【揽瓜阁4.0】onemoreresort打卡帖

onemoreresort

RC

onemoreresort

DAY 1

Pinduoduo faces growing PR crisis over employee death.

1.Main ideas:
One of the online shopping companies in China is facing public blast for its long working hours and gruel corporate culture as the incident that an employee died in hospital after collapsing on her way home went viral.

2.Structure
Introduction of the incident
The incident revives the concerns about the ”966” norm and gruelling schedule
Long working hours vs fabulous financial and market performance
The company’s reaction to the death and the public blast
The authority’s investigation into the company

3.Sentences
The long hours often expected of employees are known as “996”
Pinduoduo in particular is known for its gruelling schedules and a secretive culture

4.Vocabulary
None

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 20min


Economic Scene;Good news for the down and out, or are the data misleading?

1.Main idea
Refutes a theory forwarded by two scholars and presents considerations why the theory is wrong


2.Structure
Presents a theory proposed by two scholars
Another scholar, Mr. Gottschalk, refutes the theroy, giving three reasons:
(1)Erroneous income measurement
(2)Inaccurate sample population
(3)Mingle the economic mobility with accumulation of work experience
Moshe Buchinsky and Jennifer Hunt of Yale University argue that economic mobility had actually fallen since 1980

3.Sentences
Meanwhile, 29 percent of them had managed to grab the brass ring, ending up in the top fifth.

The Cox-Alm study, published in the Dallas Federal Reserve's 1995 annual report, is making big waves among the movers and shakers of the political right. Indeed, after a ringing endorsement from the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, it has become required reading for conservatives impatient with the current hand-wringing over the alleged plight of the young and immobile.

Indeed, even a casual look suggests that something -- actually, many things -- are amiss.

The large and growing variations between those at the top and bottom that have been reported by the Census are, of course, cause for disquiet.


4.Vocabulary
disquiet: a feeling of worry or nervousness =concern
the brass ring: a very desirable prize, goal, or opportunity
hand-wringing: worried talk or behavior
amiss: not proper or correct =wrong
split hairs : to argue about small details or differences that are not important

5.Timing
Reading- 6min
Summarizing- 30min

onemoreresort

DAY2

Shades of black：For centuries, the colour black has tested artists’ ingenuity

1.Main ideas:
Black had not been a favorite colour for a long time. It was only when black pigments were successfully mixed with gum arabic or linseed oil that it became possible to create the black gloss that many European artists came to love. At that time, not all the artists had a preference for black. Through out 20th century, the artists who used black to express their ideas and feeling had increased substantially.

2.Structure
Most colours represent different things for different nationality and occupation, and many artists’ views of black color differed greatly.
It was only when black pigments—made from coal, lampblack or even burned ivory—were successfully mixed with gum arabic or linseed oil that it became possible to create the black gloss that many European artists came to love.
Through out 20th century and first 15 years of 21st century, the artists who used black to express their ideas and feeling had increased substantially.

3.Sentences
It is bound up with witchcraft, the underworld, night-time and the far side of the Moon.
Black skin has its own, entwined but distinct, artistic history, with vexed connotations of power, prejudice and eroticism.
Black became the colour of distinction.
It wasn’t only a hue in its own right, artists realised, but an enlivener of other colours.
The series of works inspired by his nocturnal ramblings represented something of an epiphany for Palmer.
Unveiled against the backdrop of the first world war and turmoil in Russia, Malevich’s “Black Square” marked a turning-point in modern art.

4.Vocabulary
Banish: to make somebody/something go away; to get rid of somebody/something
Disciple: follower
Contours: the outer edges of something; the outline of its shape or form
Entwined: to twist together or around
Eroticism: a quality that causes sexual feelings
Vexed: difficult and frustrating to deal with

5.Timing
Reading- 9min
Summarizing- 30min



1.Main ideas:
Civil law systems were far more protective of women’s property than the common law system was.

2.Structure
Law was one of the main determinants of women’s experiences in colonial America.
Women gained tangible benefits from civil law systems that they did not enjoy under common law.
New Mexico provides a good example of the impact of Spanish law on colonial women, while New York provides a more complex example of a civil law system
An example of women’s rights under common law

3.Sentences
Women throughout the colonies lived in patriarchal social systems that limited their autonomy and power.

