Nov.16 On Writing Well（Ch18）

文章中说到埋葬凯撒大帝远容易于赞扬他 ，这同样适用于埃及艳后。找了一张埃及艳后图片。

PART ONE THOUGHTS

Good criticism needs a lean and vivid style to express what you observed and what you think.

这章主题是写艺术：评论家与专栏作家。如何写评论呢？太严肃的评论会显得很轻浮。

第一，评论家应该具备爱，这是一种medium也就是方法。如果你觉得这个电影不好看带有偏见就不要写。每一个电影都有忠实粉丝，并不是要评论家喜欢所有的电影，评论也仅仅是个人观点。但他应该选择受众面广的电影。

第二个就是不要大量剧透，告诉读者足够的资料让他们选择他们喜欢的电影，剧透反而会扼杀他们看电影的欲望。

第三避免泛泛而谈，使用具体的细节。类似于这部电影很吸引人就是泛泛而谈，如何吸引呢？没有具体说出。举几个例子给读者选择他们觉得吸引的。把你看到的告诉你的读者。

第四避免使用极其激动的形容词占据了必要的空间，比如太迷人、非常有趣。好的评论一定是简介清晰生动的表达你所观察到和思考到的。评论真是个脑力活动。

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PART TWO VOCABULARY

1.ecstatic

A final caution is to avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic’s quiver—words like “enthralling” and “luminous.”

ecstatic：very happy, excited and enthusiastic; feeling or showing great enthusiasm SYN：delighted

ecstatic applause/praise/reviews狂热的鼓掌赞美评论

2.medium

It tries to evaluate serious works of art and to place them in the context of what has been done before in that medium or by that artist.

medium:

1.a way of communicating information,etc. to people传播信息的媒介，方法，手段

the medium of radio/television

e.g.Television is the modern medium of communication.

2.something that is used for a particular purpose方法、手段、工具。

3. the material or the form that an artist ,a writer or musician uses（艺术创作中使用）材料，形式

the medium of paint/poetry/drama 此文中应该说爱是评论的一种方式，属于第三种解释

3.aesthetic

As a reviewer your job is more to report than to make an aesthetic judgment.

aesthetic：concerned with beauty and art and the understanding of beautiful things美学的、审美

e.g.an aesthetic appreciation of the landscape用审美的眼光欣赏风景

4.trot out

They will trot out the hard-won words of their college education

trot out：to give the same excuses, facts, explanations, etc. for something that have often been used before反复提出陈旧的观点