原来这些词还可以这样用

12月读书会读的是林语堂先生的The Gay Genius,《苏东坡传》。林语堂先生的英文写得很漂亮，不仅有准确地道的表达，对西方文化中的人物、典故也是如数家珍信手拈来（例如莎士比亚作品和圣经中的梗），不愧是“两脚踏中西文化，一心评宇宙文章”的大师。

今天我从书中挑了7个简单，让你觉得“原来还可以这样用！”的词，在赏析大师写作的同时向他偷师学艺，把这几个不起眼的小词占为己有。在每个词之后我还附上了一段来自《经济学人》的例句，一来证明这些表达是地道的，二来是通过拓展阅读我们更容易掌握这些词的使用。

1⃣️ tower

tower是“塔”，不过它也可以作为动词使用，表示“屹立”，例如：

...the back of the Giant Buffalo was visible on the distant horizon, towering above the tops of the nearer mountain ridges. ...地平线端的大牛背依稀可见，高耸在近处的山脊顶。

还可以这样用：

Szema Kuang, who towered intellectually and morally above his generation, fought a clean-cut battle of principles from the beginning to the end. 司马光的学问和品德都冠绝当代，从头到尾为原则而争。

"towered intellectually and morraly above his generation"就是说在智力和道德方面比他人强很多，tower在这里表示“完爆” “碾压”，我们想写“much better than”时，想一想是不是可以用tower来替换。

2⃣️ silence

silence是“沉默”，它也可以作为动词表示“使安静” “使不再发表反对意见”：

Good emperors who loved a good name would be careful in their treatment of these censors, earning great fame and popularity for themselves, but bad administrations were anxious to silence the censors just as modern dictators find it neces- sary to muzzle the press. ...坏政府一心只想叫谏官闭嘴，正如现代独裁者禁止新闻自由一般。

silence在这里和后面的muzzle意思相近，都是表示禁言。

3⃣️ fish

fish是鱼，作为动词可以表示“钓鱼”，“拐弯抹角地谋取”。例如fish for information就是“套话”，fish for a compliment可以理解为“沽名钓誉”。

林先生是这样用的（书中出现了2次）：

"This Anshih has always declined an appointment and refused to come to the capital in the previous reigns," said Emperor Shentsung. "Some people thought he was impudent, and now again he does not come, giving illness as his excuse. Is he really ill, or is he fishing for a better post?"

“王安石在前朝始终拒绝官职，不愿入京，” 神宗说，“有人以为他鲁莽，现在他又告病不来。他是真的生病，还是等更好的官位呢？”

4⃣️ shower

shower是“淋浴喷头” “阵雨”的意思，还可以作为动词表示“慷慨给予”(shower someone with something），例如Eric showered Angel with kisses.（Eric不停地亲张小鹿）。

书中是这样用的：

They carried the father's and Mrs. Su Tungpo's coffins home a thousand miles by land and water to be buried at their home town in Meichow. Their friends showered them with funeral gifts. 他们带着父亲和苏东坡太太的棺材，要爬山涉水走一千里路。返葬在眉州故乡。朋友们送了一大堆奠仪和礼物。

5⃣️ shadow

shadow是“影子”，它也可以做动词使用：

It is necessary to understand the nature of the political battle because the party strife shadowed Su Tungpo's entire life. 我们必须了解政治斗争的本质，因为苏东坡的一生都被党争所笼罩。

shadow在这里是不是比用“follow”要形象一些？

6⃣️ color

color（美式写法是colour）作动词除了表示“涂...颜色”外，还可以表示“影响”，和affect意思相近：

During his Huangchow period Tungpo began to study Buddhist and Taoist philosphy, and this colored his thinking and writing afterwards.

colour后面常接的名词是judgment, attitude，例如“不要让我的观点影响到你的判断”就可以说成“Don’t allow my opinion to colour your judgment."

7⃣️ kowtow

kowtow是英语世界中为数不多的中文词汇之一，就是“磕头”，常用来表示“卑躬屈膝” “唯命是从”：

Tao Chien, too, had laid down his office and retired to work a farm because he could not put on his official gown and adjust his belt in order to kowtow to a small bureaucrat from the provincial tax bureau. 陶潜也是因为任彭泽县令时，郡遣督邮至，县吏告诉他应当穿官衣束带相见，陶潜不肯对上方派来的税吏折腰，即解印绶去职，归隐农桑。

这个表达在On Writing Well中也出现过：

Mencken was never timid or evasive; he didn’t kowtow to the reader or curry anyone’s favor. It takes courage to be such a writer, but it is out of such courage that revered and influential journalists are born.

最近一期的《经济学人》中用到了一个类似的表达bow to：

读完这篇文章你可以学到：

1⃣️ 注意常见名词做动词的现象，例如tower, shadow, shower, fish，这些词都值得自己亲自动手查查字典。

2⃣️ 善用搜索进行主题阅读，增加见到一个词在不同场景中使用的情况，以此加深印象。