Day 4-5: Words & Phrases

- act on

to take action as a result of advice, information, etc.

• Acting on information from a member of the public, the police raided the club.
  警察根據(jù)一個老百姓的報告,突然搜查了這家俱樂部。
• Why didn't you act on her suggestion?
  你為什么沒有按照她的建議去做呢？
• A patient will usually listen to the doctor's advice and act on it.
  患者通常都會遵照醫(yī)囑行事。

- spiral

to increase rapidly

• the spiralling cost of health care. 急劇上漲的保健費用
• Prices are spiralling out of control. 物價飛漲,失去控制蜂筹。

- refute

If you refute an argument, accusation, or theory, you prove that it is wrong or untrue.

• It was the kind of rumour that it is impossible to refute.
  這是那種讓人根本沒法批駁的謠言辰企。

- stub

~ your toe (against / on sth)
to hurt your toe by accident by hitting it against sth hard

- unambiguous

1. clear in meaning; that can only be understood in one way

• an unambiguous statement 明確的陳述

2. If something is unambiguous, there are no two ways to interpret it. If your girlfriend burns all your letters, texts you that she hates you, and moves a thousand miles away, the unambiguous message is that she’s finished with you.

- take to be

look on as or consider
Synonyms: esteem, look on, look upon, regard as, repute, think of

• It seemed like a nightmare where everything you take to be the rock-hard, solid basis for reality becomes unreal.

- moon

1. a natural satellite that moves around a planet other than the earth

• How many moons does Jupiter have? 木星有多少顆衞星摸航？

2. If you are mooning around, you are spending time doing nothing in particular, for example because you feel unhappy or lazy, or are worried about something.

• Lettie was mooning around all morning, doing nothing...
  萊蒂混了一上午，什么也沒干竭贩。
• My working days were spent mooning round his department, trying to sneak a chance encounter.
  上班時我在他的部門轉(zhuǎn)來轉(zhuǎn)去瑞躺，暗中尋找巧遇他的機會敷搪。

3. If you say that something happens once** in a blue moon**, you are emphasizing that it does not happen very often at all.

• Once in a blue moon you get some problems.
  極少會碰到麻煩。

- space

to arrange things so that they have regular spaces between them

• evenly spaced plants 間隔均勻的秧苗
• a row of closely spaced dots 一行排列緊密的小點
• Space the posts about a metre apart. 這些桿子之間要間隔一米左右幢哨。

- propagation

Propagation has two main uses, both having to do with multiplying something.
If it's used in relation to creatures, that means that the creatures are multiplying — having kids. A synonym for this is procreation.
We also propagate ideas. Use propagation for anything that multiplies and spreads through larger and larger numbers or spaces — from the propagation of weeds in your garden to the propagation of belief in the divinity of snowmen. In physics, propagation is wave movement.

- ripple

a small wave on the surface of a liquid, especially water in a lake, etc.

• The air was so still that there was hardly a ripple on the pond's surface.
  空氣靜止不動,池塘的水面上幾乎看不到波紋购啄。

- crest

A crest is a showy tuft of feathers on the head of a bird. It's easy to identify a male cardinal by its bright red color and the tufted crest on its head.
Something that resembles such a feature can also be called a crest, such as a plume on an old-fashioned helmet. The top or highest part of something is also a crest, like the crest of a hill or the crest of a wave. As a verb, crest means "to reach the top" like when you crest a mountain.

- contract

When you and someone else have agreed on something and that agreement is both binding and enforceable by law, you have a contract. When you rent an apartment, you and your future landlord sign a rental contract.
You can also use the word in this sense as a verb meaning "to hire." Wouldn't you like to contract someone to clean your room for you?
In other verbal uses of contract, place the accent on the second syllable — kun-TRAKT. If you contract a disease, you catch it, but only use this if it's something serious. You catch a cold, but contract malaria.
Contract also means "shrink." When the economy contracts, consumers stop buying things, and people lose their jobs, and if you freeze water, it contracts too.

- hitherto

Use the adverb hitherto when you're describing a state or circumstance that existed up until now. If you find a hitherto undiscovered hidden tunnel in your cellar, you're the first to discover it.

- credit

1. If you get the credit for something good, people praise you because you are responsible for it, or are thought to be responsible for it.

