If it is a strained relationship, if the connection between the idea and its object is tenuous, then we are dealing with an unclear idea.
The most efficient way to clarify our ideas is to look through them to the objects they represent.
Be Mindful of the Origins of Idea
used to describe what you see as the real facts of the situationSYN in effect
sentence adverb
Effectively, it has become impossible for us to help.
Most of the urban poor are effectively excluded from politics
How do we ensure that our words are adequate to the ideas they seek to convey? The process is essentially the same as the one we follow when confirming the clarity and soundness of our ideas: We must go back to the sources of the ideas. Often we cannot come up with the right word for an idea because we don't have a firm grasp on the idea itself. Usually, when we clarify the idea by checking it against its source in the objective world, the right word will come to us.
How that is so becomes clear when we recall the relationship between the idea and the word.
The next step is putting ideas together
to form coherent statements.
Words have been called the building blocks of language,
but it is the statement that logic starts with
I may have a perfectly
good idea of what I'm trying to say, but can't succeed
in getting my ideas across clearly and effectively.
It is always better to err on
the side of saying too much than on the side of saying too
little.
True statements of objective fact are not open to argument; evaluative statements are.
if two or more thingscancel
outor onecancels outthe other, they are equally important but have an opposite effect on a
situation so that the situation does not change
•Recent losses have cancelled out any
profits made at the start of the year.
•The advantages and disadvantages would
appear tocancel each other out.
1.[U]the different parts which sth is made of; the way in which the different parts are organized
• 成分；构成；组合方式:
»the chemical
composition of the soil
土壤的化学成分
»the composition of the board of directors
董事会的组成
substitute
UK['sʌb.stɪ.tju:t]US[-tu:t]verbtransitive
ADVANCED
■to use something or someone instead of another thing or person用…代替，代之以
•You cansubstituteoilforbutter in this recipe.这道菜中你可以用食用油代替牛油。
•Dayton wassubstitutedforWilliams in the second half of the match.下半场比赛戴顿上场取代了威廉斯。
substitute forsth
■to perform the same job as another thing or to take its place取代，代替
•Gas-fired power stations willsubstitutefor less efficient coal-fired equipment.以煤气为燃料的发电站将会代替效率较低的燃煤装置。
无论主语究竟是掌握调动之权的人，或者是“新官”本人，substitute和replace的最大区别，就在直接宾语上。substitute的直接宾语只能是“新官”（此时主语就是掌权人），否则只能由“新官”来充当主语（无论哪一种情况，“旧官”前面都要有for）。replace的直接宾语是“旧官”，“新官”可以是主语，也可以由“掌权人”作主语，“新官”用with引入。
Before you attempt to persuade an audience
that a certain situation is unfair, tell them what you mean by
unfairness.
A sign posted at a fork in a trail which reads BEAR
TO THE RIGHT can be understood in two ways. The more
probable meaning is that it is instructing hikers to take the
right trail, not the left. But let us say that the ranger who
painted the sign meant to say just the opposite. He was trying
to warn hikers against taking the right trail because
there is a grizzly bear in the area through which it passes.
It is juvenile to use language simply to shock
But
shocking language is preferable to evasive language, if it can
disabuse people of hazy ideas and acquaint them with the
truth.
chimera
UK[kaɪ'mɪə.rə]US[-'mɪr.ə]formal
nouncountable
■a hope or dream that is extremely unlikely ever to come true幻想；妄想，空想
•Is the ideal of banishing hunger throughout the world just achimera?在全世界消除饥饿的理想是否只是痴心妄想？
It would be equally absurd to suppose
that truth is something forever to be pursued but never
to be attained, for that renders our activity purposeless,
which is to say, irrational, and turns truth into a chimera.
Byontological truthwe refer to the truthofbeing or existence