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1、 英文作文写作 简洁才是王道What is good writing？什么样的文章是好文章？It depends on what country youre from. We all know whats considered “good writing” in our own country. We grow up immersedin the cadencesand sentence structure of the language we were born into， so we think， “Thats probably what every country considers g
2、ood writing； they just use different words.” If only！ I once asked a student from Cairo， “What kind of language is Arabic？” She said， “Its all adjectives.”这取决于你来自何处。我们都知道在自己的国家好文章是什么样的。我们从小到大，已经熟知我们母语的抑扬顿挫和句子构造，于是我们认为，其他国家所谓的好文章也应当是这样，只不过用的语言不同。要是这样就好了！我有次问一个来自开罗的学生：“阿拉伯语是什么样的语言？”她答复说：“都是形容词。”Well，
3、of course its not all adjectives， but I knew what she meant： its decorative， its ornate， its intentionally pleasing. But all those adjectives and all that decoration would be the ruin of any journalisttrying to write good English. No proverbs， please.固然，不行能都是形容词，我知道她的意思：阿拉伯语是一种注意雕饰和阅读快感的语言。但是太多形容词和太
4、多雕饰都不利于英文的新闻写作。千万别使用那么多谚语。Spanish also comes with a heavy load of beautiful baggagethat will smotherany journalist writing in English.西班牙语也一样，有太多不利于英文写作的修饰语。English is not as musical as Spanish， or Italian， or French， or as ornamentalas Arabic， or as vibrantas some of your native languages. But Im h
5、opelessly in love with English because its plain and its strong. It has a huge vocabulary of words that have precise shades of meaning； theres no subject， however technical or complex， that cant be made clear to any reader in good Englishif its used right. Unfortunately， there are many ways of using
6、 it wrong. Those are the damaging habits I want to warn you about today.英语不像西班牙语、意大利语或者法语那样富有音律美，也不像阿拉伯语那样华美，可能也不像你们的母语那样生动鲜活，但我就是无可救药地喜爱英语，由于它平实有力，拥有海量意义鲜亮的词汇。描述一样事物，不管多高科技多简单，在标准英语中读者都看懂假如描述精确。不幸的是许多人都不能正确使用英语。以下就是我盼望大家避开的一些错误习惯。First， a little history. The English language is derived from two mai
7、n sources. One is Latin， the other is Anglo-Saxon. The words derived from Latin are the enemythey will strangleand suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free.首先，了解英语的历史。英语来源于拉丁语和安格鲁-撒克逊语。来自拉丁语的单词是我们的宿敌它们会使你的写作佶屈聱牙。安格鲁-撒克逊语才能解开你的束缚。How do those Latin words do their strang
8、ling and suffocating？ In general they are long， pompousnouns that end in -ionlike implementation and maximization and communication （five syllableslong！）or that end in -entlike development and fulfillment. Those nouns express a vague concept or an abstract idea， not a specific action that we can pic
9、ture. Heres a typical sentence： “Priorto the implementation of the financial enhancement.” That means “Before we fixed our money problems.”拉丁词语是怎么束缚你的文体的呢？一般来说都是些长并华而不实的单词，以ion结尾，像implementation、maximization、communication（五个音节那么长！）或者以ent结尾，像development和fulfillment.这些词语描述的都是一个模糊或抽象的概念，不是我们能够明确说明的行动。一
10、个典型句子就是：财政强化打算实施之前。其实就是说：解决钱的问题之前。Believe it or not， this is the language that people in authority in America routinely use. They think those long Latin words make them sound important. It no longer rains in America； your TV weather man will tell that you were experiencing a precipitation probabilit
11、y situation.不管你信不信，这些就是美国的高层人士常用语。他们认为这些长长的拉丁单词能突显自己的身份。美国已经没有下雨这一说了，天气预报员只会提到降水概率这个词。Im sure all of you， newly arrived in America， have already been driven crazy trying to figure out the instructions for ordering a cell phone or connecting your computer， or applying for a bank loan or a health insu
12、rance policy， and you assume that those of us who were born here can understand this stuff. I assure you that we dont understand it either.我信任你们全部人刚来美国的时候，都曾为订购手机、上网、申请银行贷款、购置安康保险的流程说明而抓狂，并认为我们美国人读得懂这些东西。其实我们一样看不懂。Those long Latin usages have so infected everyday language in America that you might w
13、ell think， “If thats how people write who are running the country， thats how Im supposed to write.” Its not. Let me read you two typical letters I recently received in the mail. （I keep letters like this and save them in a folder that I call “Bullshit File.”）这些拉丁词在日常英语中的大量使用或许让你产生错觉，认为“假如统领这个国家的人是用这
14、些词写作的，那么我也应当这样写作。”不是这样的。我来给你们读两封此类典型的电子邮件吧。（我会保存这一类的邮件，放在一个命名为“废话”的文件夹里。）The first one is from the president of a private club in New York. It says， “Dear member： The board of governors has spent the past year considering proactive efforts that will continue to profession alize the club and to intro
15、duce efficiencies that we will be implementing through out 2022.” That means theyre going to try to make the club run better第一封来自纽约一家私人俱乐部的老板：“亲爱的会员：在过去的一年里董事会始终在考虑如何做出更乐观的努力以连续增加俱乐部的职能以及2022年将落实的各项便利措施。”这其实表示说他们将努力使俱乐部运营得更好。A letter from my investment counsel says：我的私人投资参谋来信说：“As we previously communicated， we completed a systems conversion in late September. Data conversions involve extra processing and reconciliation steps.“正如我们之前所商谈过的，我们于九月底完成了系统转换。数据转换还牵涉了额外步骤和调整措施。translation： it took longer than we thought it would to make our office operate better翻译：改良我们的工作所花费的时间比估计要长。
