网站公告
点击问题反馈。微信登陆的用户请及时在个人中心设置登陆密码,并且牢记自己的用户名。
头像上传问题点击此处

阅读原汁原味、杂七杂八的东西(一)转载

热度 37 已有 1835 次阅读 2014-8-7 02:06 系统分类:英语学习

读书是儿子一生的爱好,儿子还没有到美国,耶鲁大学就发来了推荐书目,发信的教授最后还不忘记附上一句:不建议读China Daily

其实,并不是该报纸内容有什么问题,而是给报纸写稿子的记者谋篇布局、行文用字很难摆脱中式英语的影子。多年来,我恪守让孩子只读原汁原味的英文原版书的原则,从来不让孩子读英汉对照读物,因为这对孩子好容易培养建立起来的用英语思维的方式会有不良影响。

 

一、跟《参考消息》和《金融时报》学习地道英语

 

参考消息是我国发行量最大的报纸,内容包罗万象,有政治、军事、外交、体育、教育、健康等等,具有不错的时效性和客观性。

我一般会选参考消息转载的出自名报、名刊的文章,比如《纽约时报》、《华盛顿邮报》、《基督教科学箴言报》、《泰晤士报》、《卫报》等。如果觉得报纸中的哪一篇文章孩子可能感兴趣,我就去发表该篇文章的官方网站查询原始的英文原文给孩子读,这样儿子如果很想知道文章中某句英语的汉语表达,可以看看参考消息的译文,或者可以先看着参考消息试着想一想这句话英语该怎么表达。

查询方法很简单,例如我读到 2010511日《参考消息》转载《泰晤士报》201059日、题为《研究证实半岁婴儿可辨善恶》的文章,就先从译文中挑选原文可能用到的关键词,比如“YALE  80%  BABY  SIX MONTHS”等,然后在泰晤士报的官方网站的查询条上输入这些关键词,网站的搜索结果(SEARCH RESULTS )会出现《Six months old and he can tell good from evil》的标题,这便是那篇文章的原始出处了。如果搜索不到,可以换一批关键词。某些官方网站一般只给出七天的免费浏览,所以如果仍然搜不到的话,就到GOOGLE等再搜一下,很多别的网站可能会转载你想看的文章。以下是该篇文章的开头部分。

Six months old and he can tell good from evil

研究证实半岁婴儿可辨善恶

Scientists have discovered that babies can start to make moral judgments by the age of six months and may be born with the ability to tell good from bad hard-wired into their brains

英国《星期日泰晤士报》59日报道,科学家研究发现,婴儿在6个月的时候就能开始做出道德判断,而且这种辨别善恶的能力也许与生俱来铭刻在他们的大脑中。

Infants can even act as judge and jury in the nursery. Researchers who asked one-year-old babies to take away treats from a naughtypuppet found they were sometimes also leaning over and smacking the figure on the head.

婴儿甚至可以充当托儿所中的法官和陪审员。要求1岁婴儿把糖果从“淘气的”玩偶身上拿开的研究人员发现,这些婴儿有时会弯下身子,用手拍打玩偶的头。

The research is being pioneered by a team of psychologists at the infant cognition centre at Yale University in Connecticut. Their findings go against the received wisdom that humans begin life with a moral blank slate and are shaped by their parents and social environment……

康涅狄格州耶鲁大学婴儿认知中心的一组心理学家正在率先进行这项研究。他们的研究结果与公认的认知大相径庭,后者认为人类刚出生时道德观是“白纸”一张,完全有赖于父母和社会环境的塑造……

从文章中挑出一些好词好句争取在自己的文章里用到:

与生俱来:be born

    分辨:tell from

铭刻:hard-wired into

还有一个我经常光顾的网站也非常好,网址是:www.ftchinese.com,该网站是《金融时报》(英语:Financial Times,简称FT)的中文网站。《金融时报》是培生集团旗下一份国际性大开型报章,一般大众对其评价颇高,公信力享誉全球。总部设于伦敦,每日发行量45万份。

该网站上的很多文章都有中英两种文字,翻译得也相当不错。有些专栏作家的文章写得非常耐读,其中露西•凯拉韦(Lucy Kellaway)就是我最喜欢的作家之一,她是《金融时报》的管理专栏作家,2006年获得英国出版业奖的“年度专栏作家”奖项。在过去十年的时间里,她用幽默的语言调侃各种职场现象,并为读者出谋划策。她的专栏每周一出版。

选一篇她最近的文章《如何培养青春期子女?》,之所以全文附上,是因为文章内容与教育子女有关,虽然观点见仁见智,但或许对读者有帮助。

 

My wife and I work hard, but our kids dont want to know

如何培养青春期子女?

