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外刊例句
- If the firm can devise an early test for breast cancer, demand for mammograms and the machines that take them would fall, along with the need for expensive drugs and spells in hospital.
如果公司能够开发出乳腺癌的早期检验方法,那么对乳房X光及X光机的需求将会下降,对昂贵药物和住院治疗的需求也会下降。
——《经济学人》 - After an initial scheme to hire Norman Foster to devise another pavilion was rejected, a local competition was held, with the idea of advertising Medellín’s own young architectural talent.
在最初聘请诺曼·福斯特设计另一座展馆的提案被否决后,当地举办了一个竞赛,旨在提携麦德林自己孕育的建筑设计青年才俊。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[verb] plan or invent (a complex procedure, system, or mechanism) by careful thought
[动词] 通过仔细思考来计划或发明(复杂的程序、系统或机制)
深入解读
Devise 是一个与熟词 device (装置、设备)十分形似的单词,该词源自拉丁语 dividere (分开,也是英语单词 divide 的词源),后经古法语 deviser (分批处理,安排、计划、设计)于13世纪初进入英语,原指“形成、塑造”。
等到了14世纪后, devise 开始用来表示现在的主要含义“发明、设计、想出”,与小站之前推送过的小词 contrive 的含义十分接近,但总的来说, devise 相较于独创性而言更强调带给脑力活动的压力,也就是说通过深思熟虑和实验来“巧妙构思、巧妙设计”某种新的或完全不同的东西,比如:
- 我们想出了一个计策来帮他挽回受损的公众形象。
We devised a scheme to help him salvage his tarnished public image. - 他是教书的材料。他善于设计可供师生在课堂上使用的语言游戏。
He has a vocation for teaching. He's good at devising language games that you can play with students in class.
而到了14世纪末期后, devise 再经上述古法语 deviser 的分批、分组概念,开始用来表示“按遗嘱给予、分配”,发展到今天则作为一个法律术语作动词表示“遗赠”不动产,作名词表示“不动产的遗赠、遗赠的不动产”或“遗赠不动产的遗嘱或条款”。
权威用例
仁人志士奔走呐喊,太平天国运动、戊戌变法、义和团运动、辛亥革命接连而起,各种救国方案轮番出台,但都以失败而告终。
As noble-minded patriots sought to pull the nation together, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Reform Movement of 1898, the Yihetuan Movement, and the Revolution of 1911 rose one after the other, and a variety of plans were devised to ensure national survival, but all of these ended in failure.
出自习总书记在庆祝中国共产党成立100周年大会上的讲话(双语全文)。
同近义词
- conceive: form or devise (a plan or idea) in the mind
- contrive: create or bring about (an object or a situation) by deliberate use of skill and artifice
- formulate: create or devise methodically (a strategy or a proposal)