盘点2021年第一次发生的事

还剩9天就到2022啦，朋友们。

今天不吃瓜啦。

无注释原文：

Things That Happened for the First Time in 2021

The New York Times

1. An African woman leads the World Trade Organization.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made history in March by becoming the first African and the first woman to serve as director-general of the World Trade Organization. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala was also the first woman to serve as finance minister in her native Nigeria, a position she held twice.

2. A purely digital artwork sells at auction for millions.

“Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” by the artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, was auctioned for $69.3 million at Christie’s. The photo collage was the first NFT, or nonfungible token, artwork to be offered by a major auction house. The sale also marked the first time that Christie’s accepted cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

3. An autonomous drone was deployed to attack humans, the U.N. says.

A drone may have autonomously hunted down and killed human targets in Libya, according to a U.N. report. A Kargu-2 drone, manufactured by a Turkish military contractor, was deployed in March in an area where the U.N.-sanctioned transitional government and soldiers of Khalifa Haftar, the de facto leader of the Libyan National Army, were fighting. Though remote-controlled drone warfare has long been in existence, this would be the first recorded instance of artificial intelligence being given free rein to find and kill human targets.

4. A Dutch museum permanently features women artists.

For the first time in its two-century history, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam hung three 17th century paintings by women artists. Works by Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch and Rachel Ruysch are now on permanent display in the area reserved for the museum’s most prized Dutch masterpieces, including Rembrandt van Rijn’s “The Night Watch.”

5. A human brain wirelessly connects to a computer.

In a possible breakthrough for those with spinal cord injuries, scientists at Brown University fully connected a human brain to a computer via a transmitter device. Trial participants with paralysis were able to move robotic limbs by simply imagining their movements.

6. NASA’s Perseverance rover makes oxygen on Mars.

An instrument called MOXIE — or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment — aboard the Perseverance rover successfully converted some of the Martian atmosphere, which is composed mostly of carbon dioxide, into oxygen. While the technology is still in its early stages, it could help make future human missions to the Red Planet a reality.

7. The world’s largest jewelry brand releases its first lab-created diamond collection.

Pandora announced it would stop using mined diamonds in its jewelry and introduced its first synthetic stones. The Pandora Brilliance collection has already debuted in Britain and is expected to hit other markets in 2022. The company cited affordability and customer demand for ethically sourced and environmentally responsible materials as reasons for the shift.

8. Mexico elects the country’s first transgender lawmakers.

María Clemente García and Salma Luévano made history in Mexico as the first openly transgender lawmakers elected to the country’s lower house of Congress. Both members of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s governing party have pledged to tackle poverty and address issues concerning the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

9. National Geographic cartographers recognize the world’s fifth ocean.

On World Oceans Day, the National Geographic Society officially recognized the swift current encircling Antarctica as the Southern Ocean. The organization, which has been publishing maps and atlases since 1915, has drawn up a new map that acknowledges the body of water, which scientists and researchers for years have distinguished as separate from the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans.

10. Astronomers see light coming from behind a black hole.

Light may not be able to escape a black hole, but for the first time, astronomers observed light bending behind one — 800 million light years away from Earth. This finding, detailed in the journal Nature, once again confirmed Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Things That Happened for the First Time in 2021

盘点2021年第一次发生的事

The New York Times

1. An African woman leads the World Trade Organization. 领导世界贸易组织的非洲女性。

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made history in March by becoming the first African and the first woman to serve as director-general of the World Trade Organization. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala was also the first woman to serve as finance minister in her native Nigeria, a position she held twice.

3月，恩戈齐·奥孔约-伊卫拉（Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala）创造历史，成为世贸组织的首位非裔兼首位女性总干事。奥孔约-伊卫拉还是其母国尼日利亚的首位女性财政部长，她曾两度担任此职务。

director general

表示“（大型机构的）总裁，主席；署长；局长；（尤指公共机构的）总管”，英文解释为“the person who is in charge of a big organization”。

2. A purely digital artwork sells at auction for millions. 拍卖会上售价千万美元的纯数字艺术品。

“Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” by the artist Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, was auctioned for $69.3 million at Christie’s. The photo collage was the first NFT, or nonfungible token, artwork to be offered by a major auction house. The sale also marked the first time that Christie's accepted cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

绰号“Beeple”的艺术家迈克·温科尔曼（Mike Winkelman）的作品《每一天：最初5000天》在佳士得（Christie）拍卖行以6930万美元的价格成交。这幅照片拼贴画是大型拍卖行推出的首个NFT（同质化代币）艺术品。这也是佳士得首次接受加密货币的支付方式。

auction

1) 作名词，表示“拍卖”，英文解释为“An auction is a public sale where items are sold to the person who offers the highest price.”举个🌰：

The painting is expected to fetch up to $123,000 at auction. 

