美女跳舞伤不起:谈谈英语学习——“一本书理论”

谈谈英语学习——“一本书理论”

吴仲贤 著●  曹燕萍 译注●

编者注：“一本书理论”也可以是“一篇章理论”。不仅是一本适合的好书，更接近我们中学生的还主要是文章、教材。教材文章学的好也一样式好的途径来掌握英语。当然仅学教材是不够的，还要多学习更好的文字，学习一本书、多本书，英语也日益进境。

上大学时，我的体育老师对我说：“要是一件事值得去做，那就值得把它做好；”其实，体育课也好，人类活动的其他领域也好，道理都是如此，英语学习也一样。

    怎样才叫学好英语呢?简单地说，就是要能够很好地掌握英语知识，并且足够熟练地运用英语，能清楚、有力、而又恰到好处地表达自己。

作为先决条件，假定我们现在对基本的英语语法规则和一些常见的习惯用语已经比较熟悉了。那么怎样才能使现有的英语水平更上一层楼呢?要做到这一点，方法有许多，但我这里只想谈谈其中一种。在我看来，这种办法能够帮助我们比较迅速地达到目标，条件是我们必须持之以恒，并且肯花时间去领会其充分实现其意义。

这种办法我称之为“一本书理论”，也就是说，拿一本最适合你现有水平、最适合你胃口的书，一部自己非常崇敬因而很喜欢的名著，然后坚持不懈地读下去，读个半年光景，直到你能记住其中大部分章节，尤其是能记住你喜爱的那些精彩段落，并且能够随时随口背诵出来，就好像它们已经和你融为一体了。同时，你自己也相信能够体会作者遣词造句的妙处，领略文章语言的优美；如果可能，还要能够感受作品的节奏和韵律。到了这个阶段，你可以说已完成了计划的第一部分，即熟悉一位天才的思想，在双方似乎都感到有兴趣的话题上，每天同他进行思想交流，而且由于赢得了他的友谊并和他结成伴侣，你自己在某种意义上也达到同他平起平坐的水平，这样一种地位也是你经常盼望得到的。有些人喜欢追随在伟大人物左右。但是伟大人物，在平常时刻，——在他们的饮食起居、闲暇时刻和社会交往中——并不总是那么伟大的。在同那些事业声望上不如他们的人打交道的时候，他们不免会沾沾自喜。然而，一部出白天才之手的名著却每时每刻都在你身旁，你只需走到书架前，或者从手袋或口袋中把它拿出来，作者即可开始与你就最为有趣的话题进行“交谈”了，那些有趣的话题将使你全神贯注或者浮想联翩。通过与作者为伴和在业余时间与他进行“交谈”，渐渐地，你不仅会与作者的个性浑为一体，并且你的英语水平也会得到提高，而这只不过是与一个伟大灵魂进行思想交流所得的副产品。因此，我个人深信并提倡“一本书理论”。

    完成了这第一步，也即所谓的精读过程后，接下来的一步就是泛读。在这个过程中，你将扩大交往的圈子，培养同其他作家的友谊，他们的能力至少应和你结识的第一位作家不相 上下，不过在他们每个人身上，你就不必花费像你花在第一位作家身上那么多的时间了。这个过程的特点在于，你应该接触尽可能多的作家，因为你同第一位作家打过密切交道，你已经达到了与他们相去不太远的水平，所以那番展现奇境的游历将极大地提高你同他们交往中获得成功的可能性，并且通过比较来扩大自己的视野，看出你所喜爱的和不喜爱的，并从你读过的众多作品中挑选出你十分欣赏的。这并不意味着你对作品的观点一开始就很成熟。但是，随着你的游历，随着你与更多作家的交往——他们具有各种观点、风格和兴趣，带来不同的、引人入胜的故事，或者帮助你提高的谆谆的教导——你的观点将得到不断更新。这是你通过对作品的筛选、消化和吸收，逐步成长的过程，这时你学会分辨作品的细致与粗糙、奇特与平淡、美好与丑恶。事实上，你将具备一位行家里手的鉴赏力，能够对构成一段好文章的要素——风格、词藻和语言的气势——作出自己的判断。换言之，你这时已经达到了学习生涯的第二阶段，即专攻文学的人所经历的第二阶段。对于诸如散文、小说、诗歌、戏剧或任何其它艺术作品的文学价值，你已  经能或多或少地作出一定的评价。大多数人都在这一阶段上  停滞不前，但是，如果你努力向前，并听从下面的建议，你就能  达到下面的第三阶段。这些建议来自一位著名的作家，这里我  暂且不提他的大名，但我相信，对于亲身经历过当代英语文学  中这一领域的许多人来说，他的名字并不陌生。

