Chapter 15 2017.11.13

Expressions

Science, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject.

demystify 使〔似乎困难或复杂的问题〕容易理解，简明地解释

这里我把它看作“揭开...神秘的面纱”

A tenet of journalism is that “the reader knows nothing.”

Tenet 教义、信条

近义词：creed

...and “simply” blowing it up—but not too soon. The only step I’m confident I could perform is to blow it up too soon.

blow up 第一个是吹胀、充气的意思，第二个应该是搞破坏、使失败的意思。

e.g. I blew up his plan. Zinsser在这里应该是玩了个双关语。

It is part of the large ferment of modern brain research in progress in laboratories throughout the United States and abroad.

ferment 动荡，〔尤指因政治变革引起的〕动乱，骚动

a situation of great excitement or trouble in a country, especially caused by political change

近义词：turmoil

But there’s more to my admiration than gratitude.

我对他的钦佩更胜于感激。

以前只知道there’s more to it than it seems.的句式，不知道还可以这么用。

Loren Eiseley was a naturalist who refused to be cowed by nature as he passed on to us,

cow 恐吓，威胁

to frighten someone in order to make them do something

cow sb into sth

The protesters had been cowed into submission by the police.

抗议者在警察的威胁下屈服了。

Summary

写作不是少数人才拥有的能力，而是置于纸上的思考。在科学报告中，句子应该形成线性的顺序。假设读者是无知的，从充满人性和生活气息的细节与事实开始，一步一步推进到科学理论和引申意义，将晦涩的原理通过读者熟悉的事物解释清楚，科学报告的写作练习对于写作能力的提升也很有意义。作者通过发展描述过程，锻炼有序的逻辑思维，从而在自己日后的写作中去繁从简，获取能够清晰地表达想法的能力。无论什么主题的写作，思路都是通用的：人的元素永远是激发读者阅读、反映文章活力的关键。用一个好的开头引发读者的好奇，句子和段落之间形成良好的连贯性也是必不可少的。

It’s arogant not to put science into language layman could understand.