这幅画预计在拍卖会上能卖到12.3万美元。

2) 作动词，表示“拍卖”，英文解释为“If something is auctioned, it is sold in an auction.” 举个🌰：

Two drawings by French artist Cocteau will be auctioned next week. 

法国艺术家科克托的两幅画作将在下周拍卖。

auction house

表示“拍卖行”，英文解释为“a company whose business is selling things at auction”。

collage

collage /kəˈlɑːʒ/ 表示“拼贴艺术；拼贴画”，英文解释为“the art of making a picture by sticking pieces of coloured paper, cloth, or photographs onto a surface; a picture that you make by doing this”。

NFT

柯林斯词典2021年度词汇：NFT，全称为Non-Fungible Token，柯林斯词典官方给出的释义为：the unique digital identifier that records ownership of a digital asset which has entered the mainstream and seen millions spent on the most sought-after images and videos. 指非同质化代币，是用于表示数字资产的唯一加密货币令牌。

每个代币可以代表一个独特的数字资料（如画作、声音、视频、游戏中的项目或其他形式的创意作品），就像有形资产一样，可以买卖。

fungible

fungible /ˈfʌndʒɪbəl/ 表示“易于（与同类或同价物品）交换（或交易）的”，英文解释为“easy to exchange or trade for something else of the same type and value”如：fungible assets 易于交易的资产。

token

表示“（某些机器中用以代替纸币的）代币，专用辅币”，英文解释为“a round metal or plastic disc that is used instead of money in some machines”

cryptocurrency

cryptocurrency  /ˈkrɪptoʊkɜːrənsi/ 表示“（公共网络的，而非政府发行的）加密电子货币（使用加密法确保付款安全支付及收取）”，实际就是加密货币，英文解释为“a digital currency produced by a public network, rather than any government, that uses cryptography to make sure payments are sent and received safely”，如：cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin 诸如比特币一类的加密电子货币。

📍详见：鱿鱼币，从暴涨到跑路

3. An autonomous drone was deployed to attack humans, the U.N. says. 联合国表示，自主无人机被部署攻击人类。

deploy

1) 表示“利用，调动（尤指想法、论据等）”，英文解释为“to use something for a particular purpose, especially ideas, arguments etc”，如：a job in which a variety of professional skills will be deployed 要用到多项专业技术的工作。

2) 表示“部署，调度（士兵、军事装备等）”，英文解释为“to organize or move soldiers, military equipment etc so that they are in the right place and ready to be used”，如：deploy forces/troops/weapons etc，NATO's decision to deploy cruise missiles 北约要部署巡航导弹的决定。

A drone may have autonomously hunted down and killed human targets in Libya, according to a U.N. report. A Kargu-2 drone, manufactured by a Turkish military contractor, was deployed in March in an area where the U.N.-sanctioned transitional government and soldiers of Khalifa Haftar, the de facto leader of the Libyan National Army, were fighting. Though remote-controlled drone warfare has long been in existence, this would be the first recorded instance of artificial intelligence being given free rein to find and kill human targets.

根据联合国的一份报告，在利比亚，无人机可能会自动追捕并杀死人类目标。3月，一架由土耳其军事承包商制造的Kargu-2型号无人机被部署在受联合国批准的过渡政府与利比亚国民军实际领导人哈利法·哈夫塔尔（Khalifa Haftar）的士兵作战的地区。虽然遥控无人机战争早已存在，但这是首个记录在案的允许人工智能寻找并杀死人类目标的例子。

hunt sb./sth. down

表示“搜捕，找到”，英文解释为“to search everywhere for someone or something until you find him, her, or it”举个🌰：

The terrorists must be hunted down and brought to justice.

必须把恐怖分子缉拿归案、绳之以法。

manufacture

表示“（通常指工厂利用机械大量）制造，（批量）生产”，英文解释为“to produce goods in large numbers, usually in a factory using machines”举个🌰：

He works for a company that manufactures car parts.

他在一家生产汽车部件的公司工作。

contractor

表示“承包人；承包商；承包方；订约人”，英文解释为“a person or company that arranges to supply materials or workers for building or for moving goods”

sanction

1）常见含义表示“制裁”，英文解释为“an official order, such as the stopping of trade, that is taken against a country in order to make it obey international law”。

2）可以作动词也可以作名词，表示“批准；认可”，英文解释为“If someone in authority sanctions an action or practice, they officially approve of it and allow it to be done.”举个🌰：

He may now be ready to sanction the use of force.

