I. Words & Expressions

Joseph Heller and Stanley Kubrick heightened the truth about war just enough to catch its lunacy, and we recognize it as lunacy.

lunacy  n. (madness)

Lunacy is acting silly or stupid. 

eg. It's lunacy to go out in the snow wearing those flip flops!

To keep him simmered down, the Owners gave him an Interest.

simmer 

n. temperature just below the boiling point 文火炖、慢慢沸腾的状态

eg. Bring the vegetables to a simmer.

v. boil slowly at low temperature(用文火)慢慢地煮、炖

eg. Usually when you're making a soup, you want to bring it to a boil and then let it simmer, cooking it just below the boiling point to get all the flavors to release.

v. if you are simmering with anger,or if anger is simmering in you,you feel very angry but do not show your feelings

eg. He was left simmering with rage.

v. if argument is simmering, people feel angry with each other but only show it slightly

eg. Violent revolt was simmering in the country.

simmer down 

to become calm again after you have been very angry(盛怒后)平静下来

eg. We decided she needed some time to simmer down.

In short, our class began by striving first for humor and hoping to wing a few truths along the way.

wing 

n. (我们最常见的最熟悉的意思)翅膀

v. to fly somewhere 

wing its/ their way to/across 

wing it 

 (spoken) to do something without planning or preparing it 临时凑成、即席而为

eg. We just have to wing it.

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II. Summary & Reflection

Humor is the secret weapon of the nonfiction writer.

Zinsser开门见山式的直接抛出本章节的重点,幽默其文学写手们的一把秘密武器。

 并指出 principles for the writer of humor：

1. A superb writer：master the craft of writing good "straight" English.

2. Don't search for the outlandish and scorn what seems too ordinary.

3.  Don't strain for laughs, humor is built on surprise.

一个好的幽默小说家，同时也是一个好的作家，要做到清晰、简洁、人性化；不要追求新奇的东西，而忽略生活中普普通通的事情;不要一味地追求笑点。

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阅读幽默的文章是需要基本文化功底的，特别是外国幽默文章，如果英语文化功底不深厚，是很难理解其幽默的点。与之有关的幽默作品，大部分见于喜剧作品或者是幽默讽刺作品中，譬如鲁迅先生的《阿Q正传》等等。先生的幽默，让人看了好笑又好气，而且会刺激读者去反思。

但自己看得多的还是电视节目，譬如《Friends》, 刚开始对于一些笑点，特别是非英语为母语的以及对当时的一个时代的了解，那是很难把握到它的梗和笑点。

在《Friends》中 Monica说Ross好胜心强

Phoebe回答

其实这源于英文中的一句谚语the pot calling the kettle black. 暗示Monica you're also really competitive.

我自己当时看的时候，如果没有上面的解释，真的很难懂其中的意思，也不会想到它的幽默以及讽刺意味。