Summary

We need a good lead which can induce readers to the rest and a good ending with surprise and right point.

Words and Expressions

If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed the second sentence, your article is dead.

1 induce v. 引誘 和后面出現(xiàn)的“lure” 表達(dá)的是一個意思。

,...so there isn't much time for the writer to fool around.

2 fool around 鬼混 這讓我一下子想到昨天第七章里的“muck about/around” 也是表達(dá)作者在寫文章時不要浪費時間東拉西扯，寫一些和主題無關(guān)，沒有意義的東西。

I sat in a grandstand seat brought from the Polo Grounds, ..., and dutifully copied all the labels and captions that might be useful.

3 dutifully adv. 忠誠地， 這和后面“...we would faithfully trudge,...”中的“faithfully”是近義詞。

，...which staked out the road we would faithfully trudge, and its subnumerals (IIa and IIb) denoting lesser paths down which we would brifely poke.

4 stake out 和 denote 在這里都是表達(dá)“明確指示”， 文章指的是我們學(xué)習(xí)寫作的時候用羅馬數(shù)字（I，II，III...）直接指明接下去的內(nèi)容，這就不存在用什么好的句子去吸引讀者讀下去。

Thoughts

Try to give that sentence an extra twist of humor or surprise, like the periodic “snapper” in the routine of a stand-up comic.

One sentence that explains the incident that the column is based on. Then a snapper to restore the easygoing tone.

"snapper"出現(xiàn)了兩次，我查柯林斯字典指的就是一種有“鋒利牙齒的魚”，也有解釋為“暴躁的人”，那在這里是比喻我們寫作中要來點令人出乎意料的驚喜或想不到的幽默之處就像常規(guī)喜劇表演中突然達(dá)到高潮，然后再平復(fù)？

The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right.

我一看到這句話的理解就是好的結(jié)尾應(yīng)該是出乎意料又在情理之中的，最后又提到“Surprise is the most refreshing element in nonfiction writing.”這個“surprise”要怎樣去定義，我認(rèn)為要做到這點不容易，而且如果一定要做到“surprise”讀者的話，那和之前所說的寫作為自己而寫，自己想寫什么就先寫下來不要為了去迎合讀者而去寫一些不是“自己”的東西矛盾嗎？