    第三阶段始于你开始动手写作的时候，我把它称为文学实习时期。对某些人来说，这个阶段可以短些，但它绝不是可有可无的。一般说来，这个阶段历时颇长，其间包含巨大的艰  难困苦。每个人的头脑里都有一定的糟粕东西，只有把它们去掉，脑子里的精华部分才会显露出来。如果是写一篇短篇故事或散文可能不会出现这种情况，但是，你一旦开始动手写一部较长的作品，当你已经耗尽你开始的小量资金，也就是说那点积累起来的词汇和各种表现方法，写作水平的不足就会十分显眼地表现出来。有时你甚至会觉得寸步难行。你也可以一  个劲地往下写，可就是怎么也写不对。在你的主观愿望和实际表现之间确实存在着一段距离，构成一个严重的问题。换句话说，也就是你头脑中的糟粕部分还没有清除掉。这个过程需要  多长时间才能完成则因人而异，它取决于一个人的聪明才智和所受的训练以及努力的程度。不管怎样，在这个实习时期结束之前，精华部分是出不来的。这就是为什么好学者不少，而  好作家却廖廖无几。不过，只要我们意识到这一差距的存在，并且不遗余力地把残留在头脑中的糟粕去掉的话，那么情况就会好转。而且，我们至少已经能够准确、清楚地表达自己了，即使还谈不到有什么独创性和天才。重要的是，这个差距的确存在，并且必须由我们自己来决定是否值得为消除这一差距而花费大量的时间和精力。

    最后，我来谈谈风格问题。有人认为风格是旧时代的标志，而所有现代的散文应该不要什么风格。这种观点实在是荒谬之至。不管你采用什么论点去反对风格，风格仍然存在于作品之中，是作品的一个突出特点，就像一个人的面容特征一样清晰可辨。那种认为现代作品无风格可言的论点，同认为日常生活中谈不上哲学的论点一样，是毫无价值的。不管你讲的是什么，那就是你的哲学，这是最明显不过的。因此，那种认为好文章不需要风格的断言显然属于异端邪说，其荒谬犹如说美女不需要具备身材匀称和五官搭配协调一样。同样，好作品必须先是行文流畅安详，节奏鲜明，韵律优美而字句抑扬顿挫，同时，还有丰富多采的表达方式，反映出入们最奇妙的腾飞想像力，把人们带出尘世，同时也体现出作者个人的特性。如果抛弃这些，就等于抛弃文学中最有价值的东西，剩下的只是一个毫无价值的空外壳和毫无灵魂的坏风格。因此，要想写好作品，就必须努力形成自己的风格。在你找到自己的风格后，你就能达到与你的艺术相匹配的那种随心所欲的境界，就能写出优秀的英语文章来了。我认为这就是我们应该从中获得的教益。

    以上我就什么是学习英语的最佳方法谈了自己的看法。我的意见不一定适合某些英语学习者，但它的确是我本人在英语学习这一领域里的亲身经历的真实写照。我个人的经验能否给对这个问题感兴趣的人们提供一点帮助，这将取决于读者对它的认同程度。

                                              原载于《英语世界》1992年第2期

作者简介：吴仲贤同志是北京农业大学教授，著名理论遗传学专家。三十年代时，他考取庚款留英，在爱丁堡大学获得博士。学位，后又在剑桥大学从事研究。仲贤教授早年酷爱文学，对英国文学有很高造诣，1990年出版了他用英文写的中篇小说An Idyll Gold Valley (《金谷恋歌》)，文笔流畅，引人入胜。此书出版后，受到我国英语界专家们的好评和重视。《中国日报》记者唐滢同志专访仲贤同志后，于1991年?月29日 发表了All is Not Fair in Love and War一文，刊于《中国日报》。仲贤同志精通英语，必有其精通之道，现特请他将其学好英语的方法及经验介绍给本刊读者，希读者能从中获得启迪。

On Learning English

Wu Zhongxian 

When in college, my professor of gymnastics told me "If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing well." This applies not only to gymnastics, but to all fields of human activity, and learning English is but one of them.

What is doing well in learning English? Briefly, it means acquiring a good knowledge of English, and a sufficient mastery of the language to enable you to express yourself clearly, forcefully, and to the best advantage.

As a preliminary, let us say we are already familiar with the basic rules of grammar and some of the common idioms. How then shall we push our English to a higher standard of excellence? There may be many ways of doing this, but I will discuss only the one I know which to my mind will most readily lead to the achieving of this goal, provided we will stick to it and be willing to spare enough time for it to realize its full significance.

