學(xué)英語(yǔ)會(huì)有一個(gè)定勢(shì)，那就是背很偏很難的單詞。但是了解那些“高級(jí)”單詞固然必要，可任何一門語(yǔ)言中應(yīng)用最廣泛的還是那些簡(jiǎn)單的基礎(chǔ)詞匯。我們自己看中文的時(shí)候會(huì)很痛恨拐彎抹角不說(shuō)人話的作者，英文也一樣。老外自己不喜歡看故作艱深的東西，所以我們?cè)趯懽鞯臅r(shí)候就放心大膽地使用簡(jiǎn)單詞匯吧，只要意思表達(dá)清楚、有條理、語(yǔ)法通暢就是好文章。

What is good writing?

什么樣的文章是好文章？

It depends on what country you’re from. We all know what’s 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, “That’s probably what every country considers good writing; they just use different words.” If only! I once asked a student from Cairo, “What kind of language is Arabic?” She said, “It’s all adjectives.”

這取決于你來(lái)自何處。我們都知道在自己的國(guó)家好文章是什么樣的。我們從小到大，已經(jīng)熟知我們母語(yǔ)的抑揚(yáng)頓挫和句子結(jié)構(gòu)，于是我們認(rèn)為，其他國(guó)家所謂的好文章也應(yīng)該是這樣，只不過(guò)用的語(yǔ)言不同。要是這樣就好了！我有次問(wèn)一個(gè)來(lái)自開(kāi)羅的學(xué)生：“阿拉伯語(yǔ)是什么樣的語(yǔ)言？”她回答說(shuō)：“都是形容詞。”

Well, of course it’s not all adjectives, but I knew what she meant: it’s decorative, it’s ornate, it’s intentionally pleasing. But all those adjectives and all that decoration would be the ruin of any journalisttrying to write good English. No proverbs, please.

當(dāng)然，不可能都是形容詞，我知道她的意思：阿拉伯語(yǔ)是一種注重雕飾和閱讀快感的語(yǔ)言。但是太多形容詞和太多雕飾都不利于英文的新聞寫作。千萬(wàn)別使用那么多諺語(yǔ)。

Spanish also comes with a heavy load of beautiful baggagethat will smotherany journalist writing in English.

西班牙語(yǔ)也一樣，有太多不利于英文寫作的修飾語(yǔ)。

English is not as musical as Spanish, or Italian, or French, or as ornamentalas Arabic, or as vibrantas some of your native languages. But I’m hopelessly in love with English because it’s plain and it’s strong. It has a huge vocabulary of words that have precise shades of meaning; there’s no subject, however technical or complex, that can’t be made clear to any reader in good English—if it’s used right. Unfortunately, there are many ways of using it wrong. Those are the damaging habits I want to warn you about today.

英語(yǔ)不像西班牙語(yǔ)、意大利語(yǔ)或者法語(yǔ)那樣富有音律美，也不像阿拉伯語(yǔ)那樣華麗，可能也不像你們的母語(yǔ)那樣生動(dòng)鮮活，但我就是無(wú)可救藥地?zé)釔?ài)英語(yǔ)，因?yàn)樗�平�?shí)有力，擁有海量意義鮮明的詞匯。描述一樣事物，不管多高科技多復(fù)雜，在標(biāo)準(zhǔn)英語(yǔ)中讀者都看懂——如果描述準(zhǔn)確。不幸的是很多人都不能正確使用英語(yǔ)。以下就是我希望大家避免的一些錯(cuò)誤習(xí)慣。

First, a little history. The English language is derived from two main sources. One is Latin, the other is Anglo-Saxon. The words derived from Latin are the enemy—they will strangleand suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free.

首先，了解英語(yǔ)的歷史。英語(yǔ)來(lái)源于拉丁語(yǔ)和安格魯-撒克遜語(yǔ)。來(lái)自拉丁語(yǔ)的單詞是我們的宿敵——它們會(huì)使你的寫作佶屈聱牙。安格魯-撒克遜語(yǔ)才能解開(kāi)你的束縛。

How do those Latin words do their strangling and suffocating? In general they are long, pompousnouns that end in -ion—like implementation and maximization and communication (five syllableslong!)—or that end in -ent—like development and fulfillment. Those nouns express a vague concept or an abstract idea, not a specific action that we can picture. Here’s a typical sentence: “Priorto the implementation of the financial enhancement.” That means “Before we fixed our money problems.”

拉丁詞語(yǔ)是怎么束縛你的文體的呢？一般來(lái)說(shuō)都是些長(zhǎng)并華而不實(shí)的單詞，以ion結(jié)尾，像implementation、maximization、communication（五個(gè)音節(jié)那么長(zhǎng)�。┗蛘咭詄nt結(jié)尾，像development和fulfillment。這些詞語(yǔ)描述的都是一個(gè)模糊或抽象的概念，不是我們能夠明確說(shuō)明的行動(dòng)。一個(gè)典型句子就是：財(cái)政強(qiáng)化計(jì)劃實(shí)施之前。其實(shí)就是說(shuō)：解決錢的問(wèn)題之前。

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 we’re experiencing a precipitation probability situation.

不管你信不信，這些就是美國(guó)的高層人士常用語(yǔ)。他們認(rèn)為這些長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的拉丁單詞能突顯自己的身份。美國(guó)已經(jīng)沒(méi)有下雨這一說(shuō)了，天氣預(yù)報(bào)員只會(huì)提到降水概率這個(gè)詞。

I’m 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 insurance policy, and you assume that those of us who were born here can understand this stuff. I assure you that we don’t understand it either.

