I. Words and express

1.All this talk about good words and bad words brings us to a gray but impotant area called "usage".

a gray but important  "gray"指灰色地带，有界限不明、暧昧不清的含义。在这里的用法十分简单，但很有趣地强调了usage的复杂性和重要性。

2.The pen must at length comply with the tongue.

这句话引用自Samuel Johnson, 指书面语要与口语一致，强调写作中的用词不可太过晦涩，应当注重用语的生活化。

3.If brevity is a prize, these were winners.

brevity  短暂，简短  同义词：briefness； conciseness； shortness

4.Unity is the anchor of good writing.

anchor  支柱、支撑，顶梁柱    这一句中强调好的写作中整体一致的重要性

5.His blood astir with reminiscence.

astir  活跃的、骚动的

reminiscence  回忆、怀旧  在这里指举例中写作游记的作者，在游记开篇十分激动地回忆了昔日的旅程

6.An unwieldy writing task is a drain on your enthusiasm.

unwieldy  笨重的、难处理的    在这里指困难的写作会耗尽作者的热情

II. Summary

In Chapter 7 "Usage", Zinsser told us his exprience that he was working in a "Usage Panel" of The American Heritage Dictionary. He and his colleagues helped the editors appriase the new words and dubious constructions. Nowadays, we fund that many words which they were used voted against become popular. While those words were prevalent several years ago, now they are barely use in our writing or speaking.

Zinsser cited Samuel Johnson's word to express that "today's spoken garbage may be tomorrow's written gold". Usage is not stable, on the contrary, is changable. Good English writing is to find the usage we really need, which means can verbalise the interpersonal.

In Chapter 8 "Unity", Zinsser's view is that "unity is the anchor of good writing". Unity is about pronoun, tense and mood. When we start to write, we should think about  the capacity, style, attitude and how to make point. Don't try to tell readers every materials and ideas you know. Think small, then decide what point you want to leave in the reader's mind.

III. Thoughts

Zinsser在第七章和第八章中分别谈论了“用法”与“结构”。根据他参与字典审词的工作，我们得知，词语的用法并不是一成不变的，一些过去出现在口语中的词汇，现在放在书面语中也并不违和。不仅西方如此，就古代文学发展史而言，我们现在读《红楼梦》、《镜花缘》感到不易懂，但实际上，这些著作的用词正是当时的口语白话。所以，我们无需纠结词语用法的问题，重要的是我们需要选取恰当的词来表达自己，词尽其用。

第八章关于文章结构的一致性，最令我印象深刻的“think small”。作者并不需要在一篇文章里非常全面地告诉读者所有的信息，而是要有所取舍。这对于学术论文的写作十分适用，一篇文章只要讲清楚一个问题就足够了，贪心过多，什么都想讲明白，结果反而是顾此失彼、条理不清。