4.Vocabulary
Dowry: money or property that a wife or wife's family gives to her husband when the wife and husband marry in some cultures
community property :the joint ownership of the property of a husband and wife
tangible: easily seen or recognized

5.Timing
Reading- 3min
Summarizing- 15min

onemoreresort

DAY3

What quantum computers reveal about innovation：Venture capital is often the last guest to arrive at the party

1.Main ideas:
Today, quantum computing is at last becoming a commercial proposition, thanks to a slew of venture capitalist. Although we cannot deny the significance of people working on the financial field to take nascent technologies and spin out profitable businesses, we must remember less celebrated, less glorified work must be done first.

2.Structure
Background information: quantum computing was coined 40 years ago.
Today, quantum computing is at last becoming a commercial proposition.
Quantum computing offers a worked example of how complicated technologies develop in industrial societies.


3.Sentences
That is a reminder of the limits of “great man” theories of innovation, exemplified by the cult of Steve Jobs, a founder of Apple.
Building them could open up entirely new vistas.

4.Vocabulary
facility: ability
cull: select, kill
nascent: beginning
tangle: a confusing or complicated situation
vistas: vision
buttoned up=not friendly=reserved
abstruse=obscure

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 30min

The Next Ice Age

1.Main ideas:
Global warming may cause a mini ice age, reducing worldwide temperature.

2.Structure
Presents a seemingly paradox involving global warming and mini ice age.
The freshwater trend under the North Atlantic is the cause.
Explain how the freshwater trend cause the little ice age: by subverting the penetration of the Gulf Stream waters. Because the southward cascading cold currents are much less dense now, the Gulf Stream meandering up northward would be laden with less heat.

3.Sentences
This massive column of cascading cold is the main engine powering a deepwater current called the Great Ocean Conveyor that snakes through all the world's oceans.

4.Vocabulary
subvert: undermine
meander =snake=twist
cascading: hung
waft: drift=move gently
balmy=mild pleasant

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 30min

onemoreresort

DAY4

Surrogacy – wish fulfilment or exploitation?

1.Main ideas:
The author contends that we should put all perspectives into consideration about surrogacy after exploring both the positive life-time dream fulfillment for the intended parents and the pressure for surrogate mothers resulting from health risk of pregnancy and subversion of human rights.

2.Structure
Introduction of the topic by referring to BBC 2’s series.
The law reform and consultation concerning surrogacy.
Break down to three important aspects:
(1)potential power imbalances between surrogate mothers and intended parents
(2)the risks of pregnancy and birth taken on by the surrogate mother
(3)human rights concerns that may crop up during a surrogate mother’s antenatal, intrapartum and/or postnatal care

3.Sentences
Surrogates may experience coercion from intended parents during their antenatal care or birth.
That includes those whose experiences have not been so rosy, and who instead encountered challenging power imbalances between themselves and the intended parents, or who felt that their human rights were subtly or overtly undermined during their pregnancy or birth, or who suffered unexpected physical or emotional repercussions. There are two sides to this story, and both must be told.

4.Vocabulary
coercion: force=pressure
Rosy=promising
crop up=happens, usually unexpectedly
obstetrician: a doctor who is specially trained to deal with pregnant women and with women who are giving birth
psychosis: mental illness of a severe kind which can make people lose contact with reality.
barring postmaturity=except postmaturity


5.Timing
Reading- 7min
Summarizing- 30min


Hispanic Law Water Right.

1.Main ideas:
The author rebukes some historians’ position that the distortion of water rights in some states was due to loss of Hispanic learning or lack of substantiating evidence, but the real reason was state judges did abuse their power on purpose.   

2.Structure
Introduction of the topic by comparison
On the turn of 20th century, state judges asserted, despite on the contrary to the Hispanic tradition, municipal and riparian water rights, causing water monopoly.
In the Hispanic Southwest, communal water system was far from being absolute and exclusive.The author argues that real reason of the distortion of water rights in some states was that state judges did abuse their power on purpose.   

3.Sentences
In contrast to the common law water regime of riparian and prior appropriation rights emphasizing individual property interests, a communal water system prevailed in the Hispanic Southwest

4.Vocabulary
riparian: relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (such as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater
doctrine: a statement of official government policy
stare decisis: a policy of law that requires courts to abide by laws and precedents previously laid down as applicable to a similar set of facts
Regime: policy


5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 25min

onemoreresort

DAY5

The pandemic has changed China’s nightclubs：It has given local DJs a chance to shine

1.Main ideas:
Nightclubs in china have weathered the pandemic and revived, providing a slew of local DJs unprecedented opportunities to perform.

