如何通过阅读文章来学英语 （二）

赖世雄：我如何“读”英文（二）

第一节：大量阅读文章，拓展词汇量

我现在用以下美联社报导印度水灾的文章作为范例，给大家讲解如何通过阅读文章学英文。

India Flooding Kills 96, Displaces 1 Million

— Guwahati, India, AP

The death toll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains in India has climbed past 90, with about a million people taking shelter in government-run relief camps, officials said Tuesday.

Incessant downpours have damaged swaths of land, uprooted trees and snapped telephone cables in dozens of districts in the states of Bihar in the east, Assam in the remote northeast and Himachal Pradesh in the north.

A total of 96 people have been killed in the flooding in the three states over the past week, according to state officials.

At least 17 rare one-horned rhinos have been killed due to the flooding of vast tracts of Assam"s Kaziranga National Park, said Pramilla Rani Brahma, the state"s forest and environment minister. “Most of the rhinos killed were calves, separated from their mothers during the massive flooding,” Brahma said.

The park had 1.5-meter-high (5-foot-high) floodwaters in some places, forcing many of the park"s animals, also including wild elephants, wild buffaloes and boars, to cross a highway to move to higher ground.

The heavy monsoon rains have come after two straight years of drought in Indi On Monday, landslides and heavy rains blocked highways leading to Tibet and Manali, a tourist resort in Himachal Pradesh state, with hundreds of people stranded for several hours before rescuers cleared the way, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

In Bihar state, around 260,000 flood victims were taking shelter in more than 400 relief camps set up by the state government. At least 400 medical camps have been set up as well to aid people who have spent several nights outdoors after their homes were submerged by rainwaters.

In Assam, where floodwaters started receding on Tuesday, some 3.8 million people have been affected by the floods, according to state authorities. More than 700,000 have taken shelter in 770 relief camps.

第二步

要求自己第一天看懂第一段新闻，第二天看懂第二段，依此类推，少就是多，一天看一段就好。

第三步

以极慢的速度念完第一段新闻，不能一遇到不懂的单词就立刻停下来查字典，这样只会造成 pause（停顿），导致无法了解全段的大意。

下面就以这篇美联社报导古瓦哈提市新闻的第一段为例：

The deathtoll in flooding from heavy monsoon rains in India has climbed past 90, with about a million people taking shelter ingovernment-runrelief camps, officials said Tuesday.

The death toll、monsoon rains、taking shelter in、government-run、relief camps，对当年第一次尝试读新闻英语的我来说，这些都是看不懂的单词或词组，但至少我了解 death（死亡）、rains（雨）、a million people（一百万人）、government（政府）、camps（营；营区）这几个单词，所以在不查字典的情况下，我也能以极慢的速度把这段新闻念完。由于我念得慢，也让我大概可以了解这段新闻的大意：

“星期二有人声称，某地下大雨，造成高达九十人死亡，

大约有一百万人待在政府相关的营区里。”

记住：千万不要在第一次看文章时，一碰到不熟的单词就立刻查字典，这样会让你的思路被打断，文章的整体大意就会抓不准确了，这就是为什么第一遍一定要先念完文章的原因。大家想一想：我们在读中文书报时，有时也会遇到不懂的单词，但是我们懂得利用上下文，就可以理解文章的大意，而不会一看到不熟的单词就马上去查字典。所以读英语时也一样，读第一遍时不要查字典。

第四步

进入到第二遍时，就要逐句查字典。不论是认识的单词，还是不认识的单词，都要去查，而且还要把单词的音标、字义、字词的用法及例句，都抄在笔记本里。如：

1. death [ dθ ] n. 死亡

be scared to death 吓死了（夸张说法）

be sentenced to death 判处死刑

例：John"s sudden deathshocked all of us.

（约翰的骤逝震惊了我们所有人。）

I was scared to deathwhen I found my teacher standing behind me.

（我发现老师就站在我后面时，我被吓个半死。）

The robber was sentenced to death.

（这名抢匪被判处死刑。）

2. toll [ tol ] n. 伤亡人数

the death toll 死亡人数

例：The death tollof the earthquake has reached 10,000.

（这次地震造成的死亡人数已达一万人。）

3. flooding [ `fld ] n. 淹水

例：The heavy rain caused floodingin some low-lying areas.

（这场大雨在若干低洼地区造成洪涝淹水。）

flood [ fld ] n. 洪水（可数）& vt. & vi. 淹没

例：The floodclaimed 25 lives.

（这次洪水夺走了二十五条人命。）

The whole village was flooded during the typhoon.

（台风来时，整个村庄都淹水了。）

4. monsoon [ man`sun ] n. 季节雨；梅雨

5. shelter [ `lt ] n. 遮蔽；庇护

take shelter 躲避（风雨、炸弹等）

例：It"s raining now. Let"s take shelterin the temple.

（现在正在下雨。咱们到庙里面去躲一下雨吧。）

6. government-run [ `gvnmntrn ] 政府经营的；公家设立的

a government-run business 国营企业

a privately-run business 民营企业

7. relief [ rI`lif ] n. 救济；解脱；轻松

a relief camp 救济营；难民收容所

To sb"s relief, ... 令某人松口气的是，……

例：To my relief, I passed the test.

（让我松口气的是，我考试及格了。）

大家可以看到，上面的这些重要单词，我不只是查出字义而已，我还记下其它字义。更重要的是，我都尽量附上例句和用法，因为只有这样做才能更充分地了解如何使用这些单词。而我的这些笔记都不是用连续两三个小时完成的，全部都是在下课或课外活动时间一点一滴积累下来的。美国第十六任总统林肯有句名言：“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.”（我要读书并做好准备，也许我的机会就会到来。）我在写笔记的过程中，一直把他的这句话用来勉励自己要坚持到底！

顺便提一下，我抄笔记的速度很快，字迹潦草，不过仍在我可以看得懂的范围内。这个做法可以省下许多时间用来继续看英文报纸的内容。

第五步

将第一段新闻译成中文。