我相信你們所有人剛來(lái)美國(guó)的時(shí)候，都曾為訂購(gòu)手機(jī)、上網(wǎng)、申請(qǐng)銀行貸款、購(gòu)買健康保險(xiǎn)的流程說(shuō)明而抓狂，并認(rèn)為我們美國(guó)人讀得懂這些東西。其實(shí)我們一樣看不懂。

這些拉丁詞在日常英語(yǔ)中的大量使用也許讓你產(chǎn)生錯(cuò)覺(jué)，認(rèn)為“如果統(tǒng)領(lǐng)這個(gè)國(guó)家的人是用這些詞寫作的，那么我也應(yīng)該這樣寫作�！辈皇沁@樣的。我來(lái)給你們讀兩封此類典型的電子郵件吧。（我會(huì)保存這一類的郵件，放在一個(gè)命名為“廢話”的文件夾里。）

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 introduce efficiencies that we will be implementing through out 2009.” That means they’re going to try to make the club run better

第一封來(lái)自紐約一家私人俱樂(lè)部的老板：“親愛(ài)的會(huì)員：在過(guò)去的一年里董事會(huì)一直在考慮如何做出更積極的努力以繼續(xù)增強(qiáng)俱樂(lè)部的職能以及2009年將落實(shí)的各項(xiàng)便利措施�！边@其實(shí)表示說(shuō)他們將努力使俱樂(lè)部運(yùn)營(yíng)得更好。

A letter from my investment counsel says:

我的私人投資顧問(wèn)來(lái)信說(shuō)：

“As we previously communicated, we completed a systems conversion in late September. Data conversions involve extra processing and reconciliation steps.

“正如我們之前所商談過(guò)的，我們于九月底完成了系統(tǒng)轉(zhuǎn)換。數(shù)據(jù)轉(zhuǎn)換還牽涉了額外步驟和調(diào)節(jié)措施。

[translation: it took longer than we thought it would to make our office operate better]

翻譯：改進(jìn)我們的工作所花費(fèi)的時(shí)間比預(yù)計(jì)要長(zhǎng)。

We apologize if you were in convenienced as we completed the verification process.

如果在核準(zhǔn)系統(tǒng)期間您感到不方便，我們對(duì)此致以歉意。

[we hope we've got it right now]

翻譯：我們希望現(xiàn)在一切正常。

Further enhancements will be introduced in the next calendar quarter.

下一季度我們將繼續(xù)改進(jìn)。

[we're still working on it]. ”

翻譯：我們還在研究這事。

Notice those horrible long Latin words:

看看這些嚇人的拉丁詞：

mmunicated, conversion, reconciliation, enhancements, verification.

商談，轉(zhuǎn)換，調(diào)節(jié)，改進(jìn)，核準(zhǔn)。

So if those are the bad nouns, what are the good nouns? The good nouns are the thousands of short, simple, infinitely old Anglo-Saxon nouns that express the fundamentalsof everyday life: house, home, child, chair, bread, milk, sea, sky, earth, field, grass, road … words that are in our bones, words that resonatewith the oldest truths. Don’t try to find a noun that you think sounds more impressive or “l(fā)iterary.” Short Anglo-Saxon nouns are your second-best tools as a journalist writing in English.

如果這些都是不合適的詞語(yǔ)，那么哪些才是合適的詞呢？就是能夠表達(dá)基本日常生活的幾千個(gè)簡(jiǎn)短而古老的安格魯-撒克遜名詞：房子，家庭，孩子，椅子，面包，牛奶，大海，天空，大地，田野，小草，馬路……這些我們銘記于心、回響著古老真理的詞。不要試圖找一個(gè)你覺(jué)得更讓人印象深刻或更“文學(xué)”的詞。短小的安格魯-撒克遜詞是你在進(jìn)行新聞寫作時(shí)第二位的好幫手。

What are your best tools? Your best tools are short, plain Anglo-Saxon verbs. I mean active verbs, not passive verbs. If you could write an article using only active verbs, your article would automatically have clarity and warmth and vigor.

One of my favorite writers is Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s writing moves with simple strength because he uses one active verb after another to push his meaning along. Here’s a famous sentence from him:

Henry David Thoreau是我最喜歡的作家之一。Thoreau的文筆簡(jiǎn)潔而遒勁，因?yàn)樗�總是使用主�?dòng)態(tài)來(lái)傳情達(dá)意。下面是他寫的一個(gè)很有名的句子：

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of nature, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

我去森林是因?yàn)槲蚁Ｍ�在思考中生活，只面�?duì)最真實(shí)的自然本質(zhì)。我想看我是不是能學(xué)到自然教與我的東西，不希望在我臨死時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己從未真正活過(guò)。

Now let me turn that sentence into the passive:

現(xiàn)在把主動(dòng)態(tài)都換成被動(dòng)態(tài)：

A decision was made to go to the woods because of a desire for a deliberate existence and for exposureto only the essential facts of life, and for possible instruction in its educational elements, and because of a concern that at the time of my death the absence of a meaningful prior experience would be apprehended.

由一個(gè)于思考中生活并面對(duì)真實(shí)的自然本質(zhì)的想法催生出前往森林的決定，能夠受教其中也是原因之一，此外還出于對(duì)臨死時(shí)懊悔沒(méi)有真正活過(guò)的擔(dān)憂之情。

All the life has been taken out of the sentence. But what’s the biggest thing I’ve taken out of that sentence? I’ve taken Thoreau out of that sentence. He’s nowhere to be seen.

這個(gè)句子立馬變得沒(méi)有生機(jī)。但是我從中剝離的最大元素是什么？是Thoreau。整句中完全不見(jiàn)說(shuō)話人的身影。

So fall in love with active verbs. They are your best friends.

總之，建立起你與主動(dòng)態(tài)動(dòng)詞的關(guān)系，它們才是你最好的朋友。