PART 1 Gist
Chapter 24 Writing Family History and Memoir
Writing family history and memoir is a mechanism to come to terms with your life narrative and to find understanding and solace. Zinsser exhorted those who write memoirs to be themselves rather than "writers". Furthermore, they should wipe out old grievances and anger. They could only bring off their memoirs when they write with love and forgiveness. With regard to the organization of a memoir, Zinsser suggested that they should make a series of reducing decisions and only dredge up the people and stories they need. Also, they need to think small and look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in their memory.
Chapter 25 Write as Well as You Can
Writers should write as well as possible and as entertainingly as they can. Writers should have the cupidity to write better than anyone else.. They must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of their crafts. More importantly, they must believe themselves, go out on a limb and defend what they've written against various middlemen.
PART 2 Expressions
1. Only when they have children of their own -- and feel the first twinges of their own advancing age -- do they suddenly want to know more about their family heritage and all its accretions of anecdote and lore.
twinge: 1. a sudden feeling of slight pain
I felt a twinge of pain in my back.
2. a twinge of guilt/ envy/ sadness/ jealousy etc : a sudden slight feeling of guilt etc
He felt a sharp twinge of guilt for not taking the trouble to visit her.
2. Another is to work through some of life's hardest knocks -- loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure -- and to find understating and solace.
solace:? [?s?l?s] emotional confort at a time of great sadness or disappointment 安慰
Mary was a great solace to me after Arthur died.
After the death of her son, Val found solace in the church.
3. How bitterly his lassitude must have dawned on the young Frida Zinsser.
lassitude: weariness 無精打采屑咳；懈怠
Shareholders are blaming the company's problems on the lassitude of the managing director.
dawn on sb : if a fact dawns on you, you realize it for the first time
The ghastly truth dawned on me.
It dawned on me that Jo had been right all along.
4. Her drive to fulfill the broken dreams of her marriage never faltered.
falter: (vi.) 蹣跚痊项；(聲音皇帮、意志等)減弱
The economy is showing signs of faltering.
We must not falter in our resolve.?
5. Don't look over your shoulder to see what relatives are perched there.
perch: （n.）本意是鳥的棲枝，引申為高處
She watched the parade from her perch on her father's shoulders.
(v.) be perched on/ above sth: to be in a position on top of sth or on the edge of sth 位于高處
a housed perched on a cliff above
perch oneself on sth: 坐在高處
Bobby had perched himself on a tall wooden stool.
6. We come from a tribe of fallible people and we have survived without resentment to get on with our lives.
a tribe of : 1. a group of people with the same interests, used especially to show disapproval
tribes of journalists
2. used humorously, a large family
We were only expecting Jack and his wife, but the whole tribe turned up.
fallible: able to make mistakes or be wrong
Humans are fallible.
There surveys are often a rather fallible guide to public opinion.
(o.) infallible? eg. No? expert is infallible.
7. Don't rummage around in your past -- or your family's past -- to find episodes that you think are "important" enough to be worthy of including in your memoir.
rummage around/ about：[?r?m?d?] 翻箱倒柜? (v. )search for sth by moving things around in a careless or hurried way
Looks like someone's been rummaging around in my desk.
rummage: (n.)
Have a rummage in my jewelry? box and see if you can find something you like.
rummage sale/ jumble sale: an event at which old clothes, toys etc are sold as way of getting money, for example to help a school or church
8. No such blinding flash occurred.
blinding flash/ realization/ clarity/ revelation etc: a sudden realization, clear understanding, or new idea about sth
Suddenly, I had a blinding flash of inspiration.
It was then that she realized, with blinding clarity, that she loved him.
9. A bad editor has a compulsion to tinker, providing with busywork that he hasn't forgotten the minutiae of grammar and usage.
busywork: work that usually appears productive or of intrinsic value but actually only keeps one occupied
Students were given busywork for the last few minutes of class.
minutiae: [ma??nju:?ii:]/ [m??nu:?ii:] 微小的細(xì)節(jié)
I'm not interested in the minutiae of the research, just its conclusions.
10. "It got put in the wrong pile," "the editor's on vacation" -- these dreary phrases cloak a multitude of inefficiencies and sins.
cloak: [kl??k] (n.) 斗篷, 披風(fēng)窍奋； （v.）to deliberately hide facts, feelings etc so that people do not see or understand them, used especially in news reports?
be cloaked in secrecy/ mystery
The talks have been cloaked in secrecy.
PART 3 Writings
My final reducing advice can be summed up in two words: Think small. Don't rummage around in your past -- or your family's past -- to find episodes that you think are "important" enough to be worthy of including in your memoir. Look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you still remember them it's because they contain a universal truth that your readers will recognize from their own life.
記憶里小時候有一種叫“小咪咪”的零食，橘黃色的小包裝艇劫，里面一小粒一小粒的留储，酸酸甜甜的，每次我都放在嘴里等味道沒有了才咽下去再拿出另外一粒來董虱。很小的一包我也能吃一整個下午扼鞋。那時候我被寄養(yǎng)在鄉(xiāng)下的太奶奶家，由古稀之年的太奶奶一個人照顧我愤诱，每次上午陪她上街買東西然后回來的路上她就在街角的鋪子里買一包“小咪咪”給我云头，算是我一上午跑腿的報酬。估計“小咪咪”并不是那種零食本來的名字淫半，太奶奶并不識字溃槐，“咪咪”在方言里有一小口的意思，大概是因為零食太小所以太奶奶這么叫吧科吭。每次我摔傷了或者被雞追得嚇哭了昏滴，太奶奶就說猴鲫，我去買包小咪咪給你，我就立刻不哭了谣殊。那時候的我以為這個世界上只有這一種零食拂共，一天醒來最大的快樂就是中午可以去買一包“小咪咪”。太奶奶不上街的日子我就會變得悶悶不樂蟹倾，看到院子里的雞在吃東西匣缘，我會趁太奶奶不注意悄悄過去把碗拿走，哼鲜棠，我的零食都沒了肌厨，你竟然還吃得那么歡。我甚至常常夢里還在吃豁陆，睡覺的時候嘴里吧唧吧唧的柑爸，太奶奶對這件事一直記憶猶新，每次見到我都會提起盒音。后來我媽把我接回城市里表鳍，我那時候才知道原來零食有那么多種，巧克力祥诽，棉花糖譬圣，花生糖，妙脆角什么的雄坪，超市里玲瑯滿目厘熟，但唯獨沒有“小咪咪”。很長時間里我一直在懷念我的“小咪咪”维哈，偶爾看到相似的包裝都纏著家里的大人買下來绳姨，過了很久才戒掉這個習(xí)慣。
我其實已經(jīng)有些記不清它的包裝和味道了阔挠，只知道它既有酸也有甜飘庄，搭配在一起很有滋味，如今回想起來购撼，我懷疑是一種番茄味的零食跪削。說不定我在市面上曾經(jīng)看到過但沒有認(rèn)出它來，又或者它已經(jīng)不存在了》菡校現(xiàn)在我很少有愛不釋手的零食了切揭，偶爾想起小時候?qū)Α靶∵溥洹钡陌V迷自己都覺得很好笑，但也覺得很美好锁摔。那時一種簡單的快樂，簡單的愛好哼审，那份美味和那個慈愛的老人永遠(yuǎn)存留在那段回不去的時光里谐腰，散發(fā)著溫暖的光芒孕豹。