• We don't mind who gets the credit so long as we don't get the blame...
  誰受到表揚無所謂，只要我們不挨批就好嘱么。
• It would be wrong for us to take all the credit...
  如果我們把所有功勞都攬到自己身上，那就不對了顽悼。
• Some of the credit for her relaxed manner must go to Andy.
  她會如此放松曼振，一部分應(yīng)該歸功于安迪。

2. To give someone credit for a good quality means to believe that they have it.

• Bratbakk had more ability than the media gave him credit for.
  布拉特巴克比媒體稱贊的要有才華蔚龙。

- postulate

1. to suggest or accept that sth is true so that it can be used as the basis for a theory, etc.

• They postulated a 500-year lifespan for a plastic container.
  他們假定塑料容器的壽命為 500 年冰评。

2. a statement that is accepted as true, that forms the basis of a theory, etc.

- confine

Confine is all about setting limits. If you are confined to the house, it means you can't leave it. If you're really sick, you might be confined to your bed.
Confine can be used abstractly as well. In writing a term paper, your teacher might tell you to confine your examples to ones that you can support with direct evidence. In the 19th century, pregnancy and childbirth were often referred to as a woman's confinement—a time when she couldn't get up or out.

- say

You indicate the information given by something such as a clock, dial, or map by mentioning what it says .

• The clock said four minutes past eleven...
  鐘顯示時間是 11 點 4 分。
• The map says there's six of them.
  地圖上顯示共有六處木羹。

- pulse

When someone takes your pulse or feels your pulse, they find out how quickly your heart is beating by feeling the pulse in your wrist.

- be said to be

• Forty-one people are said to have been seriously hurt... 據(jù)說 41 人身負重傷甲雅。

- diagram

A diagram is a simple drawing which consists mainly of lines and is used, for example, to explain how a machine works.

• //...a circuit diagram...
  電路圖
• You can reduce long explanations to simple charts or diagrams.
  你可以把冗長的解釋簡化成一目了然的圖表。

- assign

~ sth to sth to say that sth has a particular value or function, or happens at a particular time or place

• Assign a different colour to each different type of information.
  給每類信息分別確定一種顏色坑填。
• The painting cannot be assigned an exact date. 這幅畫的年代確定不了抛人。

- platinum

a chemical element. Platinum is a silver-grey precious metal , used in making expensive jewellery and in industry.
鉑；白金

- specify

To explicitly name something or state a particular detail, you specify that thing. So, when you have a craving for dessert and you send someone to the store to buy ice cream, you may want to specify a flavor.
If you assign something for a particular purpose, this verb means that you specify. Your parents can specify for safety's sake that you can only ride your bicycle on the sidewalk and not on the street.
Another use of the verb specify is to give a set of requirements. If you have your grandmother's old recipe for snickerdoodle cookies, you may wonder what the recipe means when it specifies that you should add "a smidgen of molasses."

- validity

1. the state of being legally or officially acceptable

• The period of validity of the agreement has expired.
  本協(xié)議的有效期已過脐瑰。

2. the state of being logical and true

• We had doubts about the validity of their argument.
  我們對他們的論點的正確性有過懷疑妖枚。

- Piccadilly Circus

[?p?k?d?li ?s??(r)k?s] used to describe a place that is very busy or crowded

• It's been like Piccadilly Circus in this house all morning.
  這房子里整個上午都忙亂得像皮卡迪利廣場。

【ORIGIN】From the name of a busy area in the centre of London where several large roads meet and where there is always a lot of traffic.
源自倫敦市中心繁忙地帶皮卡迪利廣場,幾條大街在此交匯,車輛川流不息苍在。

- join

~ A to B | ~ A and B (together / up) to fix or connect two or more things together

• Join one section of pipe to the next.
  將一段管子與相鄰的管子連接起來绝页。
• Join the two sections of pipe together.
  將這兩段管子連接在一起荠商。
• The island is joined to the mainland by a bridge.
  這個島有一座橋與大陸相連。

- overlapping

If you have two pieces of something, and one is covering a part of another, then they're overlapping.
Remember learning about Venn Diagrams in math class? You know, the two circles drawn overlapping each other, so that there's a space in the middle that they share. And two lives that intersect at a certain point in time? They're overlapping, too.

