-domino
TEXT A
An impressive English
lesson
一堂难忘的英语课
1 If I am the only parent who still
corrects his child's English, then perhaps my son
is right. To him,
I
am
a
tedious
oddity:
a
father
he
is
obliged
to
listen
to
and
a
man
absorbed
in
the
rules
of
grammar, which my son
seems allergic to.
如果我是唯一一个
还在纠正小孩英语的家长，
那么我儿子也许是对的。
对他而言，
我是一个
乏味的怪物：
一个他不得不听
其教诲的父亲，
一个还沉湎于语法规则的人，
对此我儿子似乎<
/p>
颇为反感。
2 I think I got serious about this only
recently when I ran into one of my former
students, fresh
from an excursion to
Europe.
我觉得我是在最近偶遇我以前的一位学生时
，
才开始对这个问题认真起来的。
这个学生刚从
欧洲旅游回来。我满怀着诚挚期待问她：
“
欧洲之行如
何？
”
3
She nodded three or four times, searched the
heavens for the right words, and then exclaimed,
她点了三四下头，绞尽脑汁，苦苦寻
找恰当的词语，然后惊呼：
“
真是，哇！
”
4 And that
was it. The civilization of Greece and the glory
of Roman architecture were captured in
a
condensed
non-
statement.
My
student's
was
exceeded
only
by
my
head-shaking
distress.
没了。
所有希腊文明和罗马建筑的辉
煌居然囊括于一个浓缩的、
不完整的语句之中！
我的学
生以
“
哇！
”
来表示她的惊叹，我只能以摇头表达比之更强烈的忧虑。
5
There
are
many
different
stories
about
the
downturn
in
the
proper
use
of
English.
Surely
students should be able to distinguish
between their/there/they're or the distinctive
difference
between
complimentary
and
complementary.
They
unfairly
bear
the
bulk
of
the
criticism
for
these knowledge deficits because there
is a sense that they should know better.
关于正确使用英语能力下降的问题，有许多不同的故事。学生
的确本应该能够区分诸如
their/there/they’re
之间的不同，或区别
complimentary
跟
complementary
之间显而易见的差
异。
由于这些知识缺陷，
他们承受着大部分不该承受的批评和
指责，
因为舆论认为他们应该
学得更好。
6 Students are not dumb,
but they are being misled everywhere they look and
listen. For example,
signs in grocery
stores point them to the stationary, even though
the actual stationery items
—
pads,
albums
and
notebooks
—
are
not
nailed
down.
Friends
and
loved
ones
often
proclaim
they've just ate
when, in fact, they've just eaten. Therefore, it
doesn't make any sense to criticize
our
students.
学生并不笨，
他们只是被周围所看到和听到的语言误导了。
举例来说，
杂货店
的指示牌会把
他们引向
stationary
< br>（静止处）
，
虽然便笺本、相册、
和笔记本等真正的
stationery
(
文具用品
)
并没有被钉在那儿。朋友和亲人常宣称
They’ve just
ate
。实际上，他们应该说
They’ve just
eaten
。因此，批评学生不合乎情理。
7 Blame for the scandal of this
language deficit should be thrust upon our
schools, which should
be
setting
high
standards
of
English
language
proficiency.
Instead,
they
only
teach
a
little
grammar
and
even
less
advanced
vocabulary.
Moreover,
the
younger
teachers
themselves
evidently
have
little
knowledge
of
these
vital
structures
of
language
because
they
also
went
without exposure to them. Schools fail
to adequately teach the essential framework of
language,
accurate
grammar
and
proper vocabulary, while
they
should
take
the responsibility
of
pushing
the young onto the
path of competent communication.
对这种缺乏语
言功底而引起的负面指责应归咎于我们的学校。
学校应对英语熟练程度制定出
更高的标准。可相反，学校只教零星的语法，高级词汇更是少之又少。还有就是，学校的年
轻教师显然缺乏这些重要的语言结构方面的知识，
因为他们过去也没接触
过。
学校有责任教
会年轻人进行有效的语言沟通，
可他们并没把语言的基本框架
——
准确的语法和恰当
的词汇
——
充分地传授给学生。
8
Since
grammar
is
boring
to
most
of
the
young
students,
I
think
that
it
must
be
handled
delicately, step by step. The chance
came when one day I was driving with my son. As we
set out
on our trip, he noticed a bird
in jerky flight and said,
son,
how
is
the
bird
flying?
wrong?
Did
I
say
anything
incorrectly?
got
lost.
flying so
unsteadily but not so unsteady.
因为语法对大多数年轻学生而言枯燥且乏味，
所以我觉得讲授语法得一步一步、
注重技巧地
进行。有一天机会来了。我跟儿子开车外出。我们出
发时，他看到一只小鸟飞得很不稳，就
说：
“
< br>它飞的不稳。
”
（
It’s
flying so unsteady.
