Day 8:

* issue a laugh 在字典里没有查到固定的用法。

* conventional untility 这里utility公共事业

public/privatized utility

untility a.  e.g. an all-round utility player

* New vocabularies:

terbine 涡轮机

photovoltaic 光伏特的

biogas 沼气

grid （输电，输天然气的）管道网络

anathema 可憎的事物

subsidy 补贴金

fossil 化石

pricey expensive

rebate 退还款，折扣 a tax rebate 退税

shale-gas 页岩气

indebted 感激的（be ~ to）；负债的

intermittent 断断续续的，间歇的

doldrum 赤道无风带

diesel 柴油

think-tank 智库

incipient 最初的，早期的

dromedary 单峰驼

precipitous 陡峭的 precipitous cliff 骤然的 a precipitous decline

lucrative 赚大钱的，获利多的

upheaval 动荡

* again,名作动。之前有house, cloud, harbour，这次是blanket.

e.g. Snow soon blanketed the frozen ground.

* handsomely 慷慨地

e.g. Their bravery was handsomely rewarded.

* pocket 这边又是一个名作动。pocket其他用法很多，但是都很好理解，是惯常的表达，所以仅在此列出比较特别的。

pocket n. = money

e.g. We have holidays to suit every pocket.

The foundation is reputed to have deep pockets.

小团体，范围

e.g. There are still a few isolated pockets of resistance to the new regime. （这个句子的句式也很有趣，跟a furiously motivated student by the power of knowledge有异曲同工之妙）

be in sb's pocket 在某人的掌控之中

live/be in each other's pockets 形影不离

have sb in your pocket 驾驭（尤指通过恐吓贿赂等手段）

have sth in your pocket 胜券在握

in/out of pocket 得到/损失钱财

e.g. That one mistake left them thousands of pounds out of pocket.

pocket sth 揩油；赚钱

e.g. He regularly charges passengers more than the normal fare and pockets the difference.

* incumbent

n. 现任者 the president incumbent

a. 现任的 the incumbent president

a. 有责任的，必须履行 incumbent on/upon sb

e.g. It was incumbent on them to attend.

* But Wildpoldsried is still very much the exception, not the rule. 表示只占少数，而非主流的一种写法。挺有趣的。关于except/exception这个词常常能写出一些绝妙的句子。

之前在house exterior里面有一个：The Circular Pavilion is anything but round, with the exception of its nearly 180 doorknobs.

* account for的几种意思，再强调一下。

A number of factors account for the differences between the two scores. 解释，说明

account for 30% of our imports 占...比重

The president and the president alone will account for his government's reforms. 对（行动，政策等负责）

后面这两个都没有接触过。

把...列入预算 The really heavy redundancy costs have been accounted for.

杀死，消灭，打败 In the final they accounted for Brentford by three goals to two.

* to date=by now=as yet

* robust 也有很多用法。老规矩，常见义不说。说一些没见过的

结实的，耐用的 a robust piece of machine

(体制或机构) 强劲的，富有活力的 robust economic growth

坚定的，信心十足的= vigorous 

e.g. It was a typical robust performance by the Foreign Secretary.

还可以指味道强烈 a robust cheese

坚固的 a robust chair

做adv.时，又有两个意思。

一个是坚固地，不提。

还有一个坚定地。 They defended their policy robustly.

注意一下原文的表达，robust prices也很棒。

* perennial 长久的，持续的，反复出现的

the perennial problem of water shortage

a perennially popular subject

* hope springs eternal 永恒的希望之泉...即人生永远充满希望。怪不得这句看了半天都不懂它的语法。搞了半天是个专有名词。

e.g. I don't think I'll get the job, but hope springs eternal.

* affix: -wide 遍及...的，有关...全体的

economy-wide 全体经济的

* glut 供应过剩 a world oil glut

除此之外，还可以做动词。表示充斥，使供应过剩。通常还是经济学领域的表达。

e.g. The region is glutted with hospitals.

Soldiers returning from the war have glutted the job market.

* again，名作动。这次是mask，应该蛮熟悉了。=disguise, veil

嗯...veil又是一个名作动

* stark 嗯一看到就想到House Stark

所以就解释了why starks are called Stark. Because the place where they settle is so severe. 了无修饰的，荒凉的，粗陋的 The house stood stark against the winter sky.

严酷的，赤裸裸的，真实而无法回避的 a stark picture of the prison life/a stark choice残酷的抉择/stark reality

对比鲜明的 stark differences/in stark contrast to

完全的，十足的= utter 此时仅做定语 The children watched in stark terror.

We are starkly aware of the risks.

* 经济学类的词汇还是要熟悉。像slump猛跌,collapse这样的。to apply instead of to recognise

* havoc 灾害，祸患，浩劫

Continuing strikes are beginning to play havoc with the national economy.

These insects can wreak havoc on crops.

* write off

注销 write off Polish debts

认定...不重要；忽视 He is fed up with people writing him off because of his age.

