2.4 Some Stylistic Consequences
昨天的文章介绍了英文写作的两个基本原则：主语反映故事的主要角色，动词传达角色的行动。放眼看去，这两个原则暗合许多英文写作中的指导意见。
1. You may have been told to write more specifically, more concretely. （写作要具体明确）
如果将动词变成名词，隐去主要角色，句意就会变得抽象：
There has been an affirmative decision for program termination.
反之，明确角色和角色的行动，句意就会清晰明了：
The Director decided to terminate the program.
2. You may have been told to avoid using too many prepositional phrases. （避免用很多介词）
用动词替换名词之后，可以减少贯穿名词所需的介词：
2.1. An evaluation of the program by us will allow greater efficiency in service to clients.
2.2. We will evaluate the program so that we can serve clients better
3. You may have been told to put your ideas in a logical order. (表意要具备逻辑顺序)
将动词名词化之后，不仅会增加介词的使用量，还会使得句子的逻辑发生紊乱：
3.1. The closure of the branch and the transfer of its business and nonunionized employees constituted an unfair labor practice because the purpose of obtaining an economic benefit by means of discouraging unionization motivated the closure and transfer.
3.2. The partners committed an unfair labor practice when they closed the branch and transferred its business and nonunionized employees in order to discourage unionization and thereby obtain an economic benefit.
4. You may have been told to use connectors to clarify logical relationships. （用连接词梳理逻辑关系）
当用动词代替名词之后，需要用各种连接词（比如because, although, if）将从句和主句衔接起来，这样同时也理清了句子之间的逻辑关系：
4.1. The more effective presentation of needs by other Agencies resulted in our failure in acquiring federal funds, despite intensive lobbying efforts on our part.
4.2. Although we lobbied Congress intensively, we could not acquire federal funds because other interests presented their needs more effectively.
In short, when you observe this first pair of principles, you reap other benefits. Once you grasp the two root principles, you can apply them quickly, knowing that as you correct one problem, you are solving others. （一旦掌握了上述的两个基本原则，就同时收获了许多其它的好处）
As we might expect, the principles of aligning characters with subjects and actions with verbs have exceptions. We will see later how we must choose which character from among many to make the subject and which action to make the verb. （这两个原则涉及到到底选择哪个主语和动词作为故事的角色和行动的问题）
As we read a sentence, we have to integrate two levels of its structure: one is its predictable grammatical sequence: Subject +Verb + Complement; the other level is its story, a level of meaning whose parts have no fixed order: Characters + Actions. To a significant degree, we judge a style to be clear or unclear according to how consistently a writer aligns those two levels. We usually feel we are reading prose that is clear, direct, and readable when a writer consistently expresses the crucial actions of her story in verbs and her central characters (real or abstract) in their subjects. （一个句子的清晰程度在很大程度上取决于主+谓+宾的结构和角色+行动这两类结果的匹配程度，匹配度越高，句意越清晰）
