【英语：基础进阶_原著扩展阅读】J3.大量语料输入，吸收语言结构精华

1.不同语料的快速识别——阅读中的文体

在我们理解一篇文章的内容之前需要对文章的文体和结构有一个基本的预判, 特别是当你想要快速地从文章当中获取有效信息时, 你要弄清楚作者写作的前提和目的, 这样才能更高效地进行英文阅读.

2.FICTION & NONFICTION

阅读的时候会遇到两个大的类别:

• Fiction & Nonfiction 小说类和非小说类

Fiction is writing that isn’t about real life-the scenes, characters, and stories come from a person’s imagination. There are all kinds of ways totell an imaginative story not just books and short stories, but plays and poetry, too. Reading fiction calls for understanding all the elements that make up a story, like plot, character, dialogue, and tone-even the authors own life stories and how those experiences affect what he or she writes.

小说其实就是在讲故事, 这些虚构的故事可以来自对现实事件的改编, 也可以是作者脑海中完全虚拟的画面.

非小说的部分我们会安排在后面.

3.FICTION: COMMON STORY GENRES

• Adventure 冒险/历险小说 (full of thrills and action)
• Historical Fiction 历史小说 (based on historical events, but not necessarilyhistorical facts)
• Romance 爱情小说 (about love)
• Mystery 推理小说 (centered on solving a puzzle, strange problem,or crime)
• Myth 神话故事 (cultural story usually involving supernatural characters)
• Science Fiction 科幻小说 (based on the possibilities of future science ortechnology)
• Fantasy 奇幻小说 (fiction that has elements of magic and other supernatural phenomena at the center of the story)
• Satire 讽刺小说 (a story that uses humor to expose stupidity or corruption in the world)
• Graphic Novel 漫画/连环画小说(a novel told in sequential art, like a comic strip)
• Allegory 寓言故事(a story that contains a hidden meaning)
• Realism 现实主义, 写实主义(fiction stories that try to depict real,everyday life)

4.OBJECTIVE SUMMARY & SUBJECTIVESUMMARY

认识了基本的小说形态, 我们来讲两个帮助我们理解总结文章内容的概念:

• Objective Summary & Subjective Summary
  客观总结和主观总结

5.SUMMARY

比如小时候你不小心绊倒, 将倒好的半杯水洒到了你哥哥身上, 由此引发了一场纷争, 哥哥也倒了水泼到你的身上, 于是两个人吵得不可开交. 这时, 妈妈回来询问发生了什么.

你说: My brother is the biggest jerk in the world.
哥哥说: I didn’t do anything.

你会发现这时候妈妈肯定还是一头雾水, 因为两人都没有对事情进行一个Objective Summary, 也就是客观总结.

• Summary is a brief account or review of something.
• An objective summary excludes(排除)personal views or attitudes.
• In contrast, a subjective summary is influenced by a person’s perspective and/or feelings, not just the facts.

每个人对于同一件事, 同一篇文章的主观总结都是不同的, 但是客观的事实却是要保持原来的样子, 和你的观点无关.

英文阅读题目当中有一种叫做paraphrase(改写). 这种类型的题目其实就是客观的总结, 一般情况下是要求我们用更加简单明了的语言来诠释相同的内容.

如何去写这种客观的总结呢?

1. Stick to the facts
   记住是facts而不是judgments或者opinions

2. Choose what’s important
   Include only what matters most．剔除与main point不相关或者关联较少的内容

3. Put it in order
   可以沿着故事发展的时间线来整理内容.

4. Check your facts
   确保你的内容在文章当中是有根据的, 不要加入主观臆断. 这种在做托福雅思等考试的阅读题目时很有帮助.

5.1.SUMMARY练习

JAPANESE FAIRY TALES
Long, long ago, there lived an old farmer and his wife who had made their home in the mountains, far from any town. Their only neighbor was a bad and malicious badger. This badger used to come out every night and run across to the farmer’s field and spoil the vegetables and the rice which the farmer spent his time in carefully cultivating. The badger at last grew so ruthless in his mischievous work, and did so much harm everywhere on the farm, that the good-natured farmer could not stand it any longer and determined to put a stop to it. So he lay in wait day after day and night after night,with a big club, hoping to catch the badger, but all in vain. Then he laid traps for the badger as malicious.

