时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(十二)月


英语课

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.


They call it culturomics: the obvious play on the word "genomics" looks at trends in human thought and culture. But scientists say culturomics has been hampered 1 by a lack of quantitative 2 data. So researchers at Harvard, along with Google, Encyclopedia 3 Britannica, and the American Heritage Dictionary, have come up with a new tool.


It's a database of 5.2 million books, published since the year 1500. That's four percent of all the books ever published, with a total of 500 billion words. The focus is on English language culture, so three quarters of the books are in English.


Among the first findings of the research, published in the journal Science: about, 8500 new words enter the English language annually 4. But many of them don't end up in dictionaries. And about fame—actors become famous around age 30, writers around 40, and politicians around 50. But the fame of politicians can eventually exceed that of actors.


A Google tool called the Books Ngram Viewer is available based on this data—users can track the usage and frequency of a word or phrase over the past few centuries. Thus, we can watch the fall and rise of Melville. And soon the rise and fall of Snooki.


Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Cynthia Graber.



1 hampered
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )
  • The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
  • So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。
2 quantitative
adj.数量的,定量的
  • He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
  • We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。
3 encyclopedia
n.百科全书
  • The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
  • Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书,他什么都懂。
4 annually
adv.一年一次,每年
  • Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
  • They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
标签: 托福素材 sss
学英语单词
a peck of salt eaten since
A-certificate
acoustic scale
acoustical spectrometer
aggregate averaging
agonistic
agroecosystem research
air-borne transmission
air-spun acetate rayon
anachis liocyma
automatic computer telex system
benzylmethylphenyl-phosphine
bleyl
book binding
Bourg-Dun
braunii
build number
butt cheek
Cairina moschata
call down on someone's head
cladding tube wall thickness
compulsory power
connoisseur impact assessment
Corydalis pseudodensispica
crippin
data map
density of steam
diehardism, die-hardism
dissociative laser
emission spectrum
FA (full-arc)
failover capability
fishing tackles
fundamental stability criterion numeral
furnace roof
gas-tight gland
Gastrine
gauntries
genetic unbalance
Guernseys
heating characteristic of building
Heavy Machinery Export Council
heroes of alexandria
hole wall
Home Owner's Loan Corporation
hot-wire scalloping
Ileoureterostomy
imperfect double monster
instantaneous strain
joygasm
l-hyoscyamine
La Paz
lawn tennis
letter-opener
Littre's colotomy
mare australe
nanosponges
Nicolae
nonfarm payrolls
oil cold test
oligotrophic bog
optical scanning device
over-range
overcalling
overgate capacity
pittet
polysulphide
post-radical
pretermitted child
Pugo-dong
pulls himself together
pulse-code modulation (pcm)
RADOT
reactor behavior
remote control station
reraises
reusable disk queuing
romanizes
self-generateds
Senekal
Smith Glacier
smokeries
somatic sensory column
speak-box
sphenodon punctatums
spooled printing
subjoins
suillus americanus
sun-tanned
tear from
tetramethyl-oxamide
unigemmata
unloading machine with chain buckets
unpurses
unvalue
virus bundle
vision transmitter
volland
W boson
wave orthogonal
Wegner's disease
Zolotarëvka