Summary?

Chapter 13 (Writing About Places——The Travel Article): Travel writing needs fresh words and images in style and useful and significant details in substance.

Words and Expressions

The dismal truth is that it's very hard.?

1 dismal adj.?憂郁的;陰沉的，慘淡的，凄涼的

eg:You can't occupy yourself with dismal thoughts all the time.

Who can visit the Tower of London without musing on the wives of Henry VIII.

2 muse vi. 沉思，冥想

eg: People like musing on lives when their families and friends are gone.

But that is ground already covered by multitudes of people.

3 multitudes n. 大量， 眾多

eg: The Bund is covered by multitudes of people on National Day.

Nowhere else in nonfiction do writers use such syrupy words and groaning platitudes.

4 platitude n. 老生常談 （cliche）

eg: The pointless meeting is full of platitudes.

It should generate a whole constellation of ideas about how men and women work and play, raise their children, worship their gods, live and die.

5 constellation n. 一系列（相關的事物和想法）

eg: Teachers raised a constellation of ideas about improving students' English ability.

Instead I went to the custodians of these sites and asked:...?

6 custodian n. 看守人，管理員?

Thoughts

He enjoyed his trip so much that he wants to tell us about it —— and "all" is what we don't want to hear.We only want to hear some.

Your main task as a travel writer is to find the central idea of the place you're dealing with.

? 這兩段內容，作者想要指出在寫游記的時候，我們要突出一個值得讀者去看的重點。這和之前提到的 one subject 契合。這讓我想到，我旅行前也會上網去看一些游記，經常會讀到一些標題如 “XX最好吃街頭美食”，“XX必去打卡景點”。。。。。。但是讀到后面會說到某樣食物一般般，不值得推薦或者這個景點還不如國內三線城市的公園諸如此類的話。那我覺得這樣的內容應該放到標題為“XX最難吃食物”和“最坑爹景點”。另外，Zinsser在這章也提到，太多人寫大峽谷有多壯觀，壯觀是個大家都知道的事實，那這樣的游記讀者沒有興趣讀，讀者會對有人從大峽谷上掉下去這類的游記更感興趣。同樣的，如果我們寫游記，寫到不為人所知的內容一定是更吸引人的。著名的景點，很多人就算沒去過也讀到過或媒體上看到過的“好”，“壯美”，“嘆為觀止”。也許這的確是我們旅行時的感受，我們被這景象所震撼到，但是一定會震撼讀者嗎？所以我們要嘗試從不同的角度去發現一些重要的又與眾不同的點來進行描述。