PART ONE VOCABULARY

1.travial/?tr?ve?l/

because I knew ?that Perelman’s life contained more than the usual share of depression and travail.

an unpleasant experience or situation that involves a lot of hard work, difficulties and/or suffering

e.g.the travails of life in post-war Britain

2.portentous

and his article was written in mock-scientific museum-expedition style, duly portentous.

(formal,disapproving)very serious and intended to impress people ??SYN pompous

e.g.a portentous remark裝腔作勢的言論

3.whimsy /?w?mzi/

who was admired for his deadpan coverage of human-interest and animal-interest stories, managed to make whimsy a serious beat.

a way of thinking or behaving, or a style of doing something that is unusual and not serious, in a way that is either amusing or annoying

4.venerated?/?ven?re?t/

the political column of Walter Lippmann, America’s most venerated pundit,

venerate somebody/something (as something)?(formal)

to have and show a lot of respect for somebody/something, especially somebody/something that is considered to be holy or very important

SYN ?revere

PART TWO THOUGHTS

寫作是非常孤獨的，Zinsser 提到他嘗試讓自己歡悅起來，只有把自己逗樂了才能逗樂讀者。大部分的人缺少幽默感，世界上很多人在嘗試逗樂他們。同時作者說到如果你的寫作想傳遞快樂，就寫你尊敬的人吧。

恐懼是寫作中容易出現(xiàn)的負面情緒，作者則是強迫自己重寫，今天重寫不了的話就等到明天。同時寫作的真誠性也會幫助你減少恐懼。

提高自己自信的辦法就是寫自己感興趣關(guān)注的東西。

拓寬寫作領(lǐng)域，當你去采訪相關(guān)行業(yè)的專家時，不要怕被看做傻瓜，相信你的感覺發(fā)掘你所需要的。