Expressions

Science, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject.

demystify 使〔似乎困難或復(fù)雜的問題〕容易理解，簡(jiǎn)明地解釋

這里我把它看作“揭開...神秘的面紗”

A tenet of journalism is that “the reader knows nothing.”

Tenet 教義、信條

近義詞：creed

...and “simply” blowing it up—but not too soon. The only step I’m confident I could perform is to blow it up too soon.

blow up 第一個(gè)是吹脹、充氣的意思，第二個(gè)應(yīng)該是搞破壞、使失敗的意思。

e.g. I blew up his plan. Zinsser在這里應(yīng)該是玩了個(gè)雙關(guān)語(yǔ)。

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

ferment 動(dòng)蕩，〔尤指因政治變革引起的〕動(dòng)亂，騷動(dòng)

a situation of great excitement or trouble in a country, especially caused by political change

近義詞：turmoil

But there’s more to my admiration than gratitude.

我對(duì)他的欽佩更勝于感激。

以前只知道there’s more to it than it seems.的句式，不知道還可以這么用。

Loren Eiseley was a naturalist who refused to be cowed by nature as he passed on to us,

cow 恐嚇，威脅

to frighten someone in order to make them do something

cow sb into sth

The protesters had been cowed into submission by the police.

抗議者在警察的威脅下屈服了。

Summary

寫作不是少數(shù)人才擁有的能力，而是置于紙上的思考。在科學(xué)報(bào)告中，句子應(yīng)該形成線性的順序。假設(shè)讀者是無知的，從充滿人性和生活氣息的細(xì)節(jié)與事實(shí)開始，一步一步推進(jìn)到科學(xué)理論和引申意義，將晦澀的原理通過讀者熟悉的事物解釋清楚，科學(xué)報(bào)告的寫作練習(xí)對(duì)于寫作能力的提升也很有意義。作者通過發(fā)展描述過程，鍛煉有序的邏輯思維，從而在自己日后的寫作中去繁從簡(jiǎn)，獲取能夠清晰地表達(dá)想法的能力。無論什么主題的寫作，思路都是通用的：人的元素永遠(yuǎn)是激發(fā)讀者閱讀、反映文章活力的關(guān)鍵。用一個(gè)好的開頭引發(fā)讀者的好奇，句子和段落之間形成良好的連貫性也是必不可少的。

It’s arogant not to put science into language layman could understand.