On Writing Well 1-9

Words

1.advent

Before the advent of computers it wasn't needed; now it is.

the advent of something the time when something first begins to be widely used（重大事件、发明或情况的）出现，问世，到来

SYN coming:

例： The leap forward in communication made possible by the advent of the mobile phone.

手机的问世带来了通讯业的迅猛发展

仿：The advent of the computer totally changed our way of life.

2. drain

An unwieldy writing task is a drain on your enthusiasm.

a drain on something something that continuously uses a lot of time, money etc:

例The war was an enormous drain on the country’s resources.

以前学过的 brain drain 人才流失

3. ebb

When your zest begins to ebb, the reader is the first person to know it.

(also ebb away) to gradually decrease:

例：Linda’s enthusiasm began to ebb away

本意潮落的意思，让我想起了Peak里学到的单词wane表示兴趣减少

4.relax

Because it was asked by the poultry industry to relax the conditions under which the ingredients might also include chicken.

to make a rule or law less strict

relax rules/regulations/controls

例：Two weeks after the police relaxed security at the airports, there was a bomb attack.警方放松了对机场采取的安全措施两周后就发生了一起炸弹袭击事件。

5.moral

One moral of this story is that you should always collect more material than you will use.

■The moral of a story, event or experience is the message which you understand from it about how you should or should not behave 道德教训；寓意

•And the moral of/to the story is that honesty is always the best policy.这个故事的寓意是：诚实总是上策。

6.landscape

Our daily landscape is thick with absurd messages and portents.

the political/social landscape the general situation in which a particular activity takes place:情况，情形

例：Recent electoral shocks have shaken the European political landscape.

Summary

图片发自App

In Part 1, the author introduces us the principles of writing. The first principle is about simplicity, which means that a good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. The second one is about one's own writing style.  In fact, your style is to write what you want to say, be confident and  be yourself.

In part 2 , the author begins to tell us details about how to write. Firstly, he talks about the unity, the anchor of good writing. Before you write, you should think clearly, and you'd be better  think small, to decide what single point you want to leave in  the readers mind. Meanwhile the unity should  maintain consistency with pronoun, tense and mood.

Now you begin to write, remember the lead and the end is both important. A good lead can capture the audience immediately. Next the lead must provide hard details. Take special care with the last sentence－it's the springboard of the next paragraph.  At last to end a writing at exactly the right time but also with surprise, you can encapsulate the idea or use a quotation.

Reflections

今天做总结的时候让我感觉到自己跳出了每天的章节内容，能从总整体俯瞰这周的内容。其实第一章就是在说什么样的文章是好文章，作者强调要简洁清晰的称述自己的所想。李笑来在《把时间当做朋友》这本书里就说过写作能力中最基本的一种就是写出简洁、有效、准确、朴素、具体的说明性和说理性的文章。第一次看到这段话时我才知道原来写作不仅仅时我们上学时候读过的文学作品，写作最开始出现的功能其实就是纪录，用最简洁最有效的方式表达。

这本书里的生词真的是很多，看的时候都是深呼吸鼓励自己读下去。让我想到去年9月群里读的毛姆的两本英文原版，一开始也是不知所云，不过坚持下去依然有收获。就像Eric常说的，不要期望与记住一本书所有的东西，能学到一点或者记住一点就很不错了。

这周我最大的收获就是开始意识到并开始思考什么样是好的写作，我自己能否运用。惊喜的是昨天在写人类简史全书的复盘时我居然开始思考怎样的开头会吸引读者，我是这么写的：“看这本书的时候，我总在思考一个问题：人类真的进化了吗？“这么写是因为我在看书的过程中确实是在思考这个问题，另外也是被本周看的内容所影响，如果我自己是读者，我会被这个问题吸引啊。