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1. Reading Aloud 朗读
2. Can You Read Englishmen's English? 你能读懂英国人的英语吗?
3. What Kind of English? 什么样的英语?
4. Something More Important Than Enlarging One's Vocabulary 比扩大词汇更重要的一件事
5. What To Read? 该读什么?
6. Books on English and Books in English 论述英语的书和用英语写的书
7. The Question of Background 背景问题
8. Imitation, Good and Bad 摹仿: 好的和坏的
9. Long and Short Sentences (syntactic devices)(英语修辞)长句和短句
Source: English Rhetorical Options 冯翠华 著
10. Tongue and Pen 舌和笔
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11. A "Foolish" Principle of Composition 一个“愚笨的”写作原则
12. An Aid to Composition 对于写作的一个帮助
13. Better Short Than Long 短比长好
14. More about What to Read 再论该读什么
15. Reading to Learn the Art of Expression 为了学习表达的艺术而阅读
16. About the Study of Grammer 关于语法的学习
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17. Learning English Conversation by Imitation 用摹仿学习英语会话
18. Simply Didn't Know 只是不曾知道
19. Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong 只知道足够的语法来犯错误
20. An Easy Sentence to Study 准备研究的一个简易的句子
21. What Does "Would of Come" Mean? "Would of Come" 是什么意思?
22. The Language Is the Main Thing 语言是主要的东西
23. Make the Word Your Own 把这个词变成你自己的
24. A Warning Regarding the Use of Words 关于用词的一个警告
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25. What "Literary English" Means “文学英语”指什么？
26. Logic and Usage 逻辑和惯用法
27. A Good Knowledge of Bad English 关于坏英语的好知识
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29. Make Your Own Dictionary 编写你自己的词典
30. The Word 准确的那个词
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1. Reading Aloud
Do you ever read aloud? The chances are that you do not now read aloud. You used to read aloud when you were a small child. But you ceased to read aloud at fourteen or fifteen. If I'm not mistaken, among certain boys and girls late in their teens reading aloud is now a lost art.
You may protest, "What if I were to read aloud, when I do not read aloud and yet understand?" Well, much would come of reading aloud. Reading aloud helps you to learn by heart, and learning by heart is essential to all who aim at writing well. Reading aloud helps you to cultivate good pronunciation and good intonation, and good prounciation and good intonation are essential to all language learners. Reading aloud helps you to discover certain beauties of language that you may fail to see in your silent reading. Unless you read aloud, you cannot learn to write naturally or to appreciate literature.
And I think that it is partly because they do not read aloud that many Chinese learners of Englih cannot read poetry. A certain English man of letters has said that a poem is not a poem until it is read; and evidently by "read" he means read aloud. A poem is something to read aloud. There are many poems that you may learn to like and enjoy by reading them aloud, though you find several difficult points in them. On the other hand, you may understand a poem merely as you understand a piece of matter-of-fact prose, if you do not read it aloud. "The Raver" by Edgar Allan Poe, for example, is a very beautiful poem. But its beauty depends largely upon its wonderful music. Below is its fisrt stanza. Try first to read it sliently as though it were a business lettter and then to read it aloud, and compare the two impressions.
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"Tis some visitor", I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door:
Only this and nothing more."
2. Can You Read Englishmen's English?
I have heard several people tell me that in reading English-language newspapers they find Chinese news far easier to read than foreign news, and that they are often at a loss to discover the meaning of even a very short piece of news from some little town in England or America. I also feel that there are many who can read without much diffculty articles written by Chinese on Chinese subjects but cannot read those written by Englishmen on English subjects.
The trouble with such people is that while they have acquired a knowledge of the English language, they have not learnt much about the English mind, the English character, the English life, the English traditions, and so forth. They have not got, so to speak, the spirit of the language. Imagine a man who knows several thousand Han characters and a great deal of Han syntax and yet is entirely ignorant of the Chinese mind, the Chinese character, etc. Do you think this man could read even the ordinary Han-language newspaper and general liteature in Han?
Reader, do you think you are among those who know English but as a rule find great difficulty in reading Englishmen's English? I am afraid you are. I would advise you to read as much as possible in general English liteature and to cultivate the habit of thinking in English. I would also advise you to read some concise history of England and commit to memory every bit of knowledge about English life and thought that you may find in reading or study.
3. What Kind of English?
There are English English, American English, Scotch English, Irish English, and other kinds of English. Examples:"half past three" is English English, "bairn" is Scotch English, "I am after having my dinner" is Irish English, "nor gold nor silver" is archaic English, "Thank you for same" is business English, and "I don't know nobody here" is vulgar English.
Advanced learners of English ought to pay attention to such details, and I think they will find it very interesting to go into the subject. But every learner of English is not an advanced one. I call it foolish of one to attempt the subject before one has acquired the ability to speak, read, and write English as it is used by the average educated Englishman or American of today. One has yet much to learn before one can be properly called an advanced learner of English so long as one cannot read the news or cannot express oneself intelligibly to Englishmen or Americans in speaking and writing.
By "English as it is used by the average educated Englishman or American" I mean everyday idiomatic English. It is practical, if that means actually used, but not if that means specially adapted to Chinese psychology. I have to mention this because it seems that many Chinese students have the mistaken idea that while what is written about things Chinese is practical, what is written about things foreign is not practical. The fact is, however, that, one cannot master English---that is, what I call practical English---by reading about things Chinese only. I could advise those who are in the habit of confining themselves to Chinese news when reading newspapers in English, to give up the habit.
4. Something More Important Than Enlarging One's Vocabulary
"How to enlarge my vocabulary"---this is one of the commonest questions that I have been asked. True, the average Chinese learner of English has a very limited vocabulary, but I think he has something more important to do about his limited vocabulary than to enlarge it. He has yet to know many more words before he can master English. Nor can he master English till he has acquired a better understanding of most of the words that are in his vocatulary.
For he may think he knows a word when he does not really know it. By knowing a word I mean knowing its true sense or senses instead of merely knowing one or more of what we call its Han equivalents. Take the word "student". Very often it is misused and misunderstood by us Chinese. It is misused and misunderstood by those who call all schoolchild students and take offence at being called students of English simply because they are no longer at school. As a matter of fact, a schoolchild is not a student, but one who studies English is a student of English though he may be an old man and may have already written many books on it.
