Unit1hit-the-nail-on-the-head恰到好处

1、Unit 1 hit the nail on the head 恰到好处Have you ever watched a clumsy manhammeri ng a n ail into a box? He hits it first to one side, the n to ano ther, p erha ps kn ock ing it over compi etely, so that in the end he only gets你见过一个笨手笨脚的男人往箱子上钉 钉子吗？只见他左敲敲，右敲敲，说不准还 会将整个钉子锤翻，结果敲来敲去到头来只 敲进了半截。而娴熟的木匠就不这么干。他

2、half of it into the wood. A skillful carpen ter, on每敲一下都会坚实巧妙地正对着钉头落下the other hand, will drive the nail with a few firm, deft blows, hitting it each time squarely on the head. So with Ianguage; the good craftsman will choose words that drive home his point firmly and exactly. A word that is more or

3、 less right, a loose phrase, an ambiguous expression, a vague adjective （模糊 的形容词） ，will not satisfy a writer who aims去，一钉到底。语言也是如此。一位优秀的 艺术家谴词造句上力求准确而有力地表达自 己的观点。差不多的词，不准确的短语，摸 棱两可的表达，含糊不清的修饰，都无法使 一位追求纯真英语的作家满意。他会一直思 考，直至找到那个能准确表达他的意思的词。at clean English. He will try always to get the word that is co

4、mpi etely right for his purpose.The French have an apt （贴占切的）p hrase forthis. They speak of “ le mot juste, ” （the exact word） the word that is just right. Stories are told of scrupulous （丝不苟的） writers, likeFlaubert, who spent days trying to get one or two sentences exactly right. Words are many and

5、 various; they are subtle （微妙的） and delicate （纟田腻的）in their different shades （色 调） of meaning, and it is not easy to find the ones that express precisely（正是，恰恰）what we want to say. It is not only a matter of havi ng法国人有一个很贴切的短语来表达这样 一个意思，即“ le mot juste ”，恰到好处 的词。有很多关于精益求精的作家的名人轶 事，比如福楼拜常花几天的时间力求使一两

6、 个句子在表达上准确无误。在浩瀚的词海中, 词与词之间有着微妙的区别，要找到能恰如 其分表达我们意思的词绝非易事。这不仅仅 是扎实的语言功底和相当大的词汇量的问 题，还需要人们绞尽脑汁，要观察敏锐。选 词是认识过程的一个步骤，也是详细描述我 们的思想感情并表达出来使自己以及听众和a good comma nd of Ian guage and a fairly wide读者深刻理解的一个环节。有人说：“在我vocabulary; it is also necessary to think hard and to observe accurately. Choosing words is par

7、t of the pro cess of realizati on, of defi ning思想未成文之前，我怎么知道自己的想 法？”这听起来似乎很离谱，但它确实很有 道理。our thoughts and feeli ngs for ourselves, as well as for those who hear or read our words.Some one once remarked: “ How can I know what I think till I see what I say? ” this soundsstupid, but there is a great dea

8、l of truth in it.It is hard work choos ing the right words, but寻找恰如其分的词的确是件不容易的事。man is so-and-so （某某等）？” You begin:but he ' s rather ” andtrying to find a word orwe shall be rewarded by the satisfaction that finding them brin gs. The exact use of Ian guage gives us mastery （掌握） over the materia

9、l weare deali ng with. P erha ps you have bee n asked “What sort of a“Oh, I think he ' s quite anice cha p （家伙） then you hesitate p hrase to exp ress what it is about him that you don' t like, that constitutes （构 成） his limitati on. When you find the right p hrase you一旦找到了那个词，我们就会感到很欣慰： 辛劳得到

10、了回报。准确地用语言有助于我们 深入了解我们描述的事物。例如，当有人问 你：“某某是怎么样的人？ ”你回答说：“恩，我想他是个不错的家伙，但他非 常”接着你犹豫了，试图找到一个词或 短语来说明他到底讨厌在哪里。当你找到一 个恰当的短语的时候，你发觉自己对他的看 法更清楚，也更精确了。feel that your concep ti on of the man is clearer and shar per.Some En glish words have a com mon root but are used in very differe nt sen ses. Con sider huma

11、n and humane （人道，仁慈的 ）,forexample. Their origin is the same and their meanings are related, but their usage is distinet. A human action is not the same thing as a humane action. We cannot speak ofDeclaration of Humane Rights. - There is一些英语词汇词根相同而意义却截然不 同。例如human和humane,二者的词根相同， 词义也相关，但用法完全不同。“ huma

