WORDS

1.Keep a tight vein on

As a writer you must keep a tight rein on your subjective self—the traveler touched by new sights and sounds and smells—and keep an objective eye on the reader.

To strictly control someone or something.to not allow someone very much independence or autonomy.

Eg.Ever since George nearly lost his life savings in a drunken poker match, his? ? ? ? husband has started keeping a tight rein on him.

The boss has kept a tight rein on her assistant since she hired her.

仿寫：Since we don’t have much money,so we must keep a tight vein on spending.

2.Dismal

The dismal truth is that it’s very hard.

Something is dismal is that it is bad in a sad and depressing way.

令人沮喪的

【記】在中世紀(jì)的英國指不吉利的日子(dis = day, mal邪惡的, 壞的)dismay(使氣餒)使你dismal

Eg.Israel's dismal record in the Olympics...

The show was a dismal failure.

a dismal performance

The team's record is dismal.

仿寫：My educational performance this semester is dismal .

3.Validate

Fair enough: it’s what keeps us going and validates our experience.

（1）To validate something such as a claim is to prove or confirm it.

可用于表達(dá)什么東西未經(jīng)證明或已被證明。

Eg. This discovery seems to validate the claims of popular astrology.

.? ? He still insists it is genuine but its authenticity has not been validated.

仿寫：There are 18% of the herbs has not been validated safe yet.

（2）To validate a person, state, or system means to prove or confirm that they are valuable or worthwhile.

可以用于表達(dá)，一個人想要證明自己。

Eg. She is looking for an image that validates her.

仿寫：He is ambitious and want to validate himself.

4.Hangover

These are subjective concepts in the eye of the beholder. One man’s romantic sunrise is another man’s hangover.(2)

（1）Something that is a hangover in the past is an idea or way of behaving that no longer has today.遺留影響

Eg.As a hangover from rationing, they mixed butter and margarine.

作為食品配給制的一種遺留影響，他們總把黃油和人造黃油混在一起吃。

仿寫：Suffered from the hangover of the disease,she can’t stand up.

（2）If someone wakes up with a hangover, they feel sick and have a headache because they have drunk a lot of alcohol the night before. 宿醉

5.Anchor

Concrete detail is also the anchor of John McPhee’s prose.

a person or thing that provides strength and support緊密聯(lián)系在一起的東西或人

Eg.a star quarterback who has been the anchor [=the most important part] of a football team's offense for many years

? ? He described his wife as the emotional anchor of his life.

? a local bank that has been the financial anchor of the community

REFLECTION

[Writing About Places]

In this chapter,Zinser taught us how to write about places including the travel places.Eveytime we write about our travel experience,we intend to write all about it.But the readers don't want to hear "all".They are more fond of reading something distictive.What's more, we often use abjectives that are plain and mean nothing.Zinser gave us two principles to overcome such fearful odds—one of style,the other of substance.First,choose your words with unusual care.Second,select the substance intensely and elimminate every such fact that is known by people.Since it is people that make the place distictive,so writers can combine the places with inhabits.Interviewing local men and women is also a good method.Never be afraid to write about the common places.And always distill the the important from the immaterial.

這章Zinser向我們介紹了如何對一個地方進(jìn)行寫作，感觸很深。以前自己寫游記的時候，恨不得事無巨細(xì)地全部寫出來。這樣的游記只是為了滿足自己吧，而不是寫給讀者看的。游記或是描寫一個地方，都要有“獨特性”，這一點是Zinser非常強(qiáng)調(diào)的。以前寫作，老師會要求我們，要“人有我優(yōu)”。那具體如何實現(xiàn)呢？我認(rèn)為首先還是要為主題服務(wù)。其次，各個地方所居住的人是最能體現(xiàn)一個地方獨特性的。所以去去采訪當(dāng)?shù)厝?，以不同的視角來看待一個地方，繼而整理成章，會給人耳目一新的感覺。學(xué)到了一招。