| 释义 |
low-level, a.
[low a. I and II.]
1. Situated near or below ground level; fig. not advanced in skill, culture, etc.; low-ranking, unobtrusive, restrained.
1881W. D. Hay 300 Years Hence vii. 149 The Sahara Desert, or rather the low-level parts of it. 1908Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 647/1 The conformation of the barrier which it pierces compelled an abnormally long low-level tunnel. 1910Jrnl. R. Inst. Brit. Archit. Apr. 472 The scheme [of Leonardo da Vinci] comprises a system of low-level streets for commercial purposes, and an upper residential stratum. 1914W. Owen Let. 2 Feb. (1967) 232 Once fixed in a low-level Rut one is ever-after straightened there;—straightened intellectually and socially as surely as financially. 1923Ogden & Richards Meaning of Meaning vii. 255 A useful low-level shorthand. 1930Times Educ. Suppl. 11 Jan. p. i/2 We saw low-level sea ice. 1941Flight 9 Jan. 23/1 During such low-level attacks it was easy to see what damage had been done, and there is a vivid report from an aircraft which roared over a main railway station at just below 100 feet. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Jan. 5/1 Finally, the long-range genetic danger of exposure of mankind as a whole to low-level, but widespread and persistent radioactivity—the most ominous but least well understood of all dangers of the new age—is only beginning to be dimly perceived. 1955T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences xi. 264 An atmosphere of low-level excitement. 1964E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. iv. 59 Thus a ‘high-level’ rule is a rule that is placed earlier in an ordered list than a ‘low-level’ rule. 1972Village Voice (N.Y.) 1 June 53/2 Lee is obsessed with a woman who has let him down; Harry, who would rather sleep than hear the horny details, tells him, ‘Obsession is low-level awareness.’
2. Computing. Of a language: reflecting the structure of a particular kind of computer; spec. in which each instruction corresponds to a single instruction in machine language. Cf. high-level s.v. high a. 22 a.
1961Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery IV. 492/1 (heading) Low level language subroutines for use within Fortran. 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. xxv. 189 Each computer manufacturer normally devises a low level language which corresponds closely to the particular machine language used by that manufacturer. 1985Personal Computer World Feb. 162/1 It also frequently needs sections to be written in low-level language due to its restricted areas of application.
Add:[1.] b. spec. in Nuclear Sci., designating mild radioactivity and mildly radioactive waste.
1949Analytical Chem. XXI. 1588/1 (heading) Portable radioactivity indicator for low-level surveys. 1952A. P. Talboys Contamination of Plumbing by Low-Level Radioisotope Wastes (Report, Johns Hopkins Univ.) 1 To determine the extent to which plumbing may become contaminated by low-level radioactive wastes, practical tests have been conducted at the Johns Hopkins University. 1977Offshore Engineer May 28/2 Low level nuclear wastes can include everything from radiotherapy pellets to soiled technicians' clothing. 1986Economist 22 Feb. 22/2 The company might have done better to emphasise that this was very low-level waste containing just half a curie of radiation. 1989C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) xii. 127 From the mid-1950s on, the scientific debate in the United States about fallout and the effects of low-level radiation became ever more polarized. |