We are apt to neglect common words. Apart from the possibility of misuse and misunderstanding we are apt to neglect their various senses, or rather idiomatic uses. Take the word "read", which you of course think you know very well. But do you know all the senses (or uses) as illustrated below?
Can you read dreams? （圆梦）
The baby cannot read the clock. （看得懂钟）
He is reading her thoughts. （猜度她的心思）
The sentence reads like a paraphrase. （读起来象一个解说）
Don't read too much into the text. （勿以文中所无之义附会上去）
The thermometer reads 680. （温度计指示68度）
If not, you can hardly yet be said to know the word "read".
5. What To Read?
"Suppose you have two friends, A and B, both of whom have been learning English for some years. Both are clever young men, and both are anxious to acquire a good knowledge of the language. But now they have got very different results from the several years of study: A can write short letters and read easy news items but cannot read any passage in the classics, while B can read here and there in some classics but cannot write short letters or read easy news items. Reader, which of your two friends would you prefer to be like?
I believe you would prefer to be like A rather than B. You should. I am sorry to find that among Chinese learners of English there seem to be more like B than like A. The thouble lies chiefly in what is read.
Well, what do you read? I mean to ask what you take as your chief reading matter. Is it a novel or a volume of essays written more than a hundred years ago? If it is, my advice to you is to change it for something else. Your chief reading matter must have been written far less than a hundred years ago, a few weeks ago if possible, must have been written in simple English, and must have been written by an Englishman or an American.
I am not going to give a list of books here. But I think I have to make some general remarks. Your chief reading matter need not be a literary masterpiece. Nor need it be written by a famous author. A volume of short pieces of narration or exposition is better than a novel or some long argumentative essays.
You must have noted that in the above I have talked about only what your chief reading matter should be. You have a book or two for your chief reading matter. You should also read something else, which may be a little more difficult, but which still had better not be a classic of more than a hundred years ago."
6. Books on English and Books in English
"On" and "in" ---well, there is often a wide difference between these two little words. A book on English is one that deals with the English language; a book in English is one that is written in the English language. The former may be written in Han, French, German, or any other language; the latter may deal with any subject under the sun.
Books on English are intended for learners of the language; and it is very gratifying to note that far more such books are now available than fifty years ago or more. I myself have written several, and am glad to say that I often receive letters telling of their usefulness to learneres of English.
But I must give a word of warning here. Language is not an exact science, nor a mere matter of principles, rules, exceptions, definitions, formulars, and diagrams. Books on English are helpful, but no one can master English by reading such books only. Perhaps the very fact of there being so many such books today accounts for the frequency with which we meet with people who can talk and write about English without being able to talk and write it. This is due to their ignorance of the fact that without wide and careful reading the mastery of English is impossible.
I would advise all learners of English to devote more time to reading books in English and less time to reading books on English. What book in English are you reading? Is it a book of stories or essays or travel sketches? Or is it a biography or a diary or merely a textbook of history or geography? Well, if you happen to spend your days and nights on books on English, it is time you acted on my warning.
Note: accounts for the frequency with which we meet with people who can talk and write about English without being able to talk and write it.
就是我们时常碰到能在谈话和写作中讲述英语但（他们自己却）不能讲英语和写英语的原因。
7. The Question of Background
If your reading in English is not confined to things written by Chinese about Chinese life---I hope it is not---you must often meet with difficulties quite apart from the meanings of words and phrases. These difficulties arise from what I call for want of a better term the background of English, which I believe deserves the attention of all learners of English---all but those who do not care to read anything in English that is not written by Chinese writers on Chiness subjects.
By the background of English I mean the sum total of all points other than linguistic that are quite natural to those born to the language and brought up on it. For example, the name Grub Street---a London street (now called Milton Street) formerly much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems and so giving rise to its use as an epithet referring to literary hackwork.
The subject is indeed a very large one. It included history, geography, mythology, the Bible, characters and facts in fiction, proverbs, customs, games and sports, superstitions, and other things. And in order to understand fully the works of any author, one needs to possess as much knowledge of these things as he does. This is practically impossible with the average Chinese learner of English.
What I think must be considered carefully is what parts of the background of English are more important and how they may be made available to Chinese learners so as to enable them to read general literature in English. Would you like to acquire such a knowledge?
8. Imitation, Good and Bad
Too often a learner of English who has read one or two classics tries to imitate their style. The fact, however, is that style cannot be imitated. Different authors have different styles. They do not endeavour to write the way they write. So the imitation of any style often results in affectation.
And the result will be till worse if the style imitated is that of a work written a hundrd years ago or more. We are of the eighties of the twentieth century, and we should not write the English of the eighties of the nineteenth century.
I would advise you not to aim at a special style. Take care to write correct, simple, idiomatic, and clear English, that's all.
But imitation is not always bad. Very often it is important to imitate something. Where personal style is out of place, imitation is the only means by which correctness may be secured. In writing an advertisement about something, for example, you have to imitate some such advertisement that you have read. You cannot possiblly write a good one if you have never read any, thouhg you may have read very widely in general literature.
You will do well to collect a number of short advertisements, formal invitations and announcements, receipts, IOU's, business contracts, etc. When you have occasion to write one of such, you have simply to do a little imitating and adapting. The following is an ordinary formal invitation:
Mr and Mrs M.S. Adms request the pleasure of Mr and Mrs L.J. Welliams's company at dinner on Saturday evening, May the seventeenth, at seven o'clock, 86 Star Stret.
This invitation is from Mr and Mrs M.S. Adams to Mr and Mrs L.J. Williams. Surely, with this piece before you, you can write a new one. You have simply to change the names, the day, the date, the time, and the address.
9. Long and Short Sentences (syntactic devices)(英语修辞)
Source: English Rhetorical Options 冯翠华 著
http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=11&ID=13368&page=2The
The rhetorical effect of long or short sentences depends on purpose and context. Without an appropriate purpose or context, short sentences used abundantly in a passage only make for choppiness and monotony. Likewise, too many long sentences can make a passage heavy and laborious.