      This is what I would call the *one-book theory.¹ That is, get a single book, a classic, which most befits your present level, your humour, a book which you revere sufficiently to in- spire your liking, and study it persistently for something like half a year, so that you can remember its text for most of the chapters, especially those *choice passages² which you love, and could repeat at a call any time you with, so that these become a part of yourself. Meanwhile, convince yourself that you appreciate the appropriateness of each word, each expression, the beauty of the language, and if possible, its rhythm and cadence. When you arrive at this stage, you may be said to have completed the first part of your program, that of familiarizing yourself with the mind of a genius, and of communicating with him daily, in what you both seem to be interested, and of thus rising to his level, in a sense, a status you often wish to attain, by winning his friendship and keeping his company. Some people like to move in the society of the great, but these are seldom great at ordinary hours, in their eating and drinking, moments of leisure or social affiliations, when they be complacent enough to associate with those of lesser stature in their walk of life. But a masterpiece, from the hand of a genius, it's ready there at your service all the time, and you need only go to the shelf or take it out from your handbag or pocket, and there he begins to discourse with you on the most interesting topics, such as absorb your attention or propel your fancy into the farthest corners of the earth. And by bearing him company and holding intercourse with him in your spare moments, you gradually coalesce with his personality, and your command of language is improved as but the side-product of communion with a great spirit. Therefore I embrace and advocate the one- book theory.

Having completed this first session, the intensive one so-called , the next phase you come upon is the extensive one in which you widen your circle of acquaintance, and proceed to cultivate the friendship of other writers, of a calibre at least as solid as that of the first, though you need not spend as much time with each of them as you have done with the first. The distinctive feature here is that you sweep through as many of them as is possible, and because you have reached a standing not too far below theirs, through your *wrestling with³ the first, the probability of your success with them is much increased by your journey through the wonderland thus opened up, and you will be able to enlarge your field of vision by comparing the one with the other, and pick out your likes and dislikes , and select those you enjoy from the multitude you chance to read. Not that your opinion of them is ripe at first, but it is formed anew as you sail by, mix with many more with diverse outlooks or tastes and interests, with different tales to entertain or precepts to teach. This is the phase you go through when you grow by a process of sifting, digestion, and assimilation? when you learn to distinguish between the refined and coarse, the extraordinary and prosaic, the beautiful and ugly; in fact, you are endowed with the power of a connoisseur, and can give your own opinion as to what constitutes a fine passage, with its style, diction, and force of language; in other words, you have reached the second stage of your career, that of a student of literature, and can more or less evaluate the literary value of a work of art, be it essay, fiction, verse, drama, or whatever else. Most people end by stopping at this stage, but there is a third one which you can attain, if you push further and attend to what little advice is given below, bya celebrated author, of whom I omit the name, but which will be plain to many who have coursed through this domain of present-day English literature.

The third stage commences when you begin to write. It is what I should call the stage of *literary apprenticeship⁴. For some people, this period may be shorter, but it's never absent. In general it lasts a considerable length of time, and is an interim of great trial and hardship. That is, every man has a certain amount of bad stuff in them which must be written off before the good stuff comes in. It may not be there when you deal with a short story or essay, but once you embark upon a larger piece of work, when you have exhausted the small fund of capital with which you started, that is, your accumulation of vocabulary and variety of expression, the deficiency glaringly appears. Sometimes you cannot advance a step. You may write and write, but just cannot get it right. There is really a gap between aspiration and performance that poses a serious problem. In other words, the bad stuff in your constitution has not been depleted. How long it takes for this period to wear off varies with each man, his aptitude and training, and the whole lot of effort he has put into his work. Anyhow, before this period ends, the good stuff will not come out. That's why there are so many scholars but so few writers of good literature. But once we take note of this gap, and spare no effort to empty us of the bad stuff that is in us, the situation may improve, and one could at least express oneself correctly and clearly, if without ingenuity or genius. The important thing is, this gap exists, and it's up to ourselves to decide whether it's worth while to invest so much time and energy in this venture.

Finally, a word as to the question of style. It has been argued that style is the sign of a past age, and that all modern prose must be without style. *Nothing is farther from the truth.⁵  No matter what arguments you put forth against it, it's still there, a prominent feature of your composition. This is as clear as the facial visage characteristic of the man. The contention is as paltry as the one that assumes there is no occasion for philosophy in our daily life. No matter what you say, that's your philosophy, as clear as day. Therefore, the assertion that there need be no style in good writing is a heresy that's as patent as the premise that there need be no proportion or conformation of features in a beautiful woman. In the same way, good writing presupposes fluency, poise, a rhythm and cadence combined with the ring and song of words, the brilliancy of suggestive of the quaintest flights of human imagination that elevates us from the earth and yet is characteristic of the qualities of the man. If you do away with it, you do away with all that is worth while in literature; what remains is empty husk devoid of its kernel, bare chaff, a soulless thing of bad style. Therefore, in good writing you must try to form your own style? when you find it, you achieve the freedom that is worthy of your art, your ability to produce sound English. That, I believe is the lesson one must glean from this picture.

In the above I have give my own view of what should be the best way of learning English. It may not suit some people, but it certainly is a faithful description of my experience in this realm. Whether it will benefit those interested in this problem will depend on how it is received.

——  虽然这是一篇原封不动地摘抄别人文章的博文，但在作者字里行间透露的对英语学习自成一套的“理论”，让我感受到“学习的艺术”。