WORDS

1.Pop something out of something

What we’re all looking for—what we want to see pop out of your papers—is individuality.

To release something out of something so that it jumps or bursts out, possibly with a popping sound.蹦出，弹出

恶作剧的时候跳出来吓人

Eg.She popped out the cork with a quick tug.

仿写：I was waiting at the station and he just popped out.

        The inspiring thoughts just popped out of his excellent work.

Eye pop

2.meager

When students say they have to write what the teacher wants, what they often mean is that they don’t have anything to say—so meager is their after-school existence, bounded largely by television and the mall, two artificial versions of reality.

My father had hoped to move to Chicago because the name sounded so Mexican, but my mother’s meager savings were hardly enough to buy tickets for Colorado.

1.have a small amount of something.可以替换small

Every morning he eats a meager breakfast of toast and coffee.

meager wages

She came to this country with a fairly meager English vocabulary, but she is learning more words every day.

2.not have enough something (on money or food)缺乏的，不足的。缺钱或缺食物，syn:deficient

They suffered through several meager years at the beginning of their marriage.

Although she's now rich and famous, she remembers her meager beginnings as a child from a poor family.

Meager beginning

仿写：They just have meager supply of food.

        So meager is their life experiences.

3.Dip into

I’m often amazed, dipping into my past, to find some forgotten incident clicking into place just when I need it.

To fall temporarily or quickly to a lower level or degree.

Eg.You should bring a jacket because the temperature is going to dip to 60 degrees tonight.

To pursue or investigate something casually.

Eg.Because my area of expertise is modernism, I've only dipped into Victorian literature.文中指潜入探寻自己的过去

4.upheaval

The memoir writer takes us back to some corner of his or her past that was unusually intense—childhood, for instance—or that was framed by war or some other social upheaval.

[C-NOUN]

Upheaval is a big change that always causes some trouble,confusion and worry.动乱，激变

Wherever there is political upheaval, invariably there are refugees...

哪里有政治动乱，哪里就一定有难民。

Having a baby will mean the greatest upheaval in your life.

有了孩子意味着你的生活要发生重大的变化。

仿写：Her husband’s death is the catastrophic upheaval in her life.

The discovery of electric is one of the greatest upheaval in our lives.

domestic, economic, emotional, political, social

家庭剧变；经济变革；情绪波动；政治动荡；社会动荡:

[搭配]VERB (cause, provoke)+ UPHEAVAL 导致激变；引起激变

go through, undergo 经历剧变

[搭配]PREP.during/in the ~ 在动乱期间

5.Beckon

and then everything that beckoned to me from that other hemisphere of my brain beyond the East River would start up from the smell of fresh newsprint and the sight of the globe on the front page

1.use your arm to greet someone 招手

He beckoned to me.

2.appear attractive and inviting 吸引

From the time he was a child, the wilderness beckoned to him.

New adventures were beckoning.

The beckoning smile

仿写：Though works at laboratory is laborious,the unknown truth always beckons me.

Collocation

Rugged individualist强烈的个人主义

Wasn’t America the land of the “rugged individualist”?

REFLECTION

[Writing about yourself]

We always make excuses that we don't have the permission to writer about ourselves.That it beacuse,we don't have anything to say about oursleves.But we should be confident to write about ourselves with gusto.If we do so rather than kowtow to the editors or the readers,we will reach the people that you want to write for.But how to write about ourselves?First,we should make sure every material in our memoir is doing usefull work—that is to say—we should focus on the narrow part of our life.Second,the secret of art is detail.A sound or a smell or a song title would be useful as long as it played a shaping role in the portion of our life we have chosen to distill.what's more,the experience as an immigrant might be a good source to write a memoir.

One secret of the art is detail. Any kind of detail will work—a sound or a smell or a song title—as long as it played a shaping role in the portion of your life you have chosen to distill.

细节描写往往最动人。zimser在本章中举了两个例子，一个闻声，一个有味。细节描写非常独到，在阅读时，慢慢地拼凑，组成完整的画面。第一个例子中，就好像真的听到了那些稀奇古怪的钟声，在这样的描写中，又把父亲的角色刻画地很鲜活，在慢慢地回忆中，一切都变得温柔又有血肉。所以，细节与人的描写，是回忆录的必杀技。极力要去避免的就是把回忆全盘托出，而没有侧重，真正有功力的写作者，往往能够在回忆中抽丝剥茧，汲取最精华的部分。