Unit 1
An impressive English lesson
1 If I am the only parent who still corrects his child's English, then perhaps my son is right. To him, I am a tedious oddity: a father he is obliged to listen to and a man absorbed in the rules of grammar, which my son seems allergic to.
2 I think I got serious about this only recently when I ran into one of my former students, fresh from an excursion to Europe. \ earnest anticipation.
3 She nodded three or four times, searched the heavens for the right words, and then exclaimed, \was, like, whoa!\
4 And that was it. The civilization of Greece and the glory of Roman architecture were captured in a condensed non-statement. My student's \ exceeded only by my head-shaking distress.
5 There are many different stories about the downturn in the proper use of English. Surely students should be able to distinguish between their/there/they're or the distinctive difference between complimentary and complementary. They unfairly bear the bulk of the criticism for these knowledge deficits because there is a sense that they should know better.
6 Students are not dumb, but they are being misled everywhere they look and listen. For example, signs in grocery stores point them to the stationary, even though the actual stationery items — pads, albums and notebooks — are not nailed down. Friends and loved ones often proclaim they've just ate when, in fact, they've just eaten. Therefore, it doesn't make any sense to criticize our students.
7 Blame for the scandal of this language deficit should be thrust upon our schools, which should be setting high standards of English language proficiency. Instead, they only teach a little grammar and even less advanced vocabulary. Moreover, the younger teachers themselves evidently have little knowledge of these vital structures of language because they also went without exposure to them. Schools fail to adequately teach the essential framework of language, accurate grammar and proper vocabulary, while they should take the responsibility of pushing the young onto the path of competent communication.
8 Since grammar is boring to most of the young students, I think that it must be handled delicately, step by step. The chance came when one day I was driving with my son. As we set out on our trip, he noticed a bird in jerky flight and said, \ I carefully asked, \ \Did I say anything incorrectly?\ He got lost. \incorrectly instead of incorrect. We use adverbs to describe verbs. Therefore, it's flying so unsteadily but not so unsteady.\
9 Curious about my correction, he asked me what an adverb was. Slowly, I said, \a word that tells you something about a verb.\ It led to his asking me what a verb was. I explained, \Dad drives the truck. Drive is the verb because it's the thing Dad is doing.\
10 He became attracted to the idea of action words, so we listed a few more: fly, swim, dive, run. Then, out of his own curiosity, he asked me if other words had names for their use and functions. This led to a discussion of nouns, adjectives, and articles. Within the span of a 10-minute drive, he had learned from scratch to the major parts of speech in a sentence. It was painless learning and great fun!
11 Perhaps, language should be looked upon as a road map and a valuable possession: often study the road map (check grammar) and tune up the car engine (adjust vocabulary). Learning grammar and a good vocabulary is just like driving with a road map in a well-conditioned car.
12 The road map provides the framework and guidance you need for your trip, but it won't tell you exactly what trees or flowers you will see, what kind of people you will encounter, or what types of feelings you will be experiencing on your journey. Here, the vocabulary makes the journey's true colors come alive! A good vocabulary
enables you to enjoy whatever you see as you drive along. Equipped with grammar and a good vocabulary, you have flexibility and excellent control. While the road map guides your journey to your destination, an excellent vehicle helps you to fully enjoy all of the sights, sounds and experiences along the way.
13 Effective, precise, and beneficial communication depends upon grammar and a good vocabulary, the two essential assets for students, but they are not being taught in schools.
14 Just this morning, my son and I were eating breakfast when I attempted to add milk to my tea. \\ sour.\
15 \my!\ I said, swelling with pride toward my son, \a grammatically perfect sentence. You used were instead of was.\
16 \ subjunctive mood.\ 17 I was, like, whoa!
