Vocabulary

躲藏起来，隐居（在此语境中指专注于工作而几乎与外界隔绝）

"The week before Christmas 2025, five mathematicians were holed up in a classroom at ETH Zurich."

差一点，几乎就要（达到某目标或状态），强调相距极近且略带紧张感

"The mood was electric: They were this close to a career-defining breakthrough."

加速（进展、速度，或时间的推进）

"About a decade ago, the field began to accelerate again."

不断完善，精益求精直到趋于完美（在数学语境中指打磨、完善证明的细节）

"The group — consisting of then-postdocs Sahar Diskin and Philip Easo, graduate student Ritvik Ramanan Radhakrishnan, Benny Sudakov, and Vincent Tassion — was perfecting a solution to one of the biggest open problems in percolation theory, the study of flow in a network."

密集交错的网络体系（在数学文章中常描绘无限连通结构上像织物一样的关联）

"Small, isolated pools of fluid suddenly coalesce into an infinite web of connected rivers."

草地，牧场（此处与海洋相对，用低植被景观象征稀疏但连续的结构网络）

"Was the infinite web a meadow crisscrossed with streams — or was it more like an ocean, swamping the entire graph?"

（活动的）短促密集爆发（在正式学术史叙事中形容论文一篇接一篇涌现）

"Over the next decade, Benjamini, Schramm, and their colleagues published a flurry of results on the percolation of transitive graphs."

被强烈激发出好奇心的，因发现难以捉摸的新奇之处而着迷

"Benjamini was intrigued by these interdisciplinary possibilities — he hoped the percolation process would reveal insights into the graph itself."

如洪水般完全吞没覆盖（让……不堪重负式的浸没）

"Was the infinite web a meadow crisscrossed with streams — or was it more like an ocean, swamping the entire graph?"

纵横交织，（线条）从不同方向交叉穿越形成网状图案

"Was the infinite web a meadow crisscrossed with streams — or was it more like an ocean, swamping the entire graph?"

荒凉而没有特点的，令人感到隔离且缺乏人烟气息的

"To understand what a transitive graph is, imagine the graph as a network of roads on a flat, desolate landscape."

原型的，最具代表性的（指某类事物的第一标准范例或原始模型）

"Percolation captures a vast array of phenomena, but the prototypical examples involve fluids, like hot water seeping through a bed of coffee grounds."

演绎推理，从普遍原理推断出特定且仅为隐含的结论

"Knowing sharpness, mathematicians can deduce a lot about the structure of the flooded portion of the network — in particular, that it looks very similar to the underlying lattice."

在同一位置上重合、（事件或属性）恰好同时发生

"If those streams coincided anywhere, the mathematicians would have a contradiction — their so-called finite pool of fluid would actually be part of an infinite sea."

作为基础的；在更深一层起支撑作用的（结构或理论底层）

"Knowing sharpness, mathematicians can deduce a lot about the structure of the flooded portion of the network — in particular, that it looks very similar to the underlying lattice."

（在严谨数学中）猜想或推测某事为真（但尚未有证据或证明）

"Benjamini and Schramm suspected that a version of the sharpness conjecture was true on all infinite transitive graphs."

规划一场（理论上的）远征，此处将数学研究比作一场前往未知领域的探索旅程

"So when Benjamini and his colleague Oded Schramm plotted an expedition to bring percolation to new types of networks, it seemed natural to wonder if sharpness would go with them."

（课题中）最顺手且最容易取得的成果，隐喻唾手可得的部分

"Mathematicians working on this problem “did some very beautiful things, initiated the theory, picked all the low-hanging fruit,” Benjamini said."

在萌芽或初期阶段就被扼杀或夭折，原指果实未成熟前就在藤蔓上枯萎

"We can and should continue to have strong enforcement of those laws, but we have to ensure that procedural delays don’t kill good projects on the vine."

与某事物成比例、相称的；在此指复杂性的增加并未带来相应的环境成果改善

"Yet this increasing complexity does not always come with commensurate improvements in environmental outcomes."

（事情）恶化、堕落为（某种负面状态）；在此指改革讨论可能堕落为党派争斗

"We also agree that permitting reform cannot devolve into a partisan slugging match over “transmission versus pipelines.”"

被（系统或流程）阻碍、抑制，使其无法正常运作

"Whether we are trying to produce more American energy, construct transmission lines, power the artificial intelligence revolution, strengthen manufacturing, develop critical minerals, or build affordable housing, projects are being choked by a permitting system that too often rewards delay instead of results."

