【thatll】iBT备考日志

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[size=1.15em][size=1.15em]July 20, 2009
Trickle-Down Theory: Simplified Model Gives a New Explanation for How Raindrops Form
[size=1.15em]-----A new study concludes that raindrops reach their final state thanks to atmospheric drag that shatters the drops
[size=1.15em][size=1.15em]By John Matson   



[size=1.4em]
[size=1.15em][size=1.4em][size=0.78em]BURSTING IN AIR: The phenomenon known as bag breakup is one fragmentation process that explains the variety of raindrop sizes measured at ground level.

Using high-speed videography, a pair of researchers may have cracked the mystery of how raindrops take shape between the clouds and the ground.

[size=1.15em][size=1.4em]take shape:
[size=1.15em][size=1.4em]

Also,
shape up. Turn out, develop, acquire a distinctive form, as in
Her reelection campaign is already taking shape, two years before the election, or
Can you tell us how the book is shaping up?
The first term dates from the
mid-1700s and the variant, originally put as
shape out, from about
1600.

[size=1.15em][size=1.4em]

The conventional view held that（这是一个很地道的表达，传统观念认为） raindrops take shape as a result of the forces resulting from numerous collisions and mergers with other drops as well as from the atmospheric drag that fragments（我们要注意这个fragment这个动词的用法） the drops; these interactions cause raindrops to adopt a variety of sizes by the time they reach the ground. But according toEmmanuel Villermaux, a physicist at the University of Provence in France, collisions and mergers turn out not to be（这里并没有用do not turn out而是turn out not，这两个表达意思上是不一样的，第一个应该是没有表明，第二个是表明不是） an important part of the equation after all—the critical factor in shaping raindrops is the drag-induced breakup of single drops, not the interactions between them.

merger：

n.

• The act or an instance of merging; union.
• The union of two or more commercial interests or corporations.
• Law.
  The absorption of a lesser estate, liability, right, action, or offense into a greater one.

atmospheric drag: (fluid mechanics) A major perturbation of close artificial satellite orbits caused by the resistance of the atmosphere; the secular effects are decreasing eccentricity, semidiameter, and period.其实就是大气阻力，我们要注意这里阻力的地道用法是drag

Villermaux is the lead author on the paper presenting these findings, published online today by Nature Physics. (Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group.)

"The common belief（这个又是传统观念的一个表达方式） was that once very small droplets have aggregated inside the cloud," they form lumps big enough to fall from the cloud, Villermaux explains. "These lumps, while they fall to reach the ground, interact with their neighbors in a kind of aggregation session to build up the distribution of the sizes in the rain as it falls."

session：

n.

• • A meeting of a legislative or judicial body for the purpose of transacting business.
  • A series of such meetings.
  • The term or duration of time that is taken by such a series of meetings.
• The part of a year or of a day during which a school holds classes.
• An assembly of people for a common purpose or because of a common interest:
  a gossip session.
• Law.
  A court of criminal jurisdiction in the United States:
  the court of sessions.
• A period of time devoted to a specific activity, as to recording music in a studio.

The problem, he says, is that those interactions are unlikely to happen in the relatively empty airspace through which rain falls. "Once the drops have left the cloud they are so dilute in the air that they are not likely to interact so much（作为副词，表示这么的多，和前面的so...that...so much连起来用，我们要会用）," he says. "Their frequency of collision is not enough for many interactions to occur from the base of the cloud to the ground."

Villermaux and then–graduate student（当时未毕业，现在已经毕业的学生的称呼） Benjamin Bossa tracked falling drops of water with a high-speed video camera, breaking down the evolution from drops to droplets frame-by-frame. To accelerate a process that ordinarily develops over a lengthy free fall, Villermaux and Bossa released their simulated rain into an upward countercurrent of air.

The drops flattened out as a result of the drag force exerted by the air, sometimes forming an extending ligament that subsequently shredded into smaller drops and sometimes inflating into a downturned bag that would then burst into numerous fragments.

The deformation and ensuing（表示前后关系） breakup of single drops produced a menagerie of smaller droplets with the same distribution of sizes that is found in natural rainfall at ground level, pointing to（就是前面的现象表明了什么。一个词和likely一样具有很好的用处） the key role of the disintegration of（和fragmentation一样表示瓦解）single drops in determining the droplets' final state.

"As soon as you've understood what occurs at the scale of a single, isolated drop, irrespective of any interaction with its neighbors, you realize that quantitatively the fragment products of a breaking drop represent the statistical content you have in rain," Villermaux says. "So the interaction mechanism is not necessary to account for the statistical content of rain. That's the key observation."


注：这篇文章很好的阐释了前面的SSS的一个听写的具体内容，这里的这幅图画也很好的帮助我们理解了这个原理！

thatllUID: 2538832

【听力---SSS--July 22, 2009】
[size=1.15em]What's on TV Is Biomedical Bonus
---A study in the journal Green Chemistry shows that a substance recovered from old liquid crystal displays, PVA, has multiple medical uses.

When TV sets die, they usually end up incinerated or in landfills（这里我们要学的是形容词和介词短语后置作为修饰成分，还有就是电视机坏了他用了die一词，还有同义替换就是end up）. But now researchers from England’s University of York believe they’ve found a valuable use for old TVs—in medicine.

Liquid crystal displays—or LCDs—are becoming increasingly popular. One key component of the display is a compound called polyvinyl-alcohol, or PVA. The researchers recovered the PVA from television screens. They then heated the material in water with microwaves, cooled it back down and washed it with ethanol. That process creates a new material called expanded PVA. And our bodies fail to mount an immune response against expanded PVA, so it’s a good substance for biomedical applications.

