Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words,circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. 美国人写东西有个毛病，那就是凌乱。我们生活在一个令人深感窒息的社会里，因为到处充斥着废话、拐弯抹角的表达、虚夸的装饰和毫无意义的胡言乱语。

　　Who can understand the clotted language of everyday American commerce: the memo, thecorporation report, the business letter, the notice from the bank explaining its latest “simplified”statement? What member of an insurance or medical plan can decipher thebrochure explaining his costs and benefits? What father or mother can put together a child’s toy from the instructions on the box? Our national tendency is to inflate and thereby sound important. The airline pilot who announces that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation wouldn’t think of saying it may rain. The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it. 谁能理解美国商界日常使用的那些浓缩了的语言：备忘录、公司报告、商业信函以及银行发出的解释“简化”结算单的通知呢?加入保险计划或者医疗计划的人，有谁能解释说明他的支出和收益的小册子呢?有哪个父母能根据包装盒上的说明把孩子的玩具拼起来呢?在我们国家，夸大其词从而显得authority十足已经成了大势所趋。飞机驾驶员会下通知说他现在预计将经历相当大的降雨，而不会想到说可能会下雨。这个句子太简单了——它一定是有问题的。

　　But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank. 但是写得好的秘诀就在于使每个句子干干净净，没有废话。不起作用的词、能短而不短的词、重复动词意思的副词、让读者摸不准谁在做什么的被动结构——正是这无数的杂质削弱了句子的力量，而这些杂质通常与教育和社会地位成正比。

　　Vocabulary

　　clutter n. 杂乱

　　strangle v. 使窒息

　　circular a. 迂回的

　　construction n. 造句

　　pompous a. 虚夸的

　　frill n. 装饰

　　jargon n. 胡言乱语

　　clotted a. 浓缩的

　　commerce n. 商业

　　memo n. 备忘录

　　corporation n. 公司

　　statement n. 清单

　　insurance n. 保险

　　decipher v. 解释

　　brochure n. 小册子

　　inflate v. 使膨胀

　　presently ad. 现在

　　anticipate v. 预期

　　precipitation n. 降水

　　strip v. 剥去

　　component n. 成分(a) thousand and one 无数

　　adulterant n. 掺杂物

　　in proportion to 与…成比例

　　rank n. 社会阶层