If it is a strained relationship, if the connection between the idea and its object is tenuous, then we are dealing with an unclear idea.

The most efficient way to clarify our ideas is to look through them to the objects they represent.

How do we ensure that our words are adequate to the ideas they seek to convey? The process is essentially the same as the one we follow when confirming the clarity and soundness of our ideas: We must go back to the sources of the ideas. Often we cannot come up with the right word for an idea because we don't have a firm grasp on the idea itself. Usually, when we clarify the idea by checking it against its source in the objective world, the right word will come to us.

How that is so becomes clear when we recall the relationship between the idea and the word.

The next step is putting ideas together

to form coherent statements.

Words have been called the building blocks of language,

but it is the statement that logic starts with

I may have a perfectly

good idea of what I'm trying to say, but can't succeed

in getting my ideas across clearly and effectively.

It is always better to err on

the side of saying too much than on the side of saying too

little.

True statements of objective fact are not open to argument; evaluative statements are. 

if two or more thingscancel

outor onecancels outthe other, they are equally important but have an opposite effect on a

situation so that the situation does not change

•Recent losses have cancelled out any

profits made at the start of the year.

•The advantages and disadvantages would

appear tocancel each other out.

1.[U]the different parts which sth is made of; the way in which the different parts are organized

• 成分；构成；组合方式:

»the chemical

composition of the soil

土壤的化学成分

»the composition of the board of directors

董事会的组成

substitute

UK['sʌb.stɪ.tju:t]US[-tu:t]verbtransitive

ADVANCED

■to use something or someone instead of another thing or person用…代替，代之以

•You cansubstituteoilforbutter in this recipe.这道菜中你可以用食用油代替牛油。

•Dayton wassubstitutedforWilliams in the second half of the match.下半场比赛戴顿上场取代了威廉斯。

substitute forsth

■to perform the same job as another thing or to take its place取代，代替

•Gas-fired power stations willsubstitutefor less efficient coal-fired equipment.以煤气为燃料的发电站将会代替效率较低的燃煤装置。 

无论主语究竟是掌握调动之权的人，或者是“新官”本人，substitute和replace的最大区别，就在直接宾语上。substitute的直接宾语只能是“新官”（此时主语就是掌权人），否则只能由“新官”来充当主语（无论哪一种情况，“旧官”前面都要有for）。replace的直接宾语是“旧官”，“新官”可以是主语，也可以由“掌权人”作主语，“新官”用with引入。

Before you attempt to persuade an audience

that a certain situation is unfair, tell them what you mean by

unfairness.

A sign posted at a fork in a trail which reads BEAR

TO THE RIGHT can be understood in two ways. The more

probable meaning is that it is instructing hikers to take the

right trail, not the left. But let us say that the ranger who

painted the sign meant to say just the opposite. He was trying

to warn hikers against taking the right trail because

there is a grizzly bear in the area through which it passes.

It is juvenile to use language simply to shock

But

shocking language is preferable to evasive language, if it can

disabuse people of hazy ideas and acquaint them with the

truth.

chimera

UK[kaɪ'mɪə.rə]US[-'mɪr.ə]formal

nouncountable

■a hope or dream that is extremely unlikely ever to come true幻想；妄想，空想

•Is the ideal of banishing hunger throughout the world just achimera?在全世界消除饥饿的理想是否只是痴心妄想？

It would be equally absurd to suppose

that truth is something forever to be pursued but never

to be attained, for that renders our activity purposeless,

which is to say, irrational, and turns truth into a chimera.

Byontological truthwe refer to the truthofbeing or existence