6. The First Class 第一堂課
A: Today I had my first English class
B: How was it?
A: It was interesting. The teacher gave us three ways to help ourselves learn the language. First, stop talking anything except English. Then learn many complete sentences by heart. Finally, have American friends tell us how they say things we have trouble with, and always imitate them.
Notes:
by heart 默記
how they say things we have trouble with 我們感到難以表達的那些事物他們是如何表述的
imitate 模仿
譯文：
A：今天我上了第一堂英語課。
B：課上得怎樣？
A：很在意思。老師告訴我們有三種方法可幫助我們學(xué)習(xí)語言。首先,除英語外不要用其他語言談話。其次.背下大量完整的句子。后請美國朋友告訴我們，我們在口語中感到困難的那些句子，他們是怎樣表達的,并且要一直模仿他們。
7. Hearing and Writing 聽和寫
A: Tell me about your English class, Mary.
B: Well, yesterday the teacher wro-te some sentences on the board. The first was "if you can't produce the sounds of a langua-ge acceptable, then you can't really hear them when other people make them". Next he worte, "if you can't hear the sounds of a language then you probably can't write the language well. Your inadequate pronunciation contributes to making your writing substandard."
A: Do you think that's right?
B: I don't know, Bob. I'll tell you when the course is over.
Notes
Substandasd--unacceptable, inferior
譯文：
A：瑪麗，給我說說你們英語課。
B：好吧，昨天老師在黑板上寫了一些句子。第一句話是"對于一種語言如果你不能正確地發(fā)音,那么當(dāng)別人發(fā)這些音時你實際上不可能聽懂。"然后他又寫道“如果你聽不懂一種語言的發(fā)音，你大概也不可能很好地書寫這種語言。你的不合格的發(fā)音將導(dǎo)致你的書寫也不能令人滿意?！?BR> A：你認為這對嗎？
B：我不知道，鮑勃。等這門課結(jié)束時我會告訴你的。
8. Learning English 學(xué)英語
A: Ralph, do me a favor, will you?
B: That all depends on what it is.
A: This is the proble, I'm still having trouble with my English. The instructor suggests that I ask an American to help me by telling me how he says the things I say which just aren't English. I wanted you to be the American.
B: What good'll it do? You never speak English unless you absolutely have to. I'll help you if you promise to speak noting but English all the time.
A: All right. Maybe I'll do that. It's the only way I'll be able to learn English fast enough, I guess.
Notes
What good'll it do? - it will be useless
Unless you absolutely have to… 除了你非…不可
Make a bargain with sb. 同…約定
A：拉爾夫，幫我一個忙，好嗎？
B：這要看幫什么忙。
A：我有個困難。我的英語仍然遇到麻煩。老師建議我請一位美國人幫助，要他告訴我，我說的那些根本不像英語的話應(yīng)當(dāng)怎樣說。我想要你做這個美國人。
B：這有什么用？你除了非說不可的時候，你從來不說英語。好吧！我跟你達成一個協(xié)議：如果你保證在任何時候除了英語外什么也不說，我就幫助你。
A：好吧，也許我能辦得到。我想這是我能迅速學(xué)會英語的方法。
9. Learning Vocabulary 學(xué)習(xí)詞匯
A: I don't understand why we have to memorize conversations. We need more vocabulary, not pronunciation.
B: Don't you think memorizing conversations is a part of learning vocabulary? Every time we memorize a conversation, we're memorizing a whole series of contexts. Each context tells us one way a word can be used, I know from my own language that I can't always use words by simply looking them up in a dictionary and then putting them into sentences. Some words have many meanings. We have to know which meanings go where.
Notes
Context (文章或講話中的)前后文(根據(jù)前后文的邏輯可以確定某一個具有多種解釋的詞或短語的含義)
Which meanings go where 哪一種解釋講得通
A：我弄不懂為什么我們一定要記住會話。我們需要的是詞匯，而不是發(fā)音。
B：你不認為記住會話是學(xué)習(xí)詞匯的一個組成部分嗎？每當(dāng)我們記住一句會話，我們就記住了全部的上下文。而這上下文可以供我們了解一個單詞的一種用法。我從自己的語言中意識到，光靠查詞典然后把這些詞匯拼成句子，并不意味著會正確使用這些詞。有些意識有很多解釋。我們必須弄清楚在哪種情況下適用哪一種解釋。
10.Spelling 拼寫
A: You know, Ralph, since I started speaking English all the time my pronunciation's getting better and even the grammar's beginning to make some sense. But I don't think I'll ever be able to spell.
B: You're not alone there. I have trouble with spelling too. When I was in grade school, I learned which words were the most frequently misspelled, but I never did learn how to spell them.
A: Since it's so difficult, why is it so important to learn how to spell properly?
B: Because if you spell satisfactorily, you're considered educated. If you don't, you're not.
Notes
Make sense - to become understandable
Grade school (美國的)小學(xué)
A：拉爾夫，你知道，自從我開始所有時間都講英語以來，我的發(fā)音有了進步，而且語法也開始理順了。不過我不認為我能把字拼出來。
B：不是你一個人如此。我在拼音方面也有困難。當(dāng)我上小學(xué)的時候，我知道哪些詞是經(jīng)常拼錯的，但我沒有學(xué)會如何拼這些詞。
A：既然這么難，為什么學(xué)會準確拼音又如此重要呢？
B：因為如果你能準確無誤地拼音，人家就會把你看作受到教育的人。否則，在別人眼里你是個缺乏教育的人。