Stylish English has Variety. Brevity is not always a virtue 简短未必是美德 变化才是真
先拿例句来感觉感觉：

Before: "The Art of Strategy" was written by Sun Tzu. It is a fifty-six-hundred-word Chinese classical work. The writer put forth a set of principles in a very tightly compressed manner. They deal with how to defeat oppositions and win battles.
这种表达的问题在于：
1、简单的“主语+谓语”的结构太多；
2、written和"writer, "The Art of Strategy" 和It, set of principles和they为重复主语。
3、读起来很单调
After: In his fifty-six-hundred word classic, The Art of Strategy, Sun Tzu put forth a tightly compressed set of principles for achieving triumph over opposition.
介词结构+同位语+主语+谓语的形式比较好，因为将Sun Tzu放到了最重要的成分——主语的位置，其他成分按照逻辑排序居次要地位。整个句子很流畅。


许多人将简洁与简短混为一谈，其实二者有很大区别。简洁的主旨是用尽量少的词汇讲述整个故事，简短的主旨则是为保持文章篇幅短小，精心撰写或者随意删除文中的某些词或章节。

简洁并不意味着总写短句子。事实上，如果句式缺少变化，文章就会显得支离破碎，缺少联系，让人觉得作者的写作技巧贫乏。句式的变化能令文章协调流畅，会让读者感受到作者对主题把握得游刃有余。虽然短句没什么语法错误，但用得太多会使本应合在一起的意思分离开来。

我们的原则是：不要使用一连串短的、支离破碎的句子。要理清自己的思路，尽量使句子长度有所变化。

再来看一些例句：
Choppy: Of course, the weapons at Sun Tzu's time were quite primitive. The armies were very large. They were nearly as large as those in World War II. The davastation and human sufferings were just as profound as in World War II.
Better: Compared with World War II, the weapons at Sun Tzu's time were quite primitive, but the armies were nearly as large and the devastation and human suffering just as profound.

Choppy: People change and places change as well. Jennifer felt this strongly. She had been away for eleven year.
Better: On returning after an eleven-year absense, Jennifer had a strong feeling of how people and places change.

Choppy: I have always had a dream. My dream has been to be a famous writer. Everyone would read by books. I would become very wealthy.
Better: I have always dreamed of being a wealthy, famous writer, read by everyone.


看了上面这些例句，大家肯定对句式变化给句子带来的美赞不绝口，那么我们要怎么做呢？请看下面——

句式变化的一些技巧：

英语的一个显著的特点是它可以轻易地把简单结构（一个中心意思），转化为复合结构（两个中心意思）和复杂结构（两个或两个以上的意思）。主句，表达可以独立成句的思想和内容。从句，表达不能独立成句，需要与主句一起构成完整表达的思想和内容。
达到句式多变的最佳途径是把关键词或短语换到开头或结尾的位置，从中发现实现你的目的、适合你的品味的最好方法。通过连接短句——省略词、增加词、改变词序，或把不那么重要的思想放到从句中去——你就可以写出更流畅、更精致的句子。

Before: Lu Hao graduated last summer. He joined the First Auto Works in Changchun soon after graduation. He received an engineering degree from his college.
采用从句能将这三个简单句以不同的方式连接起来。
After: After graduating last summer with an engineering degree, Lu Hao soon joined the First Auto Works in Changchun.
After: An engineering degree-holder, Lu Hao joined the First Auto Works in Changchun last summer soon after graduation.
After: Having graduated with an engineering degree, Lu Hao joined the First Auto Works in Changchun last summer.

Stylish English requires that we avoid over-dependence on"but" "if" "although" "even though" "so...that: and "in order to" clauses 切忌过于依赖从句
先来看but，怎么避免过多的使用but呢？例句先：

Before: The children at school were familiar with many games, but Li Hua had never even heard of them.
After: The children at school were familiar with games Li Hua had never even heard of.
这个改变非常简单，将BUT去掉之后，用了简单的定语从句，显得句子生动不少。

Before: The room was silent, but suddenly there was a clap of thunder outside.
After: The silence of the room was broken by a sudden clap of thunder outside.
这回是用了动词break。在英语中动词的选择是很重要的，能使句子增色不少，并且可以避免使用单调的连词。

我们中国人喜欢用"but"从句。同中文一样，英文中but也是连接两个短句的简单方法。but是个好词，表达转折的意思。我们这里所说的避免过多使用but并不是说把but换成 however, nevertheless 等等近义词，而是通过句式的变化，或者选择其它合适的表达方式来避免这种短句+短句的转折方式，从而使句子变得生动和丰富。

OK，废话少说，大家仔细阅读以下例句，体会有哪些变化形式。

Plain: Outside the cinema, she lit a cigarette, not necessarily because she had a desire to smoke, but because she felt the need for warmth.
Interesting: Outside the cinema, she lit a cigarette, as much from the need for warmth as from any desire to smoke.

Plain: It was meant to be a brief kiss, but it turned into a long, lingering one.
Interesting: What was meant to be a brief kiss turned into a long, lingering one.

Plain: Music lightens life, but literature deepens it.
Interesting: Music lightens life; literature deppens it.

Plain: It is not his height but his weight that prevented him from competing in the race.
Interesting: His weight, not his height, prevented him from competing in the race.

Plain: Old Wang is often described as a happy-g0-lucky person, but the last half hour of the hike home he was interested in nothing but a bath and a bed.
Interesting: Old Wang, an otherwise happy-go-lucky person, thought of only two things the last half hour of the hike home: a bath and a bed.

我也喜欢用But　呵呵，

i like change!

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