- perpective

the art of creating an effect of depth and distance in a picture by representing people and things that are far away as being smaller than those that are nearer the front

• We learnt how to draw buildings in perspective.
  我們學(xué)習(xí)如何用透視法畫建筑物续誉。
• The tree on the left is out of perspective.
  左側(cè)的樹不成比例莱没。

- stack

~ (sth) (up) to arrange objects neatly in a pile; to be arranged in this way

• to stack boxes.....把箱子摞起來
• logs stacked up against a wall......靠墻碼放著的木頭

-snapshot

1. A snapshot is a photograph that is taken quickly and casually.

2. If something provides you with a snapshot of a place or situation, it gives you a brief idea of what that place or situation is like.

• The interviews present a remarkable snapshot of Britain in these dark days of recession.
  這些訪談生動地展現(xiàn)了英國在黑暗的蕭條時期的概貌。

- tip

the thin pointed end of sth

• the tips of your fingers 手指尖
• the northern tip of the island 島的北端

- warped

1. (disapproving) (of a person ) having ideas that most people think are strange or unpleasant

• a warped mind 扭曲的心靈
• a warped sense of humour 畸形的幽默感

2. bent or twisted and not in the normal shape

- curved

A curved object has the shape of a curve or has a smoothly bending surface.

• //...a small, curved staircase.
  一小段弧形樓梯
• //...the curved lines of the chairs.
  椅子的弧形線條

-geodesic

relating to the shortest possible line between ten points on a curved surface

- hilly

(hill?ier, hilli?est) having a lot of hills

• a hilly area / region 丘陵地區(qū)

- elongated

long and thin, often in a way that is not normal

• Modigliani's women have strangely elongated faces.
  莫迪里阿尼畫中的婦女都長著奇長無比的臉酷鸦。

- hail

~ sb / sth (as) sth to describe sb / sth as being very good or special, especially in newspapers, etc.

• The conference was hailed as a great success.
  會議被稱頌為一次巨大的成功饰躲。
• Teenager Matt Brown is being hailed a hero for saving a young child from drowning.
  因救起一名溺水兒童,少年馬特 · 布朗被譽為英雄。

- reconciliation

1. ~ (between A and B) | ~ (with sb)
   an end to a disagreement and the start of a good relationship again

• Their change of policy brought about a reconciliation with Britain.
  他們的政策改變促成了與英國的和解井佑。

2. ~ (between A and B) | ~ (with sth)
   the process of making it possible for two different ideas, facts, etc. to exist together without being opposed to each other

• the reconciliation between environment and development
  環(huán)境保護與發(fā)展之間的和諧統(tǒng)一

- sheer

1. used to emphasize the size, degree or amount of sth

• The area is under threat from the sheer number of tourists using it.
  這一地區(qū)由于游客人數(shù)太多而面臨威脅属铁。
• We were impressed by the sheer size of the cathedral.
  大教堂的宏大規(guī)模給我們留下了深刻的印象。

2. complete and not mixed with anything else

• The concert was sheer delight.
  這場音樂會是一次十足的享受躬翁。
• I only agreed out of sheer desperation.
  我一時情急才同意的焦蘑。

- high up

If something is high up, it is a long way above the ground, above sea level, or above a person or thing.

• His farm was high up in the hills.
  他的農(nóng)場在山的高處。
• //...grapes grown high up on the cliff...
  生長在山崖高處的葡萄
• We saw three birds circling very high up.
  我們看到3只鳥在高空盤旋盒发。

- mount

~ sth (on / onto / in sth) to fix sth into position on sth, so that you can use it, look at it or study it

• The specimens were mounted on slides.
  標本安放在載片上例嘱。
• The diamond is mounted in gold.
  這顆鉆石鑲在金飾物上。

- at the back of one’s mind

if a thought, etc. is at the back of your mind, you are aware of it but it is not what you are mainly thinking about

- arena

1. a place with a flat open area in the middle and seats around it where people can watch sports and entertainment

• a concert at Wembley Arena
  在文布利運動場舉行的音樂會

2. (formal) an area of activity that concerns the public, especially six where there is a lot of opposition between different groups or countries

