节选自《时间简史》

Part One 词汇笔记

一、词汇层面

1.have a greater pull toward the earth  受更大的力拉向地球

2.work out all the laws that govern the universe by pure thought

3.bother to do 费心去做某事

4.let go of a ball 

release，as from one's grip

5.go along

6.the ball will be traveling down the slope 

roll down the slope

# The wind travels down the streets between tall buidlings in the center of the city.冷风在市中心高楼建筑之间的街道呼啸而过。

7.fall at the same rate

8.小词

indeed 

in truth (often tends to intensify)

# they said the car would break down and indeed it did

比较

indeed 肯定或证实对方所说的话，多承接前言；加强或肯定自己说话的语气

really 强调与事实或现实不相违背

truly 强调客观存在的真实性，没有任何虚假

actually 侧重于实际的事，而不是凭空想象或推测的事

evenly

(1) in a level and regular way  平滑地；有规律地；均匀地；相等地  # She was fast asleep, breathing evenly.她睡熟了，呼吸很平稳。

(2) in equal amounts or shares; in a balanced or impartial way 平均地；均等地  # evenly distributed/ divided 平均分配╱分开

9.be acted on by the same force （力）作用于

act on 对···起作用，按···行动 # We sometimes act on instinct.

10.as was previously thought

11.It also meant that···

12.A familiar exmaple is provided by a car. 由···提供，具有

13.And if,say,···  表示举例

to suggest or give sth as an example or a possibility 比方说；假设

# Let's take any writer, say (= for example) Dickens...我们随便举一个作家为例，比如说狄更斯…

# Say you lose your job: what would you do then?假设你把工作丢了：那你怎么办呢？

14.the gravitational attraction of a star is exactly one quarter that of a simialr star at half the distance  写作里尝试 that of 的用法 （that 指代the gravitational attraction）

同样复数用those of，如 the big difference between the ideas of Aristotle and those of Galileo and Newton ( those 指代 the ideas）

15. One could equally well say that··· 人们可以说

16.stub his toe on a large stone 脚尖踢到大石头上

17.Although our apparently commonsense notions work well when dealing with things like···，they don't work at all for things··· 体会这种紧密的衔接表达

18. with respect to 关于，至于，谈到

without respect to 不管，不顾

比较 with respect to VS regarding

with respect to比较正式，经常用于商务文稿中。在英式英语中，还可以说in respect of，后者更加正式。

相比而言，regarding的正式程度略微低些，口语中也经常说。当然，同源的词，更正式的用法还可以用with/in regard to，以及in this/that regard。

以上是基本理解。用法上还是观察体会出一点细微区别。如下例句：

With respect to your inquiry, I enclose an explanatory leaflet.

He refused to divulge any information regarding the man's whereabouts.

实际上在使用中，前者多用于With respect to sth, + 主句这样的结构。因为正式的文体中主句一般比较长，将该短语前置可以使句子比较平衡。通常可译为：关于某事物/就某方面而言，+主句内容。

而后者多用于中心词 + regarding sth这样的结构。语义不会太复杂，一般可译为关于...(sth)的...（中心词）。

想起群里讨论，整理如下：

to some degree/ to some extent  在一定程度上

degree 程度水平 extent 应用面积,范畴

to the extent    在某种程度上 # To the extent they'd seen them, they'd seen them in the movies.即使见到，也是在电影里。

to the degree （较少用）到···程度 # He knows the place to the degree that he can find any landmark with his eyes closed.

19. light's speed relative to the ether would remain fixed 

be relative to ···相对于···

20. revolutionize our ideas of space and time 变革了我们对时空的概念

21. put an end to···

二、背景知识层面

1.the leaning tower of Pisa

2.air resistance

3.lead weight  铅锤

4."Newton's first law"  Principia Mathematica,1687    “牛顿第一运动定律” 1687年出版的《数学原理》

"Newton's second law"   "牛顿第二定律"

laws of motion  运动定律  

law of gravity/ a law to describe the force of gravity 引力定律

accerlation 加速度   body 物体   mass 质量

is proportional to the mass of each body 与物体质量成比例

6.elliptical 椭圆的

7.radio waves 无线电波   light waves 光波

microwaves 微波  infrared 红外线 ultraviolet 紫外线  X rays  gamma rays

wavelength    波长

8. ether 以太

9. the equivalence of mass and energy  质量能量等价

10.a light of pulse 光脉冲

11.velocity 位置

12.cooridinate 坐标

13.Maxwell's equation 马克斯韦方程

14.future light cone 未来光锥

15.geodesics 测地线

16.light deflection 光偏折