跟正刊学习SCI英文写作——摘要部分的拆解

导 语

学术英文写作能力对于每一位科研从业者都至关重要。实验如鱼得水，数据丰富高大上，再配上准确清晰的英文写作，方能在学术界行走自如。而词汇是英文写作的基础，丰富的词汇量不仅能增加文章表达的多样性，更可以提高描述的准确性以及文章的可读性。

目前市面上已有各种秘籍介绍写作套路，通常都是简单罗列意思相近的词汇。为了避免生搬硬套导致的表达生硬、意思模糊等问题，笔者从正刊论文入手，通过精读拆解发表在顶级期刊上的论文，梳理学术英文写作的逻辑，同时归纳总结常见语境下的表达方式，希望能对读者英文写作有所启发和助益。

本次选取的文章是近期发表在《cell》上的“Therapy-Induced Evolution of Human Lung Cancer Revealed by Single-Cell RNA Sequencing” ，该研究利用当今最火热的单细胞测序技术，揭示了肺癌患者中的复杂的肿瘤微环境系统。本篇论文的写作言简意赅，在写作结构上具有较强的代表性和指导性。

首先我们来学习下摘要部分：

a) Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer mortality, exhibits heterogeneity that enables adaptability, limits therapeutic success, and remains incompletely understood.

• leading cause of…的主要原因,可用the major cause替代，解释原因还可以用以下表达：

• be an important/a key factor, a result of, the reason for

• This is why…/A can be explained by B/ the explanation for A is B/ That helps explain…

当要表达多种原因之一时，可用以下表达：

• There are myriad reasons for … . Chief among them is …

• A few factors lead to/cause/contribute to…, … is (only) part of the story.

• Enable 使…能够，学术写作中的高频词，类似词汇还有：

• Facilitate促进: “facilitate the development of…”

• Allow允许: “thus not allowing mutation detection for that gene”

• Allow for 顾及，考虑: “Gap-junction proteins (e.g., connexins) are integral membrane proteins that allow for cytosolic exchange of ions ”

Tips：A allow B= A enables B,  A 和B有直接的因果关系

A allows for B= A使得B的发生成为可能，或者只是促进B的发生，A只是B发生的因素之一。

• Empower 使能够：“The approach has the capacity to empower on-site assay and off-site centralized signal detection”

• Endow赋予: “The method endows our assay great promise for quantitative detection”

• Confer给予，授予: “Different activation procedures employed to confer SERS activity”

• Render 导致（因外界因素促使某人或某物达到某种状态）: “Latent fingerprints require chemical or physical treatment to render them visible.”

        

• limits therapeutic success: 限制了成功的治疗。类似表达还有：

• Curb 控制，约束(limit or control sth, especially sth bad): “curb the spread of the epidemic”;

  curb也可作名词：impose a curb on sth

• Constrain约束，限制（侧重约束作用）: “constrain continued tumor evolution toward complete drug resistance”

• Hinder阻碍: “the approach is hindered by cost and time”

• Impede妨碍: “impede the progress”

         

• remains incompletely understood 用于表达现有研究的不足，类似表达还有:

• Remain unknown/ be virtually unknown/be poorly understood/less is known

• Remain a significant/daunting challenge

• Be constrained by

在表达否定信息时，除了用not或者含有un-/in-/ill-等词汇，还可以有以下方法供大家灵活使用

• Few/little: “littleprogress has been made towards …”

• Fail to do sth:“fail to address this problem”

• Have yet to do sth表示该做但是尚未做“The full effect has yet to be felt”

• Lack/absence等含有否定意义的词： “the cellslacking large chromosomal aberrations“

• Hardly/scarcely/rarely/seldom/barely等含有否定意义副词表“几乎不“：”detecthardly capturing details in a medical image”

• Nolonger/never/none/no/nothing/nowhere/nobody等否定词

• Far from/not at all/nowhere near强调”远非”：“These are decent measures,but nowhere near enough”

b)  Cancer cells surviving therapy as residual disease (RD) expressed an alveolar-regenerative cell signature suggesting a therapy-induced primitive cell-state transition, whereas those present at ontherapy progressive disease (PD) upregulated kynurenine, plasminogen, and gap-junction pathways.

• suggest a therapy-induced primitive cell-state transition：

表达实验结果“证实“、”表明“、”显示“时的常见表达还有：

• show/illustrate/demonstrate/found/reveal/validate/identify/uncover/calculate/measure/test/evaluate/assess等表达直接现象

• indicate/imply/infer等表达深一层的含义

• whereas those present at ontherapy progressive disease (PD) upregulated kynurenine, plasminogen, and gap-junction pathways. Whereas 表示对比，可与while互换，但程度上强一些。其他表达对比的方式:

• In contrast (with/to后面通常接名词) “In contrast to clusters of cancer cells, immune cell-type clusters showed low patient occupancy”

• By contrast相比之下：“By contrast, PD cancer cells differentially overexpressed genes associated with invasion”

• Contrast with 形成对比：“Her actions contrasted sharply with her promise”

• Be in marked contrast to sth 形成鲜明对比：” This new trend is in marked contrast with the trend it experienced in the 1980s”

c) This study highlights how therapy-induced adaptation of the multi-cellular ecosystem of metastatic cancer shapes clinical outcomes.

• Highlight “强调”，常用于形容研究的意义，常见表达还有：

• Shed light on  阐明: “These methods have shed important light on the mechanisms of PM-induced oxidative stress”

• Pave the way for..为……铺路：“The discovery could pave the way for an effective malaria vaccine”

• Provide new/novel insights into 提供新的见解：“they could also provide insights into the development of neurological conditions”

• a better understanding of 更好的理解：“It may also lead to a better understanding of diseases of the human nervous system”

总 结

摘要的基本框架：首先介绍研究背景的重要性以及现有的挑战；其次引入解决问题的常用方法，并引入本研究涉及的策略；随后介绍本文通过什么方法获得了什么结果；最后指明本研究结果对该领域的意义。

本篇正刊摘要部分的精读拆解就总结到这里，希望可以对读者朋友摘要部分的写作有所启发，帮助读者积累一些科技论文的写作技巧以及相关领域的专业表达。