Seeing the Skeleton
? ? Every book has a skeleton hidden between its boards. Our job is to find it with X－ray eyes，for it is an essential part of our first apprehension of any book to grasp its structure.
? ? The auther explain four rules in this chapter.
1. The first rule,which we discussed in the last chapter,was:Classify the book according to kind and subject matter.
當我們看到一本書的時候，根據書的名字或者前言、主體思想等可以對書的類型進行劃分。不只是書，對于一篇文章的類型也要劃分，比如上星期的英漢互譯作業，老師說兩篇都是說明文，一篇是關于自然科學，另一篇則是講社會科學。
2.The second rule—I say “second” because I want to keep the number of the four rules which comprise the first way of reading－can be expressed as follows: State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence,or at most in several sentences（a short paragraph）
讀一本書或一篇文章時要學會對書的主題思想用一句話或幾句話進行概括。但是我很不喜歡去概括，因為不知道該怎么去做。
3.The third rule can be expressed as follows:Set fortg the major parts of the book,and showhow these are organized into a whole,by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole.
一本好書就像一個精裝修過的房子，房子的陳列擺設就像計算過的一樣，不會有任何差錯。一本好書也會有 the most intelligible syructure. 盡管一本好書讀起來會覺得有些困難甚至想要放棄，但同時收獲也是最多的。
4.The fourth rule requires you to find out what the author's problems were. The rule is most pertinent,of course,to the great books.
當用心去第一本書的時候，如果你的涉獵足夠廣泛，你就會發現作者的問題，甚至會和其他作者進行對比。楊絳先生的母親唐須嫈是一個賢良淑德博學多才的優秀女性，她在讀過冰心的作品后評價到：她是名牌女作家，但不如誰誰誰……