Skillful writers, however, can exploit variation in sentence length to great effect to express different moods or attitudes, to describe action or events or to emphasize a point. Let us see some examples.
(1) Dick Boulton looked at the doctor. Dick was a big man. He knew how big a man he was. He liked to get into fights. He was happy. Eddie and Billy Tabeshaw leaned on their cant-books and looked at the doctor. The doctor chewed the beard on his lower lip and looked at Dick Boulton. Then he turned away and walked up the hill to the cottage. They could see from his back how angry he was. They all watched him walk up the hill and go inside the cottage.
(E.Hemingway: "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife")
Now if we didn't know this passage was written by Hemingway, we might say the first five sentences are "choppy", and could be combined into one or two sentences. But the author had a purpose for using the short plain sentences. Their very bareness and brevity underscore the latent power of Dick's size. And Dick was happy, knowing the advantage he had over the physically less powerful doctor. The short simple sentences help to build up the right atmosphere for Dick's confrontation with the doctor.
(2) When the dyke swept out, Al turned and ran. His feet moved heavily. The water was about his calves when he reached the truck. He flung the tarpaulin off the nose and jumped into the car. He stepped on the starter. The engine turned over and over, and there was no bark of the motor. He choked the engine deeply. The battery turned the sodden motor more and more slowly, and there was not cough. Over and over, slower and slower. Al set the spark high. He felt under the seat for the crank and jumped out. The water was higher than the running-board. He ran to the front end. Crank-case was under water now. Frantically he fitted the crank and twisted around and around, and his clenched hand on the crank splashed in the slowly flowing water at each turn. At last his frenzy gave out.
(John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath)
In this description of Al's attempt to start his truck in flood waters, Steinbeck effectively uses very short sentences to describe some of Al's actions, and longer ones to describe the engine's slow reactions. The longest sentence is used when Al frantically tries to crank the engine alive.
(3) She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne. She was tired. (James Joyce: "Eveline")
Anyone who has read this story will feel how effectively the short 3-word sentence coming after two long ones emphasizes Eveline's extreme tiredness.
The above examples illustrate how short sentences can be used effectively to achieve rhetorical effect, especially in combination with longer sentences. Long sentences, by themselves, however, have rather special purposes and contexts. Legal documents, official documents and scientific papers contain a much larger proportion of long sentences than other categoried of writing. The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, for instance, contains a single sentence of over 170 words. Sentences in such documents are made long by the fact that statements and opinions have to be made very clear and explicit, with no room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
In literary prose writing, however, long sentences serve a different purpose. They are used to describe actions or feelings that come in quick succession, to descbibe simultaneous or continuous action, or to indicate a close cause-and effect relationship. E.g.
(4) The concrete highway was edged with a mat of tangled, broken, dry grass, and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch on a dog's coat, and foxtails to tangle in a horse's fetlocks, and clover burrs to fasten in sheep's wool; sleeping life waiting to be spread and dispersed, every seed armed with an appliance of dispersal, twisting darts and parachutes for the wind, little spears and balls of tiny thorns, and all waiting for animals and for the wind, for a man's trouser cuff or the hem of a woman's skirt, all passive but armed with appliances of activity, still, but each possessed of the anlage of movement. (John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath)
In this famous passage by Steinbeck, the delicate process of seed-dispersal is beautifully described in a long sentence. In the passage below, however, the long sentence is used for a different purpose.
(5) Talking in low excited voices we would walk rapidly back toward town under the rustle of September leaves, in cool streets just grayed now with that still, that unearthly and magical first light of day which seems suddenly to re-discover the great earth out of darkness, so that the earth emerges with an awful, a glorious sculptural stillness, and one looks out with a feeling of joy and disbelief, as the first men on this earth must have done, for to see this happen is one of the things that men will remember out of life forever and think of as they die. (Thomas Wolfe: "Circus at Dawn")
The long sentence here (really a one-sentence paragraph) is used effectively to convey the writer's thoughts and feelings as the sights and sounds of early dawn crowd into his mind and eyes.
10. Tongue and Pen ---by professor Ge chuangui
"Do you speak English?" This is far more commonly asked by Englishmen and Americans of the Chinese with whom they come into contact than "Do you write English?" They would perhaps laugh at the idea of having studied English for years without being able to speak it. In fact, language is essentially a spoken thing. To study English without trying to speak it is not advisable. And it is absurd to read a conversation book in just the same manner as to read a grammer. Besides, as ordinary written English is not quite different from ordinary spoken English, to learn to speak is a very good way to learn to write. One who speaks good English writes good English too. The pen cannot go wrong where the tongue goes right. Many everyday phrases and everyday constructions come natural to one who uses them in speaking. For example, one who says "in fact" and "as a matter of fact" cannot possibly write the non-existent phrases "in a fact", "as a fact", and "as a matter of the fact". And if the surest sign of those whose English is not perfect is their misuse of prepositions, good speaking is of great help in learning the idiomatic use of those little tricky words. One who says "sick of", "interested in", "perfer...to..." will write the same right prepositions in right places without any conscious effort. I think it would be a very good method of learning writing as well as learning speaking for a pupil to talk to his teacher in English about whatever subject the former is interested in and to have himself corrected whenever he makes a mistake. I am only sorry that I do not think it practicable in a classroom where there are many pupils.
11. A "Foolish" Principle of Composition
I may tell you many principles of composition. But the principle that I am going to explain is one that I have not found in any book on rhetoric. I discovered it myself, and I acted up to it as soon as I discovered it, many years ago. I have found it so helpful that I believe you will do well to adopt it. The principle is that you should use no construction, no form of expression, and no combination of words, that you have not seen in your reading.
It seems to me that the average Chinese learner of English has a fair knowledge of grammar and a fairly large vocabulary, and that when he writes English, he makes sentences according to his knowledge of grammar and his understanding of the meaning of words. The result is that his English often seems to be correct enough but is not really correct. For correct English is a matter of usage, not merely a matter of grammar and vocabulary. In composition correction I have often been asked why I had changed a certain word or construction to another. Well, I cannot always say why. I have substituted that word or construction simply because that is the word or construction that an Englishman would have used there.