激烈的互殴、恶斗；比喻双方毫无建设性、纯粹相互攻击的对抗

"We also agree that permitting reform cannot devolve into a partisan slugging match over “transmission versus pipelines.”"

公平地说；做某事作为让步，承认对方观点或本讨论的局限性

"In fairness, it is also extremely difficult to get through the permitting regime for multistate transmission projects where the federal government isn’t involved."

突然终止、中止某个进行中的项目或行动；原指拔掉电源插头使设备断电

"Courts or administrative shifts should not be able to rewrite the rules midconstruction and pull the plug on projects that followed the law."

胁迫、强制；通过威胁或武力强迫他人做某事

"That means more of the materials and technologies essential to our economy and defense made at home, with less dependence on foreign suppliers and less exposure to disruption or coercion."

电网互联排队系统；指发电项目等待接入电网的积压申请列表（技术用语）

"Meanwhile, a staggering 2,600 gigawatts of energy—95 percent of it from non-emitting sources—remains trapped in the interconnection queue because we lack the grid capacity to bring it online."

令人震惊的、难以置信的（程度或数量之大）

"Meanwhile, a staggering 2,600 gigawatts of energy—95 percent of it from non-emitting sources—remains trapped in the interconnection queue because we lack the grid capacity to bring it online."

偏袒、厚此薄彼；不公正地偏向某一方

"A sensible permitting system should not play favorites—nor should Congress, nor any president."

跨党派地；指美国两党（民主党与共和党）在议会中的席位分别位于过道两侧

"Legitimate disagreements over energy and environmental policy may continue across the aisle, but they should not obscure the remarkable consensus that now exists around fixing the process itself."

外交体系；特指国与国之间正式建立外交关系及交换礼物的正式渠道

"London’s best-known panda, Chi Chi, had been acquired outside the diplomatic system in 1958, when an Austrian dealer had exchanged some African big game for a young female panda which was shipped to Frankfurt."

熊猫热；由“panda”和“pandemonium”（混乱、喧嚣）构成的双关语，指因熊猫到来而引发的狂热和喧闹

"I think “panda-monium” is going to break out right here at the zoo."

禁运；禁止与某国进行贸易的官方禁令

"The State Department blocked the sale on the grounds that she fell under the embargo on Chinese goods."

对手方；在地位、职位上与自己相对应的人

"Henry Kissinger said that Zhou Enlai had an extraordinary capacity to ‘intuit the intangibles of the psychology of his opposite number’."

尊严；在交涉中保全面子的体面

"Zhou let the US retain its dignity by framing the gift as a thank you for two large and smelly musk oxen the Americans had just given Beijing Zoo, but it was clear whose animals were the real prize."

以……为理由；基于……的依据

"The State Department blocked the sale on the grounds that she fell under the embargo on Chinese goods."

凭直觉感知那些难以捉摸、无法量化的事物

"Henry Kissinger said that Zhou Enlai had an extraordinary capacity to ‘intuit the intangibles of the psychology of his opposite number’."

巨星；在特定领域（此处为公众）享有极高知名度和吸引力的明星

"Chi Chi became a superstar, despite the fact that she spent most of her time sleeping."

自发地；出于自愿而行动，不受外界推动或干扰

"‘Here’s a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac,’ the naturalist Chris Packham said in 2009."

死胡同；绝境；一条路只有一端可以进入，没有出口

"‘Here’s a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac,’ the naturalist Chris Packham said in 2009."

电刺激采精；用电刺激的方法（通常在家畜或野生动物）使其射精

"It’s also a lie that pandas need human help to reproduce – usually a gloved expert who electroejaculates the male’s penis (small, purple and shaped like a sea anemone)."

使兴旺衰退；减低、削弱正常生长或发展的活力

"The infertility of captive pandas is just another sad proof that captivity dulls the flourishing of animals’ natural potential."

病态依赖性；指某种需要程度已经超出正常自然进程范围，形成了一种失调的状态

"In the 1980s a joint project between the World Wildlife Fund and the Chinese government led to the first detailed book published in English on the natural history of the panda, which described in detail its almost pathological dependency on bamboo."

按表面价值；把某事物表面呈现的样子当真

"Holt admits that few of their acquaintances believed this part of the story, but seems content to take the brothers’ version at face value, preferring to imagine its significance for them..."

令人不安的、引起忧虑的

"It is disquieting to find that here, as elsewhere in her book, the original narrative gives a fuller account."

像吸尘器一样吸走；大量消耗或获取资源

"Some people hate the panda for hoovering up conservation funds, but others see it as a success story."