| 释义 |
what-if, a. and n.|ˈhwɒtɪf|
[An extended use of the phr. what if..?: see what A. I. 5 a.]
(That involves) speculation as to what might have been, had antecedent conditions been different; an instance of this.
1973Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1455/1 The whatif game, a futile exercise in hindsight, poses such unanswerable questions as whatif Romulus and Remus had fallen foul of a hostile..wolf? 1974J. Irving 158-Pound Marriage (1980) iii. 57 Joseph Stalin..was himself a figure surrounded by a horde of what if's. 1977New Yorker 29 Aug. 66/2 ‘The Eagle Has Landed’, one of the current unalarming terror films about what-if, the what-if being, in this case, what if the Germans had tried to capture Churchill? 1982Times 14 Jan. (Information Technology Suppl.) p. v/4 What-If Games. Computer software is available which allows users to change one variable in a set of data, and see how this affects all the other variables. 1984Computers in Teaching No. 1. 29 All of the models are theoretically realistic and allow the undergraduate student to pose the ‘What if..?’ kinds of question, which are so difficult to answer without recourse to simulation. |