新世纪大学英语,课文、翻译、mp3下载
Learning to Read
John Holt
As all of us know, learning to read and write in a language is always a tough job and it takes a lot of time. But good teachers know how to encourage their students to learn. In the following text, the author tells us about his own experience in teaching a reading class.
In one of my classes were many children who hadhad great trouble withschoolwork,particularlyreading. I decided to tryat all coststorid them oftheir fear anddislikeof books, and to get them to read oftener and moreadventurously(冒险地). 在我曾经任教的一个班上有许多孩子学习起来非常吃力，尤其是阅读。因此我决定不惜任何代价消除他们对书籍的恐惧和厌恶心理，让他们能够多读些书，更勇于尝试。
One day soon after school had started, I said to them, "Now I'm going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them onlyfor pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean." 开学没多久，我对孩子们说：“我要跟你们说说读书的事，也许还没有哪个老师这样对你们讲过。今年我想要你们读许多书，你们只需要为寻求乐趣而读书，我不会去检查你们读懂了没有。如果你读了一点儿，觉得会喜欢这本书，并愿意把它读完，这就够了。我不会去考你们词语的意思。”
"Finally," I said, "I don't want you to feel that just because you start a book, you have to finish it.Give anauthorthirty or forty pages or so to get his story going.Then if you don't like thecharactersand don'tcarewhat happens to them, close the book, put it away, and get another. I don't care whether the books are easy or hard, short or long, as long as you enjoy them.Furthermore, I'm putting all this in a letter to your parents, so they won't feel they have toquizor check your reading at home."
“最后，”我继续说道，“你们不要觉得读一本书就得把它读完。先读三四十页，看看故事情节如何发展。如果你不喜欢书中人物，或者对他们的经历不感兴趣，只管合上书，放到一边，去读另一本。你们读的书是难还是容易、篇幅长还是篇幅短，我都不在意，只要你们喜欢就行。另外，我会写信把我
的意思告诉你们的家长，好让他们知道没有必要在家里查问或检查你们的读书情况。”
The children satstunned(使震惊) and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, and who proved to be one of the most interesting, lively, andintelligentchildren I have ever known, looked at mesteadilyfor a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at