It’s porous with a large surface area, so the expanded PVA is a good material for cellular scaffolding that can be implanted and on which tissues can regenerate. It can also be used for pills and dressings that deliver drugs. The research was published in the journal GreenChemistry.

The study authors say billions of televisions with LCD technology are nearing the end of their lives, which means that medical dramas that once played out on the TVs may soon come from the TVs.

学习：
recover：

v.tr.

• To get back; regain.
• To restore (oneself) to a normal state:
  He recovered himself after a slip on the ice.
• To compensate for:
  She recovered her losses.
• To procure (usable substances, such as metal) from unusable substances, such as ore or waste.
• To bring under observation again:
  “watching the comet since it was first recovered—first spotted since its 1910 visit”
  (Christian Science Monitor).

v.intr.

• To regain a normal or usual condition, as of health.
• To receive a favorable judgment in a lawsuit.

SYNONYMS  recover, regain, recoup, retrieve.
These verbs mean to get back something lost or taken away.
Recover
is the least specific:
The police recovered the stolen car.
“In a few days Mr. Barnstaple had recovered strength of body and mind”
(H.G. Wells).
Regain
suggests success in recovering something that has been taken from one:
“hopeful to regain/Thy Love”
(John Milton). To
recoup
is to get back the equivalent of something lost:
earned enough profit to recoup her expenses.
Retrieve
pertains to the effortful recovery of something (retrieved the ball) or to the making good of something gone awry:
“By a brilliant coup he has retrieved . . . a rather serious loss”
(Samuel Butler).

mount:
transitive verb  
1 a : to go up  : CLIMB  b (1) : to seat or place oneself on  (2) : to climb on top of for copulation
2 a : to lift up  : RAISE  b (1) : to put or have (as artillery) in position  (2) : to have as equipment  c (1) : to organize and equip (an attacking force)  *mount an army*  (2) : to launch and carry out (as an assault or a campaign)
3 : to set on something that elevates
4 a : to cause to get on a means of conveyance  b : to furnish with animals for riding
5 : to post or set up for defense or observation  *mounted some guards*
6 a : to attach to a support  b : to arrange or assemble for use or display
7 a : to prepare (as a specimen) for examination or display  b : to prepare and supply with materials needed for performance or execution  *mount an opera*
所以这个mount有往上爬，提升，准备好，支持等意思

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【听力---SSS---July 23, 2009】
[size=1.15em]Artificial Gravity Slows Muscle Loss
---A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that spinning bedridden volunteers in a centrifuge to mimic gravity stopped the muscle loss associated with weightlessness.

[Captain Kirk:] “Would you mind telling me what this is all about（这个听起来真的很连，一定要听熟了这个）, Mister?” No problem, Captain. A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that artificial gravity should prevent a big problem faced by astronauts who stay weightless for extended periods. [Kirk:] “Are you a doctor?” Well, no, but I know the weightlessness problem: muscle decay.


Fifteen healthy men spent three weeks lying in bed. Such inactivity produces similar muscle losses as weightlessness. But eight of the volunteers were spun around in a NASA centrifuge 30 times a minute for an hour each day. The forces produced are equivalent to standing up in about two and a half times normal gravity. The spun guys kept making leg muscle proteins normally. But muscle production in the unspun group was cut almost in half.


The study has implications for elderly people here on Earth. [Kirk:] “I’m 34 years old.” Actually, if today’s 78-year-old Shatner were hospitalized, he’d quickly lose muscle. But getting Bill to stand up and move just a little each day could help him ward off muscle decay. [Kirk:] “What are we doing here?” [McCoy:] “Maybe they’re throwing us a retirement party.” [Scotty:] “That suits me, I just bought a boat.”

学习：
ward off

1.  Turn aside, parry, as in
He tried to ward off her blows.
[Second half of 1500s]

2.  Try to prevent, avert, as in
She took vitamin C to ward off a cold.
[Mid-1700s]

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【听力---SSS---July 24, 2009】
[size=1.15em]Fish Shrink to Beat Heat
[size=1.15em]---A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that the planet's warming oceans are inducing fish to get smaller as a strategy to deal with increased temperature.[size=1.15em]

[size=1.15em]Forget the meek. If the Earth keeps getting warmer, a recent study shows that it’s the small that are gonna come out（这个地方不好听，其实这里已经将going to直接写为gonna了） on top—at least in the world’s oceans. With global temperatures on the rise, scientists are trying to figure out what a warmer earth will mean for worldwide ecosystems（这种词汇要很熟，会听会用）. In aquatic environments（水环境，这样的用词要会听会用） it seems two responses have already come into play.（这个表达挺好，response这个词要会用） First, species are seeking higher altitudes and latitudes so they can stay in their comfort zones. Second, organisms are shifting key events in their life cycles, like when algae bloom or fish spawn.

Now researchers writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have discovered a third rule, if you will, that governs how（这里的govern是和前面的rule搭配主谓的） fish and other ocean-dwelling（海洋居住的） critters are working to beat the heat: they’re shrinking. Makes sense because（这是言之有理的，因为...） a smaller body means a bigger surface area to body volume and more efficient heat dumping. The researchers reviewed long-term surveys and other published results and found that the number of smaller-sized species is on the rise. And that within each species, fishes of every age are just a little bit littler than they used to be. Holy miniature mackerel.
[size=1.15em]

[size=1.15em]学习：
[size=1.15em]meek：
[size=1.15em]1 : enduring injury with patience and without resentment  : MILD
2 : deficient in spirit and courage  : SUBMISSIVE
3 : not violent or strong  : MODERATE

thatllUID: 2538832

【听力---SSS---July 27, 2009】
[size=1.15em]Toucan: Put Heat on My Bill
[size=1.15em]----A study in the journal Science finds that at least one purpose of the the giant bill of the toucan（巨嘴鸟，犀鸟） is to radiate heat.
[size=1.15em]
[size=1.15em]The toucan's long bill has long perplexed biologists. Darwin theorized（这个很难听出来） that it attracted mates. Other suggested uses ranged from fruit peeling to territorial defense. But a report in the July 24th issue of the journal Science offers another explanation as to why one-third of the bird is all shnoz. The authors of the report say the toucan's bill is so big because it acts like a radiator strapped to its face. When a toucan needs to cool down, its beak heats up. The immense surface area of the beak allows heat to quickly dissipate. In fact, the scientists say, as a toucan lowers its body temperature in preparation for sleep, it can cool 10 degrees Celsius in just minutes.


