选

Now as an aside, I'll admit this is a completely useless program, much like the first couple of ones we did because why would you write a program just to solve this?

说点题外话，我承认这是一个完全无用的程序，跟我们之前写的两个程序一样,我们为什么需要写个程序来解决这个数学运算呢？

哈佛公开课 - 计算机科学课程节选

I am at the point of believing," he says, "that my labor will be as useless as the commonwealth of Plato," he says in a moment of sort of uncharacteristic despair, "will be as useless as the commonwealth of Plato."

我就快相信，自己所做的这一切都将是无用功,就像柏拉图所建立的理想国一样,他曾异常绝望地这样说，就像柏拉图的理想国一样毫无意义“

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选