【原版杂志阅读】Day 1: 《万古杂志》Big data is people

讲义：

Big data is people!

We live in what is sometimes called the ‘petabyte era’, andthis pronouncement has provoked much discussion of the sheer size of datastores being created, as well as their rapid growth. Claims circulate along thelines of: ‘Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two yearsalone.’ This particular statistic comes from IBM’s website under the topic:‘What is Big Data?’ but similar ones appear regularly in the popular media. Theidea has impact. Among other things, it is used to initiate a conversation inwhich an IBM representative, via a pop-up entreaty, offers big-data services.Merely defining big data, it seems, generates more opportunities for big data.

And the process continues. Ever more urgently in the press,in business and in scholarly journals the question arises of what is uniqueabout big data. Often the definitions are strangely circular. In2013, a writer for the Columbia Journalism Review described big data as ‘acatchall label that describes the new way of understanding the world throughthe analysis of vast amounts of data’ – astatement that amounts to: big data is big… and it’s made of data. Others talkabout its transformational properties. In Wired magazine,the tech evangelist Chris Anderson claimed the ‘end of theory’ had beenreached. So much data now exists that it is unnecessary to build a hypothesisto test scientifically. The data can, if properly handled and analysed, ‘speakfor themselves’. Many resort to definitions that stress the ‘three Vs’: a dataset is ‘big data’ if it qualifies as huge in volume, high in velocity,and diverse in variety. The three Vs occasionally pickup a fourth, veracity, which can be interpreted in anumber of ways. At the least, it evokes the striving to capture entirepopulations, which opens up new frontiers of possibility.

1. circulate /ˈsɝː.kjə.leɪt/ v. 传播，流通，循环

英文释义：to go around or through something, or to make something go around orthrough something:

词汇助记：

1）词根：circ- 圆圈

2）后缀：-ate 动词后缀

3）扩展：circulation/circular

2. entreaty /ɪnˈtriː.t̬i/ n. 请求。恳求

英文释义：an attempt to persuade someone to do something

词汇助记：

1）前缀：en- 使，让

2）词汇：treaty 条约，谈判

3. hypothesis /haɪˈpɑː.θə.sɪs/ n. 假设

英文释义：an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts buthas not yet been proved

词汇助记：

1）前缀：hypo-向下

2）词根：thesis 放置

3）扩展：synthesis /ˈsɪn.θə.sɪs/n. 合成

4. velocity /vəˈlɑː.sə.t̬i/ n. 速度

英文释义：the speed atwhich an object is travelling

词汇助记：

1）词根：veloc- 快速

2）后缀：-ity 名词后缀

3）扩展：cel- 速度，如accelerate 加速

5. veracity /vɚˈæs.ə.t̬i/ n.真实

英文释义：the quality of being true, honest,or accurate

词汇助记：

1）词根：ver- 真实

2）后缀：－acity 名词后缀

3）扩展：capacity 容量/verify 核实

二、句子精讲

1. In 2013, a writer for the ColumbiaJournalism Review described big data as ‘a catchall label that describesthe new way of understanding the world through the analysis of vast amounts ofdata’ – a statement that amounts to: big data is big… and it’s madeof data. 

1）状语：in 2013

2）主句：A writerdescribed big data as ‘a catchall label’

3）定语：that describesthe new way of understanding the world through the analysis of vast amounts ofdata’

4）同位语：a statement

5）定语： that amounts to:big data is big…and it’s made of data.

参考翻译：2013年，《哥伦比亚新闻评论》（Columbia Journalism Review）的一位作者将大数据描述为“一个包罗万象的称谓，描述分析大量数据理解世界的新方法”——这个说法相当于：大数据会越变越大……大数据由数据组成。