The scientists used infrared thermography（红外热成像法 infrared是红外 thermal是热 graph是图像）, the same kind of technology used in heat-sensing cameras, to observe toucans at different ambient temperatures. When outside temperatures rose, the bill also heated up, but the bird’s core body temperature did not. The scientists speculate that other big-billed birds may regulate their body temperatures this way. Since birds don’t sweat, having a handy heat dissipater undoubtedly keeps their feathers from getting ruffled（弄皱）.

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[size=1.15em]From the July 2009 Scientific American Mind

The Load of Lying: Testing for Truth
------Giving suspects an extra task helps to separate the liars from the truth tellers
[size=1.15em]By Marina Krakovsky  

We may think we know the telltale signs of lying, be it shifty eyes or nervous fidgeting. Professional interrogators look for such tells, too, assuming a suspect’s nervousness betrays his guilt. But interrogation can rattle even the innocent, so nervousness alone cannot distinguish liars from truth tellers.

telltale

: an outward sign  : INDICATION

shifty：

1 : full of or ready with expedients  : RESOURCEFUL
2 a : given to deception, evasion, or fraud  : TRICKY  b : capable of evasive movement  : ELUSIVE  *a shifty boxer*
3 : indicative of a tricky nature  *shifty eyes*

fidget: to move or act restlessly or nervously

rattle : to upset especially to the point of loss of poise and composure  : DISTURB

Scientists looking for better ways to detect lies have found a promising one: increasing suspects’ “cognitive load.” For a host of reasons, their theory goes（这里的意思就是他们的理论就是说）, lying is more mentally taxing（就是课税很重，繁重的意思，很形象） than telling the truth. Performing an extra task while lying or telling the truth should therefore affect the liars more.（就是说在说谎或者是讲真话的过程中用了while，表演一个额外的任务就会相应的影响说谎者多一点）

To test this idea, deception researchers led by psychologist Aldert Vrij of the University of Portsmouth in England asked one group to lie convincingly and another group to tell the truth about a staged theft scenario that only the truth tellers had experienced. A second pair of groups had to do the same but with a crucial twist（做相同的事但是增加一个极为关键的变形，这里用了twist还有就是用with来表达）: both the liars and the truth tellers had to maintain eye contact while telling their stories.

Later, as researchers watched videotapes of the suspects’ accounts, they tallied（记录，计算的意思） verbal signs of cognitive load (such as fewer spatial details in the suspects’ stories) and nonverbal ones (such as fewer eyeblinks). The eyeblinks are particularly interesting because whereas（这里显然用的是下面给出的词条的第二条，鉴于的意思） rapid blinking suggests nervousness, fewer blinks are a sign of cognitive load, Vrij explains—and contrary to what police are taught, liars tend to blink less. Although the effect was subtle, the instruction to maintain eye contact did magnify the differences between the truth tellers and the liars.

whereas：
1 a : while on the contrary  b : ALTHOUGH
2 : in view of the fact that  : SINCE----used especially to introduce a preamble

So do these differences actually make it easier for others to distinguish liars from truth tellers? They do—but although students watching the videos had an easier time spotting a liar in the eye-contact condition, their accuracy rates were still poor. Any group differences between liars and truth tellers were dwarfed by（be dwarfed by这个词组表示的就是和什么相比简直可以忽略不计的意思） differences between individual participants. (For example, some people blink far less than others whether or not they are lying—and some are simply better able to carry a higher cognitive load.)

All this makes it hard to put the study’s findings into practice—especially out in the field, where the people most likely to lie are those who are good at lying. “In the real world, there’s no Pinocchio-like cue that distinguishes liars from truth tellers,” says study co-author Ronald Fisher of Florida International University. Magnifying subtle differences may be the next best thing.

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【听力---SSS---July 28, 2009 】
How Orangutans Traverse Treetops
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals the secrets to how heavy orangutans travel through the trees without breaking branches and plummeting.



Why did the orangutan cross the forest canopy? Presumably, to reach some tasty fruit. But the better question might be: how did the orangutan cross the forest canopy. And according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the answer is something of a surprise.

Large apes that spend a lot of time in the treetops face a major challenge in getting to their food: how can they maneuver their bulk over those spindly little outermost branches, which hold all the best fruit? Scientists had predicted that the best way to navigate the canopy would be to swing underneath the branches, or to crawl over them carefully with knees and elbows flexed.

But orangutans have a different approach. They like to mix it up. Sometimes they move upright, sometimes horizontally with their limbs fully extended（我们可以注意到这里和上面那个粉红色和蓝色的表示动作的情形都是用with来表达，很vivid，前面的爬crawl他就用with再来解释一下knees and elbows flexed，也就是膝盖和手肘弯曲型，这里水平的move用了limbs fully extended，就是四肢充分展开，这with后面的结构都很一致，就是名词加后置定语，这样就很有画面感）. They avoid repetitive motions, which could make their perches sway even more precariously. And they tend to grab on to more than one branch at a time—a third of the time they’ve got hold of more than four at once, which is good because the apple might not fall far from the tree, but an orangutan doesn’t want to fall at all.

