On Writing Well, Chap 3&4, Day2

Words & Phrases

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1. drape

vt.①(cover, swathe)悬挂

‹cloth›he draped his coat over the back of a chair他把上衣搭在椅背上

to drape a shawl around one's shoulders把披巾披在肩上

to drape oneself over [something]四肢舒展地躺在某物上

②(cover with)覆盖‹furniture›

walls draped in ivy爬满常春藤的墙

Consider all the prepositions that are draped onto verbs that don’t need any help.

You will reach for gaudy similes and tinseled adjectives, as if “style” were something you could buy at the style store and drape onto your words in bright decorator colors.

2. deprive(oxygen-depriving)

vt.剥夺

to deprive [somebody] of [something];剥夺某人的某物

he was deprived of his rights 他被剥夺了权利

“In the unlikely possibility that the aircraft should experience such an eventuality,” she begins—a phrase so oxygen-depriving in itself that we are prepared for any disaster.

3. belly-up

vi. hopelessly ruined or defeated; (常用来表达破产的含义，bankrupt)

the business went belly-up.

Companies that go belly-up have “a negative cash-flow position.”

4. nuisance

①(annoyance)麻烦事

it's a nuisance that …; 恼人的是…

②(person)讨厌的人

to be a nuisance (to [somebody]);令（某）人讨厌

to make anuisanceof oneself;讨人嫌

③(Law)滋扰行为

Orwell’s warning that clutter is not just a nuisance but a deadly tool has come true in the recent decades of American military adventurism.

5. inflate

①(fill with air or gas)给…充气‹object›;使…胀大‹lungs›

②figurative(exaggerate)夸大

flattery inflates one's ego or self-esteem赞扬吹捧使人自高自大

Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important.

Don’t inflate what needs no inflating.

6. to go out on a limb

limb的含义有肢体；主枝的意思

to be or go out on a limb 意思是使自己孤立无援；自已与大多数人的观念相左

在这里是说，美国人避免在文章中用‘I’的原因是不愿意表达出来自己真实的观点，以免被人当成非主流

But I’ve also noticed a new reason for avoiding “I”: Americans are unwilling to go out on a limb.

Thoughts

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Clutter is the laborious phrase that has pushed out the short word that means the same thing.

在写作过程中，一些对于表意或者阐述毫无帮助的词汇都是冗余的，都应该删除掉。不能为了让自己的文章看起来很绚丽华美而用很多无意义的修饰词。

You can develop the same eye. Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful?

去除clutter的最佳方式，我认为就是rewriting。在返回去看自己写下的句子的时候，一定要明白自己想要表达的是什么。要看分清楚有哪些是对表达毫无帮助的，又有哪些是必须留下帮助表达的。哪些毫无意义的成分可以直接删除掉。

The point is that you have to strip your writing down before you can build it back up. You must know what the essential tools are and what job they were designed to do. Extending the metaphor of carpentry, it’s first necessary to be able to saw wood neatly and to drive nails. Later you can bevel the edges or add elegant finials, if that’s your taste. But you can never forget that you are practicing a craft that’s based on certain principles. If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart. and serviceable, take satisfaction in its plain strength.

写作最原始的目的就是将作者的想法传递给读者，所以一篇文章最基本的要求就是要表意清晰。一篇文章如果最基本的结构和用词都不准确的话就失去了它的作用。把简单的句子写好，把意思表达清楚之后才有资格去追求那些的style。

You are so busy thinking of your awesome responsibility to the finished article that you can’t even start.

Done is better than perfect. 在写文章之前不要想这么多。一个字都还没动呢，想那么多干嘛？？？当务之是着手把文章写出来，然后不满意可以rewriting。