学习英语的7个秘密
1、Secret #1: Learn about WORD STRESS/了解单词的重音
Word Stress is golden key number One for speaking and understanding English.
Word Stress is very important. You can try to learn about Word Stress.
This is one of the best ways for you to understand spoken English—especially
English spoken fast.
What is Word Stress?
Take 3 words: photograph, photographer, photographic, for example. Do they sound the same when spoken? No! They sound very different, because one syllable in each word is "stressed" (stronger than the others).
PHOtograph
phoTOgrapher
photoGRAPHic
This happens in all words with two or more syllables:
TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant,
deMAND, etCETera
The syllables that are not stressed are "weak" or "small" or "quiet".Native speakers of English listen for the stressed syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use
Word Stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your
pronunciation and your comprehension.
If you have an English teacher, ask him or her to help you understand Word
Stress. Try to hear the stress in words each time you listen to English—on the
radio, or in films for example. Your first step is to hear and recognise it.
After that, you can use it!
2、Secret #2: SENTENCE STRESS/句子的重音
Sentence Stress is golden key number two for speaking and understanding
English. With Sentence Stress, some words in a sentence are "stressed" (loud)
and other words are weak (quiet). Look at the following sentence:
We want to go.
Do we say every word with the same stress or force? No! We make the
important words BIG and the unimportant words small. What are the
important words in this sentence? Yes, you're right: WANT and GO
We WANT to GO.
We WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK.
We DON'T WANT to GO to WORK at NIGHT.
It's impossible to explain everything about Sentence Stress in this article. The
important thing for you is that you know it exists and try to learn about it.
Sentence Stress is very important!
3、Secret #3: LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN!/听真的很重要！
Students sometimes say: 'I don't listen to the BBC news on the radio because it's
too fast for me and I can't understand it.' That's a pity! When it's too fast for you, when you can't understand it, that is exactly when you NEED to listen to it!!!
How can you improve if you don't listen and practise?
When you were a baby, did you understand your own language? When you were 3 weeks old, or 2 months, or 1 year, did you understand everything? Of course
not! But you learned to understand by listening. Think about it. You learned to
understand your own language by listening, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After that, you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then you learned to
write. But listening came first!
4、Secret #4: DON'T LISTEN!/不要听！（用潜意识去听）
In the last secret I said LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN! Now I say DON'T LISTEN! What
do I mean?!
Do you know the difference between the verbs TO LISTEN and TO HEAR?
TO LISTEN is active. TO HEAR is passive. Sometimes you can LISTEN too hard.
Sometimes you can TRY too hard. Sometimes it is better only to HEAR. Let the
radio play. Let the cassette play. But DON'T listen.Just HEAR. Your subconscious will listen for you. And you will still learn. If you listen and try to understand, you may block on one word and get frustrated. Don't worry! Just HEAR! Believe me,
you will still be learning. The important thing is to let the radio or cassette or
television or record PLAY. Let it play. And you - you do nothing. Your brain will
HEAR, your subconscious will LISTEN and you will LEARN!
5、Secret #5: IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY WITH 5 WORDS A DAY/每天5个单词提高你的词汇量
Vocabulary is easy! How many days in a year are there? 365, normally
(on Earth).
If you learn only 5 new words a day, you will learn 5 x 365 = 1,825 new words in a year. ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE WORDS. That is a
lot of new words. And we are not counting all the other words you will learn in
other ways - reading, conversation etc. Buy a notebook and write in 5 new words EACH day, EVERY day. Learn them! You will soon have an excellent vocabulary.
6、Secret #6: 30 MINUTES A DAY BETTER THAN 3.5 HOURS A WEEK/每天30分钟比每周3.5小时好
In fact, 30 minutes of English study once a day is better than 5 *hours*
once a week! Study regularly. Study often.
LITTLE + OFTEN is better than LOT + SOMETIMES.
It's easier, too. You can easily find 30 minutes each day. How? You can
get up 30 minutes earlier. Or have a shorter lunch break. Fix a particular
time every day - and keep it!
7、Secret #7: REVISE! REVISE! REVISE!/复习值得拥有
If you revise, you'll improve your learning by 100%.
What does "to revise" mean? It means "to read again". You should be
systematic about this. When you learn something, you should note it.
Then you should look at it again, 3 times:
- after 1 day
- after 1 week
- after 1 month
Each time you revise, test yourself.
Learn, revise, test.
Revise, test.
Revise, test.
NOTE:
revise (BrE): read again to improve one's knowledge
revise (BrE & AmE): read and correct; update