学习：

• arangutan是猩猩的意思。ape表示猿
• maneuver：

      intransitive verb  
      1 a : to perform a movement in military or naval tactics in order to secure an advantage  b : to make a series of changes in direction and position for a
       specific purpose        
      2 : to use stratagems  : SCHEME
      transitive verb  
      1 : to cause to execute tactical movements
      2 : to manage into or out of a position or condition  : MANIPULATE
      3 a : to guide with adroitness and design  b : to bring about or secure as a result of skillful management

• canopy：For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms.

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【听力---SSS---July 29, 2009 】
[size=1.15em]Bigger Bodies Better in Pool
A study in The Journal of Experimental Biology shows that larger, heavier athletes have an advantage in sports far removed from football or basketball: bigger bodies are better even in swimming.

When Michael Phelps is out of the water, he towers over mere non-Olympic mortals. Then he slips into（slip其实是滑行，失足，溜走，变坏的意思） the pool, and makes record-breaking speed seem effortless. His height, it turns out, is no accident. According to research published in The Journal of Experimental Biology, winning athletes are getting taller, more slender, and yet heavier in comparison to the normal population（这一段我们学到了两个普通百姓的表达，一个是mortal，一个是normal population）.

tower:不及物动词
1 : to reach or rise to a great height
2 : to exhibit superior qualities  : SURPASS  *her intellect towered over the others'*
mortal: a human being
那我们在这里就可以造句了：他比一般人要优质。He towers over mere mortals.
我们讲什么是么事情不是偶然的，可以说sth. is no accident.

Since 1900, the average person’s height has gone up by about two inches. But winning swimmers are four and a half inches taller than their old-time counterparts.

Researchers applied mathematical models of animal locomotion（这是动物运动的数学模型） to show why（用什么来证明的表达方式） height gives them a competitive advantage（竞争优势）. Coaches have said in the past that swimmers should lift their bodies out of the water because air has less drag. But researchers showed that larger bodies fall faster and more forward in the water and create a larger wave that helps push them ahead.

The authors suggest that in the future we might need weight classes for all sorts of sports, not just（不只是） boxing or wrestling. That might give one of the shorter guys a chance to win an Olympic swimming event even with Michael Phelps in the race.

thatllUID: 2538832

【听力---SSS--July 30, 2009】
Brain's Moving Experience When Reading
A study in the journal Psychological Science finds that reading about an activity activates the same brain regions involved in performing that activity（这里activate是激发的意思，而宾语后面跟了一个过去分词短语作为后置定语用来表示这个激发后的状况）.

Remember Dick and Jane? And their dog Spot? Maybe you read about them in first grade（一年级）. See Spot run. Run, Spot, run! Well, a new study in the journal Psychological Science suggests that not only did you see Spot run, but you ran, too, at least in your mind. Because reading about something turns on the same brain regions that control doing that thing.

turn on:
1 : to activate or cause to flow, operate, or function by or as if by turning a control *turn the water on full* *turn on the power*
2 a : to cause to undergo an intense often visionary experience by taking a drug; broadly : to cause to get high b : to move pleasurably *rock music turns her on*; also : to excite sexually c : to cause to gain knowledge or appreciation of something specified *turned her on to ballet*
所以这个turn on和activate就是同意替换，就是激发的意思

For years, scientists have suspected that our brains simulate（又是一个激发，activate的同义替换） the activities we read about. In behavioral studies, people who are reading about scoring a soccer goal react more quickly when asked to make a kicking motion than when told to, say, pat their heads. Now, researchers have used real-time brain-imaging techniques to watch what happens when people read a story. Twenty-eight subjects took in tales from a day in the life of Raymond, a seven-year-old boy who does things like get out of bed and sit through an English lesson（这里的表达应该是口语的那种，就是做一些比如什么什么的事情，do things like get out of bed and sit through an English lesson）. Sure enough（可以很肯定的说）, when Raymond scurries to his school desk, cells in the readers’ brains that govern scurrying also spring to life（就是突然活跃起来的意思，所以和activate也是不及物与及物的同义替换）.

Fortunately, the copycatting（copycat就是模仿的意思，就是imitate） is confined to（局限于） the brain—we don’t actually act out the things we read about. If we did, you wouldn’t want to sit next to someone skimming the daily paper.

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[size=1.15em]【听力---SSS---July 31, 2009 】
Synched Blinks Avoid Data Loss
A study in the Royal Society journal Biological Sciences shows that humans will synchronize their blinking when confronted with（注意和face的区别
这里如果用face的话就应该是facing） visual info, indicating that we time（这个词作为动词讲我们要会用） our blinks to minimize the chances we'll miss seeing anything important.

You’ve heard of synchronized swimming. But what about synchronized blinking? No, it’s not a new Olympic sport for slackers. It’s something that seems to happen when we watch a video. Because none of us want to miss the good parts.

If you stop to add it up, humans spend a lot of time not looking. We blink every couple seconds（每一些秒）, which means we lose about six seconds out of every minute of viewing time. So 10 percent of the time we have no visual information coming in. Yet we rarely notice this interruption of service.

That’s because we tend to time our blinks so that we don’t get left（失效，被击败，被遗弃） in the dark. Or so says a report（完全倒装，a report says so） in the Royal Society journal Biological Sciences. Fourteen people watched a couple episodes of Mr. Bean. And it turns out they all tended to blink at the same moments: just after Bean finished doing something stupid or when the camera showed a long shot with nothing much going on. Such synchronized eye-shutting did not happen when the subjects watched a video of fish swimming around a tank.