（发生碰撞后）车辆报废 write off four cars

取消（计划或项目） We decided to write off the rest of the day and go shopping.

* punch above your weight 以小搏大，超常发挥取胜

e.g. This player seems to be able to punch above his weight.

* 同样，注意这种地道的语言表达，不要让自己的表达显得累赘。

PREFIX: de-

deregulate 解除管制

* at first blush=at first sight

* play champions and roles 似乎是一个固定用法，搜索引擎查出来还是蛮多句子用的，但是不知道确切意思。

* standby

put on standby

处于待命状态 e.g. The emergency servuces were put on standby soon after the bomb warning.

候补座位 e.g. He was put on standby for the flight to New York.

* capacity payment 容量费

* insulate 这个背了好多遍了吧，老是跟insinuate搞混。

使隔离，使绝缘。 Home owners are encouraged to insulate their homes to save energy.

使免除（不愉快的经历）；使免受（不良影响）；隔离=shield e.g. The royal family try to insulate him fro the prying eyes of the media.

* generator除了有发电机的意思，还可以表示电力公司。

* depress 好像至今为止对depress所有的印象都集中在depressed, depression。但是其他用法一直没怎么注意。经济学类的文章里面出镜率还是很高的

使萧条，使不景气 The recession has depressed the housing market.

降低（价格），减少（工资） depress wages/prices

按，压，推下（尤指机器部件）depress the clutch pedal 踩离合器踏板

* penetration 也是一个停留在recognisation层面而不会apply的词语。

prevent water penetration

the company's successful penetration of overseas markets

* portfolio 常见义文件夹，不谈。

求职时用以证明资历的整套照片，作品 You'll need to prepare a portfolio of you work.

投资组合，有价证券组合 an investment/share portfolio 投资/股份组合

部长或大臣的职责，职务 the defence portfolio

portfolio of products 产品组合

a minister without portfolio （a politician who is given the rank without being given the responsibility for any other particular areas of politic activities）

* shy away from 畏避，回避

e.g. The newspapers have shied away from investigating the story.

* peg 常见义不谈。

使工资、价格固定在某水平 Pay increases will be pegged at 5%.

使工资、价格与...挂钩 Loan repayments are pegged to your income.

* buck 抵制，反抗

buck the trend of recession

buck the system 反抗现存体制

* 几个比较生动的词组/词汇总结：

dry up e.g. thr private investment will dry up

they also eat into demand

it eats its own tail

double/triple

feed e.g. feed surplus power from PVS into the grid

slash prices to win 这个很生动啊，像砍价一样

doom e.g. doom the traditional utility

* death spiral 死亡漩涡

* take account of 考虑到

* package deal 一揽子交易

* bolster

bolster sb's confidence/courage/morale

bolster sth up e.g. bolster up the economy

* liken sth to sth 把...比作

* scream blue murder 不停叫嚷，鸣不平

* structure around marginal costs 边际成本是（利润）结构的核心

Day 9:

Day 10:

I have to say it's a pretty unintelligible article which on Day One I strived to finish the vocabulary but failed against my wish. The overwhelming jargons should be able to explain it on one side while the economic analysis on the other.

Very much frustrated.

Still the learning goes on.

The additional reading looks like a much clearer and easier syllabus of the intensive reading.

The principle problem should be that renewable energies are dragging the prices of all sources down thus posing a dilemma.

What baffles people is that all the solutions we've come out serve a long-term process instead of breaking the chain of this short-term plight.

Some jargons:

generator

subsidy

decarbonise

grid

rebate

glut

shale-gas

megawatt/gigawatt

indebted

marginal cost

deregulate

hydroelectric plant

storage capacity

diesel generator

fixed-price contract

portfolio

fluctuation

deployment

package deal

penetration

Very possibly I'll never forget these words hhh

These days have been such an ordeal~~~

The two articles can distil down to that the kernel should be an outdated energy market system which fails to cope with the penetration of renewables. We may not depict the renewable energy as a disruptive one, at least from my perspective, as the progress cannot and should not be reversed.

But how to deter the trend where renewables constantly drag the prices thus depressing the whole market?

The intermittency of renewables determines how future energy infrastructure should be designed: a smart grid, an integration of fossil fuel electricity and renewables. But let's pull back from that point for that we're trapped in a short-term economic plight instead of a long-term technological one for now.

Therefore due to the said problem within the system itself, it is the government that should rack the brain to struggle for a solution. It has been so long a time since the electricity market was deregulated. Now the government should regain its power and make real reforms.

First subsidies for renewables should be curtailed step by step as we can't afford another plunge in prices. Second to resurrect the electricity market a relatively high fixed-price contract should be provided as a way to ensure profits, hence the incentive of investments.

In justification of emission control, customers who prefer a supply of renewables should be rewarded, yet with subsidies but rebates in bills. Bills should be structured with both renewables and fossil fuels as a guaranteed service in case of a blackout. Customers are free to choose the respective proportion of those two energy sources reflecting their demands for guarantees. Theoretically, renewables will be the fundamental while fossil fuels switch into a scarcity.