Suppose you are on the point of writing "He was rich to live on luxury". Is this sentence correct? "He was" is certainly correct; you have seen it many, many times. "He was rich" is also correct; you have seen it more than once. "He was rich to..." ---well, you have never seen it, have you? No, you have never seen it, and therefore you should not let it pass. "On luxury" ---well, you have never seen this expression, and so you should not use it. Now, the correct sentence is "He was rich enough to live in luxury".
Do you think my principle very foolish? It does look so. But I regard it as very helpful, and I hope that you will try to put it into practice.
The question may naturally arise: Shall I not find it practically impossible to write anything because I do not always remember whether I have ever seen a certain construction or form of expression or combination of words? Well, you should remember. You should read carefully. You should learn the art of expression from your reading. I hope you have not forgotten my article entitled "Reading to Learn the Art of Expression".
re: Something More Important Than Enlarging One''s Vocabulary I agree with that completely. For years I have been advocating knowing the meaning of your vocabulary well is more important than acquiring a large vocabulary and not knowing them well.
Chinese students are well know to pass multiple-choice exams with flying colours but unable to write and speak well. Very often they use "funny" words-- words which are inappropriate for the context.
----
All the articles you have here are very well thought out. I wish more people from all over can come and read them. Thanks to you and others, we have an impressive collection of articles on the learning and application of English. Many of them are very different from the "standard" fare that one repeatedly found in other English Corners. Our problem is that not too many people out there have discovered what we have, or that too many of them are just looking for "downloadable learning materials" they can stuff into their hard drive.
Thanks Uncle Yeti for your instructive idea. I have several related articles to be posted later. From now to June, I will be occupied with work and private business. But I will visit here as often as possible, for paying a visit here is my pleasure, not my burden. I love the 〖 The Treasure Island English Corner 〗.
12. An Aid to Composition
Do you often meet with a word or phrase or construction that you understand fully without being able to translate it into readable Han? I believe you do; I believe you have read enough English to have this experience. I myself often meet with such.
You have perhaps seen such a sentence as "They will not return for many days to come". You know that it means that they will return many days from now, or that they will return only after the passage of many days. But can you translate it into readable Han? In the very common expression "simply cannot", I find the word "simply" very hard to translate into Han. I also find it very hard to translate into Han the very common word "probable" as contrasted with "possible". As to such a sentence as "You cannot be too careful", I think it is even untranslatable.
All these and many other words and phrases and constructions do not seem to have what we call Han equivalents. You understand them, but you cannot translate them into readable Han; that is, you cannot translate them both exactly and clearly.
I do not mean to advise you to try and translate such hard things. Do not try to translate them, I say. Just commit them to memory. They will often come in useful when you write. They will help you to write more idiomatic English.
By the way, "society" is a much used word among Chinese learners of English. But I have seldom seen it used by any of them in the sense of companionship, as in "The old man enjoys the society of young people". This is because Chinese learners do not usually use an English word in a sense that cannot be easily translated into Han. I hope you will now profit by my hint.
All the essays are so helpful. I am supposed to learn here earlier.
13. Better Short Than Long
Once I read an essay by Hilaire Belloc in which the author says "I cannot refrain from remarking that all the discussions of the silly critics as to whether sentences in English should be long or short are mere spoiling of paper".
I fully agree with him. A sentence is not good or bad merely because it is long or short. Length is false test of a sentence. It is wrong to think that a series of long sentences is a proof of one's good command of English. It is equally wrong to think that simple and clear English requires every sentence to contain a certain number or words at most.
I remember that I myself formerly acted on these wrong opinions one after the other. For some time I tried to use as many words in a sentence as grammar and sense could justify. The result was an obtrusively dignified style. Then followed a period in which I tried to make every sentence a grammatically simple one and as easy to understand as those in first books for beginners. The result was affected simplicity.
However, while I would warn all learners of English composition against these two mistakes, I think that that of writing long sentences is the commoner one. And learners ought to take more care to avoid it, not merely because in the hands of those who have not had much practice in the use of words and phrases and idiomatic constructions, long sentences are much harder to manage than short ones. It must not for a moment be supposed that an error in grammar or idiom embedded in a long sentence can easily escape detection.
14. More about What to Read
Since it is with a view to learning composition that you read, and since it is in presentday English prose that you ought to learn to express yourself, what you read must be presentday English prose. Expressions in common use a hundred years ago may not be so at the present day. Likewise, expressions in common use in verse may not be so in prose.
The term "present-day English prose", however, requires qualification here. Since it is in standard English that you ought to learn to express yourself, what you read must not contain too much slang, whatever significance one may attach to the word. Again, since it is things in everyday life that you ought to learn to write about, what you read must not be of a technical character.
One limitation more. What you read must be fairly easy for you; too much time and energy spent in reading between the lines and finding out all kinds of references and allusions would very likely distract your mind from your purpose, which is to learn English composition.
15. Reading to Learn the Art of Expression
When you read a short story, you may read it merely for pleasure. When you read a biographical sketch, you may read it merely for information. But as you are a learner of English, I think you should often read to learn the art of expression. And for this purpose you may read either a short story or a biographical sketch, either an essay or a news item, indeed, anything that is written in good current English.
Even from a short paragraph you may learn several forms of expression if you are observant enough. Try to read the following paragraphs from BBC Modern English and notice the points of usage listed below:
Over 100 years ago she opened the first British hospital for women. There are still very few of these hospitals in England. This hospital is in Euston Road in London. Its situation means that women from all over England can reach it quite easily.
Her aim when she opened the hospital was to provide a place where women could go and receive treatment from female doctors and nurses. She also wanted the hospital to provide jobs for female doctors at a time when it was very difficult for them to find work. Recently the authorities have tried to close the hospital. They say that it is old-fashioned and wastes a lot of money. However, the Government has decided that the hospital will stay open. Many people feel very glad that the valuable service offered by this hospital will continue.
