On Writing Well 3&4

经历了昨日的烦乱，今日可以稍微自信地开始了……

words and expressions

1. 原句：Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel and the town dump into the volume reduction unit.

这里是指委婉说法。看到ism的词缀容易想到**主义，所以就猜错了。

造句：I tried to use a euphemism to express myself.

2.原句 My reason for bracketing the students' superfluous words, instead of crossing them out, was to avoid violating their sacred prose.

这里用做动词，VERB 用括号括在一起 If two or more people or things are bracketed together, they are considered to be similar or related in some way.

Crossing out 可以猜到是划掉去除的意思。

3.原句If you give me an eight-page article and I tell you to cut it to four pages, you'll howl and say it can't be done.

喜欢像Howl这样的小词，生动简短。这里表示因做不到的困难发出的情绪性的吼叫。If you howl something, you say it in a very loud voice.

4. 原句They are all weeds that will smother what you write. 

英文释义：If an activity or process is smothered, it is prevented from continuing or developing.钳制，扼杀。

Thoughts:

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。

作者反复强调简练，精简到不能再精简，所以我也冒出同样的想法（毕竟我也是迷恋过华丽词藻的孩子）：如果过于简练，是否会影响某些细微词绪的表达，毕竟如果没有华丽的词容词副词，又该如果完全诠释自己想要表达的文字呢。这里作者说得很清楚了，你可以添砖加瓦，但永远不能忘记的是核心原则，先把框架搭牢了，否则其它的一切都会坩塌，皮之不存毛将附焉。

There is no style store; style is organic to the person doing the writing, as much a part of him as his hair, or, if he is bald, his lack of it. Trying to add style is like adding a toupee.

好幽默，读到这才知道style不是轻轻松松可以获得的，要想得到organic的style，靠的是年复一年的推敲与思考，而不是靠摘抄或模仿些华丽词句可得到的。既犀利又幽默，生动又准确。