2011-05-04 (www.ftchinese.com)

My wife and I are both lawyers and hard-working. We have a good standard of living, send our two children to expensive, academic-focused schools and have nice holidays. Both are bright, but neither seems at all motivated to do well. I always assumed that our working habits would set them a good example, but the reverse seems to have been the case. My 17-year-old son told me the other day that he did not want to waste his life as we have. I asked what he was planning to live on and he shrugged. What have we done wrong? Lawyer, male, 49

我和妻子都是律师,工作勤勤恳恳。家里的生活水平不错,两个孩子都送到了学费高、师资强的学校读书,全家也会去一些不错的地方度假。两个孩子都很聪明,但好像没有什么东西能激励他们表现得出类拔萃。我总是以为,我们两口子的工作习惯会给孩子们树立榜样,可结果似乎事与愿违。前几天,17岁的儿子告诉我,他可不想像我们那样浪费生命。当我问他打算以何种职业谋生时,他只是耸了耸肩。我们什么地方做错了呢?律师,男,49

Lucy's answer

The only thing I can think of that you and your wife have done wrong is in choosing to marry each other. Most households need a maximum of one lawyer; two constitutes an oversupply and can lead to a paucity of time, a surplus of money and a certain homogeneity in outlook. Yet its too late to regret that now, and in any case, your childrens lack of motivation may have nothing to do with your working habits.

People are motivated to work hard for all sorts of reasons. Some work simply because they needmoney and they know what poverty feels like. This does not apply to your kids -nor to mine, and I'm quite glad it doesnt. Some people work hard because they were born with a competitive gene. Some do it because they long for approval, and some do it because they have found work that they love.

The only source of motivation that I have never witnessed is parental example: where children slog away because they are copying their mother and father. Instead, most teenagers doggedly avoid the paths taken by their parents, not just out of rebelliousness, but because they have seen the costs. The sight of the pile of exercise books that my mother marked every night after supper made me know for sure the one thing I would never do: teach.

Below you will find advice from readers on how to raise your teenagers and I suggest you take no notice. Forcing them to work at Pizza Hut or changing your life to spend more time with themmight instill a greater work ethic-or it might not. I would also resolutely ignore the woman who suggests you take stock and ask yourself if you really are wasting your own life. The last thing your boy needs now is a father with a massive midlife crisis.

I have four teenage children myself, some of whom have a limited appetite for work of any sort and Ive tried the full spectrum of responses  from yelling, to cajoling, to pouring myself a drink and practicing denial. My advice to you: continue to muddle through as best you can. Yourboy is bright, doesnt appear to be taking crack cocaine and is still talking to you, even if in a somewhat combative manner. Presumably he will find something to do with his life eventually. Banker, male

露西的回答:

说到你们两口子什么地方做错了,我唯一能想到的就是你们结为伉俪这件事本身。在大多数家庭,夫妻中有一个人做律师就足够了,两口子都干律师会造成供应过度,可能会面临时间不够、钱有富余和看法有些类似的情况。不过,现在后悔也来不及了。不管怎么说,你们家孩子缺乏动力,跟你们的工作习惯可能没什么关系。

人们之所以努力工作,是出于各种各样的原因。有些人工作,仅仅是因为需要钱,他们知道贫穷的滋味。这个原因对你家孩子不适用——对我的孩子们也不适用,我对此相当满意。有些人努力工作是因为他们生来就有争强好胜的基因。也有些人这样做是期望得到认可,还有人是找到了自己热爱的工作。

唯一我从未亲眼见过的动力来源,就是父母的榜样作用:子女拼命工作,是在效仿自己的爸爸妈妈。恰恰相反,大多数孩子执意避免走与父母相同的道路,这不仅仅出于叛逆心理,也是因为他们看到了父母为之付出的代价。当初,每天晚饭后我妈妈都要批改一大摞学生作业,看到这一幕,我暗自下定了决心:这辈子决不教书。

下面,你会看到读者在培养青春期子女方面的建议,但我劝你别去理会。硬逼着孩子去必胜客(Pizza Hut)打工,或是改变自己的活法、省出更多时间陪伴他们,或许能灌输一种更好的职业道德——也许不会。有位女士劝你进行反思并扪心自问:自己是不是真在浪费生命?对于这一建议,我也坚决不予考虑。眼下,你儿子最不需要看到的,就是一位遭遇严重中年危机的父亲。

我也有四个正处于青春期的孩子,其中有些对什么工作都没多大兴趣,为此我尝试过种种对策——从大喊大叫、哄骗利诱、到自己借酒浇愁乃至自欺欺人。我自己的建议是:你要继续尽可能好地应付过去。你儿子很聪明,似乎也没有吸食可卡因,而且他还会搭理你——尽管语气上多少有点儿挑衅。估计最终他总会找到适合自己的人生道路。

Your advice

读者的建议

He needs a job

My wife and I have jobs like yours, and each of our four children knew that finding part-time employment in pizza joints was non-negotiable. Everyone in our house is expected to work. This experience has motivated them as they moved on to their universities. Father and football coach

他需要一份工作

和你们家一样,我和妻子也都工作。我家的四个孩子都明白,自己必须去比萨店找一份兼职的活干,这一点没什么好商量的。在我们家,每个人都得去工作。兼职打工经验一直激励着他们成长,直到后来考上大学。父亲,足球教练

