Alma mater的意思是“母校”、“校歌”。作为“母校”，其英文解释为： a high school, college, or university which one has attended or from which one has graduated（某人就读或毕业的学校、学院或大学。）alma mater在美式英语中有几种不同读法，但最常见的美式发音为：/’ɑlmə ‘mɑtər/（收听美式发音）。
Alma mater源自拉丁语（Latin），其字面含义为：慷慨/慈祥的母亲（bountiful/kind mother），其中mater在拉丁语中是“母亲”之意。后逐渐引申为母校，寓意像母亲般用知识“哺育、培养学生”。美国不少大学都在校内安放有alma mater雕塑，其中哥伦比亚大学图书馆前的一尊alma mater青铜雕像，尤为闻名。
参考alma mater的英语例句：He donated $20 million to his alma mater, Columbia University.（他向母校–哥伦比亚大学–捐赠了2000万美元。）The reunion began with everyone singing the alma mater.（大家以唱校歌的方式开始了团聚。）
由著名英国导演Ridley Scott（《银翼杀手》、《异形》、《黑鹰坠落》）执导，好莱坞一线男星Matt Damon（《谍影重重》）担纲的科幻大作《The Martian》（中译名《火星救援》，又译《火星人》）正在美国热映，并获得媒体及观众一致盛赞。该片已确定将引进国内。本文选自Popsugar.com对Matt Damon的访谈视频，英文内容由Will听译。附带的原声音频适合大家进行美语的听力练习。建议先听几遍音频，再阅读英文访谈内容。中文翻译及注释将在下次微信推送时给出，so be sure to check back for the Chinese translation, enjoy! 🙂
So we’re here in mission control. NASA’s mission control at JPL, which is pretty surreal.
Yeah, it’s like both of our first moments here in mission control actually.
It’s very cool. well Let’s talk about this movie for a minute, because obviously you can’t learn enough to become an astronaut in the time it takes to prepare for a film.
Oh, you did? congratulations! really impressive. but where do you draw the line, because as an actor, you still have to make the audience believe that you know what you are talking about.
Yeah, I mean, I think Andy’s book and then the screenplay that Drew Goddard wrote did a really good job of making all of the science really approachable and understandable to a layman, so I guess in that sense it wasn’t that hard. I just had to really understand what I was saying and understand kind of the philosophy behind everything the guy was doing, and then just tell the story.
“This will come as quite a shock to my crew mates… and to NASA, and to the entire world… But I’m still alive, surprise…“
Are there any survival skills you would bring to the table in a similar situation?
I would be… I mean within maybe 12 hours I would be toast.
That’s as far as you make it, 12 hours.
There’s just no way.
Well, one thing I thought was really interesting today is that Ridley said that the way that this Character kinda talk to his GoPro, it’s kind of his confidante, this is all by himself, and I think it’s kinda like his Wilson in a way.
Yeah, I mean I think the differences is that he, in a weird way, I think would expect that someday somebody might find this log, so in a way his behavior is observed, like he’s behaving with the expectation that somebody might be watching him, whereas you know if you are on a desert island with just a volleyball, it’s pretty much you and the volleyball.
Right, because he is a scientist as well.
He is a scientist, and he’s in a situation that’s very unique, so he is trying to kind of catalog his experiences in a way that might someday be helpful to somebody else.
And what was it like to actually shoot this.. Because most of your scenes are all by yourself. Your character talks to himself a lot. I know you shot in Hungary so imagine there was a little bit of isolation being away from your family, In a foreign country that maybe went itself to the performance?
Yeah, I mean, even if you are doing a scene by yourself, you still have 75 people on the crew standing right there, so no, I can’t say I ever felt like I was particularly lonely, though, we went from Hungary we shot on the biggest sound stage in the world actually, which is incredible, the work that everybody did kinda making this habitat… And it’s all green screen stuff to make it look like Mars, and then we went to Jordan, and shot in the desert in Wadi Rum, which is spectacular, and so vast, and standing out in the middle of that desert was really, definitely gives you a feeling of solitude, really beautiful.
“Almost everybody today believes that nothing in economic history has ever moved as fast as, or had a greater impact than, the Information Revolution. But the Industrial Revolution moved at least as fast in the same time span, and had probably an equal impact if not a greater one.”
其实rogue nation一词在美国政界有特别含义，Wikipedia指出：Rogue nation意思等同于rogue state。”Rogue state is a controversial term applied by some international theorists to states they consider threatening to the world’s peace…The term is used most by the United States, though the US State Department officially quit using the term in 2000.” （Rogue State是个颇具争议的用词，一些国际理论家用该词语来指代他们认为会威胁世界和平的国家…该用语主要为美国所用，美国务院于2000年正式废除该词。）从上述解释中，可以看到rogue nation通常是被认为相当“危险而不受控”的国家。
