1.While this law is not without humor by today's standards, it clearly shows an awareness of the problem in times gone by.

2.the motives for suicide can be categorized into areas such as failure, wrath（暴怒）, the need for attention, stress, and so on.

3.To make the problem even more involved, people will often camouflage（掩盖）their true feelings, thus causing their friends to disregard problems that should be viewed as serious.

4.Henry's goal was to design and equip vessels that would be capable of making long ocean voyages without having to hug the shore.

5.Coal was one of the first minerals to be mined on a big scale, to provide fuel for heating homes.

答案：

1.尽管这个法律按当今的标准来看是很滑稽的，但它却表明很久以前人们就已经估计到这一点了。

2.人们自杀的原因分类很多，例如失败，暴怒，需要关注，压力等。

3.这个问题更为棘手的是，自杀的人往往掩盖自己的真实情感，结果使周围的朋友也没有把需要严肃对待的问题当回事儿。

4.亨利王子的目标是要使设计和装备的轮船能进行长途的航行，而不需要经常靠岸。

5.煤炭是人们更早大规模开采的矿物质之一，其目的是为供暖提供原料。