• the political / international arena
  政治/國際舞臺

Day 6: Paragraphs

對全文段落大意的一些整理：

1. 亞里士多德的觀點—物體越重下落的越快
2. 亞里士多德的另一個觀點宁舰，伽利略提出了質(zhì)疑并做出了實驗證實
3. 根據(jù)伽利略的測量結(jié)果拼卵，牛頓提出了牛頓三定律
4. 牛頓第三定律的進一步說明
5. 伽利略、牛頓的理論與亞里士多德觀點的不同之處蛮艰，亞里士多德認為無外力的干擾保持靜止腋腮，然而牛頓的理論說明靜止的標準不存在
6. 絕對靜止的標準不存在，位置和距離會因為參照物的不同而不同
7. 牛頓因為信仰問題拒絕接受絕對空間的缺失壤蚜，因此大受批判
8. 絕對時間雖然在移動相對緩慢的事物上可以說得通即寡，但不適用于光速的物體
9. 有關(guān)于光的研究：光速—>電磁—> radio wave, microwave， etc
10. Maxwell的理論擺脫了絕對靜止的理念
11. 做了一個實驗袜刷，發(fā)現(xiàn)了令人吃驚的結(jié)果：順著方向和垂直方向聪富，光速一樣
12. 在1887年到1905年間的一些科學(xué)嘗試，愛因斯坦之類的人提出的觀點
13. 由愛因斯坦的假設(shè)所引出的一些觀點著蟹，以及得出一個結(jié)論：沒有任何一個正常的物體可以移動的和光一樣快墩蔓，只有像光或者波之類沒有內(nèi)在質(zhì)量的物體能夠達到光速
14. 另一個同等重要的相對論引起的結(jié)果：相對論的影響終結(jié)了絕對時間的概念
15. space-time diagram的例證
16. 對上述方法的進一步說明
17. 正式提出了space-time的概念
18. 提出了三維坐標的概念，通過patch來描述宇宙中的星體的位置
19. 一種新的描述位置的方法萧豆，通過old time加上距離
20. 提出了四維的坐標方式
21. 對上一段所說的內(nèi)容舉了一個例子
22. 對Maxwell提出的觀點舉出了一個實驗例證奸披，說明其正確性
23. 對上一段實驗的延伸，從三維—>四維（future light cone & past light cone）
24. 對future light cone 的進一步解釋
25. 對past light cone的解釋
26. P點發(fā)生的事情無法影響light cone之外的地方涮雷，通過一個例證來說明
27. 同樣對上述例子的進一步說明
28. 1905年愛因斯坦提出the special theory of relativity, 然而與牛頓提出的重力理論不相吻合源内，所以在1915年提出了廣義相對論的概念來彌補之前理論的缺陷問題
29. 愛因斯坦在廣義相對論中的一些設(shè)想和細節(jié)，以及geodesic概念的提出
30. 一個例子來說明上述的觀點
31. 在1915年之前，mercury的觀測結(jié)證實了廣義相對論的正確性
32. 愛因斯坦的其中一個猜測膜钓，以及l(fā)ight deflection現(xiàn)象得到證實
33. 另一個愛因斯坦的猜測—-在靠近一個巨大的天體時嗽交，時間會顯得更加長，這個猜測在1962年被證實
34. twins paradox—相對論中沒有獨特的絕對時間颂斜，而是每個個體都有獨特的個人測量時間的方式
35. 在1915年之前時間和空間的一些概念
36. 在廣義相對論中時間和空間變得不同夫壁，是dynamic quantities，脫離了宇宙的限制沃疮，討論時間和空間是沒有意義的
37. a dynamic, expanding universe盒让，有finite的時間

Day 6: Logical Lines

space and time.png

Day 6 篤師示范-邏輯導(dǎo)圖.jpg.png

自己在畫流程圖的思路：
首先傳統(tǒng)物理學(xué)和愛因斯坦相對論的背景最大的不同在于，傳統(tǒng)物理學(xué)的一些理論不再適用于高速運動的物體司蔬，比如天體運動等邑茄，所以，將文章分成了兩大塊俊啼，一塊是經(jīng)典物理學(xué)肺缕，即傳統(tǒng)概念，另一塊是高速物體的概念授帕。而在每一塊下同木，按照霍金的物理學(xué)推導(dǎo)的流程，將前因后果展開來跛十，因為任何的理論彤路，光談及理論本身是沒有意義的，還要考慮到理論的一些假設(shè)和條件芥映，以及適用的范圍和方法洲尊，所以我將每個理論的前后推導(dǎo)的流程一一的進行了流程展示，而每個理論的假設(shè)和論證也都補充說明了奈偏。
總體感覺颊郎，比上一次的流程圖畫的好，也快霎苗，思路比較的清晰。也許本身就是理科生榛做，這些東西學(xué)了這么多年比較熟悉唁盏，所以流程圖畫的很快。