Objective Summary:
The author recorded a Japanese fairy tale about a farmer and a badger. she writes that the badger destroyed the farmer’s crop and characterized the badger as malicious.
客观总结当中只能陈述事实和作者的态度.

The author thought that the badger who kept eating the farmer’s crops wasdoing it just to bother the farmer, but I think____________.
(Your answer could be like that I think the badger was hungry and needed something to eat.)
主观总结可以加入自己的观点和态度.

6.文学作品的阅读分析重点

• Setting
• Plot
• Structure

6.1.SETTING

Setting指的是文学作品中设定的背景.

lt is the surroundings and time in which the events of a story take place.

比如:
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, is set in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.
列夫·托尔斯泰的《战争与和平》是设置在俄罗斯拿破仑战争背景下.

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is set in Victorian-era London.
查尔斯·狄更斯的《圣诞颂歌》是设置在维多利亚时代的伦敦.

The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is set in the fictional land of 0z.
李曼·法兰克·鲍姆的《绿野仙踪》是设置在虚构的奥兹土地上.

6.1.1.SETTING包含的信息

• Era or period
• Date and time of day
• Geographical location
• Weather and natural surroundings
• Immediate surroundings of a character
• Social conditions

6.1.2.SETTING选篇分析

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 选篇
(1) The rabbit hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
(2) Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. (3) First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs.

1) 从这段文字当中, 我们可以了解哪些设定的背景信息呢?

从**(1)**部分我们可以看出:
The rabbit hole is like a tunnel. It suddenly dips into something like a well. The well is deep.

从**(2)**部分我们可以看出:
Time appears to move slowly in this world.

从**(3)**部分我们可以看出:
It’s too dark to see below. The walls are actually shelves filled with things.

2) 阅读这些背景设置的信息可以帮助我们得出哪些结论呢?

这一类的内容主要可以帮助我们解决阅读中的三类问题:

1. Where does the story take place?
   故事发生的地点.
2. When does the story take place?
   故事发生的时间.
3. What are the conditions like in this time and place?
   在这一时间地点下故事发生的环境背景.

6.2.PLOT

对于故事当中的plot(情节)想必大家都有所了解.
它是指叙事作品中表现人物之间相互关系的一系列生活事件的发展过程.
它是由一系列展示人物性格、表现人物与人物、人物与环境之间相互关系的action(具体事件)构成.

When an author creates a plot, he or she is creating a chain reaction — there are causes and effects to the action.
故事当中可以存在多条plotlines(情节线索). 这些事件可以揭示故事的意义和作者想要传达的信息.

简单为大家介绍一下德国戏剧理论家Gustav Freytag 古斯塔夫·弗赖塔格的五幕剧情节金字塔.
(弗赖塔格的术语在叙事文学批评中广为使用)

• Exposition 开场:
  The author sets the scene and explains what’s going on.
• Rising action 上升(情节发展) :
  A series of crises that lead to the climax.
• Climax 高潮:
  The most exciting moment of a story, where both people and events change.
• Falling action 回落:
  The events that follow the climax.
• Resolution 结尾:
  The conclusion, in which all the tensions of the plot are resolved.

6.2.1.PLOT选篇分析

读以下的故事, 我们来分析一下故事中情节的五个部分.

A poor young farmer named Jack spends all his family money on some magicbeans. His mother is furious, but when he plants them, a giant beanstalk grows. He climbs it to the sky, where the rich giant who lives there threatens to eat him. But Jack escapes and hurries back down the beanstalk. When the giant tries to chase Jack back to earth, Jack chops down the beanstalk, killing the giant. He and his mother live happily ever after on the giant’s riches.