12、 n action （ 人类行为）”和“ humane action （人道行为）”完全是两码事。我们不能说 “人道权力宣言”，而是说“人权宣言”。有一种屠杀工具叫“ humane killer （麻醉屠宰机），而不是humankiller （杀人机器）。weapon called a humane killer, but it is not huma n killer.We don t have to look far afield to find语言中的坏手艺的例子在我们身边随处可evidenee of bad carpentry in Ianguage. A student, reply

13、ing to an invitation to dinner, finished his letter: “I shall be delighted to come and I am look ing forward to the day with anxiety.” Anxiety carries with it suggestions of worry and fear. What the writer meant waspossibly eagerness. Anxiety has some kinship （亲属关系） with eagerness but it will not do

14、见。有人邀请一名学生去吃饭，他写信给予 回复。请看他的信是这样结尾的：“我将很 高兴赴约并满怀不安（an xiety ）期待着那 个日子的到来。”“ An xiety”含有烦恼和 恐惧的意味。作者想表达的很可能是一种翘首期盼的心情。“Anxiety ”跟热切期盼有一定的关联，但在这个场合是不能等同的。as a substitute （替代）in this con text.The leader of a political party in Uganda乌干达一政党领袖给新闻界的一封信中有一句这样写道:wrote a letter to the Press which contained th

15、is sentence:Letusallfightthis让我们打破这自私、投机、怯懦和无知selfish ness, opportuni sm,cowardice andignorance now rife in Uganda and put in their充斥的乌干达，代之以真理，刚毅，坚定和 奇异的精神。p lace truth, man li ness,con siste ncyand这一激动人心的呼吁被最后一个词"奇sin gularity of mind.This stirri ng app eal is sp oilt by a mala prop ismin the

16、 last phrase, the word singularity . What the writer meant, I think, was singleness of mind, holding steadfastly to the purpose in mind, without being drawn aside by less worthy objects. Singularity means oddity or peculiarity, something that singles a man out异(singularity)”的误用破坏掉了。我猜想作者真正要表达的意思是思想的

17、专一， 即抱定一个信念永不改变，咬定青山不放松， 不被次要的目的干扰。而sin gularity指的是古怪，特性，是将一个人从众多人中区分 出来的那种东西。from other men.Without being a mala prop ism, a word may still fail to be the right word for the writer purpose, the “ mot juste ” . A journalist,即使没有出现词语误用，这词仍可能不 是符合作者意图的恰如其分的词。一名记者 在一篇有关圣诞节的社论中这样引出狄更斯的话:writi ng a leade

18、r about Christmas, in troduced a quotatio n from Dicke ns by say ing:“ mot juste （恰倒好 distilled ” .它比包处的词)”，那就是“ 含和归结语气更强。“炼)”意味得到本质(Distillati on （ 提 esse nee ） 的东西。因All that was ever thought or written aboutChristmas is imprisoned in this sentence Imprisonment suggests force, coercion （强迫），as if t

19、he meaning were held aga in st its will. It would be better to write contained or summed up. Ep itomized （集中体现） might do, though it is rather a clumsy -sounding word. Searching a little farther for the “ mot juste ” we might hit on the word distilled （提取）.This has more force tha n contained or summe

20、d up. Distillatio n suggests esse nee and we might further improve the sentence by adding this word at任何有关圣诞节的想法和文字已经被禁锢(imprisoned ) 在这句话中 “Imprisonment ” 暗示着强迫，威逼，这么一来似乎意思是有悖其初衷的。用“包含(contained ) ”或 “归结(summed up ) ”就要好些。“概括(epitomized )” 也行，尽管听起来有点僵硬。稍微再用点心 我们就能准确地找到the beg inning:此我们可以进一步把这个句子修改

21、为:The esse nee of all that was ever thought or所有有关圣诞节的想法和文字的精华都被提炼到这句话之中。written about Christmas is distilled in this sentence.English has a wide vocabulary and it is a very flexible Ian guage. There are many different ways of making a statement. But words that are very similar in meaning have fine

