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.
  警察根据一个老百姓的报告,突然搜查了这家俱乐部。
• Why didn't you act on her suggestion?
  你为什么没有按照她的建议去做呢？
• A patient will usually listen to the doctor's advice and act on it.
  患者通常都会遵照医嘱行事。

- spiral

to increase rapidly

• the spiralling cost of health care. 急剧上涨的保健费用
• Prices are spiralling out of control. 物价飞涨,失去控制。

- 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.
  这是那种让人根本没法批驳的谣言。

- 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 明确的陈述

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? 木星有多少颗衞星？

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...
  莱蒂混了一上午，什么也没干。
• My working days were spent mooning round his department, trying to sneak a chance encounter.
  上班时我在他的部门转来转去，暗中寻找巧遇他的机会。

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.
  极少会碰到麻烦。

- space

to arrange things so that they have regular spaces between them

• evenly spaced plants 间隔均匀的秧苗
• a row of closely spaced dots 一行排列紧密的小点
• Space the posts about a metre apart. 这些杆子之间要间隔一米左右。

- 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.
  空气静止不动,池塘的水面上几乎看不到波纹。

- 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...
  谁受到表扬无所谓，只要我们不挨批就好。
• It would be wrong for us to take all the credit...
  如果我们把所有功劳都揽到自己身上，那就不对了。
• Some of the credit for her relaxed manner must go to Andy.
  她会如此放松，一部分应该归功于安迪。

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.
  布拉特巴克比媒体称赞的要有才华。

- 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.
  他们假定塑料容器的寿命为 500 年。

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...
  钟显示时间是 11 点 4 分。
• The map says there's six of them.
  地图上显示共有六处。

- 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... 据说 41 人身负重伤。

- 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...
  电路图
• You can reduce long explanations to simple charts or diagrams.
  你可以把冗长的解释简化成一目了然的图表。

- 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.
  给每类信息分别确定一种颜色。
• The painting cannot be assigned an exact date. 这幅画的年代确定不了。

- platinum

a chemical element. Platinum is a silver-grey precious metal , used in making expensive jewellery and in industry.
铂；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.
  本协议的有效期已过。

2. the state of being logical and true

• We had doubts about the validity of their argument.
  我们对他们的论点的正确性有过怀疑。

- Piccadilly Circus

[ˌpɪkədɪli ˈsɜː(r)kəs] used to describe a place that is very busy or crowded

• It's been like Piccadilly Circus in this house all morning.
  这房子里整个上午都忙乱得像皮卡迪利广场。

【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.
源自伦敦市中心繁忙地带皮卡迪利广场,几条大街在此交汇,车辆川流不息。

- 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.
  将一段管子与相邻的管子连接起来。
• Join the two sections of pipe together.
  将这两段管子连接在一起。
• The island is joined to the mainland by a bridge.
  这个岛有一座桥与大陆相连。

- 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.
  我们学习如何用透视法画建筑物。
• The tree on the left is out of perspective.
  左侧的树不成比例。

- stack

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

• to stack boxes.....把箱子摞起来
• logs stacked up against a wall......靠墙码放着的木头

-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.
  这些访谈生动地展现了英国在黑暗的萧条时期的概貌。

- tip

the thin pointed end of sth

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

- warped

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

• a warped mind 扭曲的心灵
• 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.
  一小段弧形楼梯
• //...the curved lines of the chairs.
  椅子的弧形线条

-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 丘陵地区

- elongated

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

• Modigliani's women have strangely elongated faces.
  莫迪里阿尼画中的妇女都长着奇长无比的脸。

- 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.
  会议被称颂为一次巨大的成功。
• Teenager Matt Brown is being hailed a hero for saving a young child from drowning.
  因救起一名溺水儿童,少年马特 · 布朗被誉为英雄。

