核心畫面

Hold one picture: a bright, burning ball in the middle, and a whole household of smaller things going round and round it, each one kept in place by the pull of that ball. Nearly everything this phrase does comes from that picture. Point at the one we live in and you need the. Point at somebody else's and you can count them. And one more use borrows only the word solar, from sunlight rather than from the Sun as a centre.

先抓住一個畫面:中間一顆又亮又燙的球,外面一整家子比較小的東西繞著它轉,每一個都被那顆球拉著,跑不掉。這個詞幾乎所有更多收起先抓住一個畫面:中間一顆又亮又燙的球,外面一整家子比較小的東西繞著它轉,每一個都被那顆球拉著,跑不掉。這個詞幾乎所有的用法都從這個畫面來。指我們住的這一組,前面就要有 the;指別人家的那一組,就可以一個一個數。另外還有一個用法,只借走了 solar 這個字——借的是陽光,不是「以太陽為中心」這件事。

Two branches

天上的那一組

這一組就是核心畫面本身,只差在你指的是我們這一家,還是別人那一家。

noun · B1

The Sun together with the planets that travel around it, and everything else that goes with them — moons, asteroids and comets. It is used with the, because there is only one of it.

太陽系

屋頂上的那一套

這一組不是從核心畫面比喻出來的。它是 solar power system 這個長詞被砍短的結果,中間那個 power 掉了,剩下的字面正好跟天文的說法撞在一起。

noun · B2

A set of solar panels and the parts that work with them, used to make electricity for a house or a building. This is a short way of saying solar power system.

太陽能發電系統