So when we need to pay attention, we keep our eyes open. Until we see whether Mr. Bean gets through his holiday in one piece（完整无损的，未受伤的）.

学习：
synchronize：
intransitive verb   : to happen at the same time
transitive verb  
1 : to represent or arrange (events) to indicate coincidence or coexistence
2 : to make synchronous in operation
3 : to make (motion-picture sound) exactly simultaneous with the action
注意synch=sync=synchronize

Frances0412UID: 2527227

LZ 我想问下你哈 我也在用SSS听抄 总感觉里面太多专业的词汇了（比如固有人名、地名、什么细菌名之类的）有时一篇下来N多，所以对我打击很大（因为一上来就都不会写）

你现在永60S就主要是精听了？不再听抄了，那精听是不是就是听4-5遍再对照Script检查自己没听懂的，或者标注好的表达？那么听抄还是采用DELTA一类的？

thatllUID: 2538832

146# Frances0412 恩，我改为精听了，听写我几乎还没有开始，恩，接下来应该是用delta来听写

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【很值得我们学习的一篇文章】5 Ways 'Common Sense' Lies To You Everyday
By Geoff Shakespeare March 16, 2009 1,116,348 views

Albert Einstein said common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18. It is also a result of some pervasive and extremely stupid logical fallacies that have become embedded in the human brain over generations, for one reason or another. These malfunctioning thoughts--several of which you've had already today--are a major cause of everything that's wrong with the world. #5. The Historian's Fallacy You'll Hear it As: "Hey I heard Lisa tried to stab you! You should have known that ho was crazy!" How It Screws Us: Remember that time you decided to jump off your roof and do a back flip into your little brother's kiddie pool? Remember how all your friends thought it was a great idea and it was going to be so cool? And do you remember when you regained consciousness three months later in the hospital, how suddenly they all laughed at you and said you should have known better? Congratulations, you were bitch-slapped by the Historian's Fallacy. The problem is, there is something about our brains that just won't let us put ourselves in the other guy's shoes. We're the fat guy on the couch screaming about how LeBron James "choked" because he took that bad shot instead of driving the lane. We're all convinced that, had we been in the same situation, we would have made the right decision; the Titanic wouldn't have sank, the stock market wouldn't have crashed and the PlayStation 3 wouldn't have been priced at $599. The moment we see their mistake in hindsight, we tell ourselves what morons they must have been. The problem, of course, is that when your reaction is to shake your head, laugh and call them dumbasses, it keeps you from learning from their mistakes. It Gets Worse... To see this happening on a grand scale, just open a history book, or watch the news. George Santayana famously warned in 1905 that, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and people have spent the last hundred years ignoring him. It's not so much that we don't remember the past, it's that here in the future everything they did looks retarded. What were they thinking? People don't realize that given the exact same set of circumstances and foreknowledge as Hitler in 1941, we would have invaded Russia, too. If we had been Sylvester Stallone in 1985, we would also have madeOver The Top and married Brigitte Nielsen. #4. The Nirvana Fallacy You'll Hear it As: "You gave that homeless guy a sandwich? Ha! Like that's really going to fix poverty!" How It Screws Us: The Nirvana Fallacy is when you dismiss anything in the real world because you compare it to an unrealistic, perfect alternative, by which it pales in comparison. It wouldn't be a problem, except it keeps us from getting anything done. "We were GOING to write an album, but...Nevermind." The Nirvana Fallacy. For instance, procrastination can happen for a lot of reasons--you drank too much the night before, or you're feeling uninspired, or it's your first time doing gay porn and you're having second thoughts--but one of the most common reasons we procrastinate is fear that the end result won't live up to the "perfect" idea in our heads. Think about the writer friend of yours who has never actually written anything, because they're "waiting for the right idea" for a book to come along. This is why people wind up living in their parents' basement--waiting for the perfect job, the perfect girl, the perfect friendship--before committing to anything. If you're not full of that kind of self-doubt, don't worry, there are plenty of assholes willing to supply it for you. Any incremental improvement on someone else's part is mocked as some kind of deluded hypocrisy, because anything short of perfect is not worth doing, so you might as well do nothing, like them. "Ha! You're drinking a Diet Coke with your hamburger? Like that's really going to make a difference!" "A wedding dress. Right. Like THAT will attract a guy. You're pathetic." It Gets Worse... Politicians use this to attack any idea they don't like. "Sure, your plan is helping millions of families in poverty. But I found examples of people abusing it! So we might as well scrap the whole system!" Or, you'll hear radical political types on the Internet say, "I'm not voting for any of those guys! They're no better than Bush! They're all corrupt agents of the NWO! I'm staying home until you can show me a perfect, incorruptible, intelligent politician who believes the exact same things I do!" #3. The Appeal to Probability You'll Hear it As: "Sure I bought a lottery ticket! Somebody has to win, might as well be me!" Or "They found another case of bird flu in China! If I see a bird, I'm gonna kill its ass before it can make me sick!" How It Screws Us: Our brains are stupid when it comes to calculating probability. As a result, we all have this fuzzy idea that if something can happen, it probably will. And we think this, while having no idea what "probably" even means. This is why millions of high school kids think they're going play pro sports when they grow up, even though there are only enough available jobs for a tiny fraction of them. When the news says an asteroid may hit the Earth in the next 10 million years, people will watch the skies suddenly sure that an asteroid will hit that day. And an asteroid that thinks it'll play pro sports is just the apotheosis of delusional. The Appeal To Probability is the fallacy behind one of the most cherished tenants of common sense: Murphy's Law. For those of you who aren't familiar with comical posters from the 70s, Murphy's Law states that if something bad can happen, it will happen. And while that attitude may leave you depressed and irritable, believing the opposite can leave you having to sell a kidney to pay the rent. It Gets Worse... The Appeal To Probability might be one of the most ingenious ways people convince other people to give them money. The entire gambling industry runs on it. Well, that and mountains of cocaine. Any time we buy a lottery ticket, bet on a horse or enter into a financial agreement with the deposed president of Nigeria, we're being bent over by the Appeal to Probability. Hollywood doesn't help us on this one, since every single movie is about the one-in-a-million shot going through. Nobody wants to hear about the underdog who lost the big game 49-0. So after hearing that same story several hundred times, we somehow come away with an unspoken belief that the unlikely underdog always wins. We don't stop to ask why, if that really happens, they are still called the unlikely underdog? #2. The Regression Fallacy You'll Hear it As: "If this cock ring isn't lucky, then how come I got that new job when I was wearing it?" How It Screws Us: Human beings are hardwired to see patterns. Seeing links and connections between various stimuli is a big part of how people navigate complex environments. Back in the earlier days of our evolution, it helped us to hunt and find food; today it helps us deal with people, keep track of large amounts of information and figure out just what the fuck is happening on Lost. But misfires in pattern recognition create all sorts of weirdness, particularly in the form of superstition. You're playing the slots, losing and losing, when suddenly an obese woman next to you farts. You hit the jackpot, and suddenly you're convinced her colon houses gaseous magic. You're following her around the casino the rest of the day, continually asking if she wants one of these extra burritos you happen to have lying around. It Gets Worse... A great example of The Regression Fallacy is the alleged "Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx." The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx is a supposed curse where athletes who appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated will then become terrible or have a run of bad luck afterward (there's a similar belief aboutMadden Football). Forgetting that Michael Jordan was on the cover 49 times and never had a slump, everyone fails to realize that people are often on the cover of the magazine at the height of their careers, so they're bound to get worse. Big fluctuations are natural in an athlete's career, as is a downward level of skill. That's why they call it the Regression Fallacy, because any trend is going to regress back to where it normally is. Crime goes way up in the city, they elect a new mayor, and crime goes down. Wow! This mayor is magic! Or maybe he's secretly Batman! Actually, the crime increase was out of the ordinary and crime was destined to fall back to its normal level. But the mayor--and countless other politicians and gurus--will make an entire career out of exploiting the Regression Fallacy. #1. Special Pleading You'll Hear it As: "I know I was a heroin addict, but this is different. It's meth." How It Screws Us: Although it sounds like what you'll need to do to get your significant other to, just this once, try on a rubber hood and call you "Duke," Special Pleading is actually when we allow something to be an exception to a rule, for no logical reason. In every day life, people use Special Pleading to make them feel less guilty about doing shitty things. When someone else eats the last doughnut, they're a classless motherfucker who deserves to rot in Hell; when you or a friend does it, it's because you were really hungry and you've had a bad day and you didn't get any doughnuts the last time. Special Pleading is the lettuce in mankind's hypocrisy salad. We'll slow down with the food references, now. It Gets Worse... You don't need us to point out examples of hypocrisy, from cops who won't write traffic tickets to other cops, to politicians who talk about how important the public school system is while putting their own kids in a exclusive private schools. What's interesting is how everyone excuses it in their own mind. You can't find anyone who simply says, "The rules don't apply to us because we're awesome!" Thanks to Special Pleading, there are elaborate mental gymnastics that happen inside them that eliminate even their feelings of guilt. And the thing is, sometimes they're right; you did call your boss a motherfucker because you were having a bad day. You do have bad habits due to your childhood upbringing. You wereabrupt with your girlfriend because you were running late. But what's strange is we don't let anyone else have those excuses. The girl behind the counter at Starbucks wasn't rude because she was having a bad day. She's just a bitch. The kid at Best Buy wasn't just clueless about the return policy, he was intentionally evil and trying to steal your money. Some of us have held grudges for years, based on actions by someone else that we've forgiven ourselves for doing countless times. They might as well call it the "This Is Why The World Seems to be Full of Dicks" fallacy. Don't miss Michael Swaim's look at The 4 Most Impressive Wastes of Time on Record. And find out how else you continue to be your own worst enemy, in 5 Ways Your Brain Is Messing With Your Head and Sleep Jerk to Piss Shivers: 5 Body Mysteries Explained. And visit Cracked.com's Top Picks because your brain will force you to, anyway. The Regression Fallacy

