Chapter 100 The Source of the Charm of Mark Twain's Language

We know that Mark Twain is a world-class humorist.How did he develop his witty and humorous language style?This also starts with Mark Twain's long-distance roaming in his youth.At that time, he traveled alone from Missouri to Nevada. He took a stagecoach, which was too heavy and traveled very slowly, and the journey was difficult.Because the traffic was backward and the road conditions were bad at that time, the luggage on the carriage was weighed in ounces, because any extra weight would make the carriage more dangerous.Food and water are the necessities of life for passengers and horses and must be carried.In addition, there was very little spare load, and even so, Mark Twain managed to carry a copy of Webster's Dictionary with him.No matter whether he was crossing the mountains, walking through the desert, or going in and out of the haunted places of bandits and bandits, Mark Twain was not willing to abandon this heavy dictionary.He aspires to become a language master, no matter how dangerous the conditions are, his persistent learning spirit remains the same.In this way, with his extraordinary courage and amazing perseverance, Mark Twain was approaching his desired goal step by step.

Not only Mark Twain, Peter and Chandan also read "Webster's Dictionary" from beginning to end, without missing a word twice; Browning browses this dictionary every day, thinking that it is not only instructive , and it is entertaining; when Lincoln described his biographer Nicolai, he said: "They often read dictionaries by lamplight at dusk until sleepiness hits them." In fact, these are not special cases.Any writer or speaker with a little reputation must have passed the test of studying dictionaries hard. Former U.S. President Wood Wilson's mastery of English can be described as superb.Some of his writings and speeches, including part of the declaration he drafted for the United States to declare war on Germany, undoubtedly occupy a place in the history of British and American literature.So, how did Wilson, who is busy with everything, acquire such language ability?He once personally told the following story: Father has very strict requirements on us, and he will never allow us to have any incorrect language expressions.Whenever we make a slip of the tongue, we will be corrected by our father immediately; whenever we encounter unfamiliar words, we will also be patiently explained by him; in order to deepen the impression of new words, my father also encourages us to use new words to make sentences, so that we can fully familiarize ourselves with new words usage.There is an orator in New York, USA, who is highly praised for his rigorous sentence structure and beautiful and concise language expression in his speeches.In a recent conversation, he finally lifted the veil of mystery surrounding his prodigious eloquence.It turned out that whenever he encountered unfamiliar words in the process of talking with people or reading books and newspapers, he would write them down in the memo.Before going to bed that night, he would look up the dictionary, study and master the word carefully.If there is no new word collected one day, he will read the book "Synonyms, Antonyms and Prepositions" edited by Fernard, and carefully grasp the exact meaning of each word, so his vocabulary can always be varied and varied colorful.

Mastering one new word a day is the secret of the success of this excellent speaker.It means that on the basis of his original vocabulary, he can master an additional 365 words per year.In order to enhance memory, he also copied these new words in batches in some small notebooks, and carried them with him, and looked at them when he had time. After a long time, he found that as long as he used a word three times, he would never forget it. up.