WORDS

1.Keep a tight vein on

As a writer you must keep a tight rein on your subjective self—the traveler touched by new sights and sounds and smells—and keep an objective eye on the reader.

To strictly control someone or something.to not allow someone very much independence or autonomy.

Eg.Ever since George nearly lost his life savings in a drunken poker match, his        husband has started keeping a tight rein on him.

The boss has kept a tight rein on her assistant since she hired her.

仿写：Since we don’t have much money,so we must keep a tight vein on spending.

2.Dismal

The dismal truth is that it’s very hard.

Something is dismal is that it is bad in a sad and depressing way.

令人沮丧的

【记】在中世纪的英国指不吉利的日子(dis = day, mal邪恶的, 坏的)dismay(使气馁)使你dismal

Eg.Israel's dismal record in the Olympics...

The show was a dismal failure.

a dismal performance

The team's record is dismal.

仿写：My educational performance this semester is dismal .

3.Validate

Fair enough: it’s what keeps us going and validates our experience.

（1）To validate something such as a claim is to prove or confirm it.

可用于表达什么东西未经证明或已被证明。

Eg. This discovery seems to validate the claims of popular astrology.

.    He still insists it is genuine but its authenticity has not been validated.

仿写：There are 18% of the herbs has not been validated safe yet.

（2）To validate a person, state, or system means to prove or confirm that they are valuable or worthwhile.

可以用于表达，一个人想要证明自己。

Eg. She is looking for an image that validates her.

仿写：He is ambitious and want to validate himself.

4.Hangover

These are subjective concepts in the eye of the beholder. One man’s romantic sunrise is another man’s hangover.(2)

（1）Something that is a hangover in the past is an idea or way of behaving that no longer has today.遗留影响

Eg.As a hangover from rationing, they mixed butter and margarine.

作为食品配给制的一种遗留影响，他们总把黄油和人造黄油混在一起吃。

仿写：Suffered from the hangover of the disease,she can’t stand up.

（2）If someone wakes up with a hangover, they feel sick and have a headache because they have drunk a lot of alcohol the night before. 宿醉

5.Anchor

Concrete detail is also the anchor of John McPhee’s prose.

a person or thing that provides strength and support紧密联系在一起的东西或人

Eg.a star quarterback who has been the anchor [=the most important part] of a football team's offense for many years

    He described his wife as the emotional anchor of his life.

  a local bank that has been the financial anchor of the community

REFLECTION

[Writing About Places]

In this chapter,Zinser taught us how to write about places including the travel places.Eveytime we write about our travel experience,we intend to write all about it.But the readers don't want to hear "all".They are more fond of reading something distictive.What's more, we often use abjectives that are plain and mean nothing.Zinser gave us two principles to overcome such fearful odds—one of style,the other of substance.First,choose your words with unusual care.Second,select the substance intensely and elimminate every such fact that is known by people.Since it is people that make the place distictive,so writers can combine the places with inhabits.Interviewing local men and women is also a good method.Never be afraid to write about the common places.And always distill the the important from the immaterial.

这章Zinser向我们介绍了如何对一个地方进行写作，感触很深。以前自己写游记的时候，恨不得事无巨细地全部写出来。这样的游记只是为了满足自己吧，而不是写给读者看的。游记或是描写一个地方，都要有“独特性”，这一点是Zinser非常强调的。以前写作，老师会要求我们，要“人有我优”。那具体如何实现呢？我认为首先还是要为主题服务。其次，各个地方所居住的人是最能体现一个地方独特性的。所以去去采访当地人，以不同的视角来看待一个地方，继而整理成章，会给人耳目一新的感觉。学到了一招。