看看他是如何怼主流报刊中的英文的
第一次知道Bill Bryson的名字是在《经济学人》出版的Style Guide上。这份以有逼格而闻名的报纸把Bill Bryson的评论印在了封面的左下角，这也是唯一的一个“背书”：
近日买了三本Bill Bryson的书，读了几页就被圈粉了。文笔好，字里行间中充满了人情味，读这样的文字真是一种享受！
先看完的是这本Troublesome Words: A Guide to the English Language，内容安排和写作风格和《经济学人》的Style Guide很像，可以一起读。在这本书中Bill从他写作经验出发，以字母顺序列出了一些常见的拼写和标点错误，以及措辞意见。在书中他大量地引用了来自主流媒体的内容作为例句，我从中挑了一些例子，附上我简单的注释，一起来看看他是如何赏析英文的。
1. The warnings followed a week of earthquake activity throughout the region. (From Independent)
Bill认为activity这个词"often a sigh of prolixity"，是啰嗦的、多余的。直接说成"a week of earthquakes"就好了。
类似的还有old adage这种，adage本身就有old的意味，就不用old来画蛇添足了。《泰晤士报》写过这样一个句子：The parties are prepared to say little about how they see their future prospects. Bill认为这里的future是打酱油的，可以删掉。
2. The noise of the crowds affected his play. (From Daily Telegraph)
Bill认为affect这个词作为动词的时候"is nearly always bland and almost meaningless." “A影响B”这个句子的问题在于“影响”这个表述并不清楚，是通过影响变好了还是变得更糟了？A more precise word can almost always be found.
3. Work on the project is scheduled to commence in June. (From Financial Times)
Bill说这是一个An unnecessary genteelism. What's wrong with "begin"? 用begin就好了，此处无需装贵族。
顺便说，commence这个词是海明威偏爱用的词之一，在不足百页的The Old Man and the Sea中就出现了4次。这里并无对错之分，你对它情有独钟的话，愿意用就用吧。
4. 30 die in mishap (From The Times)
mishap这个词的意思是“小灾难” (an unfortunate but not very serious accident)，虽然没法具体表明什么是“小灾难”，30个人丧生应该不算“小”了吧？
5. Those of us who have been idly perusing the latest flock of holiday brochure... (From Guardian)
Bill认为这里的peruse用的不对，因为peruse表示“read or examine carefully”，而不是“look over casually”。
但是我们要注意，语言是会变化的。实际上peruse这个词现在也常被用来表示"read something casually and quickly"，这么说的话这个句子并没有错。
6. Now the bureau proposes to sell off 280 acres... (From Time)
Bill认为有些phrasal verbs中的“小品词”（即介词或者副词，在这句话中是off）除了占空间外一无是处，可以直接删除。
7. Each and every one of the 12 songs on Marshall Crenshaw's debut album is breezy and refreshing. (From Washington Post)
Bill说each and every这个表达"at best a trite way of providing emphasis, at worst redundant"，在上面这个句子中只用each一个词就可以了。《纽约时报》中也写过类似的句子：Players do not have to face the perils of qualifying for each individual tournament. 这里的individual也是多余，直接用each就好。
Bill不仅怼报刊，英语届权威人士他也敢“找茬”。他说"I have also not hesitated to cite errors committed by the authorities themselves... My intention in so doing is not to embarrass or challenge them but simply to show how easily such errors are made... 例如在dangling modifiers（悬垂修饰语）中，他就拿词典编纂大师Fowler的错误做例子：
Handing me my whisky, his face broke into an awkward smile.
这里handing me my whisky的主语是his face，显然是不搭配的。Bill说，呦，这可是稀罕事，脸还能递酒！(that rare thing, a face that can pass whisky)。
The Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage的作者William Morris和Mary Morris也被点名了，他们写过这样一个句子：
Each of the variants indicated in boldface type count as an entry.
Bill评论：Makt it "counts". 他们一定知道each后面的动词要加s，但是一不小心就忽略了。
除此之外我印象深刻的还有这样几个地方。
在解释什么是jargon的时候，他写道：
At a conference of American sociologists in 1977, 'love' was defined as 'the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance'. That is jargon -- the practice of never calling a spade a spade when you might instead call it a manual earth-restructuring implement.
关于and是否可以放在句首使用，他说: The belief that and should not be used to begin a sentence is without foundation. And that's all there is to it. 好像是说：关于and能否放词首这件事我想说三句话，这种说法是无稽之谈，我说完了！霸气爽快，wuli Bill！
关于before和prior to的辨析，他说：There is no difference between these two except length and that prior to has a certain affectedness. To paraphrase Bernstein, if you would use 'posterior to' instead of 'after', then by all means use prior to instead of before.
顺便学习一下affected这个词，表示“做作的；装腔作势的”。Bill在书中也用到pompous这个词，表示“自命不凡的”。
在Mother Tongue中Bill说：Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearling asking to be mangled.
写作，无论用哪种语言，都不是件容易的事，有错误也是很正常的。除了多注意和检查之外，我们要读一读好文字，提高自己对语言的赏析能力。每天都读点，选择性死磕，秘密都在时间里呢。