| 词组 | light-year |
| 释义 | light-year In scientific usage, a light-year is a unit of distance equal to about 5,878,000,000,000 miles, the distance light travels in one year in the vacuum of space. But nonscientists sometimes have trouble thinking of a "year" as anything other than a unit of time: • When I saw this interaction, I realized we are 50 light-years behind —Marya Mannes, quoted in Harper's Weekly, 11 Apr. 1975 • ... ended six years, and several political light-years, ago —Michael Harrington, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 26 Sept. 1976 • ... has been taken for granted in the United States for light years —Margaret de Miraval, Christian Science Monitor, 16 Mar. 1981 • It seems light years ago that Scott Fitzgerald rhapsodized the lissome girls in grown-up gowns —People, 11 Oct. 1982 Such usage is not common in standard writing (although it may be growing more so), and it naturally attracts disapproval from the astronomically educated. It should not be confused with the widespread and established figurative use of light-year to mean "a very great distance," with the "distance" referred to typically being more cultural than physical: • ... it is light-years away from anything ever tried before —John Fischer, Harper's, February 1971 • They are two minutes and yet light-years away from the crowded village —Suzanne Patterson, Gourmet, June 1979 • ... the world of music and the world of books were light-years apart —Ray Walters, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 13 Sept. 1981 |
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