1) "over" More than. 2) "in Euston Road" "in...Road". 3) "means that... " "Means" takes an object clause introduced by "that". 4) "from all over England" "all over England" "from all over England". 5) "receive treatment". Patients receive treatment. 6) "wanted the hospital to provede... " "We want them to do it". 7) "at a time when... " "at a time when..." 8) "Recently the authorities have tried. " The present perfect is here used with "recently". 9) "the Government has" "the Government" can be considered singular. 10) "decided that... " "Decide(d)" takes an object clause introduced by "that". 11) "stay open". "Stay" can be a copulative verb.
In this way you will learn the art of expression very quickly; perhaps one or two paragraphs a day will teach you hundreds of forms of expression in a month, and these forms of expression will greatly improve your writing. And if you can ---I believe you can ---commit to memory one or two paragraphs a day that you have already read in this way, the results will be still greater.
16. About the Study of Grammer
I have been told by more than one bookseller that, here in China, so far as books on English are concerned, grammars sell better than other kinds of books except readers and dictionaries. And it seems to me that nearly every Chinese who learns English at all reads a grammer. I myself am a serious student of grammar; I have read I cannot tell how many English grammar books, by Chinese, English, American, Japanese, Danish and Dutch authors, and am always on the look-out for new ones.
The object of this article, however, is to advise you not to devote too much time to the study of grammar. I study grammar for grammar's sake, but I do not think every student in order to be able to make practical use of it. This object is not to be attained by mere study of grammar. I do not even think I should now be able to write such simple English as that of this book, if I had read nothing but grammars.
Grammar tells you some general rules, some exceptions to rules, and perhaps some idioms. But the correct use of English is not a mere matter of such. For example, grammar has what is called the double object, as in "He gave her a pen"; but it would be wrong to say "He introduced her a friend", in which "her" and "friend" seem to form the double object. The fact is that "introduce" cannot take the double object; but this point is not to be learnt from grammar but only from careful reading. Many Chinese students write sentences that might be justified by one grammatical rule or another but are certainly wrong.
I believe you have already read a few grammars, and probably have spent a great deal of time on the subject, though you may not now be able to write anything ---say a short letter ---grammatically perfect. Grammar may help you to use English, but only to a certain extent. Do not look on the study of grammar as all or nearly all that you have to do in order to master English. Careful reading and constand practice are far more important.
17. Learning English Conversation by Imitation
I know some people who once studied in England or America and yet do not speak English correctly; they make mistakes in grammar, idiom, and pronunciation. But the other day I met a Chinese woman who spoke proper English. She does not seem to be very well up in English, but I believe she speaks it more like an English person than I do. Upon inquiry I was given to know that she had never even been to college but had been taught English by English teachers only. She does not speak English as a foreign language. She speaks it in the way she does, not because she thinks it is the right way but because she knows no other. She is free from, and probably ignorant of, the thousand and one mistakes peculiar to Chinese students of English.
This woman learnt to speak English by imitating unconsciously. It is no doubt the best way. But not all Chinese learners have the chance of learning in this way. Well, there is the second best way; I mean learning by imitating consciously. If there are people who spent years in England or America but who do not speak English correctly, it is because they did not do much conscious imitating when abroad. They have carried their mistakes over and then carried them back, though they ought to have left them there.
I am perhaps in danger of being understood to mean that all who go to England or America ought to do so for the sole purpose of learning English conversation. No; I simply mean that by careful imitation one can very well learn it ---and that not only in countries where English is the mother tongue but also in some places in China. Nor do I mean that one's object in learning English is simply to speak it. But it needs to be generally realized among Chinsed learners of English that good speaking leads to good writing and that language is essentially something spoken.
18.Simply Didn't Know
You have a fairly good knowledge of grammar. You have a vocabulary of three or four thousand words. You know one or two thousand idioms. You are rather carful about usage. You ought to be able to write fairly well.
But are you? If you are not, why not? One of your troubles, I think, is that you often cannot express what you want to say. You cannot, but when you have seen your meaning expressed by someone who can express it, you will most probably say to yourself "That seems easy enough. I simply didn't know."
You are right. You simply didn't know. Just a few common words arranged in a simple grammatical order by someone who is at home in English. That expresses your meaning, and yet you simply didn't know which common words to choose and how to arrange them.
This is a very common trouble with Chinese learners of English. It is due to the fact that they do not read widely enough, nor carefully enough. There are thousands of useful expressions that are not generally considered idioms. They are so easy to understand that they are apt to be neglected. But those who neglect them will forget them, and fail to use them when they need them.
You cannot learn to write with much freedom of expression till you have laid in a stock of useful phrases and sentences, and you cannot do it without reading widely and carefully.
19. Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong
Many Chinese learners of English know just enough grammar to go wrong. "It seems I have seen such an expression several times", they say to themselves, "but surely it is not grammatical. I must alter it so as to make it grammatical." Their narrowly grammatical conscience, however, often causes them to change idiomatic English into unidiomatic English. For example, they may find "The boy acts contrary to his parents' wishes" ungrammatical, and to make the sentence grammatical change the "contrary" into "contrarily" ---with the result that the sentence would not read like an English sentence to an Englishman. It is true that from a narrowly grammatical point of view, the adjective contrary here should be replaced with the adverb "contrarily". But idiom has decided that the adjective is the word required here, and idiom there is no disputing. (perhaps it would be better to say that here idiom insists on the use of the adverb "contrary" instead of the adverb "contrarily".)
There are several forms of expression that are purely idiomatic and do not admit of grammatical analysis. The word "busy", for example, may be used immediately before a gerund looking like a participle, as in "He is busy writing letters".
In your reading, reader, take care to note down those idiomatic constructions that you do not find grammatical egough. Commit them to memory and try to use them in your writing. Above all, remember that you may happen to be one of those who, as I said in the above, know just enough grammar to go wrong.
You must not think, however, that idiom and grammar are always incompatibles. What is idiomatic is far more often grammatical than ungrammatical. I mean simply that not every idiomatic construction is grammatically explainable, nor is every strictly grammatical constrution idiomatic.
20. An Easy Sentence to Study
Before reading on, please consider the following short sentence: "They cannot see enough of each other".
What do you think this sentence means? Well, please consider and consider before reading on.