Translation
一堂难忘的英语课
1 如果我是唯一一个还在纠正小孩英语的家长，那么我儿子也许是对的。 对他而言，我是一个乏味的怪物：一个他不得不听其教诲的父亲，一个还沉湎于语法规则的人，对此我儿子似乎颇为反感。
2 我觉得我是在最近偶遇我以前的一位学生时，才开始对这个问题认真起来的。这个学生刚从欧洲旅游回来。我满怀着诚挚期待问她：“欧洲之行如何？”
3 她点了三四下头，绞尽脑汁，苦苦寻找恰当的词语，然后惊呼：“真是，哇！”
4 没了。 所有希腊文明和罗马建筑的辉煌居然囊括于一个浓缩的、不完整的语句之中！ 我的学生以“哇！”来表示她的惊叹，我只能以摇头表达比之更强烈的忧虑。
5 关于正确使用英语能力下降的问题，有许多不同的故事。 学生的确本应该能够区分诸如their/there/they're之间的不同，或区别complimentary 跟complementary之间显而易见的差异。 由于这些知识缺陷，他们承受着大部分不该承受的批评和指责，因为舆论认为他们应该学得更好。
6 学生并不笨，他们只是被周围所看到和听到的语言误导了。 举例来说，杂货店的指示牌会把他们引向stationary（静止处），虽然便笺本、相册、和笔记本等真正的stationery（文具用品）并没有被钉在那儿。朋友和亲人常宣称 They've just ate。实际上，他们应该说 They've just eaten。 因此，批评学生不合乎情理。 7 对这种缺乏语言功底而引起的负面指责应归咎于我们的学校。学校应对英语熟练程度制定出更高的标准。 可相反，学校只教零星的语法，高级词汇更是少之又少。还有就是，学校的年轻教师显然缺乏这些重要的语言结构方面的知识，因为他们过去也没接触过。 学校有责任教会年轻人进行有效的语言沟通，可他们并没把语言的基本框架——准确的语法和恰当的词汇——充分地传授给学生。
8 因为语法对大多数年轻学生而言枯燥且乏味，所以我觉得讲授语法得一步一步、注重技巧地进行。 有一天机会来了。我跟儿子开车外出。 我们出发时，他看到一只小鸟飞得很不稳，就说：“它飞的不稳。”（It's flying so unsteady.） 我小心翼翼地问：“儿子，鸟怎么飞?” “有问题吗？我说得不对吗？（Did I say anything incorrectly?）” 他一头雾水。 “太好了， 你说的是incorrectly而不是incorrect。我们用副词来描述动词。所以，要用unsteadily来描述鸟飞 ，而不是unsteady。”
9 他对我的纠正很好奇，就问我什么是副词。 我慢慢解释道：“副词是用来修饰动词的词。” 这又导致了他询问我什么是动词。 我解释说：“动词是表示行为的词，例如：爸爸开卡车。‘开’是动词，因为它是爸爸在做的事。”
10 他开始对表示行为的词产生兴趣，所以我们又罗列了几个动词：“飞行”、“游泳”、“跳水”、“跑步”。 然后，他又好奇地问我，其他的词有没有说明它们的用法和功能的名称。 这就引发了我们对名词、形容词和冠词的讨论。 在短短十分钟的驾驶时间内，他从对语法一无所知到学会了句子中主要词语的词性。 这是一次毫无痛苦而又非常有趣的学习经历。
11 也许，语言应该被看成是一张路线图和一件珍品：我们要常常查看路线图（核对语法）和调整汽车的引
擎（调节词汇）。 学好语法和掌握大量的词汇就好比拿着路线图在车况良好的车里驾驶。
12 路线图为你的旅行提供所需的基本路线和路途指南，可是它不会告诉你一路上你究竟会看见什么树或什么花，你会遇见什么样的人，或会有什么样的感受。 这里，词汇会使你的旅途变得五彩缤纷、栩栩如生。 大量的词汇让你享受到开车途中所见的点点滴滴。 借助语法和丰富的词汇，你就有了灵活性，掌控自如。 路线图会把你带到目的地，而一台好车却能让你完全陶醉于旅途的所有景色、声音及经历之中。
13 对学生来说，有效、准确且富有成效的沟通技能取决于语法和词汇这两大有利条件，可是学校并没有教他们这些。
14 就在今天早上，我跟儿子吃早饭时，我想把牛奶加入我的茶里。 “爸爸，” 他说，“如果我是你的话，我不会这样做。牛奶会变酸。（If I were you, I wouldn't do that. It's sour.）”
15 “哦，上帝！” 我满怀着无比的骄傲说道，“这是一句语法完全正确的句子。你用了were而不是was。” 16 “我知道，我知道，”他愉悦地舒了口气，“这是虚拟语气！” 17 这下轮到我“哇！”了。
Unit 2
The humanities: Out of date?
1 When the going gets tough, the tough take accounting. When the job market worsens, many students calculate they can't major in English or history. They have to study something that boosts their prospects of landing a job.
2 The data show that as students have increasingly shouldered the ever-rising cost of tuition, they have defected from the study of the humanities and toward applied science and \ bet will lead to employment. In other words, a college education is more and more seen as a means for economic betterment rather than a means for human betterment. This is a trend that is likely to persist and even accelerate.
3 Over the next few years, as labor markets struggle, the humanities will probably continue their long slide in succession. There already has been a nearly 50 percent decline in the portion of liberal arts majors over the past generation, and it is logical to think that the trend is bound to continue or even accelerate. Once the dominant pillars of university life, the humanities now play little roles when students take their college tours. These days, labs are more vivid and compelling than libraries.
4 Here, please allow me to stand up for and promote the true value that the humanities add to people's lives. Since ancient times, people have speculated about the mystery of those inner forces that drive some people to greatness and others to self-destruction. This inner drive has been called many things over the centuries. The famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud, called it the \
5 From the beginning of time, this inner aspect of our being, this drive that can be constructive or destructive, has captured our imagination. The stories of this amazing struggle have formed the basis of cultures the world over. Historians, architects, authors, philosophers and artists have captured the words, images and meanings of this inner struggle in the form of story, music, myth, painting, architecture, sculpture, landscape and traditions. These men and women developed artistic \that help us understand these aspirations and also educate generations. This fertile body of work from ancient times, the very foundation of civilization, forms the basis of study of the humanities.
6 Studying the humanities improves our ability to read and write. No matter what we do in life, we will have a huge advantage if we can read complex ideas and understand their meaning. We will have a bright career if we are the person in the office who can write a clear and elegant analysis of those ideas!