Day1:词汇整理

1.perpetual

■1.continuing forever in the same way

•They lived in perpetual fear of being discovered and arrested.

■2.often repeated

•perpetual vandalism

[SYN]:permanent, eternal, perpetual, everlasting, endless

这些形容词均有“持久的，永久的”之意。

permanent 指总是处于相同的情况和地位，可长期持续下去，永久不变。

eternal 语体较庄重，侧重指永远存在，无始无终。

perpetual 语气最强，指保持永久不变，没有中断的行为，永无止境地持续下去。有时用于贬义，指令人厌烦之事。

everlasting 语气较庄重，有时可与eternal换用，侧重持续不尽，或指开始后一直进行下去。

endless 系日常用词，指无尽无休。

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2.assert

■ 1.to state firmly that something is true

• assert (that): The governor asserted that no more money would be available.

   1a. to speak or behave in a firm, confident way

    •She always manages to assert her point of view.

assert yourself (=to state your opinion firmly and confidently): Don’t be so shy – you need to learn to assert yourself.

■2. to claim that you have the right to do something or behave in a particular way

•This system discourages people from asserting their rights in court.

■3. if a fact, idea, or tendency asserts itself, it begins to influence someone or something

•After a while her old bad habits began to assert themselves.

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3.empirical:

based on real experience or scientific experiments rather than on theory

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4.compelling

■1. interesting or exciting enough to keep your attention completely

■2. able to persuade someone to do something or persuade them that something is true

•There was compelling evidence in her defence.

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5.phlogiston:

a hypothetical substance once believed to be present in all combustible(able to burn easily) materials and to be released during burning

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6. in some measure: to some extent

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7.apparatus

■1. the machines, tools, and equipment needed for doing something, especially something technical or scientific

•They were setting up the apparatus for the experiment.

■2. the people and organizations involved in some aspect of government

•changes within the administrative apparatus of the ruling party

■3. (medical )the organs responsible for the way a part of the body or mind works

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8....prediction rested on...

■rest on:to be based on something

•The theory rests on the assumption that there are enough jobs for everyone.

Noun frequently used with rest on

▪  argument, assumption, belief, foundation, idea, premise, principle, proposition

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9.gazer (Star-gazer)

■v. to look at someone or something for a long time, for example because they are attractive or interesting, or because you are thinking of something else

gaze at/​into/​toward/​upon/​up at: We gazed in wonder at the scene before us.

■n. someone’s way of looking at someone or something

•As he spoke, his gaze remained fixed on the letter in his hand.

hold someone’s gaze (=continue looking at someone who is looking at you): She looked away, unable to hold my gaze.

meet someone’s gaze (=look directly at someone who is looking at you): I tried to catch his eye, but he refused to meet my gaze.

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10.supernova:

an exploding star that produces an extremely bright light

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11.caliphate

■1. the position of a caliph

■2. the period of time when someone is a caliph

■3. an area ruled by a caliph

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12.ingenious

■1. an ingenious plan, piece of equipment etc uses new and clever ideas

•an ingenious device for opening bottles

■2. someone who is ingenious is good at inventing things and solving problems in new ways

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13.astrolable:

an ancient instrument used for estimating the altitude and predicting the position of celestial objects, such as the moon, other planets, and stars.

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14.dissection

Dissection is the process of separating something into pieces. Whether the dissection involves taking a poem apart line-by-line to learn its meaning or cutting open a frog to study its insides, in both cases you're pulling out the parts that make up a whole to better understand it.

Let's dissect, or take apart, this word for a moment. Dis- means "apart" and section means "to cut", which come together to form the definition of dissection: "to cut apart." When you cut something up into sections you're doing a dissection. The word is commonly used when talking about the process of cutting something apart for scientific purposes, it's also used to talk about taking apart an argument, a poem, or a plan.

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15.work out

■1. [transitive] to solve a problem by doing a calculation

•I was born in 1947: you work out my age.

  ■1a. to solve a problem by considering the fact

  ■1b. to deal with a problem in a satisfactory way

■2. [intransitive] to be successful, or to end in a particular way

•If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back here.