This is a very easy sentence, indeed, and I think every English or Amreican schoolboy or schoolgirl understands it. In fact, it occurs in a story-book for children. But I have been asked to explain it by a young man who, so far as I can see, has been learning English earnestly for years and has acquired a fair knowledge of grammar and a fairly large vocabulary.
Why, after all, did the young man fail to understand this short sentence? My answer is that it is because its way of expression does not have its corresponding way in our own language. There are many ways of expression in English that have no corresponding ways in Han. These are puzzling to most Chinese learners of English.
The above-quoted sentence means that the two persons love each other so dearly that though they see each other often, they think they see each other but seldom. By the way, the of in the sentence also deserves attention. "See enough of each other" means see each other often enough. "See much of you" means see you often.
In your reading you will do well to pay special attention to those ways of expression for which you do not find corrdsponding ways in Han. This will help you both in reading and in writing. I am sorry to find that many Chinese learners do not realize the importance of doing this, with the result that while they can read English by Chinese authors and write long and tolerably grammatical essays, yet they may not be able to understand an Englishman's social letter thoroughly or write a short paragraph in purely idiomatic English.
21. What Does "Would of Come" Mean?
Once a young man found the expression "would of come" in a magazine and asked me to explain it.
Do you understand it, reader? Have you ever seen such expressions as "would of come", "should of gone", "might of done", "could of learnt", "ought to of known"?
You may or may not have seen such expressions. They are not uncommon in short stories and dramas. But grammars do not usually mention them. So I am afraid that you do not understand them. You think they are simply ungrammatical.
Well, they are ungrammatical. But there are many ungrammatical expressions that are worth knowing. You ought to learn to use English correctly. But you ought as well to learn to understand the incorrect expressions that are common among Englishmen or Americans. It is partly owing to their ignorance of such incorrect expressions that many Chinese learners can parse and analyse well without being able to read a single page in an English-language magazine published in English or America.
Substitute "have" for the "of" in each of the abovementioned expressions, and you will undrstand what it means.
"Why is 'of' used instead of 'have'?" you may ask. Well, the mistake is but natural. In "would have", "should have", etc., the "have" is unemphatic and is often pronounced like the unemphatic "of". On the other hand, the "have" in "I of it" is never spoken or written.
Need I add that "of" used instead of "have" is always wrong and taht you should not use "would of", "should of", etc. in your own writing? There are many mistakes that are common among Englishmen or Americans but from which we Chinese are absolutely free. As I have said, you ought to understand them. But you ought not to adopt them as ornaments of style文体上的装饰品.
22. The Language Is the Main Thing 语言是主要的东西
When you read a story in English, do you read it for the story or for the English? This is a question that is not so foolish as it may seem并不象它表面看上去那样愚笨. For I find that many learners of English pay far more attention to the story than to the English. They read and enjoy and for a long time afterwards remember the story, but do not care不肯 to study the use of words and phrases in it. For instance, they keep in the memory how the mystery of the eternal triangle三角恋爱 is solved, but do not remember a single sentence in the story and cannot tell说不出 what preposition is used before or after a certain word in the speech of a certain character.
Of course, it is all right to read and enjoy and remember a story, and so long as one wants to know the story only, one need not bother about关心 the language. But the case is quite different with a learner of English. I mean a student of English as distinguished from a student of stories or what is called the general reader.
Whatever a learner of English reads, he should, in my opinion, regard the language as the main thing. For instance, on reading this preceding sentence, besides understanding its meaning, he should notice such points as the concessive use让步用法 of "whatever", "in my opinion", "regare...as..." and "the main thing". In this way, he does learn some English though what he reads may happen to be otherwise uninteresting or uninstructive. It may safely be said that this is a far better way of learning English composition than to read and consider the so-called principles of the subject可以可靠地说,这是一个比读而思考作文的原则更好的学习作文的方法.
Incidentally, I would advise teachers of English to question their pupils on points of diction and construction as well as on facts and thoughts.
23. Make the Word Your Own 把这个词变成你自己的
A word is not your own until you can use it correctly. You may know one or nore Han equivalents for a word and yet you may not be able to use it correctly. I am afraid that of all the English words that the average Chinese learner can translate into Han, less than half may really be called his own.
To give a few common words at random, "wise", "probable", "congratulate", "equip", "personality", "novel", "nevertheless", "meanwhile" ---all these words many Chinese learners may "know" without being able to use them correctly, reader? Please read the following sentences carefully and I have to tell you beforehand that all the words in italics are misused, and that if you fail to find any one of these wrong, that proves that that word is not yet your own.
1. The boy reads the book very well, and so he may be called a very wise boy. 2. He is probable to pass the examination. 3. Let's congratulate her success. 4. A radio has been equipped in the hall. 5. He never pays his debts; his personality is bad. 6. I don't like such novels as these short stories. 7. Nevertheless poor, the girl was neatly dressed. 8. I bought some bananas and meanwhile some apples.
How many of these italicized words are your own? And how many are not? Look up those that are not your own in a good dictionary in order to find out why they are wrong in these sentences, and to learn their correct uses.
Remember that not every word that you think you understand well is really your own.
ShanDingZi, the moderator of this section, has done great contributions to our English forum. Just have a look at the topics he is going to say----all of them are valuable advice for learners of English. Thanks a lot for your strenuous efforts and hearty concern for us.
24. A Warning Regarding the Use of Words 关于用词的一个警告
Once in an essay written by a man who had studied in England for several years I saw the word "destruct", which was eviently used in the sense of "destroy". At another time, I saw the same word, evidently used in the same sense, in and illustrated magazine published in Shanghai. At still another time I saw the word "destroyal" used in the sense of "destruction" by a man apparently well educted in English.
In fact, however, the verb is "destroy" and the noun is "destruction", and there do not exist the words "destruct" and "destroyal."
I do not hink that the users of these non-existing words did not know the correct words. They were careless enough, though. They just seized upon a combination of letters that looked like the word they wanted. It is true that these non-existing words may be understood by all who see thm. But, of course, they cannot therefore justify themselves.
Often in the English written by Chinese I find words that do not really exist. They use such words either because they do not know the correct words or merely because they are careless ---or even because they believe they have a good knowledge of English word-building. At any rate, this is a very bad fault peculiar to those who are not at home in English.