他或许现在正准备批准使用武力。

de facto

de facto /ˌdeɪ ˈfæktoʊ/ 表示“事实上的，实际上的”，英文解释为“existing in fact, although perhaps not intended, legal, or accepted”举个🌰：

The city is rapidly becoming the de facto centre of the financial world.

这座城市正在迅速成为事实上的金融中心。

free rein

表示“（言行或情感的）自由，自主，无约束”，英文解释为“the freedom to do, say, or feel what you want”举个🌰：

The young film-makers were given free rein to experiment with new themes and techniques.

年轻的电影制片者们对新主题和新技巧可以自由尝试。

4. A Dutch museum permanently features women artists. 荷兰一家博物馆永久展出女性艺术家作品。

feature

1）作名词，原意表示“特色；特征；特点，功能”，英文解释为“something important, interesting or typical of a place or thing”，此前在iOS 14来了!文中就出现了多次的feature，介绍iOS 14各种新功能，新特点，举个🌰：

Which features do you look for when choosing a car?

你挑选轿车时要着重哪些特点？

2）feature作动词，表示“以…为特色；由…主演；以…为主要组成”，英文解释为“to include a particular person or thing as a special feature”，作动词往往可以理解为“有...”（功能/特色），举个🌰：

Many of the hotels featured in the brochure offer special deals for weekend breaks.

小册子列举的多家旅馆都有周末假日特别优待。

The film features Cary Grant as a professor.

这部电影由卡里·格兰特饰演一位教授。

📍在英文歌中会经常看到这种说法，xxxa feat. xxxb，此处feat.实际上就是feature的缩写，大概意思是歌曲中穿插另外一个人的演唱或表演，xxxa和xxxb共同演绎，合作演出。据百度百科，feat.的是后面这个歌手（或者组合）他在这首单曲里面或者这张专辑里面并不是主角，前面那个人才是这首歌的灵魂或者主人。

For the first time in its two-century history, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam hung three 17th century paintings by women artists. Works by Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch and Rachel Ruysch are now on permanent display in the area reserved for the museum's most prized Dutch masterpieces, including Rembrandt van Rijn's “The Night Watch.”

自成立两个多世纪以来，位于阿姆斯特丹的荷兰国家博物馆首次展出了三幅17世纪女艺术家的画作。朱迪思·莱斯特、格西娜·泰尔·博奇和蕾切尔·鲁伊希的作品现被永久陈列于该博物馆为荷兰最珍贵杰作保留的区域，其中包括伦勃朗的《夜巡》。

5. A human brain wirelessly connects to a computer. 人脑与计算机的无线连接。

In a possible breakthrough for those with spinal cord injuries, scientists at Brown University fully connected a human brain to a computer via a transmitter device. Trial participants with paralysis were able to move robotic limbs by simply imagining their movements.

布朗大学的科学家通过一个传输装置将人脑与计算机完全连接，对于脊髓损伤患者来说，这可能是一次突破性进展。瘫痪的实验参与者仅凭想象自己的动作就能移动机械肢体。

spinal

表示“脊柱的；脊椎的”，英文解释为“of the spine”如：a spinal injury 脊柱受伤。

spinal cord

表示“脊髓”，英文解释为“the set of nerves inside the spine that connect the brain to other nerves in the body”

6. NASA's Perseverance rover makes oxygen on Mars. NASA“毅力”号探测器在火星上制造氧气。

An instrument called MOXIE — or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment — aboard the Perseverance rover successfully converted some of the Martian atmosphere, which is composed mostly of carbon dioxide, into oxygen. While the technology is still in its early stages, it could help make future human missions to the Red Planet a reality.

“毅力”号探测器所搭载的火星氧气原位资源利用实验仪（MOXIE）成功将一些主要由二氧化碳构成的火星大气转化为氧气。虽然这项技术仍处于早期发展阶段，但它可能有助于实现未来人类前往这颗红色星球的任务。

perseverance

Perseverance（毅力；韧性；不屈不挠，坚持不懈）。Perseverance这一词，剑桥词典官方给出的释义为：continued effort to do or achieve something, even when this is difficult or takes a long time. 指的是即使很困难或需要很长时间，仍持续努力做某事或达成某事。

rover

rover常见意思是“流浪者；漫游者”（a person who roves; wanderer），此处rover的英文解释为“a vehicle for exploring the surface of an extraterrestrial body (as the moon or Mars)”，即指部署在火星/月球上的探测器，即火星车/月球车，此前在「嗯，用不了多久...」一文中就提到美国的火星探测车（亦称为机遇号/机会号/火星探测漫游者-B，MER-B）因火星尘暴与地球“失联”3个多月时就这么表达：An American rover called Opportunity stopped working six months ago in a dust storm, but may revive if wind blows the dust off its solar panels.

