酷兔英语

文章一开始,便是一大段英文,也许并不能产生许多阅读的愉悦;当你知道,这段英文是由ETS提供的一位托福考生的作文,你可能已经完全丧失了耐心,但还是希望你快速地浏览一遍,因为想与你聊一聊的并不是枯燥的考试,而是一个你一定感兴趣的问题:为什么一位英语学习者在被无数词汇书、语法书、写作书折腾后,面对英文写作,依然一筹莫展?为什么在一道作文题目面前,付出的努力、汗水与收获总不成比例?我们思考着"为什么"的答案,却不小心产生了一些误会,有意思的是,误会又时常是生活的常态。    

  请读一读下边的文章,然后回答几个简单的问题,一起探索真正的答案。   

  作文题目:Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?   

  Always telling the truth is the most important consideration in any relationship.     

  There are certain considerations or factors that everyone takes into account in a relationship. People may look for honesty, altruism, understanding, loyalty, being thoughtful etc! Everyone would more or less wish that the person s/he is dealing with, has some of these virtues above. Putting them in an order to their importance, however can be very subjective and relative.    

  When someone asks him/herself the question "What do I consider to be the most important thing in my relationship?" the answer depends on a lot of factors such as how his/her earlier relationships were.    

  After stating that everyone's opinion can be different about this, for me honesty, in other words, always telling the truth is the most important consideration in a relationship. Opposite of this is inarguably lying and if someone needs to lie, either s/he is hiding something or is afraid of telling me something.   

  In any relationship of mine, I would wish that first of all, the person I'm dealing with is honest. Even though s/he thinks that s/he did something wrong that I wouldn't like, s/he'd better tell me the truth and not lie about it. Later on if I find out about a lie or hear the truth from someone else, that'd be much more unpleasant. In that case how can I ever believe or trust that person again? How can I ever believe that this person has enough confidence in me to forgive him/her and carry on with the relationship from there. So if I cannot trust a person anymore, if the person doesn't think I can handle the truth, there's no point to continuing that relationship.   

  Although I would like to see altruistic, understanding, thoughtful and loyal behavior from people, an instance of the opposite of these behaviors would not upset me as much as dishonesty would. Among all the possible behaviors, dishonesty is the only one for me that terminates how I feel about a person's reliability. Therefore honesty would be my first concern and the most important consideration in a relationship.    

  问题1:这篇文章就遣词造句而言写得好吗?  

  答案因人而异,基本取决于各人的英文水平和谦卑心。  

  问题2:这篇文章有许多你不认识的单词吗?  

  我想,如果你是在校高中生,应该发现,80%的单词都是你已经见过的。    

  问题3:如果你学过新概念,请判断这篇文章大致相当于新概念几册的水平。   

  答案:介于新概念2、3册之间。  

  问题4:请判断你的英文水平达到新概念几册呢?    

  最后一个问题:   

  你能猜猜这篇文章在TOEFL考试中得到几分?(满分为5分)   

  答案:满分  

  如果你认识该作文中大部分词汇,并坚信自己至少有新概念2或3甚至4的水平,我们是不是可以得出一个结论:你在托福写作部分能获得满分或无限接近满分?同时,你身边还有不少这样的英语学习者--学过新概念2、3册的,考过4、6级的,背过词汇5000的,投入不少业余时间参加英文补习班的,在重点高中出类拔萃的......    

  然而,事实并非如此。在托福考试作文部分拿满分的考生永远凤毛麟角。于是,我们又要面对这个问题:为什么?为什么每个单词我都认识,每个句型我都学过,每个语法点都记录在笔记里,我却无法写出一篇这样的作文?当然,如果你依然把这一切归结为词汇的问题(80%的中国学生会这样深信不疑),那么,我愿意邀请你来我的GRE班,那里汇聚了全中国英文词汇量最大的一群人,其中一些勤奋者把红宝书背得滚瓜烂熟,词汇量远在众多英文为母语的老外之上,他们可以背出"gluon"、"glycerin"、"glycogen",然后说出它们的中文 --"胶子"、"甘油"、"糖原",他们很可能对上面那篇满分托福作文带有微微不屑,但千万不要误以为他们能顺利写出同样水平的作文,所以,问题的症结到底在哪里呢?   

  我想通过一个比喻来谈谈对这个问题的看法。

我们不妨把写作想像成一次舞会,不同舞会通过请柬对参加者提出一些要求。所有舞会的请柬上都会写着:参加者须佩戴珍珠项链方可入场。当然,不同舞会对项链的数量、长度、质量有不同的要求。以托福为例,这场舞会要求二十串左右的珍珠项链,每条项链由15至20颗珍珠组成(托福作文的理想字数为300左右,高分作文的平均句子长度在15-20之间)。许多同学看过请柬觉得要求并不太高,于是信心满满的来到舞场门口,却没能被允许进入,为什么呢?仔细看看,他们的确带来了许多珍珠(可能好几千颗),但却没有珍珠项链。在这个比喻中,珍珠指的是单词,珍珠项链则是句子,许多学习者的问题在于:背了无数单词,却很少练习将单词组成句子。    

  一些很机灵的同学可能会说:"我可以到了舞会门口再将珍珠串成项链啊!"是的,我们可以这样做,许多考生的确也是这样做的,但结果如何呢?有一个真实的故事一定令你啼笑皆非。我曾问过一位同学喜欢吃什么,他的第一个答案是:"I Like eating my mother..."我相信你与我一样惊恐。看到我吃惊不已的表情后,他立刻把句子补充完整:"I Like eating my mother cooking food."这是一句所有中国人都能听懂的英文,或者说是只有中国人能听懂的英文,因为对外国人而言,这句话可能有两种不同的意思:1、我喜欢吃我那正在做饭的妈妈("cooking food"做"my mother"的后置定语);2、我喜欢一边做饭,一边吃我妈妈("cooking food"做伴随状语)。他的确串出了珍珠项链,但使用的线是中国式的,所以项链标签上写着:Made in China。这是一个披着英文皮的中文句子。   

  念大学时,我经历过一次重要的出国考试。最后一轮面试要求参加者用正式的英文做口头陈述,也基本等于用英文做口头作文。在面试前,我做了大量造句,大概每天练习30个短语,各造3个句子,一个月下来,便积累了2700个句子。当时心里打着小算盘:面试时会用的句子最多100个,2000多个句子一定能撞到一些吧。自己当时希望提前串许多项链,来到舞会门口能够从容的挑出几条最美的。后来的情节很有意思,面试开始前几分钟,我紧张得忘记了造过的句子,心里很沮丧--精心准备了2000多条项链,兴高采烈来到舞会门口,忽然发现项链全忘家里了......可还是要硬着头皮考啊!接下来的十分钟里,有意思的事发生了:漂亮的英语句子自动从我嘴里冒出来,既陌生,又熟悉,和以前造过的句子有相似之处,却并不完全一样。最后,那天的面试成功了,自己也有点"功夫不负有心人"的欣慰,通过那次经历,我想通了一个道理:提前串大量的珍珠项链并不仅仅为了能储备一些,而是达到熟能生巧的境界,获得1秒乃至更短的时间串出项链的能力。
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