2.Structure
Nightclubs in china have weathered the pandemic and many can make even.
Nightclubs in china give locals a chance to shine.
The pandemic speeds up the spread of China’s club culture beyond its traditional bases.
Negative effects resulting from tapping local DJs.

3.Sentences
The pandemic has wrought changes, nonetheless.

4.Vocabulary
Faff:a thing that is awkward or time-consuming to do
Bop=dance
Punters:customers or clients
Reveller=pleasure-seeker=partygoer
wrought a change= made it happen

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 15min


Review: Jim Crow's Offense

1.Main ideas:
Presents two related interpretive debates on the nature and evolution of race relations in the South and the shifting responses to oppression.

2.Structure
The social relations of slavery gave way to an "informal code of exclusion and discrimination”.
Race relations were not functions of class relations.
Presents the journey the black people in the south took to stand against racial discrimination.

3.Sentences
The final stage of the journey, initiated by the Great Migration during World War I and symbolized by the "New Negro"  was characterized by pragmatic opportunism.
It was the perception of a threat to rigidity that  provoked the construction of a legal edifice to enforce an already familiar definition of place

4.Vocabulary
Flickering: shining with an unsteady light
Fluidity: used to describe something that can change easily or that changes often
Edifice: a system of beliefs or a traditional institution
Emblematic:symbolic

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 25min

onemoreresort

DAY6

What really killed the dinosaurs?Lingering doubts about the cause of a mass extinction are put to rest

1.Main ideas:
Toxic and climate-changing gases from volcano eruptions are the underlying cause of the mass extinction of dinosaurs.

2.Structure
Common believe
New evidence
Elaborate on data
Explian the link between toxic, climate-changing gases from volcano and dinosaur extinction.

3.Sentences

And modelling suggests the planet would have been a pretty uncomfortable place for quite some time afterwards, with ejecta suspended in the atmosphere blotting out the sun, and acid rain changing the chemical composition of the oceans.

  
4.Vocabulary
blot out=cover/hide
ambient temperature=the temperature of the surrounding area
holdout=someone who refuses to agree or act with other people
5.Timing
Reading- 3min
Summarizing- 20min

The search for dark matter in the recent majestic universe

1.Main ideas:
Dark matter is not made of protons, neutrons and neutrinos, which was a candidate, but created from supersymmetry, one of the “cold” dark matter, among which neutralino is the lightest particle.

2.Structure
Dark matter is not made of protons, neutrons and neutrinos.
The best fit to the astronomical observations involves “cold’ dark matter.
Supersymmetry, one of the “cold” dark matter, is the best known candidate
Neutralino, the lightest particle from Supersymmetry, is one of substances that fashion dark matter.

3.Sentences
Those calculations have been corroborated by measurements of primordial hydrogen, helium and lithium in the universe.

4.Vocabulary
primordial=primeval=very ancient
fleet-footed=able to run fast
amalgam= mixture
photon=a particle of light.

5.Timing
Reading- 3min
Summarizing- 25min

Bonus

1.Main ideas:
Territoriality is rooted in human genes, whereas other species whose population is not affected by limiting resources do not evolve a hereditary response.

2.Structure
Introduction by a phenomenon.
The hypothesis that some species has a territorial defense while others don’t.
Humanity is decidedly a territorial species

3.Sentences
The theoretical explanation is that individuals hereditarily are predisposed to defend private resources.

4.Vocabulary
imperative=rule=duty
predisposed=subject
prudent=vigilant/sensible/thrifty

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 20min

onemoreresort

DAY7

The rising prevalence of dementia is a global emergency：It requires more research, better provision for long-term care and changes in individual behaviour

1.Main ideas:
We should act to stem the rising of dementia and the government should provide the public a better way to cope with it.

2.Structure
dementia is already a global emergency.
Every cloud has a silver lining-probable health regimes and drugs
Government should do (1)recall the urgency; (2)provide ways for long-term care for people with dementia and funding (3)public-health campaigns

3.Sentences
Perhaps that is enough to make you throw up your hands in despair.
The first step is to recall the urgency with which many were promising to tackle the problem just a few years ago.
It does not advance at the speed of a viral infection but with the ponderous inevitability of demographic change.
No cure is in the offing.


4.Vocabulary
be in the offing = to be likely to happen soon :  
patchy:not thorough or complete enough to be useful
ponderous=slow and clumsy

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 18min

Did Tough Antitrust Enforcement Cause the Diversification of American Corporations?

