WORDS

1.Tip-off

Other old writers ramble and repeat themselves; their style is the tip-off that they have turned into garrulous bores.

A secret warning or a piece of secret imformation

[Eg] Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested the drug dealers.

Following a tip-off from a friend, we sold all our shares in the company.

2.Gnaw.    Sth gnaw at sb/Sb be gnawed by Sth.

Now I’m saying you must write for yourself and not be gnawed by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.

If you feel something gnaw at you,you mean you’re bothered by them repeatedly.

[Eg] Doubts were already gnawing away at the back of his mind.

这个词用得很精彩，把心里那种毛毛的感觉体现出来，好像被持续不断地困扰着。

3.Relish/Opulent

Or take a writer who is almost White’s opposite in terms of style, who relishes the opulent word for its opulence and doesn’t deify the simple sentence.

(1).If you relish something,you really get a lot of enjoyment from it.

VB.[Eg]I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.

      He ate quietly, relishing his meal.

noun.

The three men ate with relish.

N-UNCOUNT

(2).If you relish the prospect,the idea,thought of something,you really look forward into it.

He relished the idea of getting some cash.

opulent

Opulent things looks expensive and grand.(formal)

4.Kowtow

he didn’t kowtow to the reader or curry anyone’s favor. It takes courage to be such a writer, but it is out of such courage that revered and influential journalists are born.

If you say someone kowtows to someone else,you’re criticizing them that they show polite to the authority without respect and dignity.

[Eg] See how stupidly they kow-tow to persons higher in the hierarchy.

curry someone’s favor

through flattery or fawning:

His fellow workers despised him for currying favor with the boss.

两个词基本上是同义词

5.Beef up

Famed diplomat Condoleezza Rice, who hosts foreign notables to beef up the morale of top State Department staffers, sits down and fires off a lot of notes.

If you beef up Sth,you increase,enhance or improve something

[Eg] a campaign to beef up security...

      Both sides are still beefing up their military strength.

      ..a beefed up police presence

OTHER WORDS

Workmanship

Garrulous

Whith gusto

With relish

Hero worship

Self-righteous

TOUGHTS

Chapter5

I was so excited when I was reading this chapter,just like I was communicating with an old friend.

Zinsser throw a question to us:Who am I writing for.Someone might said that they are writing to curry the readers’ favour,so that their books can be sold out.Neverthless,Zinsser said,just write for yourself and you will meet the readers that you want,while at the same time,you ought to master the precise skill in writing.He took two famous writer that write for themselves and finally succeeded as examples to emphasize his opinion.I think only a honest and confident person can achieve this principle.And in my perspective,this principle is also fit in our life.We ought to be ourselves and don’t give a damn what others think about us.

Chapter6

Chapter 6 is about words.Zinsser told us that we should be respectable for words and always curious about them.And he emphasized the importance of using dictionaries to find the etymology and synonyms.At last,he want to bear us in mind that always notice the sound and rhythm when you are writing.

#Day3

##词汇篇

with the zest/with gusto

1. Many old men still write** with the zest **they had in their twenties or thirties; obviously their ideas are still young.

With the zest和with gusto意思相近，都表示“有热情”。zest全书出现了4次，gusto3次，一定要掌握。

They are doing researches with gusto/zest.

relish

2. Or take a writer who is alomost White's opposite in terms of style, who **relishes** the opulent word for its opulence and doesn't deify the simple sentence.

> I relish the pattern his words make as they fall into a sentence.

I really relish the book written by Zinsser.

relish的意思和enjoy差不多，不过它比enjoy的程度要强烈。如果你非常喜欢某事的话，除了用like/enjoy very much，试试relish吧。

hurl the ammunition

3. Some of his heaviest **ammunition** he **hurled** at politicians and Presidents still scorches the pages.

ammunition是“子弹”的意思，它的比喻义是“ 辩论或讨论中可攻击对方的信息”。另外注意hurl，它的本义是“用力扔”，常用来表示“气势汹汹地口出恶言”，常见的表达有hurl abuse/slur/insult。

我正在读的《长日将尽》中有这样一句：For when they had wearied of hurling insults at my father's back, the two gentalmen began to discuss their host.

4. Mencken was never timid or evasive; he didn't **kowtow to** the reader or curry anyone's favor.

kowtow是非常著名的中国特色词汇之一，kowtow to someone，“向某人磕头”很有画面感。加上后面的curry someone's favor，拍马屁，和我们现在说的“跪舔”差不多。

##写作篇

1. The Thesaurus is to the writer what a rhyming dictionary is to the songwriter.

句型：A is to B what C is to D 需要掌握，也会见到A is to as C is to D的写法，两者语法不同，但是意思一样。

The method of reading is to the reader what a fishing rod is to a fisherman.

2. “See if you can gain variety by reversing the order of a sentence, or by substituting a word that has freshness or oddity, or by altering the length of your sentences so they don’t all sound as if they came out of the same machine. An occasional short sentence can carry a tremendous punch. It stays in the reader’s ear.”

这里作者教了我们一招：写完了文章后自己读一遍，看看能不能使语句更多样化一些，例如用非谓语动词，用从句。看看是否哪个词可以更恰当。要注意长短句结合。还记不记得之前有一句：Tough competition. 这句话真的就stays in my ear. 掌握几个非及物动词（例如count, help, matter, suffice, abound)，我们都能写出几个漂亮的短句。