In some [of the cups] there was no evidence whatever that anything had been planted; in others, wilted brown stalks gave testimony to some inscrutable depredation.

有些（杯中）找不到种植过任何东西的痕迹；其余杯中都有的褐色茎秆显示曾经生过某种令人费解的为。

Yet today it seems that this beautiful machine, Earth's ecosystem, could well be stalling as a result of the depredations done to it by our own species.

然而今天，这个美丽的机器——地球的生态系统，似乎很可能因为我们人类对它的而停止运转。