1.Main ideas:
Refute a theory concerning a economic phenomenon

2.Structure
Introduction of the phenomenon and common belief
Reasons about being skeptical of the antitrust hypothesis

3.Sentences
This corroborates the negative view of the antitrust hypothesis that emerges from the American data.

4.Vocabulary
to detriment of =causes harm or damage
flush with cash=affluent

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 15min



Bonus
1.Main ideas:
Artisan gained significant respect concerning their political role, while the changes in modes of production subverted their economic interest.


2.Structure
Artisan gained significant respect concerning their political role.
The changes in modes of production subverted their economic interest.

3.Sentences
Groups like the Committee of Mechanics in the New York stood in the vanguard of resistance
Master craftspeople, responding to the widespread prosperity and demand for goods in the early years of the nation, attempted to reduce their costs of production by hiring unskilled and inexperienced workers instead of artisans and intruding machinery into the workshop.

4.Vocabulary
slur=insult
intrude: to thrust or force in or upon someone or something especially without permission, welcome, or fitness

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 10min

onemoreresort

DAY8

Does it matter if “The Crown” fictionalises reality?It is more truthful than the story the royals sold

1.Main ideas:
The author refutes a view concerning the release of the series produced by Netflix and propose we should care more about “real politics”

2.Structure
A view and statements pertaining to the crown coming out from a government official  
Comments on the statement and points out that royals are also the purveyors of the untruths
The government’s concern for veracity is welcome and we should care more about “real politics”

3.Sentences
Its theme is the conflict between duty and personal fulfilment, which causes pain to cascade down from generation to generation.

4.Vocabulary
redeeming quality/feature = the one good thing about an unpleasant person or thing
snub=to treat someone rudely,  
traduce=slander
bulimia= a serious physical and emotional illness in which people and especially young women eat large amounts of food and then cause themselves to vomit in order to not gain weight
a rasping termagant= a harsh nagging woman
veracity=truth or accuracy
purveyor=a person or business that sells or provides something
  

5.Timing
Reading- 5min
Summarizing- 20min

Anna Wetherill Olmsted and the Ceramic National exhibitions in 1930s USA


1.Main ideas:
Explain why a public figure lose her influence

2.Structure
Present a social phenomenon
Explain the reasons behind it: (1) she was not a ceramicist; rather she was a curator, organizer and facilitator; (2)she was not able to self-promote her personal image; (3) she was seen as an obstacle to change to the industry

3.Sentences
the curatorial stance which she epitomized had been rejected by 1989

4.Vocabulary
curatorial stance=administrative position
dissemination=spread
epitomize=represent

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 12min

onemoreresort

DAY9
Using satellites to spot industry’s methane leaks：To help combat climate change

1.Main ideas:
Satellites can spot methane leaks oil and gas industry and thus mitigate the burden of combating global warming.

2.Structure
Using a satellites, a company spot a leak of methane gas.
This incident has caused immense concern among scholars and the public.
How the satellites work to effect a change more efficiently than other methods do.
More and more satellite are on their way to function as a protector of the globe.

3.Sentences
Methane can be detected spectroscopically.
Like other gases, it absorbs light at characteristic frequencies.
With a spectrometer mounted on a satellite it is possible to analyse light reflected from Earth for signs of the gas.

4.Vocabulary
mounted on=attached to
burnish=polish/improve
plug=seal=fill
blowout=sudden increase of sth
spectral=related to spectrum/like a ghost
pixel = the smallest area on a computer screen which can be given a separate colour by the computer.
spectroscopical=the scope of spectrum
characteristic frequencies=typical frequencies

5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 20min


Radiocarbon Dating by Accelerator MassSpectrometry

1.Main ideas:
Introduce a new method of dating and the application and consequence of the method

2.Structure
Introduce a new method of dating
Limitations of the old method
Breakthrough of the new method
Applications and significance of the method

3.Sentences
The earlier, conventional measurements had been based on whole collagen, which cannot be guaranteed to be free of modern carbon

4.Vocabulary
collagen= a protein found in people and animals. It is often used in beauty products and treatments to make people look younger and more attractive.
amino acids = substances containing nitrogen and hydrogen and which are found in proteins. Amino acids occur naturally in the body.
specimen=a small amount or piece of something


5.Timing
Reading- 4min
Summarizing- 15min