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?