| 释义 |
single track, n. and a.
[single a.]
A. n.
1. A single pair of railway lines (occas. of tramlines). Also (with hyphen) attrib.
1832Amer. Rail Road Jrnl. I. 245/1 The entire length of single track [is] yet to be laid. 1837H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. ii. ii. 192 On the 26th of November, 1833, the first car traversed the whole length of the single track. 1869Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. 422 There are..190 miles of double track, and 130 miles of sidings.., making the entire length of track equal to 1,137 miles of single track. 1898McClure's Mag. Mar. 390/1 Running a first-class train on a single-track branch. 1942‘N. Shute’ Pied Piper i. 18 The little engine puffed along its single track, pulling its two old coaches through a country dripping with thawing snow. 1955A. Ross Australia 55 ix. 108 A river runs through it, also a single-track railway line. 1976P. R. White Planning for Public Transport viii. 164 A number of single-track control systems exist, in which the overriding principle is that only one train has authority to occupy a section at any one time.
2. A recorded strip on magnetic tape that does not have another strip alongside it, usu. occupying almost the full width of the tape. Also attrib. and as adv.
1959W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinemat. 129/1 Single-track recorder, a magnetic tape recorder using a single track, usually the full width of the tape. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio vi. 116 It is best to do all original recording single track, and to use other tracks only when copying. 1975G. N. Patchett F.M. Reception iii. xvi. 162 The whole tape is normally used for professional recording. It is known as single track.
B. adj. Concentrated on or capable of only one line of thought or action, obsessional, esp. in phr. single-track mind (chiefly U.S.) (cf. one-track adj. s.v. one numeral a. 35); affording no choice or opportunity of divergence.
1919Ladies' Home Jrnl. Feb. 35/1 The average girl no longer has a single-track mind. 1924A. J. Small Frozen Gold iv. 108 Sitka Charley's was a single-track mind; dour and grim and devilishly dogged, but still, single-track. 1933Times Educ. Suppl. 21 Oct. 349/3 In every school, no matter whether it be ‘single-track’ or ‘multi-bias’, there will always be a certain number who fail to come up to the standard set by the school. c1942L. Mumford City Devel. (1946) 152 To make up for a single-track concentration, there must be range of vision and comprehensiveness of understanding. 1964Listener 26 Mar. 508/1 Under the Criminal Justice Act 1948, the double-track system of preventive detention was replaced by a single-track system. 1978S. Sheldon Bloodline xxxi. 302 Max Hornung had a single-track mind. |