Raising the Mary Rose
site: Raising the Mary Rose
Because of the way the ship sank, nearly all of the starboard half survived intact.
intact /ɪnˈtækt/ adjective. 完好无损的
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the entire site became covered with a layer of hard grey clay, which minimised further erosion.
erosion /ɪˈroʊ.ʒən/ noun. 侵蚀 +1
Then, on 16 June 1836, some fishermen in the Solent found that their equipment was caught on an underwater obstruction, which turned out to be the Mary Rose.
obstruction /əbˈstrʌk.ʃən/ noun. 堵筛; 堵筛物
Diver John Deane happened to be exploring another sunken ship nearby, and the fishermen approached him, asking him to free their gear.
sunken /ˈsʌŋ.kən/ adjective. 沉入海底的; 凹陷的
The Mary Rose then faded into obscurity for another hundred years.
obscurity /əbˈskjʊr.ə.t̬i/ noun. 默默无闻
But in 1965, military historian and amateur diver Alexander McKee, in conjunction with the British Sub-Aqua Club, initiated a project called ‘Solent Ships’.
amateur /ˈæm.ə.tʃɚ/ adjective. 业余爱好者
conjunction /kənˈdʒʌŋk.ʃən/ noun. 结合
- in conjunction with sb./sth. 与某人/某物一起
Further excavations revealed stray pieces of timber and an iron gun.
excavation /ˌeks.kəˈveɪ.ʃən/ noun. 挖掘; 开凿 +1
While the original aim was to raise the hull if at all feasible, the operation was not given the go-ahead until January 1982, when all the necessary information was available.
feasible /ˈfiː.zə.bəl/ adjective. 可行的; 可能的
The problem of the hull being sucked back downwards into the mud was overcome by using 12 hydraulic jacks.
hydraulic /haɪˈdrɒl.ɪk/ adjective. 液压的
jack /dʒæk/ noun. 千斤顶
It was only when the hull was hanging freely from the lifting frame, clear of the seabed and the suction effect of the surrounding mud, that the salvage operation progressed to the second stage.
suction /ˈsʌk.ʃən/ noun. 吸力
The lifting cradle was designed to fit the hull jusing archaeological survey drawings, and was fitted with air bags to provide additional cushioning for the hull’s delicate timber framework.
cushion /ˈkʊʃ.ən/ noun. 垫子; 缓冲物
What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island?
site: What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island?
Bestselling Swiss author Erich von Daniken believed they were built by stranded extraterrestrials.
extraterrestrial /ˌek.strə.təˈres.tri.əl/ adjective. 外星球的
- terrestrial /təˈres.tri.əl/ adjective. 地球的; 陆生的
When the Europeans arrived, Rapa Nui was grassland, with only a few scrawny trees.
scrawny /ˈskrɔː.ni/ adjective. 瘦巴巴的
In the 1970s and 1980s, though, researchers found pollen preserved in lake sediments, which proved the island had been covered in lush palm forests for thousands of years.
pollen /ˈpɑː.lən/ noun. 花粉
sediment /ˈsed.ə.mənt/ noun. 沉淀物
lush /lʌʃ/ adjective. 茂盛的
palm /pɑːm/ noun. 棕榈树 +1
US scientist Jared Diamond believes that the Rapanui people - descendants of Polynesian settlers - wrecked their own environment.
wreck /rek/ verb. 失事; 毁坏
They had unfortunately settled on an extremely fragile island - dry, cool, and too remote to be properly fertilised by windblown volcanic ash.
fragile /ˈfrædʒ.əl/ adjective. 易碎的; 脆弱的
fertilize /ˈfɝː.t̬əl.aɪz/ verb. 使…受粉
As trees became scarce and they could no longer construct wooden canoes for fishing, they ate birds.
scarce /skers/ adjective. 稀有的
Before Europeans arrived, the Rapanui had descended into civil war and cannibalism, he maintains.
cannibalism /ˈkæn.ə.bəl.ɪ.zəm/ adjective. 同类相食
The collapse of their isolated civilisation, Diamond writes, is a ’worst-case scenario for what may lie ahead of us in our own future’.
scenario /səˈner.i.oʊ/ noun. 设想的情况
- worst-case scenario 最糟糕的情况
Diamond interprets them as power displays by rival chieftains who, trapped on a remote little island, lacked other ways of asserting their dominance.
rival /ˈraɪ.vəl/ noun. 竞争对手
dominance /ˈdɑː.mə.nəns/ noun. 控制; 支配地位
Diamond thinks they laid the moai on wooden sledges, hauled over log rails, but that required both a lot of wood and a lot of people.
sledge /sledʒ/ noun. 雪橇
haul /hɑːl/ verb. 拖
When the wood was gone and civil war began, the islanders began toppling the moai.
topple /ˈtɑː.pəl/ verb. 使…倒下
Archaeologists Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo of California State University agree that Easter Island lost its lush forests and that it was an ‘ecological catastrophe’ - but they believe the islanders themselves weren’t to blame.
catastrophe /kəˈtæs.trə.fi/ noun. 灾难
Archaeological excavations indicate that the Rapanui went to heroic efforts to protect the resources of their wind-lashed, infertile fields.
