英语翻译

问题描述:

英语翻译
Even those who had little training in science might not have made their inventions if a ground-work had not been laid by scientists years before.
尽量字面翻译,这是个虚拟语态,我没有搞明白它的意思

就算那些对科学知之甚少的人也不大可能创造出自己的发明,如果没有前人打下的那些基础的话.
顺便说一句:我觉得这个句子的逻辑有问题呵呵