来自《耶鲁大学开放课程：古希腊历史简介 第18集 第18集》
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because it happened so very often on the brinks of wars,这种事情经常发生在战争即将来临之时 -
when that's the issue that determines这会决定 -
what people will do and how they react.人们会做什么以及如何反应 -
If they don't think that taking a certain action--I'm sorry,如果他们认为不采取某种行动 抱歉 -
if they don't think the war is coming anyway,如果他们认为战争一定不会发生的话 -
they may very well decide to refrain from an action他们很可能会决定避免采取 -
that might provoke a war.任何可能挑起战争的行动 -
If, on the other hand,另一方面 如果 -
they think war is coming, they feel that他们认为战争会发生 他们感到 -
it's too dangerous not to make our capacity如果没有取胜的把握是一件很危险的事 -
to win the war more likely and so they may well take a step因此他们很可能会先下手为强 -
which makes the war more likely,使战争发生的可能性更大