Unit02-FIN-female

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FIN comes from theLatin word for “end” or “boundary.” Final describes last things, and a finaleor a finish is an ending. (And at the end of a French film, you may just seethe word “Fin.”) But its meaning is harder to tracein some of the other English words derived from it.

FIN来自拉丁语，意思是“结束（end）”或“边界（boundary）”。Final 用来描述最后的事情，a finale 或者 a finish 表示结局。（在一部法国电影的结尾，你或许只会看到“Fin.”这个词）但它的意思很难在其他源自于它的英语单词中找到。

confine  (1) To keep (someone or something) withinlimits. (2) To hold (someone) in a location.

• He had heard thebad news from the CEO, but when he spoke to his employees he confined his remarks to a few hints that sales had slipped.

他从首席执行官（CEO）那里听到了这个坏消息，但当他与员工交谈的时候，他只说了几句暗示销售额下滑的话。

Confine meansbasically to keep someone or something within borders.

Someone confined toa bedroom or a wheelchair is too ill or disabled to be anywhere else. A personunder “house arrest” is confined to his or her house by the government. At abusiness meeting, the discussion may be confined to a single topic. A town maykeep industrial development confined to one area by means of zoning. Andsomeone confined to the state prison for 20 years has probably committed quitea serious crime.

Confine 意思是把某人或某事限制在一定范围内。

那些被困在卧室或轮椅里的人病得很重或严重残疾，不能到其他任何地方去。被“软禁”的人是被政府限制在家中的人。在商务会议上，讨论可能仅限于一个主题。一个城镇可以通过分区的方式把工业发展限制在一个地区。一个被关在州监狱20年的人可能犯下了相当严重的罪行。

definitive  (1) Authoritative and final. (2) Specifyingperfectly or precisely.

• The team'sbrilliant research provided a definitive description of the virus and itsstrange mutation patterns.

该团队出色的研究为这种病毒及其奇怪的突变模式提供了明确的描述。

Something definitiveis complete and final. A definitive example is the perfect example. Adefinitive answer is usually a strong yes or no. A definitive biographycontains everything we'll ever need to know about someone. Ella Fitzgerald'sfamous 1950s recordings of American songs have even been called definitive—butno one ever wanted them to be the last.

说某物是 definitive，即是说它是完整的，且是最终的。A definitive example 意思为“一个完美的例子”。A definitive answer（一个明确的回答）指这个回答通常是“是”或“不是”。说一个传记是 definitive ，即是说它包含了我们需要知道的关于一个人的一切，是很权威的。艾拉·菲兹杰拉德（Ella Fitzgerald）在20世纪50年代录制的著名美国歌曲，甚至被称为“definitive”——但没有人希望它们称为最后一张唱片。

finite： Having definite limits.

• Her ambitions wereinfinite, but her wealth was finite.

她的野心是无穷的，但她的财富是有限的。

It has come as a shock to many of us to realize thatresources such as oil—and the atmosphere's ability to absorb greenhousegases—are finite rather than unlimited. The debate continues as to whether theuniverse is finite or infinite and, if it's finite, how to think about whatlies beyond it. Religion has always concerned itself with the question of thefinite (that is, human life on earth) versusthe infinite (God, eternity, and infinity). But finite is mostly used inscientific writing, often with the meaning “definitely measurable.”

我们许多人都震惊地意识到，石油等资源以及大气吸收温室气体的能力是有限的，而不是无限的。关于宇宙是有限还是无限的争论一直在持续，如果它是有限的，如何思考它之外的东西。宗教总是关注有限（即人类在地球上的生命）和无限（上帝，永恒和无限）之间的问题。但“finite”一词多用于科学写作，其含义通常是“绝对可测量的（definitely measurable）”。

infinitesimal：Extremelyor immeasurably small.

• Looking moreclosely at the research data, he now saw an odd pattern of changes soinfinitesimal that they hadn't been noticed before.

更仔细地观察研究数据后，他才看到了一个奇怪的变化模式，这种变化是如此微小，以至于以前没有人注意到。

Just as infinitedescribes something immeasurable (“without limit”), infinitesimal describessomething endlessly small. When Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscopein the 17th century, he was able to see organisms that had been thought tooinfinitesimally small to exist. But today's electron microscope allows us tosee infinitesimal aspects of matter that even Leeuwenhoek could not haveimagined.

正如 infinite 用来描述不可测量的东西（没有限制），infinitesimal 用来描述某样东西无限小。当安东尼·范·列文虎克在17世纪发明显微镜时，他能够看到那些被认为是小得无法存在的有机体。但是今天的电子显微镜让我们看到了物质的微小方面，这是连列文虎克都无法想象的。