effortful, arduous transition, weighty. evocative

Evocative

當我把新書《故事．散文．輕鬆讀》寄給在南美哥倫比亞享受退休生活的我的語言學老師 Dr. Daniel Chapuis 時，他立刻回信說封面設計非常好， “The cover is very colorful and evocative.”  我把這句話傳給設計封面的美編，她非常高興，覺得自己好像被高度稱讚。

根據牛津辭典，colorful 表示五彩繽紛及有趣，還有豐富多彩、有時達到令人震驚的程度 (interesting or exciting, full of variety, sometimes in a way that is slightly shocking) 。更令美編高興的是 “evocative” 這個字。

Evocative 在牛津辭典的解釋是 “making you think of or remember a strong image or feeling, in a pleasant way.”  引起記憶的，喚起感情的。這表示封面設計會使人想起某種愉快的強烈記憶，喚起某種愉快的感覺，這都是非常正面的。美編說，這正是她想表現書中正面闡述的設計目標，加上幾片輕柔的淡色羽毛，表達輕鬆讀的意涵，也是作者在《故事．散文．輕鬆讀》一書中想要帶給讀者的感覺。

Evocative 是英語常用字，可造美麗的句子，牛津例句是 “Her new book is wonderfully evocative of village life.” (她的新書喚起人們對鄉村生活的美好感情。) 我的英文寫作，也會用到這美妙的字。它的動詞是 evoke，解釋為 “to bring a feeling, a memory or an image into your mind” 引起、喚起 (感情，記憶或形象)，例句： “The music evoked memories of her youth” (這樂曲勾起了她對青年時代的記憶)，這字就更常用。

因為《故事．散文．輕鬆讀》的封面設計，研究一個英文單字，不亦快哉！

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weigh (INFLUENCE) 

verb [I usually + adverb or preposition]
(of something such as a fact or an event) to have an influence or be important:
Easy access to a railway network weighed heavily with us when we chose a site for the new factory.

weight 
noun [U]
respect, influence, trust or importance:
Her experience does give her opinions quite a bit of weight.
After he was voted out of power, few people attached much weight to what he said.
Radical views don't carry much weight anymore.

weighted 

prepared and structured in a way that is likely to produce a particular effect, usually an advantage, rather than any other:
The system of benefits is weighted in favour of those who have children.

weighty 
adjective
describes a subject, book or piece of work that is important or serious:
weighty matters/issues

ar・du・ous

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━━ a. 骨の折れる; 勤勉な.
ar・du・ous・ly　━━ ad.

arduous Show phonetics
adjective
difficult, tiring and needing a lot of effort:
an arduous climb/task/journey


effortful

adjective

1. Requiring great or extreme bodily, mental, or spiritual strength: arduous, backbreaking, burdensome, demanding, difficult, exacting, exigent, formidable, hard, heavy, laborious, onerous, oppressive, rigorous, rough, severe, taxing, tough, trying, weighty. See heavy/light.
2. Not n
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   atural or spontaneous: contrived, forced, labored, strained. See true/false.

transition Show phonetics
noun [C or U]
a change from one form or type to another, or the process by which this happens:
The health-care system is in transition at the moment.
There will be an interim government to oversee the transition to democracy.

transitional Show phonetics
adjective
a transitional government
Eastern Slavonia is to revert to Croatian government rule next year after a transitional period under U.N. administration.