Controlling Your Own Style · 掌控你的文风
| English | 中文 | Pinyin · 拼音 |
|---|---|---|
| register/ˈredʒɪstə/ | 语域 | yǔ yù |
The impressive word is rarely the right one
- Under exam pressure, students reach for vocabulary that sounds advanced.
- A slightly wrong impressive word reads as a loss of control; an exactly right ordinary one does not.
- Examiners reward control, and control is visible in accuracy, not in range.
A thesaurus can lend you a grand word; it cannot promise that word knows your sentence.
气派的词很少是对的那个词
- 在考试压力下,学生会去够那些听起来高级的词汇。
- 略微用错的气派词读起来是控制力的丧失;恰好准确的普通词则不会。
- 阅卷人奖励的是控制力,而控制力体现在准确,而不在词汇量。
词库可以借给你一个华丽的词，却不能保证这个词认识你写的句子。
Examiners reward control, which is visible in... · 考官奖励掌控力，体现在...
An impressive word used slightly wrongly reads as a loss of control. · 一个看似 impressive 但用得稍有不妥的词读起来像是失控。
Choosing your own words
- Prefer the word that is exactly right to the word that is impressive.
- Where a modifier carries a perspective you do not intend, replace it with a neutral one.
- Where you do intend the perspective, keep the loaded word — and be able to defend it.
选择你自己的词
- 宁取恰好准确的词,不取气派的词。
- 当某个修饰语携带了你并不打算传达的视角时,把它换成中性的。
- 当你确实想要那种视角时,就保留那个带色彩的词——并且要能为它辩护。
Prefer the word that is exactly ____ to the word that is impressive. · 优先选择恰好____那个 impressive 的词。
Accuracy is what shows control; range on its own does not. · 准确性体现掌控力；单纯追求广度并不足够。
Consistency of register
- A register 语域 is the formality level a text maintains.
- Sliding between formal and casual without a reason reads as carelessness.
- A deliberate shift, at a point where the argument turns, reads as control — which is the opposite.
语域的一致
- 语域(register)是一个文本所维持的正式程度。
- 毫无理由地在正式与随意之间滑动,读起来像是疏忽。
- 而在论证转向之处有意为之的转变,读起来则是控制力——两者恰好相反。
Control or loss of control? · 掌控还是失控？
Sort each choice by what it shows an examiner. · 根据每个选择向考官展示的内容进行排序。
Any change of register within an essay reads as carelessness. · essay 中任何语域的变化都被视为粗心。
A deliberate shift where the argument turns reads as control; a random one reads as carelessness. · 在论证转折处有意的转换体现掌控力；随意的转换则体现粗心。
Reaching for advanced vocabulary is a risk, not a strategy. An impressive word used slightly wrongly is more visible than a plain word used exactly — and what an examiner is reading for is control.
去够高级词汇是一种风险,不是策略。用得略微不准的气派词,比用得恰好准确的平实词更显眼——而阅卷人在读的正是控制力。
Select all · 所有 the places this lesson says a deliberate register shift makes sense. · 选择所有本课认为有意改变语域合理的地方。
A shift at every paragraph break is random, not deliberate. · 每段结尾都转换是随意的，非故意的。
Where to shift deliberately
- Moving from stating your position to conceding part of an opposing one is a natural place to shift tone.
- So is moving from the general case to a single concrete instance.
- Both are argument turns, which is what makes the shift readable rather than random.
何处有意转变
- 从陈述自己的立场转向承认对立立场的一部分,是转变语调的自然位置。
- 从一般情形转向单一具体实例,也是如此。
- 两者都是论证的转折,而这正是使这种转变可读而非随意的原因。
Match each check to its question. · 将每个检查项与其对应的问题匹配。
Each check asks whether a choice was made or merely happened. · 每个检查项都在询问该选择是刻意为之还是偶然发生。
A style check
- Circle every word you would not use in conversation. Is each one exactly right?
- Find every place your register changes. Does the argument turn there?
- Any word or shift that fails its question is costing you control, not adding to it.
一次文体检查
- 圈出每一个你在口语中不会使用的词。它们是否个个恰好准确?
- 找出你的语域发生变化的每一处。论证在那里转折了吗?
- 任何通不过这一提问的词或转变,都在消耗你的控制力,而不是为它加分。
"The committee's response was a fulsome endorsement." Fulsome means excessive and insincere, so the sentence says the opposite of what the writer intended. A reader who knows the word now doubts everything else in the paragraph.
*"委员会的回应是一次 fulsome 的背书。"*fulsome 意为过度而不真诚,因此这句话说的与写作者的本意恰好相反。认得这个词的读者,此刻会对这一段中的其余一切都产生怀疑。
Examiners reward control, which is visible in accuracy rather than range. Prefer the exactly right word, keep a consistent register, and shift it only where the argument turns. Check every unusual word and every register change against its purpose.
阅卷人奖励的是控制力,而控制力体现在准确而非词汇量。宁取恰好准确的词,保持一致的语域,并只在论证转折之处才转变它。用目的来检查每一个不寻常的词与每一次语域变化。