- 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.
  他们的政策改变促成了与英国的和解。

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
  环境保护与发展之间的和谐统一

- 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.
  这一地区由于游客人数太多而面临威胁。
• We were impressed by the sheer size of the cathedral.
  大教堂的宏大规模给我们留下了深刻的印象。

2. complete and not mixed with anything else

• The concert was sheer delight.
  这场音乐会是一次十足的享受。
• I only agreed out of sheer desperation.
  我一时情急才同意的。

- 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.
  他的农场在山的高处。
• //...grapes grown high up on the cliff...
  生长在山崖高处的葡萄
• We saw three birds circling very high up.
  我们看到3只鸟在高空盘旋。

- 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.
  标本安放在载片上。
• The diamond is mounted in gold.
  这颗钻石镶在金饰物上。

- 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
  在文布利运动场举行的音乐会

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/国际舞台

Day 6: Paragraphs

对全文段落大意的一些整理：

1. 亚里士多德的观点—物体越重下落的越快
2. 亚里士多德的另一个观点，伽利略提出了质疑并做出了实验证实
3. 根据伽利略的测量结果，牛顿提出了牛顿三定律
4. 牛顿第三定律的进一步说明
5. 伽利略、牛顿的理论与亚里士多德观点的不同之处，亚里士多德认为无外力的干扰保持静止，然而牛顿的理论说明静止的标准不存在
6. 绝对静止的标准不存在，位置和距离会因为参照物的不同而不同
7. 牛顿因为信仰问题拒绝接受绝对空间的缺失，因此大受批判
8. 绝对时间虽然在移动相对缓慢的事物上可以说得通，但不适用于光速的物体
9. 有关于光的研究：光速—>电磁—> radio wave, microwave， etc
10. Maxwell的理论摆脱了绝对静止的理念
11. 做了一个实验，发现了令人吃惊的结果：顺着方向和垂直方向，光速一样
12. 在1887年到1905年间的一些科学尝试，爱因斯坦之类的人提出的观点
13. 由爱因斯坦的假设所引出的一些观点，以及得出一个结论：没有任何一个正常的物体可以移动的和光一样快，只有像光或者波之类没有内在质量的物体能够达到光速
14. 另一个同等重要的相对论引起的结果：相对论的影响终结了绝对时间的概念
15. space-time diagram的例证
16. 对上述方法的进一步说明
17. 正式提出了space-time的概念
18. 提出了三维坐标的概念，通过patch来描述宇宙中的星体的位置
19. 一种新的描述位置的方法，通过old time加上距离
20. 提出了四维的坐标方式
21. 对上一段所说的内容举了一个例子
22. 对Maxwell提出的观点举出了一个实验例证，说明其正确性
23. 对上一段实验的延伸，从三维—>四维（future light cone & past light cone）
24. 对future light cone 的进一步解释
25. 对past light cone的解释
26. P点发生的事情无法影响light cone之外的地方，通过一个例证来说明
27. 同样对上述例子的进一步说明
28. 1905年爱因斯坦提出the special theory of relativity, 然而与牛顿提出的重力理论不相吻合，所以在1915年提出了广义相对论的概念来弥补之前理论的缺陷问题
29. 爱因斯坦在广义相对论中的一些设想和细节，以及geodesic概念的提出
30. 一个例子来说明上述的观点
31. 在1915年之前，mercury的观测结证实了广义相对论的正确性
32. 爱因斯坦的其中一个猜测，以及light deflection现象得到证实
33. 另一个爱因斯坦的猜测—-在靠近一个巨大的天体时，时间会显得更加长，这个猜测在1962年被证实
34. twins paradox—相对论中没有独特的绝对时间，而是每个个体都有独特的个人测量时间的方式
35. 在1915年之前时间和空间的一些概念
36. 在广义相对论中时间和空间变得不同，是dynamic quantities，脱离了宇宙的限制，讨论时间和空间是没有意义的
37. a dynamic, expanding universe，有finite的时间