）
我小心翼翼地问：
“
儿子，
鸟怎么飞
?”“
有问
< br>题吗？我说得不对吗？（
Did
I
say
anything
inco
rrectly?
）
”
他一头雾水。<
/p>
“
太好了，你说的是
incorrect
ly
而不是
incorrect
。我们
用副词来描述动词。所以，要用
unsteadily
来描述鸟
飞
，
而不是
unsteady
。
”
9 Curious about my
correction, he asked me what an adverb was.
Slowly, I said,
tells you something
about a verb.
action words; for example,
Dad drives the truck. Drive is the verb because
it's the thing Dad is
doing.
他对我的纠正很好奇，就问我什么是副词。我慢慢解释道：
“<
/p>
副词是用来修饰动词的词。
”
这又导致了
他询问我什么是动词。
我解释说：
“
动
词是表示行为的词，
例如：
爸爸开卡车。
‘
开
’
是动词，因为它是爸爸在做的
事。
”
10 He became attracted to the idea of
action words, so we listed a few more: fly, swim,
dive, run.
Then, out of his own
curiosity, he asked me if other words had names
for their use and functions.
This led
to a discussion of nouns, adjectives, and
articles. Within the span of a 10-minute drive,
he had learned from scratch to the
major parts of speech in a sentence. It was
painless learning
and great fun!
他开始对表示行为的词产生兴趣，
所
以我们又罗列了几个动词：
“
飞行
”<
/p>
、
“
游泳
”
、
“
跳水
”
、
“
跑
步
”
。然后，他又好奇地问我，其他的词有没有说明它们的用法和功能的名称
。这就引发了
我们对名词、
形容词和冠词的讨论。
在短短十分钟的驾驶时间内，
他从对语法一无所知到学
会了句子中主要词语的词性。这是一次毫无痛苦而又非常有趣的学习经历。
11
Perhaps,
language
should
be
looked
upon
as
a
road
map
and
a
valuable
possession:
often
study the road map
(check grammar) and tune up the car engine (adjust
vocabulary). Learning
grammar and a
good vocabulary is just like driving with a road
map in a well-conditioned car.
也许，
语言应该被看成是一张路线图和一件珍品：
我们
要常常查看路线图（核对语法）
和调
整汽车的引擎（调节词汇）
。学好语法和掌握大量的词汇就好比拿着路线图在车况良好的车
里驾驶。
12 The road
map provides the framework and guidance you need
for your trip, but it won't tell
you
exactly what trees or flowers you will see, what
kind of people you will encounter, or what
types
of
feelings
you
will
be
experiencing
on
your
journey.
Here,
the
vocabulary
makes
the
journey's true colors
come alive! A good vocabulary enables you to enjoy
whatever you see as
you drive along.
Equipped with grammar and a good vocabulary, you
have flexibility and excellent
control.
While the road map guides your journey to your
destination, an excellent vehicle helps
you to fully enjoy all of the sights,
sounds and experiences along the way.
路线图为你的旅行提供所需的基本路线和路途指南，
可是它不会
告诉你一路上你究竟会看见
什么树或什么花，你会遇见什么样的人，
或会有什么样的感受。这里，
词汇会使你的旅途变
得五彩缤
纷、
栩栩如生。
大量的词汇让你享受到开车途中所见的点点滴滴
。
借助语法和丰富
的词汇，你就有了灵活性，掌控自如。路线图
会把你带到目的地，
而一台好车却能让你完全
陶醉于旅途的所有
景色、声音及经历之中。
13
Effective,
precise,
and
beneficial
communication
depends
upon
grammar
and
a
good
vocabulary, the two essential assets
for students, but they are not being taught in
schools.
对学生来说，
有
效、
准确且富有成效的沟通技能取决于语法和词汇这两大有利条件，
可是学
校并没有教他们这些。
14 Just this morning, my son and I were
eating breakfast when I attempted to add milk to
my tea.
就在今天早上，我跟儿子吃早饭时，我想把牛奶加入我的茶里。
“
爸爸，
”
他说，
“
如果我
是你的话，我不会这样
做。牛奶会变酸。
（
If I were you, I
wouldn’t do that. It’s
sour.
）
”
15
You used were
instead of was.
“
哦，
上帝！
”
我满怀着无比的骄傲说道
，
“
这是一句语法完全正确的句子。
你
用了
were
而不
是
was
。
”
16
“
我知道，我知道，
”
他愉悦地舒了口气
，
“
这是虚拟语气！
”
17 I was, like, whoa!
这下轮到我
“
哇！
”
了。
TEXT B
The great
journey of learning