T39 Forest Fire Suppression
1. approximating - resembling
One factor is the direct effect of logging, which often turns a forest into something approximating a huge pile of kindling (wood for burning)
something approximating 类似于...
相当于 resembling = approximating
2. regrettable- unfortunately
When a fire finally does start in a sapling-choked forest, whether due to lightning or human carelessness or (regrettably often) intentional arson, the dense, tall saplings (young trees) may become a ladder that allows the fire to jump into the crowns of the trees.
很不幸的经常发生 regrettable often
3.detected- identified 确认
Scholars have detected some 6,000 separate hieroglyphic characters in use over the history of Egyptian writing, but it appears that never more than a thousand were in use during any one period. 本句前半句的大致意思是：学者们探测到有6000左右的文字被用在埃及历史的书写中。
4、abound -numerous 大量的
Cuneiform texts on science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics abound, some offering astoundingly precise data. 本句的大致意思是：科学的、天文学的、药学的和数学的楔形文字内容丰富，有些甚至提供了这些学科上的令人惊讶的准确数据。
5. shuffle 移来移去，改变位置
Egyptologists have noticed that the glyphs that constitute individual words were sometimes shuffled to make the text more pleasing to the eye with little regard for sound or sense. 本句大意是：埃及古物学者注意到由单个文字组成的雕文有时候会被弄乱以让这些文字看起来更好，而不管这样做会不会影响发音或者意思。
e.g.
to move something such as papers into a different order or into different positions
把〔文件等〕移来移去，改变…的顺序[位置]
例：
Jack sat nervously shuffling the papers around on his desk.
杰克紧张地坐着，把桌上的文件搬来搬去。
[+ through ]
例：
Frances shuffled through a pile of magazines.
弗朗西丝把一大堆杂志翻了个遍。
6. perpetuated - continued
We must perpetuate the system.
我们必须将此制度永久保持。
When you resist the state you’re in, you perpetuate it.
而一旦抵制这种状态，你会深陷其间难以自拔。
And worst of all, they continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees.
并且最糟糕的是，他们继续念念不忘那个幻想，即以色列有朝一日会被巴勒斯坦难民的后裔所吞没。
7. phenomena - occurrences 发生的事件
One of the most important phenomena of the later Middle Ages was the growing availability of cheap paper.
8. contracted - shortened 收缩的；被缩短的
By about 1150, the Spanish had developed the first mill for making cheap paper (a wordcontractedfrom "papyrus", which became the standard term).
9. compacted- smaller
紧凑的
At the same time, people were moving to the city, partly because of the enclosure movement; that is, the fencing of common fields and pastures in order to provide more compact, efficient privately held agricultural parcels that would produce more goods and greater profits.
圈地运动 提供更紧缩，更有效的私人持有的农业土地