On Writing Well 11.13

一 words and expressions 

1. But as a writer I’ve learned that scientific and technical material can be made accessible to the layman.

layman：someone who is not trained in a particular subject or type of work, especially when they are being compared with someone who is门外汉，外行人

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

ferment: a situation of great excitement or trouble in a country, especially caused by political change〔尤指因政治变革引起的〕动乱，骚动。 它的动词用法也很常用，表示发酵。

3. for expressing how we feel about things and for performing complicated acts could do little more than fumble with sensory inputs of the moment.

fumble with：to try to hold, move, or find something with your hands in an awkward way笨手笨脚地做，胡乱摸找

4. The example of the linseed oil is just piquant enough to make us wonder what “memory” really is

piquant：interesting and exciting, especially because mysterious（尤指因神秘而显得）有趣的，刺激的； 还可以形容食物是开胃的。

5. you’d think we lived at bay, in total jeopardy

in jeopardy： in danger of being lost or harmed在危险中〔指会失去或受到危害〕、

6. No such limit can be discerned in the quantity of transistors that can be fabricated on silicon

discern：to see, recognize or understand something that is not clear看出；辨别出；明白

fabricate：to invent or produce something false in order to deceive捏造，虚构；伪造

二 Thoughts

这章讲的是如何进行科学写作。

One of the problems the author sees is that in early education, attempts are made to identify broad learning capacities. An English teacher might tell a student that she or he has no language skills. A science teacher might tell a student that he or she has no potential for science. 

One human element is yourself. Use your own experience to connect the reader to some mechanism that also touches his life.Another way to help your readers understand unfamiliar facts is to relate them to sights they are familiar with.

我觉得这点很重要，无论对于作者来说，还是对于读者来说。我们在听名师讲课时，尤其是讲一些比较抽象的理论时，他们往往会结合生活中的一些例子讲起。

Another way of making science accessible is to write like a person and not like a scientist.

我记得之前在上科学论文阅读与写作的课时，老师给我们放了一个视频。是一个比较知名的教授谈怎样写好paper。我记得他谈到是少写长句，少用没有必要的专业词汇，而这么做的目的就是让paper被几乎所用人能够读懂。