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【上文的翻译】

每天都在愚弄我们的五种常识

Albert Einstein 说,所谓常识是指人在18岁之前形成的一些固定思维模式. 但它可能是一种，出于这样或那样的原因，非常普遍但极其愚蠢的逻辑，经过几代人的传播，深深的植入了人的思想里。 这些错误的思维--有些估计你今天都用过--是导致这个世界总是发生错误的一个主要原因。
#5.
历史学家的谬论

你会听到这样的话：
“喂，我听说Lisa想要刺杀你！ 你要明白，他已经疯了！”
它是如何愚弄我们的：
还 记得你决定从屋顶上跳下，做过后空翻，跳进你弟弟的小水池里的事情吗？ 是否还记得，所有你的朋友都认为这是个好主意，这样做一定很酷？ 同样，是否还记得，三个月后你，你刚医院里恢复神智时，所有的朋友都在笑你，并且说你早该知道这个后果。 恭喜，你就是被历史学家谬论扇了耳光的那个笨蛋。

问 题在于，我们的大脑中有一些东西总是不能让我们设身处地的站在他人的角度上想问题。 我们就像一个胖家伙坐在沙发上尖叫：詹姆士邦德枪法太烂了，只会开车逃跑，所以才会被被人掐住脖子。 我们都深信不疑：如果我们处在这样的境地，我们一定会做出正确的选择；泰坦尼克号将不会沉没，股市不会崩盘， PlayStation 3将不会只卖到599美元。
每当在事后看他们的错误，我们都会告诉自己这些人肯定是痴呆儿。 于是，问题就在这，人的第一反应控制了我们的大脑，嘲笑他们，挖苦他们，这些反应使我们拒绝了从他们的错误中吸取教训。
更糟糕的是...
让 我们更大的背景上看这个问题，只要你翻开历史书，或看看新闻就能明白。 George Santayana 在1905年曾有过这样一个著名的警言，“不能记住历史的人肯定会重蹈覆辙”，人们花费了数百年的时间终于把这句话给忘了。 并不是我们不能记住历史，只是在历史的今天，我们看那些发生过的事，会觉得他们很弱智。

What were they thinking?