• Exposition:
  Jack and his family have no money.
• Rising action :
  Jack buys beans,climbs beanstalk, meets giant,and flees giant.
• Climax:
  Jack chops down beanstalk.
• Falling action:
  Giant dies.
• Resolution:
  Jack and his mother are rich.

6.3.STRUCTURE

一个好的作者很少将文章中重要的信息一下子全盘托出, ta会将自己的想法置于合理的文章结构当中, 让读者拥有更有趣的阅读体会, 同时更有效地表达自身的观点.

STRUCTURE is the organization of a text — or how the pieces fit together.
结构是文本的组织形式, 换句话说就是各部分内容是如何统一起来的.

An author uses structure to :

• Introduce key individuals and events
  介绍关键人物和事件
• illustrate and elaborate on them
  对他们进行阐述和说明
• Make connections and distinctions between individuals and events
  在人物与事件之间建立联系和区别

1) JACK LONDON自传回忆录THE ROAD选段

There was one house in particular where I was turned down that evening. The porch windows opened on the dining room, and through them I saw a man eatingpie — a big meat pie.I stood in the open door, and while he talked with me,he went on eating. He was prosperous,and out of his prosperity had been bred resentment against his less fortunate brothers.
He cut short my request for something to eat, snapping out, “I don’t believe you want to work.” Now this was irrelevant. I hadn’t said anythingabout work. The topic of conversation I had introduced was"food." in fact,l didn’t’ t want to work. I wanted to take the westbound overland that night.
“You wouldn’t work if you had a chance,” he bullied.
l glanced at his meek-faced wife, and knew that but for the presence of this Cerberus I’ d have a whack at that meat pie myself. But Cerberus sopped himself in the pie, and I saw that I must placate him if I were to get a share of it. So I sighed to myself and accepted his work-morality.
“of course I want work,” I bluffed.
“Don’t believe it,” he snorted.
“Try me,” I answered, warming to the bluff.
All right, he said. “Come to the corner of blank and blank streets” — (I have forgotten the address) —“tomorrow morning. You know where that burned building is, and I’ ll put you to work tossing bricks.”
“All right, sir; I’ll be there.”
He grunted and went on eating. I waited. After a couple of minutes helooked up with an I thought you were gone expression on his face, and demanded:
“Well?”
“I…I am waiting for something to eat,” l said gently.
“I knew you wouldn’t work!” he roared…
“In the meantime—” I began; but he interrupted.
“If I gave you something to eat now, I’d never see you again. Oh, I know your kind. Look at me. I owe no man. I have never descended so low as to a skany one for food. I have always earned my food. The trouble with you is that you are idle and dissolute. I can see it in your face. I have worked and been honest. I have made myself what I am. And you can do the same, if you workand are honest.”
“Like you?” l queried.
Alas, no ray of humor had ever penetrated the sombre work-sodden soul of that man.
“Yes, like me,” he answered.
“All of us?” I queried.
"Yes, all of you,"he answered,conviction vibrating in his voice.
“But if we all became like you,” l said, “allow me to point out that there’d be nobody to toss bricks for you.”
l swear there was a flicker of a smile in his wife’s eye. As for him, he was aghast—but whether at the awful possibility of a reformed humanity that would not enable him to get anybody to toss bricks for him or at my impudence, l shall never know.

如果阅读时总是没有章法的通篇看, 可能我们获取的信息就会非常有限, 或是读了后面的内容感觉前面的就已经忘了. 也无法做到我们上节课讲解的根据上下文语境去分析一些生词.

那么就来看看我对于这段选篇的结构分析吧. 说不定能给到你一些对阅读分析的灵感.

