知识点:学习与实战之桥
学新概念英语的人,目的不一而足,或为了考试,或纯粹为了提高英语水平。出于这两种目的去学新概念英语,学习方法是否大相径庭?或者,学新概念英语对于考试而言,究竟能起多大作用?提高英语水平,又该从何处下手呢?
其实,有一个常识就是:学习新概念英语,新概念英语本身的文章绝非目的,而仅是一种手段。然而这种手段与目的之间的桥梁,究竟是什么东西?
多年学习与教学的经验,对此问题提供的答案是:知识点。
实战:知识点的归宿
这看来只是一句废话。每个人都在自觉不自觉地把握里面的“知识点。但问题在于:在知识点与应用之间往往存在一个巨大的鸿沟。学习新概念英语的时候似乎清清楚楚,读起文章,应起考来,还是迷迷糊糊。似乎新概念英语是一种英语,而实际生活或考试中的英语又是另一种怪物。
要飞越这一迷雾,我们要对“知识点是桥梁这一说法作个修正,或者说附加一个前提:你提炼的“点究竟是细枝末节,还是真的架桥核心材料?你对知识点的讲授,是否真的明白透彻?
只有适当地把握了《新概念英语》文章中的点,并进行了真正可应用于实践的解说,才是学新概念英语的成功之道。
点对点:以新四与考研为例
新概念英语第四册第26课“The past life of the earth
且看下面是本文第一段:
①It is animals and plants which lived in or near water whose remains are most likely to be preserved, for one of the necessary conditions of preservation is quick burial, and ②it is only in the seas and rivers, and sometimes lakes, where mud and silt have been continuously deposited, that bodies and the like can be rapidly covered over and preserved.
一段话,为并列式,两个分句皆为强调句。
另外,本文还有至少三个强调句。
第6行:After all, all living creatures live by feeding on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive, and ③it is only by chance that such a fate is avoided.
第9行:When you think of the innumerable birds that one sees flying about, not to mention the equally numerous small animals like field mice and voles which you do not see, ④it is very rarely that one comes across a dead body, except, of course, on the roads.
第15行:⑤It is always due to some very special circumstances that traces of land animals survive, as by falling into inaccessible caves, or into an ice crevasse, like the Siberian mammoths, when the whole animal is sometimes preserved, as in a refrigerator.
新概念英语第四册中如此密集的同种句型,使可提炼的点了然在目——强调句。
然而怎样把这一点真正搞透,在实战中派上用场。也就是说,在生活或考试中再遇到强调句时,再不会遇到实质性的障碍,这是教学的核心任务。如果只是把语法书上所讲到的东西搬过来罗列一下,势必陷入那种学了忘,忘了学,学了再忘的恶性循环。
笔者在对《新概念英语》的教学中,把对强调句的把握分为“识别与“理解两个步骤,以图真正让学生见到强调句时能快速准确地识别,然后正确地理解之。