Engage with him

You have been physically present but not cognitively engaged with your children. I am a retired professor with a professional wife, and four highly competent children  Yale, Stanford, Bryn Mawr, the works  it seems to me you have confused providing for your children with caring about them. Sad.Retired professor, male

和他交心

你虽然人在家里,却没能和孩子们交心。我是个退休教授,我太太也是专业人士。我们的四个孩子都很有出息,他们毕业于耶鲁(Yale)、斯坦福(Stanford)和博懋(Bryn Mawr),工作也都很棒。在我看来,你似乎混淆了抚养孩子和关爱孩子之间的区别。我为你感到悲哀。退休教授,男。

A familiar refrain

I have observed the same problem manifesting itself in many of my friends: they would much rather sit around on Facebook all day than do anything useful. The problem is that they have always had the money to buy themselves whatever they liked; they would surely not feel the need to earn any because its always been there. female, 15

如此耳熟的抱怨

我发现许多朋友都遇到了相同的问题:他们宁可整天泡在Facebook上,也不愿意做点儿有意义的事。问题在于,他们总有足够的钱去买任何自己喜欢的东西;他们有的是钱,当然感觉不到赚钱的必要性。学生,女,15

Hes a teenager

You have done nothing wrong other than to be unrealistic about a 17-year-olds likely maturity. Teenage boys not only shrug, they grunt and, on a good day, mumble. Chuck the odd comfort food into the darkened room where he is almost certainly glued to a screen all day and look forward to him emerging one day  as a wannabe lawyer! Banker,male

他还是个孩子

你们没做错什么,只是对17岁孩子可能的成熟度抱有不切实际的想法。男孩子们不止会耸肩,也会嗤之以鼻,甚至偶尔还会不满地嘟囔。不妨把那些稀奇古怪的安慰食物(comfort food)扔进他呆的小黑屋(几乎可以肯定,他整天都粘着电脑),期待着有朝一日他自己走出来——并决心成为一名律师!银行家,男

Is he right?

Why dont you try answering your sons implied question: are you wasting your life? Consultant, female, 43

他说的对吗?

为何不试着回答一下你儿子的隐含问题——你是否在浪费生命呢?顾问,女,43

随着孩子的英文水平渐渐提高,可以考虑订阅《时代周刊》、《新闻周刊》等美国主流刊物。《时代周刊》是美国影响最大的新闻周刊,有世界史库之称。该刊的宗旨是要使忙人能够充分了解世界大事。并辟有多种栏目,如经济、教育、法律、批评、体育、宗教、医药、艺术、人物、书评和读者来信等。读者主要是中产阶级和知识阶层。该刊拥有一批精明能干的撰稿人记者,还有一支庞大的研究人员队伍,所以,内中文章遣词造句非常考究,对孩子学习“大词”很有帮助,如果养成阅读这两个刊物最后一页的专栏文章的好习惯,对将来的托福和SAT考试会大有裨益。


路过
19

鲜花

握手

雷人

刚表态过的朋友 (19 人)

facelist

您需要登录后才可以评论 登录 | 新会员加入

评论 (24 个评论) 发表评论

  • hidden dell78

    2014-8-7 08:52

    哈哈,后面的文章很可乐。
       回复
  • hidden Eve66

    2014-8-7 14:30

    女儿还小,先学习啦~
       回复
  • hidden qiangw_001

    2014-8-7 20:04

    it is so fun
       回复
  • hidden 旺半仙

    2014-8-7 22:19

    看了很有趣
       回复
  • hidden dragonsky18

    2014-8-8 08:48

    恩,不过文章中的观点只是一家之言。
       回复
  • hidden 大宝MM

    2014-8-9 10:16

    17岁的儿子告诉我,他可不想像我们那样浪费生命。哈哈。。。
       回复
  • hidden 长沙琴童

    2014-8-9 12:31

    谢谢分享。
       回复
  • hidden lwsmnly

    2014-8-10 23:33

    多谢分享,又有个好途径学习
       回复
  • hidden Lisabelly

    2014-8-11 06:42

    我们还小
       回复
  • hidden Lisabelly

    2014-8-11 06:42

    我们还小
       回复
  • hidden anxx

    2014-8-11 12:03

    学习,学习!
       回复
  • hidden 涵儿

    2014-8-12 09:06

    thanks学习了
       回复
  • hidden peanut19

    2014-8-12 21:18

    谢谢分享!
       回复
  • hidden jstonger

    2014-8-13 14:24

    Opening  my mind !Thx!
       回复
  • hidden BMWID

    2014-8-13 15:35

    谢谢分享,值得学习!
       回复
  • hidden bberry

    2014-8-20 14:02

    很好的分享
       回复
  • hidden joyxuanoliver

    2014-8-24 23:54

    太棒了,谢谢
       回复
  • hidden fcdmm

    2014-9-1 07:37

    非常感谢你的分享,收藏了
       回复
  • hidden jody99

    2015-5-14 11:04

    不错
       回复
  • hidden vivi1986614

    2015-6-23 11:21

    受益匪浅,非常感谢。
       回复
  • 12下一页