UNIT 1 An impressive English lesson

UNIT 1 An impressive English lesson

An impressive English lesson

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.

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. "How was

it?" I asked, full of earnest anticipation.

3 She nodded three or four times, searched the

heavens for the right words, and then

exclaimed, "It was, like, whoa!"

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

"whoa!" was exceeded only by my head-

shaking distress.

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.

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.

1

一堂难忘的英语课

1 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

此我儿子似乎颇为反感。

2 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 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 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 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 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（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。

UNIT 1 An impressive English lesson

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.

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, "It's flying so unsteady." I carefully

asked, "My son, how is the bird flying?"

"What's wrong? Did I say anything

incorrectly?" He got lost. "Great! You said

incorrectly instead of incorrect. We use

adverbs to describe verbs. Therefore, it's flying

so unsteadily but not so unsteady."

9 Curious about my correction, he asked me

what an adverb was. Slowly, I said, "It's a word

that tells you something about a verb." It led

to his asking me what a verb was. I explained,

"Verbs are action words; for example, Dad

drives the truck. Drive is the verb because it's

the thing Dad is doing."

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!

2

7 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 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：“它飞的不稳。”（It's flying

so unsteady.） 我小心翼翼地问：“儿子，鸟

怎么飞?” “有问题吗？我说得不对吗？

（Did I say anything incorrectly?）” 他一头雾

水。 “太好了， 你说的是incorrectly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 他对我的纠正很好奇，就问我什么是副词。

我慢慢解释道：“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 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”、“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。

UNIT 1 An impressive English lesson

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.

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.

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.

14 Just this morning, my son and I were eating

breakfast when I attempted to add milk to my

tea. "Dad," he said, "If I were you, I wouldn't

do that. It's sour."

15 "Oh my!" I said, swelling with pride toward

my son, "That's a grammatically perfect

sentence. You used were instead of was."

16 "I know, I know," he said with a long

agreeable sigh. "It's the subjunctive mood."

17 I was, like, whoa!

3

11 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 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 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 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 “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 这下轮到我“哇！”了。