结构分析

There was one house in particular where I was turned down(被拒绝) that evening. (Introduces the narrator: the author, a hobo who is hungry.作者以乞丐的身份出场) The porch windows opened on the dining room, and through them I saw a man eating pie–a big meat pie. (Introduces a key actor: a man. Alsomakes a distinction—the man is not a hobo—he lives in the house and wellfed.介绍主要人物, 一个有房子并且吃得很好的男人, 与作者产生对比) I stood inthe open door, and while he talked with me, he went on eating. (Elaborates distinctions: the man doesn't stop eating in front of a hungry person.阐明了对比关系) He was prosperous, and out of his prosperity had been bred resentment against his less fortunate brothers (The evidence leads the author to draw a conclusion根据证据进行推理)．
He cut short my request for something to eat,snapping out, “I don’t believe you want to work.”(Introduces a key event: The man accuses London ofnot wanting to work引出关键问题) Now this was irrelevant. I hadn’t said anything about work. The topic of conversation I had introduced was “food.” In fact, I didn’t want to work. (Elaborates information on the narrator:London confirms he doesn't want to work.阐明作者观点信息) I wanted to takethe westbound overland that night.
“You wouldn’t work if you had a chance,” he bullied.
l glanced at his meek-faced wife, (Introduces new key individual: the man's wife. Also emphasizes a distinction—she is meek (as opposed to the husband, whois a "bully").再次介绍新人物出场) and knew that but for the presence of this Cerberus (London elaborates on the husband by comparing him to the mythical
multiheaded dog that guarded the Roman underworld.作者将人物比成一个地狱守门犬) I’d have a whack at that meat pie myself. But Cerberus sopped himself in the pie, and I saw that I must placate him if I were to get a share of it. So I sighed tomyself and accepted his work-morality.
“Of course I want work,” I bluffed.
“Don’t believe it,” he snorted.
“Try me,” I answered, warming to the bluff.
“All right,sir; I’ll be there.”
He grunted and went on eating. I waited. After a couple of minutes he looked up with an I-thought-you-were-gone expression on his face,and demanded:
“Well?”
“I…I am waiting for something to eat,” l said gently.
"I knew you wouldn’t work ! " he roared…
"In the meantime–"I began; but he interrupted.
"If I gave you something to eat now, I’d never see you again. Oh, I know your kind. Look at me. I owe no man. I have never descended so low as to ask any one. for food. I have always earned my food. The trouble with you is that you are idleand dissolute. I can see it in your face. I have worked and been honest. I have made myself what I am. And you can do the same, if you work and are honest.
“Like you?” l queried.
Alas, no ray of humor had ever penetrated the sombre(阴沉的) work-sodden soul of that man.
“Yes, like me,” he answered.
“All of us?” l queried.
"Yes, all of you,"he answered,conviction vibrating in his voice.
“But if we all became like you,” l said, “allow me to point out that there’d be nobody to toss bricks for you.”(The author uses dialogue to develop the individuals in the story and explain a key event—the authoroutwits the man.作者用对话来展示他智胜对方)
l swear there was a flicker of a smile in his wife 's eye. (The author elaborates on the wife. The author mentions a flicker in her eye and distinguishes her from her husband again.作者再一次将男人与他的妻子做对比) As for him, he was aghast—but whether at the awful possibility of a reformed humanity that would not enable him to get anybody to toss bricks for him orat my impudence(冒失), l shall never know.

在阅读时, 除了可以通过分析文章结构来理解内容的写作外, 还可以用结构来寻找文章当中的关键信息, 大大提升阅读质量:

Who and what is important?
The author probably starts by introducing key individuals and events.

Why are these people or things important?
The author most likely will illustrate and elaborate on them.

Why is someone or some thing unique or part of something greater?
If that’s the goal, the author will make connections and distinctions between individuals and events.

7.英文阅读

读英文原著最核心的两个目的, 一是读书, 通过书籍去和作者进行精神交流从而获得自己思想境界的充实和提升, 一是语言的学习, 即把英语这门第二语言, 通过阅读得到能力的提升.

在想清楚了阅读英文原著的目的之后, 为了满足这些目的, 阅读过程必须有一个清晰的规划和系统的分析和记录, 否则只会和以前一样, 浪费很多时间却得不到任何提升.