I would therefore advise you to use no word that you are not sure you have seen used by standard authors, and to consult your dictionary in cases of doubt.
One word more of warning. It is possible that you sometimes use a word that is recorded in your dictionary, but which is not in common use, and which you use not because you are sure of its existence but simply because you think it is the word you want. For instance, because you know the noun "aggression" and the adjective "aggressive", you may use the verb "aggress" ---which, however, is a very uncommon word.
25. What "Literary English" Means “文学英语”指什么？
Books on rhetoric and compositon tell us that English may be roughly classified as (1) literary English and (2) colloquial English, and that literary English should, and colloquial English should not, be used in writing.
Yes, we ---I mean you ---should learn to write literary English. But what, afer all, does "literary English" mean? What is literary English? I am afraid that many Chinese learners of English may think that literary English is a distinctly elegant sort of English. They think that it is absolutely different from English used in speaking, in addressing a class of stutents, or in writing to a business house to order goods. They think that in literary English a face is not a face but a visage and a man never goes but always repairs, and that it consists mainly, if not entirely, of figurative expressions.
The idea is wrong, however ---and this wrong idea prevents one from writing natural and proper English. Literary English, if you please, does not mean English confined in its use to literature. It is not a distinctly elegant sort of English. It is just the ordinary English that well-educated Englishmen and Americans use in writing ---not necessarily for literary purposes, but often for practical purposes. In literary English, a face is almost always a face and very rarely a visage, and a man almost always goes and very rarely repairs.
While "colloquial English" means English used in conversation, it does not follow that English used in conversation is necessarily too colloquial to be used in writing. The majority of the words and idioms used by well-educated English and American people in conversation are certainly literary English.
26. Logic and Usage 逻辑和惯用法
What do you think is the real meaning of the often quoted line from Shakespeare "All that glisters is not gold"? The strict sense would be that glistering proves a substance to be not gold. But the real sense is that glistering does not necessarily prove a substance to be gold. In other words, the proverb should, logically speaking, be "Not all that glisters is gold".
But Shakespeare wrote in the illogical way, and this illogical construction is not now uncommon. For example, if you hear an Englishman say "All my friends do not know the Han language", you must not understand him to mean that all his friends are ignorant of Han. He may very well imply that most of his friends can speak and write it very well.
This is indeed illogical. There are Englishmen who do not use this construction and fall foul of those who do. Probably it will pass away in time, for logic has time on its side. But it is natural and idiomatic English today, and I think every learner of English should know it.
There are a number of other illogicalites in English that are quite idiomatic. Please read the first sentence of the second paragraph of this article again. Perhaps you will think that "is now not uncommon" would be. According to logic, indeed, "not" ought to modify "uncommon" instead of "now". But according to idiom "is not now uncommon" is more usual.
With the word "only", illogical and idiomatic constructions are also common. An Englishman may say "I only arrived a few days ago", when he means that he arrived only a few days ago.
As I have said, logic has time on its side. But how many years the English language will take to become a perfectly logical speech!
27. A Good Knowledge of Bad English 关于坏英语的好知识
So many books and persons profess to teach good English! But none profess to teach bad English. I am almost sure that anyone who should advertise lessons in bad English would be called crazy and would get no pupils at all. Nor do I think you have ever thought of learning it. Perhaps you think that bad English is not worth learning, and that the English of the average Chinese learner of the language is bad enough without his ever making any effort ot learn to be bad. Well, please read the following story:
An old Black approached a white man in a Southern town and asked: "Marse Tom, you ain't seed anything of dat ole mule of mine, is you?" "Why no, Henry, I haven't seen that mule. Have you lost it?" "Well, Ah doan know ef Ah've lost him or not, but he is shore "nuff gone." "Henry, I think the best way you can find that mule would be to put a want ad in the paper for him." "Shucks! Dat wouldn't do no good, Marse Tom." "Why not?" "Why, Marse Tom, you all know puffickly well dat dat mule cain't read."
Do you understand the Black's speech without the help of my notes? If not, you have not got much knowledge of bad English, and I hope you realize that as a student of English you ought to get more of it.
By bad English I mean English as used by English-speaking persons who somehow do not use good English. It may be called illiterate or uncultured English. It is not found in formal writing, but is very common in modern fiction and drama and in the writing and speech of uneducated English-speaking persons. It is quite different from your English, which, if it is bad, is bad in the Chinese way, so to speak.
Bad English means bad grammar, bad spelling, bad usage, and bad pronunciation. All these things form an interesting and useful study. Without a good knowledge of these one will miss much in modern literature and will fail to understand any uneducated Englishman or American one man has occasion to have anything to do with.
Notes: profess to...自称为...... Marse Tom=Master Tom, Tom 先生 ain't=haven't=have not seed=seen dat=that ole=old is you?=have you? Ah=I doan=don't=do not ef=if=whether Ah've=I've=I have shore=sure nuff=enough wouldn't do no good=would not do any good=would do no good 没有用 puffickly=perfectly cain't=can't=cannot has occasion to... 有...的必要
I would like to draw everyone' attention to SDZ' notes at the bottom of the article. Most of those words are commonly spoken by the Black American. The cultural influence of Black American in America is notable. Knowing the equivalence of those words in 'good English' will enable you to fully understand some of the American literary works, in particular, any written work about Black American. For example, the following lyrics come from a popular American opera (1935) Porgy and Bess (music by George Gershwin, Lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Dubose Heyward):
" I got no lock on de door...dat's no way to be. Dey kin steal de rug from de floor... Dat's o-keh wid me 'cause de things dat I prize, like de stars in de skies, all are free...Oh, I got plenty o' nuttin' an' nuttin plenty fo' me...got my gal, got my song, got Hebben the whole day long."
Dey kin = they can; wid = with; nuttin' = nothing; Hebben = Heaven
By the way, the popular song 'Summertime' also come from that opera.
Glad to see you, Fairygodma and Sunbeam.
As for us English learners, with a good knowledge of "bad English" will enable us to gain much in modern literature and to have a better understanding of the Black American culture. We are not encouraged to spare a lot of time to memorize those words, but it pays to know the equivalence of those in "good English". That is the similar way I deal with the "four-letter-words" in some reading. My aim at English is to use the tool to gain knowledge and learn the culture.