Day 7: Brief summary

• 經(jīng)過這幾天對科學(xué)簡史類題材的進一步學(xué)習(xí)检眯，其實鞏固了許多以前學(xué)過的知識厘擂，比如牛頓力學(xué)三定律，伽利略自由落體實驗锰瘸，狹義相對論與廣義相對論等等內(nèi)容刽严，我非常喜歡霍金的敘述方式咸这，因為非常符合理科生的邏輯思維采够，從背景到假設(shè)，從假設(shè)到推論，從推論到之后的進一步完善與修改醋安，所以其實我在看整個科學(xué)簡史的時候并沒有覺得很難，反倒是Topic 1斩箫，我看完之后里伯，其實感覺非常的云里霧里，因為我不是很明白整篇文章是按照什么樣的邏輯順序展開的崎弃，以及那些一個個黑體的標題甘晤，所以在Topic 1的閱讀中，安妮提供的按照時間順序來進行邏輯圖的繪制對我是有啟發(fā)的饲做。
• 并且线婚，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，在每次讀完一段的時候盆均，及時的做好相關(guān)的總結(jié)筆記非常重要塞弊，因為在看科學(xué)論文時，注意段落之間的聯(lián)系非常重要缀踪，否則居砖，會覺得云里霧里，不知道作者為什么要單獨開一段寫這個內(nèi)容驴娃。這也是我在Topic 1中犯得一個錯誤奏候，全文一遍看下來，沒什么大問題唇敞，但是讓我復(fù)述文章的結(jié)構(gòu)思路蔗草，我只能有一個大概的框架，要想畫出邏輯圖來疆柔，就很蒙了咒精，也許是因為TOEFL和GMAT的影響，我現(xiàn)在看文章趨向于抓住文章的大方向和功能性的結(jié)構(gòu)旷档，而對于一些內(nèi)在的細節(jié)就會比較的不那么在意模叙，但正如我在上面說的那樣，科學(xué)論文鞋屈，有時邏輯推導(dǎo)過程非常重要范咨，整理出推倒的流程，才能很好的總結(jié)出全文的邏輯厂庇。所以在Topic 2中渠啊，我非常認真的在閱讀完每一段之后，寫了一小段總結(jié)权旷，也許字數(shù)有點多了替蛉，因為我在考試閱讀的過程中，很少會做筆記，所以概括總結(jié)能力還需加強吧躲查。
• 另外它浅，我所整理的單詞，有些并不屬于生詞熙含，但是通過閱讀vocabulary.com, LDCE罚缕，Webster，等等的詞典時怎静，我會看到許多比較有意思的東西邮弹，尤其是vocabulary.com，有的時候它的解釋會非常的有意思蚓聘，而且讓你印象深刻腌乡。比如它對daunting這個單詞的解釋我就覺得非常有意思，它是這樣說的夜牡，

“Something daunting can scare you off. Often used in the phrases “daunting prospect” and “daunting task,” daunting describes something that you are not looking forward to doing.
If you have a lot of studying to do, it may seem like a daunting task. Good news is you can get through it by working hard. Or weasel out of it by playing sick..”

我當(dāng)時在查完字典之后就記住了它与纽，而到今天，我的腦海中都能清晰的反映出這句話塘装，所以我認為有興趣的學(xué)習(xí)急迂，才能夠有效。否則很容易讓任有疲憊感蹦肴。也因為這個原因僚碎，我不是很喜歡將一個單詞所有的拓展和延伸都列出來，因為我覺得雖然這樣在做的時候很用心阴幌，但基本第二遍再去看的可能性很小勺阐，因為太多了，那么一大堆的文字密密麻麻的堆在那里矛双，很容易讓人產(chǎn)生視覺疲勞渊抽。簡潔，有趣议忽，有效懒闷，這就是我的原則。我也在盡量的讓自己的學(xué)習(xí)過程變得有趣栈幸，不會感覺枯燥愤估，所以我的單詞整理沒有那么多的條條框框，當(dāng)然每個人的學(xué)習(xí)方式不同侦镇，自己喜歡最重要。

• 已經(jīng)過去了一周了织阅，感覺自己很久沒有這么靜下心來看文章壳繁，論文還沒寫完呢，每天卻花了很多時間在這個上面，感覺是對自己的一種集中力的培養(yǎng)與加強闹炉，想到4個月后馬上要開始的美國的研究生課程蒿赢，也感到有點擔(dān)憂，所以在讓自己盡快適應(yīng)全英的環(huán)境渣触，希望能夠有自我的提升與超越羡棵。