Day 11 （Writing About Places——The Travel Article）

Summary 

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Chapter 13 (Writing About Places——The Travel Article): Travel writing needs fresh words and images in style and useful and significant details in substance.

Words and Expressions

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The dismal truth is that it's very hard. 

1 dismal adj. 忧郁的;阴沉的，惨淡的，凄凉的

eg:You can't occupy yourself with dismal thoughts all the time.

Who can visit the Tower of London without musing on the wives of Henry VIII.

2 muse vi. 沉思，冥想

eg: People like musing on lives when their families and friends are gone.

But that is ground already covered by multitudes of people.

3 multitudes n. 大量， 众多

eg: The Bund is covered by multitudes of people on National Day.

Nowhere else in nonfiction do writers use such syrupy words and groaning platitudes.

4 platitude n. 老生常谈 （cliche）

eg: The pointless meeting is full of platitudes.

It should generate a whole constellation of ideas about how men and women work and play, raise their children, worship their gods, live and die.

5 constellation n. 一系列（相关的事物和想法）

eg: Teachers raised a constellation of ideas about improving students' English ability.

Instead I went to the custodians of these sites and asked:...?

6 custodian n. 看守人，管理员 

Thoughts

He enjoyed his trip so much that he wants to tell us about it —— and "all" is what we don't want to hear.We only want to hear some.

Your main task as a travel writer is to find the central idea of the place you're dealing with.

  这两段内容，作者想要指出在写游记的时候，我们要突出一个值得读者去看的重点。这和之前提到的 one subject 契合。这让我想到，我旅行前也会上网去看一些游记，经常会读到一些标题如 “XX最好吃街头美食”，“XX必去打卡景点”。。。。。。但是读到后面会说到某样食物一般般，不值得推荐或者这个景点还不如国内三线城市的公园诸如此类的话。那我觉得这样的内容应该放到标题为“XX最难吃食物”和“最坑爹景点”。另外，Zinsser在这章也提到，太多人写大峡谷有多壮观，壮观是个大家都知道的事实，那这样的游记读者没有兴趣读，读者会对有人从大峡谷上掉下去这类的游记更感兴趣。同样的，如果我们写游记，写到不为人所知的内容一定是更吸引人的。著名的景点，很多人就算没去过也读到过或媒体上看到过的“好”，“壮美”，“叹为观止”。也许这的确是我们旅行时的感受，我们被这景象所震撼到，但是一定会震撼读者吗？所以我们要尝试从不同的角度去发现一些重要的又与众不同的点来进行描述。