人们不能明白，还是在相同的环境下，相同的知识背景下，希特勒还会在1941年发动对俄的战争。 如果我们是1985年的席维斯·史泰龙，我们同样会拍“Over The Top”，同样会娶了Brigitte Nielsen。
#4.
解脱谬论

你应该听到过：
“你给了这个流浪汉一个汉堡？ 嗨！ 这就能拯救贫困的人吗！”
它是如何愚弄我们的：
解脱谬论经常出现在你放弃了这个世界，你拿一个不现实的、完美的世界与这个现实的世界做比较，当然我们的世界会显得如此苍白。 这一般不会有什么问题，除非它让你无所事事。

"We were GOING to write an album, but...Nevermind." The Nirvana Fallacy.

例如，一个人的做事拖拉，通常会有很多原因--晚上喝的太多、找不到灵感，或者是第一次干同性恋的事，有点犹豫--但最常见的导致拖拉的原因是我们担心没有完美的结局。 想想你的那些从未动过笔的作家朋友，他们不写一个字，只是因为他们在等待一个“绝妙的灵感”。
这就是为什么人们要待在父母的家里，不做任何事情，直到找到一个完美的工作，完美的女友，完美的朋友。
如果你认为我说的这些问题都不属于你，别担心，这里还有更多的情况能让你对号入座。 任何别人身上的任何改进都会被嘲笑为某种虚伪，因为任何不完美的东西都不值得做，所以你只好什么都不做，就像他们。“嗨！ 你一边吃汉堡一边喝减肥可乐？ 你真是有个性的人呀！”

"A wedding dress. Right. Like THAT will attract a guy. You're pathetic."

更糟糕的是...
政治家们用它去攻击他们不喜欢的主张。“确实，你的方案帮助了百万的贫穷的家庭。 但是我看到有人滥用它！ 所以我们最后废掉这整套制度。”
或者，你会看到激进分子在网上说，“我绝对不会投票给这些家伙们！ 他们都比不上布什！ 他们都是NWO派出的腐败代表！ 我会一直就坐在家里不出去投票，直到他们找出一个完美的，廉洁的，智慧的，跟我有完全相同的政治主张的政治家！”
#3.
概率的感染力

你应该听说过这个：
“我确实买了一张彩票！ 既然有人会中奖，那就有可能是我！”
或者
“他们在中国发现了另外一种禽流感！ 如果我看见了那只鸟，我一定把它射下来，以免让我恶心。！”
他是如何愚弄我们的：
当我们的大脑计算概率时，我们就会犯傻。 这导致，我们都会有个隐约的认识：如果某事存在发生的概率时，那它就可能发生了。 可是，当我们认为这样时，却不能说出这里的“可能”意味什么。
这句就是为什么百万计的高校学生都想着去加入职业体育运动，即使是这里只有很小的就业率在他们的面前。 当新闻上说将会有一个彗星在一亿年后撞击地球时，人们就会往天上看看，好像今天就要有个彗星落下来似的。

And an asteroid that thinks it'll play pro sports is just the apotheosis of delusional.

概率的诱惑就是这些大多数心存幻想的人们中以常识的思维保留的谬论：墨菲法则。  有些人对70s年那些滑稽的海报可能没有多少了解。墨菲法则认为凡有可能发生的事终将发生。 这种主张会给我们留下沮丧和恼怒的情绪，让我们相信有一天绝境会逼的我们卖掉孩子去付房租。
更糟糕的是...
概率的诱惑还会成为一个最奇妙的因素来让我们相信别人会给我们钱。 整个赌博业都都是居于此。 对，还有那些生产可卡因的。 任何时候的买彩票，买马的行为都是这个概率的诱惑让我们下定了决心。

好 莱坞更是在这方面帮倒忙，因为任何一个电影故事都是百万分之一机会的人才能遇到的。 没有人愿意听菜鸟以49-0大比分输掉比赛的故事。 所以当我们看了成百上千的电影后，我们不知怎的产生了这样不可打破的信仰：不幸的菜鸟一定会赢。 我们如果继续追问为什么，那如果这个事情真的发生了，那我们还会叫菜鸟们为“菜鸟”吗？
复古谬论

你应该听过：
“如果这个公鸡环没有灵性，为什么我一带上它就找到工作了呢？”
它是如何愚弄我们的：
模式思维是人的天性。 观察不同事务直接的联系是人能在复杂环境中生存的条件。 回到人类进化早期，它能帮助我们去猎捕食物；今天它能帮助我们和人打交道，分析各种信息，搞清楚电视剧“ Lost”里今天有发生了什么破事情。

但 模式思维的不准确导致了很多古怪的事情。特别是迷信。 一个在玩老虎机，输了又输，突然他旁边的一个胖女人放了一个屁。 他一下子就中的最大的注，他突然意识到这个女人结肠里产生的这种气体一定有某种魔力。 余下的时间他一直赌场里跟着这个女人，不停的问她：我这正好有个玉米饼，你要不要再吃一块。
更糟糕的是...
一个很著名的复古谬论是这个“体育画报封面厄运”的断言。

