Those long Latin usages have so infected everyday language in America that you might well think, “If that’s how people write who are running the country, that’s how I’m supposed to write.” It’s not. Let me read you two typical letters I recently received in the mail. (I keep letters like this and save them in a folder that I call “Bullshit File.”)
   
    這些拉丁詞在日常英語中的大量使用也許讓你產生錯覺，認為“如果統領這個國家的人是用這些詞寫 作的，那么我也應該這樣寫作。”不是這樣的。我來給你們讀兩封此類典型的電子郵件吧。（我會保存這一類的郵件，放在一個命名為“廢話”的文件夾里。）
   
    The first one is from the president of a private club in New York. It says, “Dear member: The board of governors has spent the past year considering proactive efforts that will continue to profession alize the club and to introduce efficiencies that we will be implementing through out 2009.” That means they’re going to try to make the club run better
   
    第一封來自紐約一家私人 俱樂部的老板：“親愛的會員：在過去的一年里董事會一直在考慮如何做出更積極的努力以繼續增強俱樂部的職能以及2009年將落實的各項便利措施。”這其實 表示說他們將努力使俱樂部運營得更好。
   
    A letter from my investment counsel says:
   
    我的私人投資顧問來信 說：
   
    “As we previously communicated, we completed a systems conversion in late September. Data conversions involve extra processing and reconciliation steps.
   
    “正如我們之前所商談過的，我們于九月底完成了系統轉換。數據轉換還牽涉了額外步驟和調節措 施。
   
    [translation: it took longer than we thought it would to make our office operate better]
   
    翻譯：改進我們的工作所花費的時間比預計要長。
   
    We apologize if you were in convenienced as we completed the verification process.
   
    如果在核準系統期間您感 到不方便，我們對此致以歉意。
   
    [we hope we've got it right now]
   
    翻譯：我們希望現在一切 正常。
   
    Further enhancements will be introduced in the next calendar quarter.
   
    下一季度我們將繼續改進。
   
    [we're still working on it]. ”
   
    翻譯：我們還在研究這事。
   
    Notice those horrible long Latin words:
   
    看看這些嚇人的拉丁詞：
   
    mmunicated, conversion, reconciliation, enhancements, verification.
   
    商談，轉換，調節，改進， 核準。
   
    So if those are the bad nouns, what are the good nouns? The good nouns are the thousands of short, simple, infinitely old Anglo-Saxon nouns that express the fundamentalsof everyday life: house, home, child, chair, bread, milk, sea, sky, earth, field, grass, road … words that are in our bones, words that resonatewith the oldest truths. Don’t try to find a noun that you think sounds more impressive or “literary.” Short Anglo-Saxon nouns are your second-best tools as a journalist writing in English.
   
    如果這些都是不合適的詞語，那么哪些才是合適的詞呢？就是能夠表達基本日常生活的幾千個簡短而 古老的安格魯-撒克遜名詞：房子，家庭，孩子，椅子，面包，牛奶，大海，天空，大地，田野，小草，馬路……這些我們銘記于心、回響著古老真理的詞。不要試 圖找一個你覺得更讓人印象深刻或更“文學”的詞。短小的安格魯-撒克遜詞是你在進行新聞寫作時第二位的好幫手。
   
    What are your best tools? Your best tools are short, plain Anglo-Saxon verbs. I mean active verbs, not passive verbs. If you could write an article using only active verbs, your article would automatically have clarity and warmth and vigor.
   
    你最好的幫手又是什么呢？簡短平易的安格魯-撒克遜動詞。我說的是主動態動詞，不是被動態。 如果你能寫一篇全用主動態的文章，那肯定是一篇清晰、親切又有力的好文章。
   
    One of my favorite writers is Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s writing moves with simple strength because he uses one active verb after another to push his meaning along. Here’s a famous sentence from him:
   
    Henry David Thoreau是我最喜歡的作家之一。Thoreau的文筆簡潔而遒勁，因為他總是使用主動態來傳情達意。下面是他寫的一個很有名的句子：
   
    I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of nature, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
   
    我去森林是因為我希望在 思考中生活，只面對最真實的自然本質。我想看我是不是能學到自然教與我的東西，不希望在我臨死時發現自己從未真正活過。
   
    Now let me turn that sentence into the passive:
   
    現在把主動態都換成被動態：
   
    A decision was made to go to the woods because of a desire for a deliberate existence and for exposureto only the essential facts of life, and for possible instruction in its educational elements, and because of a concern that at the time of my death the absence of a meaningful prior experience would be apprehended.
    

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