词汇学习

eyestrain n. 视疲劳，眼睛疲劳

Get into bed in a comfortable position, make sure the light is inadequate enough to cause a slight eyestrain.

sedative /'sɛdətɪv/ n. 能使安静的东西；镇静剂；止痛药

Touse a good book as a sedative is conspicuous waste.

assertion n. (权利等的)主张，维护，(意见等的)坚持，强硬陈词

You must try to discover the main ideas, assertions, and arguments that constitute the author's particular message.

inveterate adj. (指人)有恶习的, 成瘾的 (指习惯等)根深蒂固的

inveterate preferences 根深蒂固的嗜好

To inveterate book-markers, the front endpapers are often the most important. Some people reserve them for a fancy bookplate.

admonition n. 告诫，劝告，忠告；轻责，(温和的)责备

The admonitions seem endless—how can you think about all that and still ski?

coalesce/ˌkoə'lɛs/ vi. 联合；合并；结合 vt. 使…联合；使…合并

But it is just as true of reading as it is of skiing that you cannot coalesce a lot of different acts into one complex, harmonious performance until you become expert at each of them.

enumerate v. 列举，枚举

If you can recall your patience in any other learning experience you have had, you will be more tolerant of instructors who will shortly enumerate along list of rules for reading.

postulate v. 假设，视...为当然

He not only states his définitions, his postulates, and his axioms—his principal propositions—at the beginning, but he also labels every proposition to be proved.

coddle v. 溺爱，娇纵

If we had wanted to coddle our readers, we should have started a new one with the words, "Some great writers."

tautology n. 同义反复，赘述

In recent times, it has become commonplace to refer to self-evident propositions as "tautologies"; the feeling behind the term is sometimes one of contempt for the trivial, or a suspicion of legerdemain.

extrinsic adj. 外来的，外在的，外部的

Any aid to reading that lies outside the book being readwe may speak of as extrinsic.

partake v. 吃喝，享用；参加，参与；

This is because history partakes both of the fictional and the scientific.

短语学习

give vent to sth 发泄，吐露

Otherwise you are likely to be giving vent to feelings, not stating reasons.

sit at the feet of someone 膜拜，跪拜

The masses were, of course, uneducated, but even thelearned few—the leisure class—were not educated in the sense that they had tosit at the feet of foreign masters.

To pick a bone with 对...不满，质疑

For the disputatious and the contentious, a bone can always be found to pick a quarrel over.

段落摘录

He affirms something he thinks to be true, or denies something he judges to be false. He asserts this or that to be a fact.

虽然用词不多，但十分准确清楚。其中隐含了think，judge，assert的区别。

think: have the opinion or impression and show an attitude towards one case. 

judge: form an opinion about  a case after having examined the evidence or thought carefully about it.

assert: state a fact or belief firmly and clearly. 

We cannot believe you do not, though you may have grown a little rusty from lack of practice in the rudiments of the art of reading.

grow rusty 很形象。这里的rusty指的是“（技术、知识等）荒废的，生疏的”，而非我们常用的“生锈的”。

That is why making such translations is the best test you can apply to yourself, if you want to be sure you have digested the proposition, not merely swallowed the words.

用digest来表达“消化知识”已约定俗成，但这里这个单词用得好在于后面的swallow the words 与它相互呼应。一个是“吞”，一个是“消化”，相关相反却又表达同一个观点，非常到位。

We have caught ourselves attacking a book rather than criticizing it, knocking straw men over, denouncing where we could not support denials, proclaiming our prejudices as if ours were any better than the author's.

catch oneself doing sth. 发觉自己...

本句同样是动词用得到位。

Here you will reap the reward of all your previous efforts.

reap v. 收割，收获

These three remarks exhaust all the critical positions you can take.

exhaust v. 耗尽，用光

Like the golden rule, it elicits more lip service than intelligent obedience.

这句话很好，值得背诵！

The language they must use to communicate is an imperfect medium, clouded by emotion and colored by interest, as well as inadequately transparent for thought.

cloud和color用得妙！