28. “More Presently”
A friend of mine called my attention to使我注意到 what he called a mistake in a biographical sketch传略 of a literary man: the name of a person followed by "of whom more presently". In fact, there is no mistake at all in the expression. "More presently" is elliptical for "more will be said presently". My friend did not know this idiomatic ellipsis, having apparently taken "more" to be the adverb modifying "presently" and thought a subject and verb ought to have been supplied so as to make a complete clause.
Equpped with a knowledge of grammar, Chinese learners of English are apt to think they are quite able to read general literature without much difficulty so long as they have a good dictionary within reach. What is more, they are too ready to太易于...的 dismiss as wrong把...看作错误而置于不顾 any combination of words that does not seem to him to be capable of grammatical analysis可能在语法上分析的.
Important as grammar is, there are many turns of expression结构;说法 that are generally considered blameless English though they are not quite defensible可被辩护的 from a narrowly grammatical point of view. So that the mastery of English grammar in its narrow sense does not enable one so much as即使 to read English intelligently.
When you come across in good writing any construction that you do not find grammatical, I would advise you to note it down instead of calling it a mistake, and to see if you will not meet with a similar one(=construction) in your reading. You will(will=will meet with a similar one in your reading) very soon, perhaps, and then you will most likely understand the construction.
29. Make Your Own Dictionary 编写你自己的词典
I must thank very sincerely the many readers who have written to inquire about my Dictionary of English Usage. It was always going to be published, and it has not yet been published. This is partly beause of my occupation with other literary matters; in fact, I work on the book only off and on. But the chief reason is that being a conscientious learner of English I am always careful to avoid slipshod or perfunctory work. I take notes for the book almost every day ---both frm reading and from the questions about usage that I am asked by persons interested in the subject. Very often a seemingly simple question reminds me of some important point that I might not otherwise think of. I hope that the delay in publication will be compensated for by the richer and better contents of the book.
Now I think that every learner could make his own dictionary of usage. He could keep a notebook in which to record, in alphabetical order, such points of usage as he might find of particular interest to him. Such a book would serve him as a constant companion to composition, though many things in it might seem quite dull or useless to others.
And I think that every learner could make his dictionary of usage as large as the sum total of the books he reads. I mean that he might make a usage index, so to speak, to those books. For a particular point he would have to record only the book, the page, and the line concerned. He would some day be able to point to his library and say "This is my dictionary of English usage". What a great work!
Indeed, I wish I could find time to do this. And I believe that I could thus lay the foundation of a live and original dictionary ---quite different from those based on nothing but one or more dictionaries.
In doing a piece of translation the other day, I experimented with several words before I got the word that expresses the shade of meaning intended(要表达的那个细微的意义). The word was "admonish", and the words I had experimented with were "advise", "counsel", "warn", "exhort", "reprove", roughly speaking, means "exhort" or "reprove", but it carries the implication of kindness or gentleness coupled with seriousness, and also of warning and counsel.
Sometimes I fial to get the exact word in spite of much thinking and weighing. In such cases I have to content myself with using the word that I regard as being nearest to the meaning I want to express. This is a common experience with writers of English, and is one they ought to feel sorry for.
The study of synonyms is no doubt very helpful in the careful choice of words, which is essential to precision, one of the qualities of good writing. But there are two mnistakes against which I think learners ought to be warned. One is that of trusting to the so-called Han equivalents as given in English-Han dictionaries. The other is that of studying the explanations in articles on synonyms but neglecting the illustrative examples(例证).
Correct English, however, is largely a matter of the use of common words, the correct use of which
depends not so much upon their "meanings" as upon what is known as usage(普通词的正确使用, 依靠它们的"意义"少,而依靠所说的惯用法多). For instance, a writer of correct English may not be able to tell you in detail how "for" and "to" differ from each other, but he never fails to use the right one instead of the other. He uses the word(准确的那个词) as a matter of habit rather than as a result of the careful choice of words. The study of synonyms is of no help in this matter. One can improve only by the careful reading of idiomatic English ---which no amount of word study can supplant(不论怎样多的词的研究也不能代替).
Can you read dreams?
The baby cannot read the clock.
He is reading her thoughts.
The sentence reads like a paraphrase.
Don't read too much into the text.
The thermometer reads 680.
If not, you can hardly yet be said to know the word "read".
5. What To Read?
"Suppose you have two friends, A and B, both of whom have been learning English for some years. Both are clever young men, and both are anxious to acquire a good knowledge of the language. But now they have got very different results from the several years of study: A can write short letters and read easy news items but cannot read any passage in the classics, while B can read here and there in some classics but cannot write short letters or read easy news items. Reader, which of your two friends would you prefer to be like?
I believe you would prefer to be like A rather than B. You should. I am sorry to find that among Chinese learners of English there seem to be more like B than like A. The thouble lies chiefly in what is read.
Well, what do you read? I mean to ask what you take as your chief reading matter. Is it a novel or a volume of essays written more than a hundred years ago? If it is, my advice to you is to change it for something else. Your chief reading matter must have been written far less than a hundred years ago, a few weeks ago if possible, must have been written in simple English, and must have been written by an Englishman or an American.
I am not going to give a list of books here. But I think I have to make some general remarks. Your chief reading matter need not be a literary masterpiece. Nor need it be written by a famous author. A volume of short pieces of narration or exposition is better than a novel or some long argumentative essays.
You must have noted that in the above I have talked about only what your chief reading matter should be. You have a book or two for your chief reading matter. You should also read something else, which may be a little more difficult, but which still had better not be a classic of more than a hundred years ago."
It is true. I have met with the same problem. My boss had advised us to read some literary masterpieces for the sake of improving our English. So i bought a lot of books like "呼啸山庄", "红与黑", "简爱" and so on. I tried to read the book "呼啸山庄", unfortunately, i hardly understood what they said. It has past half a year I had just read about several pages. I want to give up. I want to insist on reading it because it is useful for learning English (my boss said).but i really do not like to read those so-called literary masterpieces. I did not konw how to do that for a long time untill i read what you have said above.
