想提高说明文和图表写作？读读《经济学人》的这本书吧
两个月前我们跑过一场《经济学人》阅读马拉松，课程结束后有位姑娘就去了英国旅行。自驾游玩之余她还去看了看《经济学人》的旧址和新家，给我带了几本《经济学人》的出版物。其中有一本叫 Go Figure，是一本让你分分钟都能涨知识、学英文的读物。
书的标题也是有来头的。Go figure 是个常见的习惯表达，表示 “想想看吧”；figure 又有“统计数据”的意思，因此 go figure 也可以理解为“用数据说话吧”。Go Figure 一语双关地说明了这本书的组成：其实它是《经济学人》线上博客 The Economist explains 和 Graphic detail 的精选内容合集。前者我们可以用来学习如何写说明文，后者可以用来学习如何描述图表。
1.
The Economist explains
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains
自 2013 年上线起，The Economist explains 像 scaffold（脚手架）一样，每天帮助读者快速了解一些有用的好玩的知识。如它的标语所说：Explaining the world, daily
天下之大无奇不有，有些是我们一直想知道但是没有去查的问题，有些是我们从来没想到过是问题的问题，比如：
How a tattoo affects your job prospects?
Why so many Koreans are called Kim?
Why pigs are so important to China?
Why the UN doesn't pay its interns?
How to make an invisibility cloak?
从纹身、方言到比特币，从妓女、医保到时光机，总有一个话题会激发你的好奇心。
The Economist explains 博客上的文章你一定读得懂、读得完。
它的篇幅短，大多数文章都只有四段，并且都坚持同一个“四步走”写作套路：set-up, background, explanation and implication。
Set-up是引出话题，例如在 Why so many Koreans are called Kim 中，作者在开头写到：
A South Korean saying claims that a stone thrown from the top of Mount Namsan, in the centre of the capital Seoul, is bound to hit a person with the surname Kim or Lee.
第一段末一般都是以问题结尾，比如上面这一段的最后一句是：Why is there so little diversity in Korean surnames?
接下来就开始介绍背景知识和解释，不过不要指望它的解释够全面、有深度，很多时候《经济学人》会很小心地说 "xxx offers part of the answer" "Part of the explanation is xxx"。
解释完后，还有一段 implication，它可以是评论、补充说明，也可以是拓展。例如在 How marriage makes people healthier 的结尾段最后一句中作者写到：
So the next time your spouse nags you to go to the doctor, give thanks. Being married is good for your health.
另外，在读书的时候，我标记了几个我认为是“你一定需要掌握”的简单实用表达，如果你也读《经济学人》，可以特别留意这几个高频词，并好好把它放在字典中查一查：hitch, glitch, in question, mean, a fraction of, remain, in the wake of, pass for, prevail, favour, colour （作动词）
2.
Graphic detail
https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail
Graphic detail 上主要是图表，常常被《经济学人》的其它文章征用。在 Go Figure 中，我最喜欢的一个图表是有关歌手 David Bowie 的，把图表写出了感情。不过据我所查，在 Graphic detail 的博客上只有图并没有文字，文字来自于当期的讣告板块。
Some called him a chameleon, but David Bowie was the reverse. Chameleons change hue to blend in with their background; he changed to stand out, and dared others to mimic him. He was never afraid to murder his darlings. Ziggy Stardust, his most famous alter-ego, was killed off in 1973 as he finished an exhausting worldwide tour at London’s Hammersmith Odeon; he was being too much imitated, and Bowie always had to be one step ahead. One successor was Aladdin Sane, a zigzag of painted lightning across his face; another, the most troubled, was the Thin White Duke, an aristocratic cabaret singer in black trousers, waistcoat and white shirt, needing only a skull to play Hamlet. Over the course of his career Bowie explored an extraordinary range of genres and styles and worked with a wide range of collaborators—yet amid all the changes, he always managed to sound just like himself.
在读 Graphic detail 的文章时，我们可以学习如何准确地描述图表，例如在 How people in different countries spend their money 中有这样一段：
Russians splash 8% of their money on booze and cigarettes - far more than most developed countries - while fun-loving Australians spend a tenth of their cash on recreation, and bookish South Koreans splurge more than most on education.
这里表示“大量花费”就用到了 splash 和 splurge，比 spend 要更加准确。另外我们也要注意收集表示“上升” “下降”的词，比如《经济学人》中的这些常客们：ballon, mushroom, surge, plummet, shrink, dip, swoon, plunge...
好了，介绍再多也不如你自己去读上一两篇，亲自体会一下。你可以在《经济学人》的官方网站上读这两个博客的内容，也可以搜索这本书的电子书（旧版很容易就找到了的）来读一读。至于具体该怎么做，我只能说：切勿盲从，你需要自己 go figure
如果你想看又实在找不到的话，推荐你读一下这篇文章：“你是从哪找到这么多英语原版图书资源的？”
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