Chapter 15: Science and Technology

1 Summary

A good and reader-friendly scientific and technology passage should use less jargon. Use concrete and familiar examples to help readers visualize. Write about yourself or someone else. Write in a linear sequence.

2 Thoughts

这里说的应该是写给一般人看的科技文章，由于读者的知识面狭窄，不能像专业人士交流一样全用术语和抽象概念。就像作者说的从已知事实入手，经过推理和演变形成线性的、顺畅的结构。这一点其实和学习中的“n+1”理论很像，已有知识是n，新的知识就在这n的基础上逐渐增加，接受者才能理解以及深化知识库。用在这里，1就是作者的逐步深入，由现象和事实，到背后的原理，到应用，到对未来的意义等等。

3 Excerpts

1. spraying the page with fuzzy generalities at midterm

spray扫射，fuzzy generalities模糊的概括，形象。

2. One human element is yourself. Use your own experience to connect the reader to some mechanism that also touches his life.

3. Another personal method is to weave a scientific story around someone else.

4. Another way to help your readers understand unfamiliar facts is to relate them to sights they are familiar with. Reduce the abstract principle to an image they can visualize.

5. “For each aspect of life there are responses of form." (Moshe Safdie, Beyond Habitat)

6. "Beauty as we understand it, and as we admire it in nature, is never arbitrary." (Moshe Safdie, Beyond Habitat) 

存在即合理，美也是。

7. But as a writer I’ve learned that scientific and technical material can be made accessible to the layman. It’s just a matter of putting one sentence after another. The “after,” however, is crucial. Nowhere else must you work so hard to write sentences that form a linear sequence. This is no place for fanciful leaps or implied truths. Fact and deduction are the ruling family. 

8. Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the one fact a reader must know before he can learn any more. The second sentence broadens what was stated first, making the pyramid wider, and the third sentence broadens the second, so that you can gradually move beyond fact into significance and speculation—how a new discovery alters what was known, what new avenues of research it might open, where the research might be applied. There's no limit to how wide the pyramid can become, but your readers will understand the broad implications only if they start with one narrow fact. 

从已知事实开始，到意义，再到猜想

4 Words

1. tenet   (理论、信仰的)基本原则，根本信条

A tenet of journalism is that “the reader knows nothing.” As tenets go, it’s not flattering, but a technical writer can never forget it.

【义】A tenet is a principle or belief honored by a person or, more often, a group of people. "Seek pleasure and avoid pain" is a basic tenet of Hedonism. "God exists" is a tenet of most major religions.

Tenet is pronounced "ten’it." The word evolved from the Latin tenere "to hold." The noun tenet is an opinion or doctrine one holds. It usually refers to a philosophy or a religion, but it doesn't have to — for instance, Eastern medicine has different tenets from Western medicine. One of the central tenets of succeeding in the workplace is that a good offense is the best defense.

【句】The judge's ruling was based on the simple commonsense tenet that no man is above the law. （法官的判决基于一个常识性原则，即谁也不能凌驾于法律之上。）

It is a tenet of contemporary psychology that an individual's mental health is supported by having good social networks. （当代心理学的一个基本理念就是个人的心理健康有赖于良好的社交圈。）

2. fuzzy; in for

One of them, a bright Yale sophomore still spraying the page with fuzzy generalities at midterm, came to class in a high mood and asked if he could read his paper on how a fire extinguisher works. I was sure we were in for chaos. But his piece moved with simplicity and logic.

fuzzy 毛茸茸的；模糊的；稀里糊涂的

【义】Fuzzy things are soft, downy, or furry. Few people can resist the charms of a tiny, fuzzy kitten.

Your dad's bearded face is fuzzy, and your favorite mohair sweater is also fuzzy. You can also use this adjective to mean "blurry" or "clouded," the way a badly lit scene in a movie might look fuzzy, with vague shapes moving in the dark. The inside of your head can feel fuzzy too, when you're groggy or dizzy: "I remember getting hit in the head by the soccer ball, but after that everything's fuzzy."

