Because it says, your program will still give you a value, but it may not be what you intended, and you can't always tell, and that may propagate it's way down through a whole bunch of other computations before it causes some catastrophic failure.

因为这意味着，你的程序依然会返回一个值，但是这个值可能不是你想要的，你可能还分辨不出来，而且这种情况会传播,结果会沿着正果计算过程传播下去,直到产生一个灾难性的错误。

麻省理工公开课 - 计算机科学及编程导论课程节选

That is what makes metal so fascinating, because metallic bonding allows the atoms to glide over one another without resulting in catastrophic failure.

所以这就使得金属具有了特别的性质，因为金属键使得原子可以,在彼此之间流动,而不会千万灾难性的后果。

麻省理工公开课 - 固态化学导论课程节选

Smoking is a key example, it took America decades to mobilize after the catastrophic consequences smoking were clear, but when it did, American tobacco companies exploited overseas markets, particularly in the developing world.

吸烟就是一个重要的例子,美国人在吸烟的灾难性后果,已经明确的几十年之后,才采取行动,但在行动时,美国烟草公司已经开拓了海外疆土,尤其在发展中国家

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选