小编寄语：

论写作中的翻译思维：有些小伙伴在英文写作时，往往脑子里先想到的是中文，然后再翻译为英文，但是英文写作与中文写作有其各自特别之处。小编设立此栏目，以小编自己的作文为例（反例或正例），分享自己对于英文写作的看法。

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写在前面：

本篇作文的主题是“人物描写”。根据小编粗浅的见识，人物描写文关键是要突出人物的个性特征，可以是形容一个人的多个性格特征（分不同的特征描写），或者形容一个人的某个特征（分不同的场景描写），或者是其他各种写法都可以。但是开始写作文之前就要清晰自己的写作思路，写个大纲。

A Mysterious Neighbor

My neighbor is mysterious. I moved across the hall three months ago, but I have never met him in person. As I’m a light sleeper, every day early in the morning, when I am still in my sweet dreams, Iam wakened by the annoying noises across the hall — the twisting of the doorknob and the squeaking of the door opening. Then the door quietly closes and I can sense the deliberately slowed and softened tiptoes.

I seldom see him at daytime. He does not return home for lunch or for a nice siesta, no one who lives around seems to know him either, and for most of the time, when he does return home, it’s already late at night.

“Does he work? What does he do?” I wonder. And driven by this curiosity, I decide to uncover his mysterious veil.

One day, I stayed all day at home to wait for a chance to “meet” him, or more precisely, to peek through my door crack. The night before, I set up the alarm clock and as it turned out, the battery was dead, and when I was finally wakened by the routine opening of his door, I jumped out of the bed and carefully opened my door, but unsatisfyingly, I only caught a back figure of him. He is 180 centimeters high, a heavy-set man with broad shoulders and muscular arms; he is neatly dressed: white T-shirt and jeans matched with snickers. His hair is neatly cut to the neck, submissively attached to the head. Then the figure disappeared into the stair case on the corner.

Still interested, I waited all day at home: at lunch time, he did not show up; at dinner time, there was still no sight of him. As I was going to give up, the magical sound of the door opening announced itself. I rushed to my door, open just enough for me to see through the crack but not enough that he would notice the peeping. But what greeted me was still the old back figure. I was frustrated, and was too short of excuses or too timid to knock on his door. Sitting on the floor, I sank into silence to mourn for my fruitless waiting.

Then, a sound broke the silence. The language, though, was inapprehensible. The sound was magnetic, appealing to the ear that my ears dragged me closer to the source of the sound—I was literally glued to the door; it’s a low sound, typical of man, but not too low that you feel like it’s devil talking. It’s a mysterious sound: it’s smoky, much like the sound of a famous singer Adele, and it’s a language I do not understand. “Is it Germany?” I attended my ear to it but the words just came into one ear and came out from the other, leaving no trace in my brain. The sound is hoarse: he must be talking a lot. The sound varied in tone: it was cheerful at the beginning, but carried a sense of heaviness later, like the sound belonged to two men. “Is he reciting a play? Maybe he is playing two men.” I thought to myself.

I was satisfied. He still seems mysterious to me. But think about it in another way: maybe when I really meet him, I will be disappointedby his messy beard, his geeky eye glasses, or his stained front of the T-shirt, which will ruin the sense of mystery I reserved for him. So I decided not to disturb him and let him be my mysterious neighbor. After all, something is best left unsaid; someone is best left unmet.

分析与吐槽：

开篇就说明我这个邻居别致的气质——神秘。这是比较保守的写法。因为如果先描述，让读者猜，或者再在最后总结“气质”，一旦没写清楚，容易confuse读者。

文章结构：先以一个场景引出人物，然后小编就开始了“心理戏”——推测这个人是谁，是做什么的。这种好奇心在引出下一步——揭开庐山真面目！

在试图揭开神秘面纱的过程中，肯定要对人物进行外形或者其他方面的描写。而这两方面，也无疑是“人物描写”作文中的重头戏。来看小编是怎么形容这个神秘邻居的吧！

外形：He is 180 centimeters high, a heavy-set man with broad shoulders and muscular arms; he is neatly dressed: white T-shirt and jeans matched with snickers. His hair is neatly cut to the neck, submissively attached to the head.

身高一米八，体型健硕，肩宽，胳膊粗。着装干净：白T，牛仔裤，外加板鞋。头发要脖子处，非常整洁，不蓬乱。

声音：It’s a low sound, typical of man, but not too low that you feel like it’s devil talking. It’s a mysterious sound: it’s smoky, much like the sound of a famous singer Adele, and it’s a language I do not understand. The sound is hoarse: he must be talking a lot. The sound varied in tone: it was cheerful at the beginning, but carried a sense of heaviness later, like the sound belonged to two men. 

用排比句来形容“神秘人”声音的特质——低沉 + 神秘烟熏嗓 + 粗犷 + 声调起伏。每个特质后面再加一两句话就有了形容声音的完整的一段话。

如何让文章出彩？

写作时，尽量用一些出彩的表达，可以用排比句，如文中的“the twisting of the doorknob and the squeaking of the door opening”——门把转动的声音和门打开的声音。以及文章最后“something is best left unsaid; someone is best left unmet”——有些话不说最好，有些人不见为妙。

也可以用alliteration头韵这样的修辞手法，如"slowed and softened tiptoes"——脚步放慢放轻。

小编提醒：积累出彩表达，请出门往左，查看“S翻译”与“S词汇”，《经济学人》地道表达等着你！

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