22、shades of differe nee, and a stude nt n eeds to be alive to these differences. By using his diet ion ary, and above all by readi ng, a stude nt英语词汇丰富，运用灵活。一个意思有 很多种表达方式。但是无论意思上如何相近 的词总是存在着些许区别。作为学生就要敏 感地意识到这些区别。通过查字典，尤其是 通过阅读，学生对这类细微差别敏感性将逐 步增强，准确表达自己意思的能力也相应提 高。can in crease his sen sitivity to the

23、se shades of differe nee and improve his ability to exp ress his own mea nings exactly.Professor Raileigh once stated: “there are no synonyms, and the same statement can never be repeated in a changed form of words. ” This is perhaps too absolute, but it is罗利教授曾经说过：“同义词是不存在 的。句子用词改变了，句子就不再是原来的 意思了。”

24、这也许过于绝对， 但是很难驳倒。 措辞稍有变更，意思会有微妙的变化。看下not easy to dis prove. Even a slight alterati on inthe word ing of a stateme nt can subtly shift themea ning. Look at these two senten ces:In my childhood I loved to watch trains go by.When I was a child I loved watching trains goby.面两个句子:(1)童年时候我喜欢去看火车开过。(2)当我是个小

25、孩子的时候我喜欢看火车开过。At fist glanee these two sentences are乍一看这两个句子的意思完全一样。但仔细看你会发现它们之间存在细微的差别。在exactly the same. But look more closely andyou will see that there are very tiny differences. In my childhood is a shade more abstract than when I was a child. WatchingPerhaps emphasizes the looking at trains a我

26、童年时候比当我是小孩子的时候更加抽 象。而看很可能比去看更强调看火车这一动 作。这个例子不是很明显，可能有待商榷。little more than to watch . This is a very subtle但每个人看了下面例子后一定马上同意。两example, and it would be possible to argue about it, but every one would at once agreethat there is a marked differe nee betwee n then ext two stateme nts:He died poor.He expi

27、red in in dige nt eireumsta nces.者之间存在显著区别。（1）他死的时侯很穷。（2）他断气时穷困潦倒。In one sense expired is a synonym for died and in indigent eireumstances for poor, but when the whole stateme nt is con sidered, we cannot maintain that the two are the same. The在某种意义上，expired 是died的同义词， in indigent eireumstances 是 po

28、or 的同义 词。但当看整个句子时，我们就不能坚持认 为两句是一样的了。措辞的变化往往意味着change in words is a change in style, and theeffect on the reader is quite different.It is perhaps easier to be a good craftsman with wood and nails than a good craftsman with words, but all of us can in crease our skill and风格的改变，并给读者以不同的感受。也许 当好一个 谴词造句的

29、工匠比当好一个与木 头钉子打交道的木匠要难一些，但是只要我 们付出努力和耐心，我们就能提高自己的技 能和敏感性。这样我们不仅可以提高我们的写作能力，还可以提高阅读能力。sensitivity with a little effort and patienee. In this way we shall not only improve our writ ing, but also our readi ng.English offers a fascinating variety of英语为各种活动和嗜好提供了丰富多彩words for many activities and in terest

30、s. Con sider the wide range of meanings that can expressed by the various words we have to describe walk ing, for exa mple. We can say that a man is marching （行军），pacing （起搏）， patrolling （巡逻），stalking （缠扰），striding（大 步）,treading （踩水），tramping （流浪），stepping out （走出去）,prancing（昂首阔步）, strutting （神气活现），

31、prowling （潜行）， plodding （单调乏味 I）, strolling （散步）， shuffling （洗牌），staggering （惊人的），sidling （）,trudging （跋涉），toddling （） , rambling （散漫），roaming （|漫游）,sauntering （参的词汇。就那走路来说，通过我们拥有的各 种各样的词语的意义范围有多么广阔。我们 可以说行军，踱步，巡逻，潜进，跨过，践 踏，重步走，蹦蹦跳跳地走，昂首阔步，高 视阔步，徘徊，沉重缓慢地走，溜达，曳足 而行，摇摇晃晃地走，侧身而行，跋涉，蹒 跚学步，漫步，徜徉，漫游，闲荡，悄悄

32、地 走。观船上），meandering （蜿蜒）lounging （闲 逛），loitering （游荡），or creeping （匍匐）.The foreign student of English may be discouraged and dismayed （惊惶）when helearns that there are over 400,000 words in theEnglish Ianguage, without counting slang （俚 语）.But let him take courage. More than half即使不包括俚语在内英语就有四十余万单 词，这很可能