1 Interesting Language Points
1.1 summon
As for the personal physician, that's the man or woman summoned to the dressing room of striken actress so she won't have to be treated by the impersonal physician assigned to the theater.(Chap.3)
v. to order someone to come to a place summon somebody to something
n. an official order to appear in a court of law
I suppose that we should summon child to Pantheon in order to make them?write the essay about Roman theology well.
1.2 pompous & pretentious & faddish
By using a more pompous phrase in his professional role he not only sounds more important(Chap.3)
Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish?(Chap.3)
pretentious
someone who is pompous thinks that they are important, and shows this by being very formal and using long words (used to show disapproval)
pretentious
if someone or something is pretentious, they try to seem more important, intelligent, or high class than they really are in order to be impressive
faddish
like a fad
A trend of pretentious behavior is what a sophomore demonstrates etymologically and practically.
1.3 untangle
There are as many kinds of writer's block as there are kinds of writers, and I have no intention of trying to untangle them.(Chap.4)
1. to separate pieces of string, wire etc that are twisted together
2. to make something less complicated
compare to tangle, tangible, intangible
The approach to untangling a seemingly tough question is to untangle the mess of your ideas.
1.4 self-indulgence & cop-out
"I" can be a self-indulgence and a cop-out.(Chap.4)
self-indulgence
the act to allow yourself to have or do things that you enjoy but do not need, especially if you do this too often (used to show disapproval)
cop-out
something you do or say in order to avoid doing or accepting something
Do you still use "to refresh after a catastrophe" as a cop-out?How self-indulgent you are!
2 Good Words
Often just one word got bracketed: the unnecessary preposition appended to a verb("order up"), or the adverb that carries the same meaning as the verb("smile happily"), or the adjective that states a known fact("tall skyscraper").
Extending the metaphor of carpentry, it's first necessary to be able to saw wood neatly and to drive nails. Later you can bevel the edges or add elegant finials, if that's your taste. But you can never forget that you are practicing a craft that's based on certain principles. If the nails are weak, your house will collapse. If your verbs are weak and your syntax is rickety, your sentences will fall apart.
3 Summary in Chinese
第三章繼續第二章“簡潔”這個主題，用更大的篇幅說明了何謂“繁冗”的語言。作者說，與冗言斗爭就像于雜草斗爭。雜草層出不窮，冗言的浮夸感也吸引著不少人，這其中就包括作者所提到且大加諷刺的John Dean，小布什，Alexander Haig等人。值得注意的是，作者所舉得這些例子都是政商界人物或相關機構，對此作者也指出這是政治正確使然。后面作者具體舉出的一些例子不僅僅是為了讓作者具體地去學習，而是舉一反三。里面的頗有些共同點。如，大量的添加語意重復的副詞、形容詞，使用一些看起來很常用實際上完全沒有必要的用法，故意使用高級詞匯（這一要求與語言考試的要求恰恰相反）。最后所說的括號的用法很向小學修改作文的辦法，但很有用。
第四章好像是在解答看完前幾章憤憤不平的讀者的問題。如果為了簡潔以至于平淡，那風格從何談起呢？作者很自然的點出，這兩者沒有任何關系。簡潔是樹干，使文章成立的基本。文采是樹枝，是辨別風格的標志。這也與我昨天的領悟不謀而合。我遺憾自己沒能夠早看到這一箴言。
