By being so long in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that. But I was taught English. We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English. Mr. Somervell--a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great--was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing--namely, to write mere English. He knew how to do it. He taught it as no one else has ever taught it. Not only did we learn English parsing thoroughly, but we also practised continually English analysis. Mr. Somervell had a system of his own. He took a fairly long sentence and broke it up into its components by means of black, red, blue, and green inks. Subject, verb, object: Relative Clauses, Conditional Clauses, Conjunctive and Disjunctive Clauses! Each had its colour and its bracket. It was a kind of drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Form three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of it. I learned it thoroughly. Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence--which is a noble thing.
And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and distinction for writing such beautiful Latin poetry and pithy Greek epigrams had to come down again to common English, to earn their living or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for is not knowing English, I would whip them hard for that.
(My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth [UK] and Charles Scribner's Sons [US], 1930)
楼主看明白邱吉尔说什么了吧:他在最低年级混了3年,因为人笨么,学校觉得他不配上拉丁语,希腊语这些华丽丽的课程。只许他学英语。Mr.Somervell 懂得怎么教。他采取了与众不同的教学方法。他拿来一个长句子,用黑,红,蓝,绿各种彩笔把冗长的复句中的各种句子成分一一标示出来:主语,谓语,宾语,关系从句,条件从句,Conjunctive and Disjunctive 从句。就是一种操练,每天都练。因为他在低级低班呆的时间比别人长三倍【因为他留级了几次】,所以他比别人多学了三遍这些东西,学的很彻底,所以呢,他把英语句子的基本结构铭刻于心 —— 这是光荣的事情。
几年以后,当他的那些因创作优美的拉丁文诗歌和辛辣的希腊讽刺诗而获奖成名的同学,不得不靠普通的英语来谋生或者开拓事业的时候,他觉得自己一点也比他们差。自然他倾向让孩子们学习英语(母语)。他会首先让他们都学英语,然后再让聪明些的孩子们学习拉丁语作为一种荣耀,学习希腊语作为一种享受。但只有一件事邱吉尔会强迫他们去做,那就是不能不懂英语(母语)