“体 育画报封面厄运”是一个给运动员下的咒语，运动员只要出现在“体育画报”杂志封面上，那他就会走厄运。 人们忘了迈克尔乔丹曾经49此出现在封面上，从来没有倒霉过一次，人们不能认识到这一点是因为他们不清楚当那些人出现在封面上时正是因为他们处在事业的巅 峰期，此后当然会走下坡路。 大的波动在运动员的生涯中是正常的，就像他们的技术水平会衰退一样。
这 就是为什么称之为复古谬论，因为所有的趋势都最后会趋向最初正常的状态。 城市里犯罪增多，他们选了一个新市长，犯罪率下来了。 哦！ 这个市长很神奇！ 也许他就是神秘的蝙蝠侠！ 事实上，犯罪率超出了他的正常水平后，肯定会恢复到它最初的正常的水平。 但是市长--以及其他的无数的政治家，领袖--将会利用这个复古谬论来开发他们的政治生涯。
#1.
狡辩

你应该听说过：
“我知道我有毒瘾，但这此不同。 这只是甲安菲他明(一种兴奋剂)。”
它是如何愚弄我们的：
虽然这个听起来有时是你需要的，就像你真的需要你的一个重要的人--就一次--带上假发称呼你“公爵”，狡辩就是我们有时需要走个例外，没有任何理由。
每 天，我们都会使用狡辩减少我们做龌龊事情时的内疚感。 如果谁吃了那最后一个炸面圈，那他就是应该在地狱里下油锅的无耻的东西；当如果是你或者你的朋友做了这个事，那会是因为你实在太饿了，或你今天太倒霉了， 所以你不会被认为无耻。 狡辩就是人类的虚伪做成的沙拉里的生菜。

We'll slow down with the food references, now.

更糟糕的是...
我们不需要举例说明我们的虚伪，从警察从不给其他警察贴条，到政治家们大谈公立学校的重要性时把自己的孩子送到私立学校。
人们在心里是如何原谅自己的呢？多有趣呀。
你 很难看到一个人会简单的说，“这个规定不适用我们，因为我们特殊！”感谢狡辩的功能，人需要非常复杂的心理运动才能消除他们内心存在的内疚感。 同时，有时候，人们是对的；你说老板是无赖，因为你今天很倒霉。 你养成的坏习惯归咎于你童年时代的成长。 因为你今天晚点了，所以你才对女朋友粗鲁了。

可奇怪的是，我们不从允许他人例外托词。 星巴克柜台后的那个女孩不该粗鲁，即使她今天心情不好。 她就是个婊子。 沃尔玛的那个家伙不知道退货的原则，他就是故意使坏，成心骗我的钱。 有些人积怨多年，就是因为某些的人言行，而自己做了同样的事情无数次，却没有一次放在心上。
也许我们应该称这叫做“为什么这个世界上这多傻B”谬论。

简单说来就是
5：事后诸葛亮
4：明日复明日，明日何其多
3：善有善报，恶有恶报，不是未报，时候不到。。。算是侥幸心理吧，期待奇迹出现
2：据说智商测试的出题思路之一就是检验对事物因果关系的洞察能力
1：我什么都懂，可是。。。
想想与其说是“愚弄我们的常识”，不如说大多是自身的心理和性格弱点吧，不然好像又不自觉的把责任推给了全人类，陷入了第一条，给自己找借口了，呵呵

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【听力---SSS-June 1, 2009】
Bad Mileage Driving Tips
----In response to Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn's critique of new federal mileage standards as a threat to personal freedom, some tips on turning even a high-mileage vehicle（就是指高英里数的交通工具，即快速车，mileage就是英里数） into a gas hog（gas hog就是很费油的汽车）.

On May 19th, President Obama announced a new federal gas mileage standard. He wants the country’s entire car and light truck fleet to（这是一个减少到的同义替换） average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Some reaction was swift（就是反应迅速的意思） and to the point（就是切中要害）. Here’s forlorn Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn: “What if（如果...怎么办？） you want to drive a gas hog? You don’t have the right any longer in this country to spend your money to drive a gas hog?”

fleet：v.intr.
1，To move or pass swiftly.
2，To fade out; vanish.
那这里就是第一个意思
swift：
1 : moving or capable of moving with great speed  *a swift runner*
2 : occurring suddenly or within a very short time  *a swift transition*
3 : quick to respond  : READY
那这里是第三个意思
forlorn：

adj.

• • Appearing sad or lonely because deserted or abandoned.
  • Forsaken or deprived:
    forlorn of all hope.
• Wretched or pitiful in appearance or condition:
  forlorn roadside shacks.
• Nearly hopeless; desperate.

Fret not（别焦虑的意思）, Senator, because with the proper care, upkeep（维修费） and driving behavior, it’s possible to squeeze many fewer miles out of a given gallon of gas than whatever standard（任何什么标准） the feds（就是政府的意思） might impose on us. Here are some tips for turning even the most fuel-efficient vehicle into a gas-guzzling（高耗油的） petroleum pig:

Keep your tires under-inflated（充气不足）. Always do jackrabbit starts（快速启动，这个jackrabbit是长耳大野兔的意思，意味着类似兔子似的启动）. Never get a tune-up（发动机的调整）. Avoid driving at a steady speed on highways. Add whatever doodads you can to the surface to increase wind resistance. And when all else fails, put her up on blocks and just keep spinning your wheels.

doodad：
1 : an ornamental attachment or decoration
2 : an often small article whose common name is unknown or forgotten : GADGET