■3. [transitive] to find a satisfactory way of doing something

An international peace plan has been worked out.

■4. [intransitive] to add up to a particular amount

■5. [intransitive] to do physical exercise as a way of keeping fit

•He works out at the local gym every day.

■6. [transitive] to understand someone or something

•I can’t work him out.

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16.quash

■1. to use force or violence to stop the political action taken by a group of people

•The army would be brought in swiftly to quash any rebellion.

2. to stop something from continuing

■They acted quickly to the quash rumours.

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17.fold-out：a fold-out table, bed, or page is kept folded in a smaller shape when you are not using it

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18.combustion：the process of burning

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19.discredit

■v.1. to harm someone’s reputation

•She claims there was a conspiracy to discredit her.

■2. to make people think that something is not true

•attempts to discredit evidence

■n.1. [uncountable] harm that is done to someone’s reputation

■2. [countable] someone or something that causes a loss of respect

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20.leap-frog:to get to a higher position or rank by going past sb else or by missing out some stages

•And as the economic emergence continues, it will benefit more and more from new technologies that will allow it to leapfrog communication and infrastructure hurdles.

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21.harbour

■n.1.an area of water near the land where it is safe for boats to stay. A port is a harbour where passengers and goods can be taken on and off

■2.used for referring to a place or situation that provides safety or protection

■v.1. to keep a particular thought or feeling in your mind for a long time

•He still harboured doubts about her real intentions.

■2. to protect someone who has done something wrong

•They accused several countries of harbouring terrorists.

■3. if a person harbours an illness or infection, they have it

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Day2:Annie词汇讲评

1.Science is an ongoing search for truth——a perpetual struggle to discover how the Universe works that goes back to the earliest civilizations.

1)struggle与date back，commence对比：

   struggle此处可以翻译为追溯到...（keep a long journey all the way till now till here）；date back:一般是为文物定年代；commence只是指开始

2）go back: We go way back.我们认识很久了。

2.Aristotle,wrote widely on scientific subjects...涉及面很广

3.It has twice the weight of another thing = ...twice as heavy as another thing一样东西是另一个东西的两倍重

4.pick holes in the argument：（也可以用tear apart）生动形象去描述动作

5.in orbit:注意此处不需要有冠词

联想：out of shape身材走样；He is trying to come back in shape.恢复身材

6.bounce back off the paper-thin foil

联想：He stepped off of the train.

7.Every experiment that gives predicted answers is supporting evidence, but one experiment that fails may bring an entire theory crashing down.

8.Those could not have been found without the vacuum pump...对过去的事情做假设

9.in the works:sth is being produced

10.This marked the birth of chemistry as a science, as distinct from the mystical alchemy from which it arose. as:在这个意义上来说

思维导图

 

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Day 3:总结

第一天读的时候就顾着回想高中时的物理知识了，那些似曾相识的名词以及科学家的名字勾起了诸多回忆。于是，一遍下来，花费了好久的时间。第二天，在扫除了单词的障碍并聆听了安妮的分析后，再次阅读文章，感觉一切变得清晰可看，逻辑导图似乎是水到渠成。第三天，再次阅读，这一次能够完整地感受到作者希望传达到读者的科学方法和科学的发展进程。

在逻辑上，文章的脉络非常清晰，小标题的加入使得读者能够很好地把握文章的进程。因为科学的发展有着天然的时间轴，这恰好也能够作为思维导图中的逻辑线。文章作为科普读物，其易读性与知识性是达到一种完美的契合的。自己在写作的时候是否能够像作者那样根据写作目的去选词与谋篇布局呢？想来还有很长的一段路要走。

小的时候理想是成为一名科学家，目前看来，只能作为一个梦想了。虽然不能成为那样的创造者，但是处在这个被科学所不断改造的世界中，无时无刻都感受着科学的巨大魅力。现在我们所认为理所因当的，在当它未曾被提出并论证时，可能还被视作一种无稽之谈。相反，如今我们所称的理论也许在若干年后会被新的实验所推翻，又将有新的理论诞生。科学正是在这样的高歌猛进中闪耀它的光辉，被光辉所照耀的我们，已然是无比幸福的。