大学英语精读预备级课文翻译

第一单元如何成为一个成功的语言学习者

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How can you learn a foreign language well? According to the author of this text, you might need to think in a new way, a process almost like going back to childhood again…

如何学好一门外语？根据这篇文章的作者，你也许需要用一种新的方式去思考，这一过程几乎像是再次回到童年。。。

Learning?to?Think?All?Over?Again

学会重新思考

When?you?were?a?child, you?didn’t?know?what?a?tree?was?at?first. Somebody? had?to?tell?you. Probably?your?parents?took?you?outside, pointed?to?a?tree?and? said, ”Tree!” You?had?to?learn?to?associate?the?sound?of?the?word?“?Tree”?w ith?the?big?green?leafy?thing?you?saw?in?front?of?you.

当你还是个孩子的时候，起初你并不知道树是什么，得有人告诉你。也许你的父母带你到外面，指着一棵树说，“树！”你得学会将“树”这个词的音跟你眼前那个高大的绿色的长满叶子的东西联系起来。

That’s?what?you?must?learn?to?do?again?when?you?are?learning?a?foreign?lan guage. You?need?to?learn?to?associate?sounds?with?objects, and?to?think?in?a?ne w?way. Only?this?time,?since?you?are?grown?up, you?will?be?able?to?understand?w hat?needs?to?be?done?much?faster.?You’ll?know?why?somebody?is?pointing?to?a?tr ee?and?saying?a?strange?word. You?may?even?have?to?relearn?it?many?times?before? you?finally?actually?learn?it.?

这是你在学习外语是必须再次学会做的事。你得学会将声音和事物联系起来，用一种新的方式思考。只是这一次，因为你已经长大，所以能够更快地去理解需要做的事。你会知道为什么有人指着一棵树，说着奇怪的单词。但是你仍然得学习那个新单词。说不定还得重复学习多遍才能最终真正的掌握它。

There?is?an?important?idea?here. In?America?our?name?for?that?big?green?lea fy?thing?is ”tree”, but?in?Germany?the?name?for?that?thing?is?“Baum”. In?Ar ab?countries?the?name?is?“shajra”. And?in?China?they?say ”shu”. These?vario us?words?are?not?themselves “trees”. They?are?just?some?of?the?many?hundreds? of?different?sounds?used?in?the?world?to?represent?that?great?big?green?leafy?t hing.??

这里有一个重要的概念。在美国我们称那个高大的绿色的长满叶子的东西为tree，但是在德国那东西叫Baum。在阿拉伯国家，它的名字是shajra。在中国，我们称它为shu。这些各式各样的词本身并不是树。它们只是世界各地用来代表那个高大的绿色的长满叶子的东西的几百种声音中的几个。

To?learn?a?foreign?language?you?must?get?away?from?the?idea?of?translating? words. Translating?takes?too?much?time?and?mental?energy. You?will?never?learn?

to?really?speak?and?understand?a?foreign?language?if?you?have?to?translate?in?y our?mind. Instead, learn to associate the new sound directly with the image in your mind. So?when?we?hear?the sound ”Baum” or ”shajra” or ”shu”, we?don’t?want?to?think, ”Hmmmm. Baum?means?tree, which?means?that?great?big?green?lea fy?thing.”

要学习外语，你必须摆脱逐词翻译的想法。翻译会消耗太多的时间和脑力。如果你字字都得翻译，那你永远也学不会真正地说和理解一门外语。相反，你得学会将新的声音和头脑中的形象直接联系起来。这样当我们听见Baum， shajra，或shu等音时，就不会去想“嗯，Baum的意思是树，树指的是哪个高大的绿色的长满叶子的东西。”

Don’t?think?that?the?challenge?of?new?thinking?will?be?limited?only?to?the? area?of?new?words?it?is?going?to?go?much?deeper?than?that. Let’s?use?an?analog y: you?can?build?a?house?using?materials?of?very?different?sizes?and?shapes. En glish?uses?one?set?of?building?blocks, but?other?languages?will?use?different-s haped?building?blocks?that?take?some?creativity?to?put?together?at?first?.?Wher e?we?use?two?blocks, they?may?use?three?smaller?ones—or?maybe?one?large?one.?

别以为学习用新的方式思考的挑战仅限于新词：它涵盖的范围要广得多。让我们打一个比方，你能用不同大小和形状的材料造一栋房子。英语使用一套构成要素，但其他语言可能使用不同的构成要素，起初还得用一些创造力才能将它们拼起来。我们使用两个构成要素，而别人也许使用三个较小的——也可能是一个大的。

Here?an?example?of?an?English?sentence: We?have?to?buy?a?few?books?before?g oing?home.?When?translating?into?almost?any?foreign?language,?you?will?not?take? each?English?word?and?substitute?a?foreign?word?for?it?.You?will?instead?be?sub stituting?groups?of?words?or?ideas?from?one?language?to?the?other. How?each?lan guage?will?choose?to?group?the?ideas?depends?on?the?language. In?French?or?Span ish, for?example, we?have?to?buy?is?broken?down?into?three?words: we/have?to?/b uy?.In?Turkish, however, the?Turks?are?to?reduce?all?these?four?words?to?only?o ne.?

以一个英语句子为例：We have to buy a few books before going home.不论将它翻译成哪种外语，你都不会取出每个单词然后逐个地用外语单词去替代。相反你会用成组的词语或者思想从一种语言替代成另外一种语言。至于每种语言如何选择词来表达某个概念，各种语言不尽相同。比如，在法语和西班牙语中，we have to buy被分成三个词：we /have to /buy.而在土耳其语中，土耳其人能将所有这四个词缩减成一个。

So?learn?to?start?thinking?in?terms?of?bundles?of?concepts?or?ideas?that?wi ll?be?converted?to?new?language?and?not?single?words. Try?to?think?in?a?foreign? language. This?isn’t?all?that?hard. You?learn?to?think?in?the?language?simply? by?using?the?language?over?and?over?again, asking?and?answering?simple?question s?until?you feel?comfortable?with?the?practice. Then you add some new words, an d a few more new situations, and practice?using?them?together?with?all?the?word s?you?learned?in?previous?lessons. Bit?by?bit?you?build?up?skill.?

所以学者开始以成组的词的概念或思想去思考，这些概念或思想能转换成新的语言而非单个词语。尝试用外语去思考。这并不那么难。要学会用哪种语言去思考，你只需一遍又一

遍地使用它，问并回答简单的问题，直到你对这一过程感到得心应手为止。然后添加一些新的词汇和几个新的情景，练习用在以前课中学习的所有单词来使用它们。渐渐地，你就会掌握这项技能。

Once you really get into the language, you’ll understand all this a good d eal better. Somebody will be saying something quite fast a nd you’ll suddenly r ealize thatyou understood it all! It's a great moment. Really satisfying. You p robably wouldn't be able to repeat the words, or even know how i …… 此处隐藏：4867字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……