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According to legend, once every thousand years a host of sea monsters emerges from the depths to demand tribute from the floating city of Atlantartica.
传说，每过一千年，一群海怪就会从海底深处浮出水面，向漂浮之城阿特兰蒂卡索要上贡。
As the ruler of the city, you'd always dismissed the stories… until today, when 7 Leviathan Lords rose out of the roiling waters and surrounded your city.
作为全城的统治者，你对传说总是不以为然...直至今日，七条利维坦神兽从滚滚的海浪里翻涌而出包围了你的城邦。
Each commands 10 giant kraken, and each kraken is accompanied by 12 mermites.
每条神兽指挥着十只北海巨怪，每只北海巨怪带领着十二只魔蟹。
Your city's puny army is hopelessly outmatched. You think back to the legends.
而你城里的兵力远远不及。你回想起那个传说。
In the stories, the ruler of the city saved his people by feeding the creatures a ransom of pearls.
故事中提到，城邦的统治者为了拯救子民，向怪物们上贡珍珠作为赎金。
The pearls would be split equally between the leviathans lords.
珍珠必须能被所有利维坦神兽均分。
Each leviathan would then divide its share into 11 equal piles, keeping one, and giving the other 10 to their kraken commanders.
而每条神兽将它所得的分为十一等份，自留一份，其余的分给十只北海巨怪。
Each kraken would then divide its share into 13 equal piles, keeping one, and distributing the other twelve to their mermite minions.
每只北海巨怪又将它的所得分为十三等份，自留一份，其余的分给十二只蟹卒。
If any one of these divisions left an unequal pile or leftover pearl, the monsters would pull everyone to the bottom of the sea.
若是任意一次分配不能被均分或最后珍珠有剩余，海怪们就会将整个城邦拖入海底。
Such was the fate of your fabled sister city.
传说中你的邻城就惨遭其毒手。
You rush to the ancient treasure room and find five chests, each containing a precisely counted number of pearls prepared by your ancestors for exactly this purpose.
你赶紧跑去藏宝阁，找到了五只大宝箱，每个箱子里装有特定数额的珍珠，这正是祖先们为今天准备的。
Each of the chests bears a number telling how many pearls it contains.
每个藏宝箱的铭牌上都刻着数字，代表所装的珍珠数量。
Unfortunately, the symbols they used to write digits 1,000 years ago have changed with time, and you don't know how to read the ancient numbers.
但不巧的是，祖先的数字是一千年前的古文字，如今时过境迁，而你不认得这些古老的数字。
With hundreds of thousands of pearls in each chest, there's no time to recount.
箱子里的珍珠成百上千，根本没有再次清点的时间。
One of these chests will save your city and the rest will lead to its certain doom. Which do you choose?
它们其中一只将会拯救你的城邦，而其余的则无力回天。你要如何选择呢？
There isn't enough information to decode the ancient Atlantartican numeral system.
虽然没有足够的信息去揭秘古阿特兰蒂卡的计数系统。
But all hope is not lost, because there's another piece of information those symbols contain: patterns.
但还是有一线希望，因为那些符号包含着另一类信息：规律。
If we can find a matching pattern in arabic numerals, we can still pick the right chest.
如果我们能找到相对应阿拉伯数字的规律，就能选出正确的箱子。
Let's take stock of what we know. A quantity of pearls that can appease the sea monsters must be divisible by 7, 11, and 13.
我们先来总结一下已知的信息。能平息海怪的珍珠数量必须能被7、11和13整除。
Rather than trying out numbers at random, let's examine ones that have this property and see if there are any patterns that unite them.
与其随机地试不同的数字，不如来研究一下这些数字的特性，并找到它们共有的模式。
Being divisible by 7, 11, and 13 means that our number must be a multiple of 7, 11, and 13.
能被7、11、和13整除，说明这个数字必须同时是7、11、和13的倍数。
Those three numbers are all prime, so multiplying them together will give us their least common multiple: 1001.
这三个数字均为质数，所以将它们相乘就得到了最小公倍数：1001。
That's a useful starting place because we now know that any viable offering to the sea monsters must be a multiple of 1001.
这个信息非常重要，现在我们知道任何一个能满足海怪们要求的数字必须是1001的倍数。
Let's try multiplying it by a three digit number, just to get a feel for what we might get.
让我们来试一试用它乘以一个三位数，看看能得到怎样的结果。
If we try 861 times 1001, we get 861,861, and we see something similar with other examples. It's a peculiar pattern.
用861乘以1001，我们得到了861861，我们找到了所有数组共有的规律。它们都有一个特定模式。
Why would multiplying a three-digit number by 1001 end up giving you two copies of that number, written one after the other?
为什么用任意一个三位数乘以1001，得到的结果从左到右读就是该三位数重复了两次？
Breaking down the multiplication problem can give us the answer. 1001 times any number x is equal to 1000x + x.
分解这个乘式就能找到答案。1001乘以未知数X等于1000X+X。
For example, 725 times 1000 is 725,000, and 725 x 1 is 725. So 725 x 1001 will be the sum of those two numbers: 725,725.
例如，725乘1000是725000，725乘1是725，所以，725乘1001就是两个数字总和：725725。
And there's nothing special about 725. Pick any three-digit number, and your final product will have that many thousands, plus one more.
我们可以把725换成任意一个三位数。随机选择一个三位数，你得到的结果将会是它的一千倍与它的一倍的和。
Even though you don't know how to read the numbers on the chests, you can read which pattern of digits represents a number divisible by 1001.
因此，即使你看不懂宝箱上的古数字，你仍然能找出符合1001整除规律的那一组。
As with many problems, trying concrete examples can give you an intuition for behavior that may at first look abstract and mysterious.
许多问题是同一个道理，面对抽象而神秘的表象时，套入一个具体的例子，能帮助我们洞察事物背后的规律。
The monsters accept your ransom and swim back down to the depths for another thousand years.
最后，海怪们接受了赎金，潜回了海底深处，等待下一个千年轮回。
With the proper planning, that should give you plenty of time to prepare for their inevitable return.
经过周全地计划，你将会有充裕的准备时间迎接海怪们下一次不可避免的回归。