Day 6: Logical Lines

space and time.png

Day 6 笃师示范-逻辑导图.jpg.png

自己在画流程图的思路：
首先传统物理学和爱因斯坦相对论的背景最大的不同在于，传统物理学的一些理论不再适用于高速运动的物体，比如天体运动等，所以，将文章分成了两大块，一块是经典物理学，即传统概念，另一块是高速物体的概念。而在每一块下，按照霍金的物理学推导的流程，将前因后果展开来，因为任何的理论，光谈及理论本身是没有意义的，还要考虑到理论的一些假设和条件，以及适用的范围和方法，所以我将每个理论的前后推导的流程一一的进行了流程展示，而每个理论的假设和论证也都补充说明了。
总体感觉，比上一次的流程图画的好，也快，思路比较的清晰。也许本身就是理科生，这些东西学了这么多年比较熟悉，所以流程图画的很快。

Day 7: Brief summary

• 经过这几天对科学简史类题材的进一步学习，其实巩固了许多以前学过的知识，比如牛顿力学三定律，伽利略自由落体实验，狭义相对论与广义相对论等等内容，我非常喜欢霍金的叙述方式，因为非常符合理科生的逻辑思维，从背景到假设，从假设到推论，从推论到之后的进一步完善与修改，所以其实我在看整个科学简史的时候并没有觉得很难，反倒是Topic 1，我看完之后，其实感觉非常的云里雾里，因为我不是很明白整篇文章是按照什么样的逻辑顺序展开的，以及那些一个个黑体的标题，所以在Topic 1的阅读中，安妮提供的按照时间顺序来进行逻辑图的绘制对我是有启发的。
• 并且，我发现，在每次读完一段的时候，及时的做好相关的总结笔记非常重要，因为在看科学论文时，注意段落之间的联系非常重要，否则，会觉得云里雾里，不知道作者为什么要单独开一段写这个内容。这也是我在Topic 1中犯得一个错误，全文一遍看下来，没什么大问题，但是让我复述文章的结构思路，我只能有一个大概的框架，要想画出逻辑图来，就很蒙了，也许是因为TOEFL和GMAT的影响，我现在看文章趋向于抓住文章的大方向和功能性的结构，而对于一些内在的细节就会比较的不那么在意，但正如我在上面说的那样，科学论文，有时逻辑推导过程非常重要，整理出推倒的流程，才能很好的总结出全文的逻辑。所以在Topic 2中，我非常认真的在阅读完每一段之后，写了一小段总结，也许字数有点多了，因为我在考试阅读的过程中，很少会做笔记，所以概括总结能力还需加强吧。
• 另外，我所整理的单词，有些并不属于生词，但是通过阅读vocabulary.com, LDCE，Webster，等等的词典时，我会看到许多比较有意思的东西，尤其是vocabulary.com，有的时候它的解释会非常的有意思，而且让你印象深刻。比如它对daunting这个单词的解释我就觉得非常有意思，它是这样说的，

“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..”

我当时在查完字典之后就记住了它，而到今天，我的脑海中都能清晰的反映出这句话，所以我认为有兴趣的学习，才能够有效。否则很容易让任有疲惫感。也因为这个原因，我不是很喜欢将一个单词所有的拓展和延伸都列出来，因为我觉得虽然这样在做的时候很用心，但基本第二遍再去看的可能性很小，因为太多了，那么一大堆的文字密密麻麻的堆在那里，很容易让人产生视觉疲劳。简洁，有趣，有效，这就是我的原则。我也在尽量的让自己的学习过程变得有趣，不会感觉枯燥，所以我的单词整理没有那么多的条条框框，当然每个人的学习方式不同，自己喜欢最重要。

• 已经过去了一周了，感觉自己很久没有这么静下心来看文章，论文还没写完呢，每天却花了很多时间在这个上面，感觉是对自己的一种集中力的培养与加强，想到4个月后马上要开始的美国的研究生课程，也感到有点担忧，所以在让自己尽快适应全英的环境，希望能够有自我的提升与超越。