infertile /ɪnˈfɝː.t̬əl/ adjective. 贫瘠的
They built thousands of circular stone windbreaks and gardened inside them, and used broken volcanic rocks to keep the soil moist. In short, Hunt and Lipo argue, the prehistoric Rapanui were pioneers of sustainable farming.
moist /mɔɪst/ adjective. 湿润的
Hunt and Lipo contend that moai-building was an activity that helped keep the peace between islanders.
contend /kənˈtend/ verb. 斗争; 竞争; 主张
Recent experiments indicate that as few as 18 people could, with three strong ropes and a bit of practice, easily manoeuvre a 1,000 kg moai replica a few hundred metres.
manoeuvre /məˈnuː.vɚ/ noun./verb. 熟练的移动
They would have prevented the reseeding of the slow-growing palm trees and thereby doomed Rapa Nui’s forest, even without the settlers’ campaign of deforestation.
deforestation /diːˌfɔːr.əˈsteɪ.ʃən/ noun. 砍伐森林
They think its population grew rapidly and then remained more or less stable until the arrival of the Europeans, who introduced deadly diseases to which islanders had no immunity.
**…grew rapidly and then remained more or less stable until… **
Rather than a case of abject failure, Rapu Nui is an unlikely story of success
abject /ˈæb.dʒekt/ adjective. 悲惨的; 卑贱的
Neuroaesthetics
site: Neuroaesthetics
The blurred imagery of Impressionist paintings seems to stimulate the brain’s amygdala, for instance.
blurred /blɝːd adjective. 模糊不清的
- blur /blɝː/ noun. 模糊形状
impressionist /ɪmˈpreʃ.ən.ɪst/ noun. 印象派作家/画家
stimulate /ˈstɪm.jə.leɪt/ verb. 刺激; 激发 +1
amygdala /əˈmɪɡ.də.lə/ noun. (one of two parts of the brain that affect how people feel emotions, especially fear and pleasure)
Could the same approach also shed light on abstract twentieth-century pieces, from Mondrian’s geometrical blocks of colour, to Pollock’s seemingly haphazard arrangements of splashed paint on canvas?
haphazard /ˌhæpˈhæz.ɚd/ adjective. 杂乱的; 随意的 +1
Sceptics believe that people claim to like such works simply because they are famous.
sceptic /ˈskep.tɪk/ noun. 怀疑论者
We certainly do have an inclination to follow the crowd. When asked to make simple perceptual decisions such as matching a shape to its rotated image, for example, people often choose a definitively wrong answer if they see others doing the same.
inclination /ˌɪn.kləˈneɪ.ʃən/ noun. 意愿
perceptual /pɚˈsep.tʃu.əl/ adjective. (relating to the ability to notice something or come to an opinion about something using your senses:)
It is easy to imagine that this mentality would have even more impact on a fuzzy concept like art appreciation, where there is no right or wrong answer.
mentality /menˈtæl.ə.t̬i/ noun. 心态
It would seem that the brain sees these images as puzzles, and the harder it is to decipher the meaning, the more rewarding is the moment of recognition.
decipher /dɪˈsaɪ.fɚ/ verb. 破译
Mondrian’s works are deceptively simple, but eye-tracking studies confirm that they are meticulously composed, and that simpiy rotating a piece radically changes the way we view it.
deceptively /dɪˈsep.t̬ɪv.li/ adverb. 有欺骗性地 +1
meticulously /məˈtɪk.jə.ləs.li/ adverb. 周密地
radically /ˈræd.ɪ.kəl.i/ adverb. 根本地
- radical /ˈræd.ɪ.kəl/ adjective. 激进的; 根本的; 彻底的
Vartanian also found that changing the composition of the paintings reduced activation in those brain areas linked with meaning and interpretation.
interpretation /ɪnˌtɝː.prəˈteɪ.ʃən/ noun. 理解
In another experiment, Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool analysed the visual intricacy of different pieces of art, and her results suggest that many artists use a key level of detail to please the brain.
intricacy /ˈɪn.trə.kə.si/ noun. 错综复杂
- intricate /ˈɪn.trə.kət/ adjective. 错综复杂的
What’s more, appealing pieces both abstract and representational, show signs of ‘fractals’ - repeated motifs recurring in different scales, fractals are common throughout nature, for example in the shapes of mountain peaks or the branches of trees.
motif /moʊˈtiːf/ noun. 装饰图案 +1
recurring /rɪˈkɝː.ɪŋ/ adjective. 反复出现的; 循环的
- recur /rɪˈkɝː/ verb. 再现; 复发
This may be down to our brain’s ‘mirror neurons’, which are known to mimic others’ actions.
mimic /ˈmɪm.ɪk/ verb. 模仿
The hypothesis will need to be thoroughly tested, however. It might even be the case that we could use neuroaesthetic studies to understand the longevity of some pieces of artwork.
hypothesis /haɪˈpɑː.θə.sɪs/ noun. 假说
thoroughly /ˈθɝː.ə.li/ adverb. 彻底地
longevity /lɑːnˈdʒev.ə.t̬i/ noun. 长寿