词汇学习
suffice v. 足够，充足
For the moment, it suffices to say that, given the same thing to read, one person reads it better than another, first, by reading it more actively, and second, by performing each of the acts involved more skillfully.
固定搭配：suffice to say 无须多说，只需说…就够了；
inundate v. 使...应接不暇
There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding.
固定搭配：be inundated with/by sth.
posse n. 一队
The current books have a long ancestry, and every innovation carries in its train a posse of suspicious and, one feels, unpersuadable observers.
germane adj. 有密切关系的，贴切的，恰当的
We mention all this because it is highly germane to the message of this book.
arcane adj. 神秘的，晦涩难懂的
There is nothing arcane or even really new about what we have to propose.
carping adj. 吹毛求疵的
We do not want to seem to be mere carping critics.
动词carp vi.
固定搭配：carp about/at 对……挑剔。
pigeonhole n. 类别，类型
What pigeonhole that already contains other books does this one belong in?
marshal v. 召集，收集，组织，安排
he does not know how to marshal his intellectual resources for the task.
dust jacket (常印有作者和内容简介的)护封，书皮，书衣
If the book is a new one with a dust jacket, READ THE PUBLISHER'S BLURB.
inveterate 根深蒂固、由来已久
To inveterate book-markers, the front end papers are often the most important.
dialectical 辩证的
For reasons that will become clear in Part Four, we prefer to call such notes dialectical.
pendulum n. 局势意见等的摇摆不定，变化不定
More recently, however, the pendulum has swung back again toward phonics, which indeed had never entirely
短语学习
be a far cry from something
与……完全不同
They can be summed up in the observation that teaching a small percentage of highly motivated children, most of them the children of literate parents, to read —as was the case a century ago—is a far cry fromteaching every child to read, no matter how little motivated he may be, or how deprived his background.
thumb through 匆匆翻阅，浏览
Thumb through the book in this way, always looking for signs of the main contention, listening for the basic pulse beat of the matter.
段落摘录
They start a book on page one and plow steadily through it, without even reading the table of contents.
plow这里的含义类比为中文就是“辛勤耕耘“。和前面说到的thumb through刚好互为”反义词“。
Giving a book this kind of quick once-over is a threshing process that helps you to separate the chaff from the real kernels of nourishment.
用这种快速浏览的方式阅读一本书，就像是一个打谷的过程，帮助你从槽糠中过滤出真正的谷核。
什么样的比喻是好比喻？我第一个想到的词汇就是“活灵活现”。即便作者读第一遍的时候不知道到底这是什么意思，但脑海里却已经出现了某人在“打谷”的这个动作了。
Indeed, individual words in the famous second paragraph words like "inalienable", "rights", "liberty", "happiness", "consent", "just powers"—are worth dwelling over, puzzling about,considering at length.
动词排比句的描写方法。
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