看新闻学写作

让我们看看从不同类型的英文新闻中，如何学习写作。

A.政治类新闻

这类新闻最多，找到任何一张报纸（纸质或APP）的top news一般都是和政治相关。例如，有段时间最火的新闻就是习总书记访美了。若让你写一篇关于这个事件的英文作文或邮件，别说200字，就是50字都挠头吧。估计憋了第一句“Recently, President Xi has visited the United States”，就再也卡不出第二句了吧。

让我们看看New York Times的记者是怎么写的：

After his appearances at the United Nations and a six-day, cross-country journey, President Xi Jinping headed home on Monday. Looking back at the trip, the most memorable moment – and maybe the most important – was watching $2.5 trillion of American corporate power pay homage to the Chinese president。

第一句话说“在出席了联合国会议后，习近平主席结束了为期六天的访美之行，于本周一回国。”看到了吗，我们没有必要每句话一定是主语开头的，用一个after连接名词性短语，凝练地概括了习总书记的行程。后一句写得更妙，说“这次行程的最难忘，也许也是最重要之处，就是看着总市值达2.5万亿美元的美国公司对中国国家主席表达敬意。”区区一句话，就把习总书记和互联网巨头的会议勾勒了出来，并且引起读者往下阅读的兴趣。

后来的一句话更可爱，这位记者说——

“These executives are not accustomed to being beckoned – they turn down invitations to business summits, the World Economic Forum and more. But Mr. Xi beckoned, and they came. The allure of being in Mr. Xi’s orbit was clearly too tantalizing for the executives to miss.”

beckon原意为“召唤”，turn down直译就是反过来，想象着古时候皇上不想见某个嫔妃就把她的牌子turn down, 意味“拒绝”之意。“being in somebody’s orbit”直译为“进入谁的轨道”，allure是“诱惑”、“吸引”之意。“too….to…”意为“太….而不能…..”。所以这句话就可以理解为“这些高管并不习惯被人呼来喝去——他们会拒绝企业峰会、世界经济论坛等活动的邀请。但习近平招了招手，他们就来了。和习近平靠近的机会实在是太诱人了，他们万万不能错过。”

B.社会类新闻

月子中心是我们非常熟悉的社会新闻，来看看外国人怎么写这个我们如此熟悉，却无法用英语描述的东西。

《纽约时报》一篇名为A Tradition for New Mother in China, Now $27,000 a Month的文章一开头用描述性的语言说——Wearing gray pajamas and furry purple slippers, Li Rui relaxed on a couch in a plush suite where she had spent the last month since giving birth to her son — without ever going outside. （穿着一身灰色睡衣，紫色毛绒拖鞋，Li Rui在一间豪华套房的沙发上休息，这个地方从她生了儿子后就呆着，一个月了，哪里都没有去。）这实际就一句话，句子主要结构就是“Li Rui relaxed on a couch”。Wearing引导的短语生动描写了她的穿着，再加上一个where引导的从句和without引导的伴随状语，我们已经可以勾勒出整个场景了。

这篇新闻接着说——

For more than $900 a day, a personal nanny had taught her breast-feeding techniques. A chef had prepared six meals a day intended to restore her physical constitution. And a moxibustion practitioner had wafted smoking sticks of mugwort over her body, part of the Chinese therapy sessions to help prevent disease.

这段话很多词汇和短语值得我们一记，因为很多时候，国人一说到关于中国特殊的东西时，就手舞足蹈乱翻译，或者直接甩拼音出去，弄得“歪果仁”一头雾水，最后只得“点头如捣蒜”表明听懂了，以求早点解脱。

月嫂可以翻译为personal nanny， breast-feeding 是母乳，restore her physical constitution可用作恢复体力，moxibustion是艾灸。关于艾灸治疗的描述写得非常好，waft smoking sticks of mugwort over her body，指拿着冒烟的艾灸小棒拂过她的身体。

第三段说：Such opulent sequestration is becoming the gold standard in postpartum recovery, inspired by a Chinese confinement custom known as “sitting the month,” when new mothers must stay indoors to restore their energy.

“opulent sequestration”可以理解为“奢华的隔离”，opulent在这里是不是比luxury, rich什么的要更准确些呢？postpartum recovery是产后恢复，“sitting the month”可以译为坐月子，这回真的是直译耶，但最好跟着一句解释“when new mothers must stay indoors to restore their energy”，不然“歪果仁”是看不懂的呀~~~

C.娱乐新闻

追星全世界都流行，HBO的《权利的游戏》播到第五季已经稳稳赚足一大波“脑残粉”。粉丝们对与权利游戏所有相关的东西都着迷。NPR描述了粉丝们如何去西班牙“朝圣”。

It's the height of summer, but "winter is coming" to Spain. For those who may not be well-versed in the lingo of the Seven Kingdoms, that's a reference to Game of Thrones — the HBO series filmed partly in Spain. It's hugely popular here, dubbed over as Juego de Tronos. Fans are flocking to Game of Thrones-themed tours of Spain, and they're also looking for plot parallels in real-life Spanish politics.

“Winter is coming”----所有《权利游戏》粉挂在嘴边的lingo(术语，行话)。这篇文章用be well-versed, 而不是我们平时只会用的be well-known。 dub over是配音。Juego de Tronos 是权利游戏的西班牙语。Be flocking to有一句准确的中文成语可以翻译，意为“趋之若鹜”。

HBO got unprecedented access to the country to shoot the show's fifth season in Seville's ancient Moorish palace, the Alcázar, for about a month last fall. It may or may not be a coincidence that the U.S. ambassador to Spain, James Costos, is a former HBO executive.

文章接着说HBO获得了前所未有的许可进入古老的摩尔式宫殿Alcázar进行拍摄。“get access to” 是指获得进入什么的许可，曾经有一个中国孩子图书证失效进不去图书馆，急得跟管理员说 “I cannot go into…” 要是他当初学会 “get access to”这个短语该多好，就不会让人看低了我国英文教育的水平。

美国作家Rita Mae Brown曾说，Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. 读报看新闻是一种接近英文文化的方式之一，它让我们更好的理解另一个语言体系的人，如何了解、描述及评价这个我们share的世界。