We all know the scene: Dorothy closes her eyes, and repeats the Good Witch's mantra,
我们都熟悉这样一个场景，多萝西闭上眼睛，然后念着好女巫的箴言
"No coordinates exist like one's domicile,
“无寸土能与家舍相比
no coordinates exist like one's domicile, no coordinates exist like one's domicile."
无寸土能与家舍相比，无寸土能与家舍相比。”
Only Dorothy doesn't say that. She says five one-syllable words, "There's no place like home."
可是多萝西并没有那样讲，她只说了五个单音节的词：“哪都比不上家”。
Each a word you probably learned in your first year of speaking, each perfectly concise.
每个字都是你第一年学会讲话时所学会的，很简洁有力。
It's not that L.Frank Baum didn't have a thesaurus, it's that in most cases $10 words fail.
并不是说L.Frank Baum词穷了，而是大多数情况下，晦涩的语言都并不会有很好的效果。
Would Aerosmith have had a hit with Ambulate This Direction? Probably not.
史密斯飞船乐队的歌会叫做'踯躅于此方向'吗？大概不会吧。
Would Patrick Henry have ignited a revolution by saying, "Provide me with liberty or bestow upon me fatality"? Unlikely.
Patrick Henry的革命宣言会说“予吾等以自由, 或赐吾等以死亡”吗？不太可能。
When it comes to words, bigger isn't always better.
当遣词造句的时候, 长并非一定就好。
Ten-dollar words are rendered worthless if they're not understood.
所谓的高级词汇，如果大家都不理解的话也没有任何意义，
That's not to say every piece of literature should be written at a fourth-grade reading level,
但也不是说所有的文学作品都应该要用小学四年级程度的单字来呈现，
but it is important to know your audience.
重点是要了解你的读者。

If you're a novelist, your audience is probably expecting 300 pages of vivid descriptors.
如果你是一个小说家，那你的读者会期待看到三百多页的生动描述。
At the very least, they're expecting you won't use the same 50 words to fill those pages.
至少他们不希望看到你用50个重复的单字写完整本书。
But most of us don't have the luxury of a captive audience.
通常我们不敢奢望有过分专注的读者。
We're competing against a whole world of distractions
因为我们都在与全世界的分心对抗，
and we're fighting for space in an attention span that continues to shrink across generations.
想尽办法抓住读者目光，进而拉近世代间的距离。
So get to the point already.
所以，重点很清楚了。
Variety may be the spice of life, but brevity is its bread and butter.
多样性也许是生活的调味剂，但是简洁性才是生活的必需品。
So when it comes to $10 words, save your money and buy a Scrabble board.
所以要是那么想用复杂的高级词汇，攒钱去买拼词游戏好了。