一 words and expressions?

1.?But as a writer I’ve learned that scientific and technical material can be made accessible to the layman.

layman：someone who is not trained in a particular subject or type of work, especially when they are being compared with someone who is門外漢，外行人

2.?It is part of the large ferment of modern brain research in progress in laboratories throughout the United States and abroad.

ferment:?a situation of great excitement or trouble in a country, especially caused by political change〔尤指因政治變革引起的〕動(dòng)亂，騷動(dòng)。 它的動(dòng)詞用法也很常用，表示發(fā)酵。

3.?for expressing how we feel about things and for performing complicated acts could do little more than fumble with sensory inputs of the moment.

fumble with：to try to hold, move, or find something with your hands in an awkward way笨手笨腳地做，胡亂摸找

4.?The example of the linseed oil is just piquant enough to make us wonder what “memory” really is

piquant：interesting and exciting, especially because mysterious（尤指因神秘而顯得）有趣的，刺激的； 還可以形容食物是開胃的。

5.?you’d think we lived at bay, in total jeopardy

in jeopardy： in danger of being lost or harmed在危險(xiǎn)中〔指會(huì)失去或受到危害〕、

6.?No such limit can?be discerned in the quantity of transistors that can be fabricated on silicon

discern：to see, recognize or understand something that is not clear看出；辨別出；明白

fabricate：to invent or produce something false in order to deceive捏造，虛構(gòu)；偽造

二 Thoughts

這章講的是如何進(jìn)行科學(xué)寫作。

One of the problems the author sees is that in early education, attempts are made to identify broad learning capacities.?An English teacher might tell a student that she or he has no language skills. A science teacher might tell a student that he or she has no potential for science.?

One human element is yourself. Use your own experience to connect?the reader to some mechanism that also touches his life.Another way to help your readers understand unfamiliar facts is to relate them to sights they are familiar with.

我覺(jué)得這點(diǎn)很重要，無(wú)論對(duì)于作者來(lái)說(shuō)，還是對(duì)于讀者來(lái)說(shuō)。我們?cè)诼?tīng)名師講課時(shí)，尤其是講一些比較抽象的理論時(shí)，他們往往會(huì)結(jié)合生活中的一些例子講起。

Another way of making science accessible is to write like a person and not like a scientist.

我記得之前在上科學(xué)論文閱讀與寫作的課時(shí)，老師給我們放了一個(gè)視頻。是一個(gè)比較知名的教授談怎樣寫好paper。我記得他談到是少寫長(zhǎng)句，少用沒(méi)有必要的專業(yè)詞匯，而這么做的目的就是讓paper被幾乎所用人能夠讀懂。