【句】He had fuzzy black hair and bright black eyes. （他一头柔软卷曲的黑发，眼睛又黑又亮。）

A couple of fuzzy pictures have been published. （有几张模糊的照片刊登了出来。）

He had little patience for fuzzy ideas. （他没什么耐心听那些糊里糊涂的想法。）

in for 必定会遭到，免不了遭受（尤指坏事）

【义】certain to experience something, pleasant or unpleasant

【句】It looks as if we're in for a storm. （我们看起来似乎要遭受一场暴风雨。）

I'm afraid he's in for a bit of a disappointment. （恐怕他要失望了。）

3. elate  使（某人）兴高采烈，使（某人）欣喜若狂

I was elated by his overnight change into a writer who had learned to write sequentially, and so was he.

【义】To elate is to fill with happiness. If you are elated, you are thrilled. You are walking on air. 

Elate sounds a bit like inflate. Although the words are not related, if you elate someone the feeling is probably a bit like inflating them — filling them with happiness, making them feel as though they're floating above the ground. Not surprisingly, the word's original sixteenth century meaning was "to physically lift or raise up."

【句】Her success elated the family. （她的成功使全家人兴高采烈。）

The prince was reported to be elated at/by the birth of his daughter. （据报道，王子喜得千金。）

4. lug 吃力地搬运；用力拖；使劲拉

Both are unnecessary fears to lug through life, and in this chapter I’d like to help you ease whichever one is yours.

【义】To lug something is to drag or haul it. If you have to lug a heavy backpack to school, look into buying a fashionable backpack on wheels.

If you overpack for a trip, you might end up having to lug your suitcases around the airport, and if your grocery bag breaks on your way home, you'll have to lug your gallon of milk and bunches of bananas in your arms instead. As a noun, lug has several less common meanings, including "a handle-like projection," and "an asymmetrical four-sized sail." Informally, a lug is also an ear in Scotland, and a bully in North America.

【句】She began to lug her suitcase down the stair. （她开始吃力地拖着行李箱下楼。）

It's a huge book, not something you'd like to lug around. （这是一本厚重的书，不是你想搬来搬去的东西。）

Come over here and give me a kiss, you big lug. （过来亲亲我，你这个大傻瓜。）

5. pedantry 迂腐；过分拘泥于细节（或传统）；学究气

Just because you’re dealing with a scholarly discipline that’s usually reported in a style of dry pedantry is no reason why you shouldn’t write in good fresh English.

【义】You know that person who is always interrupting other people, correcting their grammar or their facts? That's pedantry, or inappropriately showing off your knowledge.

The noun pedantry refers to the behavior of a pedant, which comes from the French word pédant, meaning “schoolmaster.” While it is a schoolmaster's job to ensure that students learn, someone who is guilty of pedantry just seems to brag, using his or her knowledge to get attention or seem better educated than the people around him or her.

【句】There was a hint of pedantry in his elegant style of speaking. （他优雅的讲话风格中透着一丝学究气。）

6. deign 屈尊;俯就;降低身份

About 98 percent of people who hold a doctorate in physics can’t write their way out of a petri dish, but that’s not because they can’t. It’s because they won’t. They won’t deign to learn to use the simple tools of the English language—precision instruments as refined as any that are used in a physics lab.

【义】Deign means to reluctantly agree to do something you consider beneath you. When threatened with the loss of her fortune, an heiress might deign to get a job, but she might look down her nose at the people she'd have to work with.

Deign has the same origins as dignity. Both descend from the Latin word, dignare, meaning "to deem worthy." If you deign to do something, you don't feel it's worthy of your lofty stature, but you do it anyway — it's like you're doing someone a really big favor. Instead of admitting his wrongdoing, the politician who is accused of taking bribes might indignantly declare, "I won't deign to dignify your ridiculous accusations with a response!"

【句】She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. （她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。）

She did not deign to answer the maid's question. （她不屑于回答女仆的问题。）

7. I rest my case

I rest my case—or, rather, I let Spectrum rest it for me.

【义】a. (formal) used by a lawyer when they have finished trying to prove something in a court of law本人对案情陈述完毕; 本人停止举证〔律师出庭用语〕

b. used when something happens or is said which proves that you were right – used humorously我不用多说了，还用我多说吗〔幽默用法，表示发生的事或所说的话证明你是正确的〕