科学简史
Science is an ongoing search for truth-- a perpetucal struggle to discover how the universe works that goes back to the earliest civilization.
1. perpetual
ADJ不间断的;不变的;持续的;长久的A perpetual feeling, state, or quality is one that never ends or changes/ADJ连续不断的;无尽无休的;没完没了的A perpetual act, situation, or state is one that happens again and again and so seems never to end.
eg.He is on a perpetual search for truth. 他始终在寻求真理。
2. driven by...受...驱使
eg.driven by human curiosity 受人类好奇心的驱使
3. reasoning,observation and experiment 推理,观察和实验——理论提出的必不可少的几个过程
Scientific method requires scientists to make observations, form a theory to explain what is going on, and then carry out an experiment to see wheather the theory works.If it seems to be true, then the results may be sent out for peer review(同行审查), in which people working in the same or similar field are invited to pick holes in the argument, and so falsify the theory, or to repeat the experiment to make sure that the results are correct.
4. it is as though... 就像。。。
5. artillery 炮兵部队;炮,大炮;炮术;
6. all the more adv.愈加; 格外; 更加; 益;
eg.1 I admired her all the more for allowing them to ridicule her and never striking back.她能听任他们嘲笑却从不还击,这让我更加敬佩她。
eg.2 All the more technically advanced countries put a high value on science.所有技术上较先进的国家都高度重视科学。
7. four bodily humours 平衡论
四种人格sanguine 乐观的 choleric 暴躁的 melancholy 忧郁的 phlegmatic 冷淡的,粘液质的
8. in some measure 多少,稍稍,在某种程度上(to some degree)
eg. Power is in some measure an act of will.权利在某中程度上是意志的表现。
9.to this day 直到今天,至今;迄今;迄今为止
10. ground-breaking 开拓性的,独创的 leap-frogging 跨越式的
11. corpse 死尸,尸体
12. exquisite 精致的;细腻的;优美的;剧烈的
13. discredit/overturn/disprove/quash/falsify a theory 推翻某理论=make a theory crash down
shake +theory ,end the idea of ...动摇、终结了。。。理论
14. strata 地层
15. at the turn of the 20th century 第二十世纪之交
16. harbour v. 包含,聚藏
eg. harbour life 孕育生命
17. daunting 令人畏惧的;使人气馁的;令人怯步的 ~task 艰巨的任务
18. in prospect 可以指望,即将出现
19. move from a hope into a reality 从理想变为现实
20. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.现实只是一抹幻影,尽管它从不消散。
albeit conj. 虽然,即使
anne讲解
1. go back to 追溯至 画面感强,延续性
date back to:给物品定年代,有确切的日期
commenced:只讲开头,不知道是不是延续到今天
go back to:画面感强,从过去延续到现在 We go way back.我们认识很久了
2.wirte widely on: widely用的传神, 写的面很广
3.A has twice the weight of another. A的质量是另一个的两倍
=A is twice as heavy as another thing.
4. pick holes in the argument 找论述中的错误
5. in orbit 无冠词,在轨道中
in shape 身材不走样
6. bounce back off the paper-thin foil 从。。。弹回来
7. one experiment that fails may bring an entire theory crashing down 形象,哪怕只有一个实验结果不对也会使整个理论破灭
8. learn 学会
learn of 听说
9. form the basis/ lay the fundation 奠定了基础
科学简史
The biggest impression this article left me is how charming plain English can be. The words used may be as simple as what we have learnt in middle or even primary school, yet this doesn't make the passage any less vivid. In contrast, simple though the word may be, it usually turns out to be more powerful(go back to,write widely on,pick holes in etc.)
Westerners tend to have strong sense of logic as we can see from the conjections and the structure of the passage.Although I am a student of engineering, I am weak in logic,making it hard for me to clarify the structure of the passage sometimes. Mind mapping is a good way I learnt from Annie to find out the inner logic of the passage.