📍此外，我们常听说的汽车品牌“路虎”的英文就是“Land Rover”，缩写也是LR

Land Rover is a luxury car brand that specialises in four-wheel-drive vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, which has been owned by India's Tata Motors since 2008.（Wikipedia）

路虎是英国的全地形车和运动型多用途车品牌，隶属于捷豹路虎，总部位于英国考文垂怀特利（Whitley）。

in situ

表示“在原位；在原地；在合适的地方”，英文解释为“in the original or correct place”。

7. The world’s largest jewelry brand releases its first lab-created diamond collection. 全球最大珠宝品牌推出首个实验室合成钻石系列。

Pandora announced it would stop using mined diamonds in its jewelry and introduced its first synthetic stones. The Pandora Brilliance collection has already debuted in Britain and is expected to hit other markets in 2022. The company cited affordability and customer demand for ethically sourced and environmentally responsible materials as reasons for the shift.

潘多拉宣布将停止在其首饰中使用开采钻石，并推出了首批合成宝石。潘多拉Brilliance系列已在英国亮相，并将于2022年进入其他市场。该公司表示，这一转变是出于对购买力的考量，以及客户对合乎伦理及环保的饰品材料的需求。

synthetic

synthetic /sɪnˈθetɪk/ 表示“合成的，人造的”，英文解释为“Synthetic products are made from artificial substances, often copying a natural product.”如：synthetic fibres 人造纤维。

debut

表示“首演，首次登台；首次亮相”，英文解释为“to perform or be introduced to the public for the first time”举个🌰：

The Broadway show debuted last year to great acclaim.

这个百老汇节目去年首次演出就受到了广泛赞扬。

8. Mexico elects the country's first transgender lawmakers. 首批跨性别者当选墨西哥议员。

María Clemente García and Salma Luévano made history in Mexico as the first openly transgender lawmakers elected to the country's lower house of Congress. Both members of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's governing party have pledged to tackle poverty and address issues concerning the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

作为首批当选该国国会众议员的公开跨性别者，玛丽亚·克莱门特·加西亚和萨尔玛·卢埃瓦诺创造了墨西哥历史。她们都属于安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔总统所在的执政党，也都承诺要克服贫困，并解决LGBTQ群体所关切的问题。

pledge

1）表示“保证（做某事）；保证给予（某物）”，英文解释为“When someone pledges to do something, they promise in a serious way to do it. When they pledge something, they promise to give it.”举个🌰：

He pledges support and offers to help in any way that he can.

他承诺给予支持并提供力所能及的帮助。

2）表示“抵押”，英文解释为“If you pledge something such as a valuable possession or a sum of money, you leave it with someone as a guarantee that you will repay money that you have borrowed.”举个🌰：

He asked her to pledge the house as security for a loan.

他要她抵押房子作为贷款担保。

9. National Geographic cartographers recognize the world's fifth ocean. 《国家地理》地图测绘员命名世界第五大洋。

cartographer

表示“绘制地图者；制图师”，英文解释为“someone who makes or draws maps”。

On World Oceans Day, the National Geographic Society officially recognized the swift current encircling Antarctica as the Southern Ocean. The organization, which has been publishing maps and atlases since 1915, has drawn up a new map that acknowledges the body of water, which scientists and researchers for years have distinguished as separate from the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans.

在世界海洋日当天，国家地理学会正式将环绕南极洲的洋流命名为南大洋。该机构自1915年以来一直从事地图与地图册出版工作，它绘制的新地图承认了这片水域。多年来，科学家和研究人员一直将南大洋与大西洋、太平洋、印度洋和北冰洋区分开来。

current

current作名词，熟词僻义，表示“水流；气流；电流”，英文解释为“a movement of water, air, or electricity in a particular direction”如：to swim against/with the current 逆流/顺流而游。

atlas

atlas /ˈæt.ləs/ 表示“地图集，地图册”，英文解释为“a book containing maps”如：a road atlas 道路交通图册。

10. Astronomers see light coming from behind a black hole. 天文学家看到来自黑洞后面的光。

Light may not be able to escape a black hole, but for the first time, astronomers observed light bending behind one — 800 million light years away from Earth. This finding, detailed in the journal Nature, once again confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

光可能无法逃离黑洞，但天文学家第一次观察到光在距离地球八亿光年的一个黑洞后面弯曲。发表在《自然》杂志上的这一发现再次证实了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的相对论。

bend

表示“（使）弯曲”，英文解释为“to (cause to) curve”举个🌰：

The road bends to the left after the traffic lights.

过了第一个红绿灯后道路弯向左侧。

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