昨晚(2022年6月8日),我在研读2022年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试(乙卷)时,我看到阅读理解B篇的几段文字时,眼睛一亮,特别是最后自然段的引语部分,三言两语,作者就勾勒出一幅美丽的画面,让人身临其境。
Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism(坚忍)of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: "When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter."
威肯登是一个非常善于讲故事的人。延绵无尽的大地和坚忍不屈的当地人,激发她创作出优美的文字。这是一张多萝西·伍德拉夫骑着马从山顶向下看的照片:“当太阳下山时,它的四周散发出玫瑰色的光芒。然后一轮满月升起。茫茫的雪地人去无踪,只有时不时出现狐狸、土狼、老鼠的身影,还有一入冬就通体变白的野兔。”
由此,我在微信朋友圈里就教材的选材问题谈了点感想:我们教材英语里的选材和高考英语里的选材完全不在一个层面。
随着时代的变化,英语考试也发生了显著的变化。高考英语卷试中阅读理解和完形填空题采题语料70%以上来源出自于国外原版的文章。
从应试角度来考虑,高考需要我们的学生不仅要低头看书,还要有广博的见识。就英语而言,考生要考出理想的分数,他们平时需要多多关注国外的各大报刊、媒体的新闻。这对于学生拓宽视野,增长见识是极有好处的。但是要那些从小在动物园里成长的狮子要有对非洲大草原的情怀确实难了点。
现在的试题材料来源之广,涉及专业领域之多,让我们每一位英语教师面临极大的挑战。
很多学生从小学三年级,甚至更早开始学习英语,到高中毕业时,能真正看懂外刊的占很小的比率。原因一是阅读量问题,原因二是构词问题。这两个问题现教材都没能解决好。我们的教材英语和高考英语远没在一个频道上。
我教了快40年的高中英语,在教材里,我很少见到一篇完整的来自英语著名作家的文章。学生不读杰克·伦敦,马克·吐温,海明威,塞林格他们写的东西,学生们怎么知道何为地地道道,原汁原味的英语?
是的,对于中国的高中学生而言,以上提到的名家的文字很难。但是教材的编者能不能选一些适合学生读的,稍作改编的原汁原味的学习材料,就像高考英语阅读理解题中那样的材料。
没想到得到了许多同行的关注。
一线老师的回帖:“我的学生一开始对英语也有修辞手法表示惊讶。其实英语形式的美比如对偶排比、音韵上的美,比如头韵尾韵不比汉语逊色,提喻转喻更是妙不可言,这些只有在名家名作才能漓淋尽致地展现出来。可惜配套教材很少涉及语言的美感……比起高中,初中更是重灾区。”
一线老师的想法:“所以扯着嗓子,热火朝天,事无巨细的讲教材,有时候感觉讲了个寂寞。还不如讲那些套题上的阅读文章,语言很地道,对老师要求很高,自己先做还要查一些背景资料,才敢在班上讲的绘声绘色。”
英语教学专家:网络为我们提供海量的英语资讯,各学段都不缺原汁原味学习材料,但缺乏筛选和引导,特别是通过老师的设计让学生习惯那些真正用英语思维写出来的语篇,在教材英语和高考英语间架起一座桥梁。
做过编辑的老师:“现在网上反美反西方的情绪高涨,谁提美国、欧洲(不管好歹不管哪一方面)都会触犯众怒,不问青红皂白一棍子打死。估计教材编者、出版社都是如履薄冰战战兢兢。...不能保证语言的纯洁性,最终受害的还不是英语学习者?”
我深知编者的不易。所以,从教材英语到高考英语的过渡,我在平日的教学中下功夫,适时给学生补充一些稍作引导他们能看懂又原汁原味的材料。这样的话,学生到了考场就不会茫然了。
例如,普通高中课程标准实验教科书人教版必修1第4单元有一篇杰克･伦敦写的关于1906年旧金山大地震的报道The Story of an Eyewitness,但教材的编者对原文做了彻底的修改。比如下面这一段:
A list of buildings undestroyed was now only a few addresses. A list of the brave men and women would fill a library. A list of all those killed will never be made.
原文:An enumeration of the buildings destroyed would be a directory of San Francisco. An enumeration of the buildings undestroyed would be a line and several addresses. An enumeration of the deeds of heroism would stock a library and bankrupt the Carnegie medal found. An enumeration of the dead will never be made.
还有下面这句:
Within an hour after the earthquake, the smoke of San Francisco’s fires could be seen 160 kilometers away, the sun was red in the dark sky.
原文:Within an hour after earthquake shock the smoke of San Francisco's burning was a lurid tower visible a hundred miles away.
And for three days and nights, this lurid tower swayed in the sky, reddening the sun, darkening the day and filling the land with smoke.
原文难不难?有点。但我们稍作引导,学生是完全可以理解和接受的。比如上段中对大火的描写:大火烧了三天三夜,太阳更红,天空更暗,地上满是烟尘。文中用了三个分词短语,把大火的凶猛描写的淋漓尽致。每次,我在讲现在分词做说明性状语时都会引出这个句子。
文中多处用到的倒装句:
1.Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed.
2. Never, in all Francisco’s history, were her people so kind and courteous as on his night of terror.
3. Everywhere were their trunks with across them lying their exhausted owners, men and women.
1、2两个句子”not”“never” 放在句首,主语和谓语倒装有强调意味。旧金山历史上从来没有过他的人民在这样充满恐惧的夜晚表现得如此友善而有礼。读者不禁对大灾面前人们的表现深感敬佩。第3句,到处都是箱子,箱子旁边躺着他们精疲力竭的人。作者强调“到处”,人们逃难的场景如此这般,难道读者能不动情吗?
所以,在处理此篇阅读时,我就引出了原文。在对比中,学生更能理解英语语言中像明喻、暗喻、叠用,还有语义强调,情感抒发的倒装等修辞的用法。
我们的教材有有关吃喝场景描写的题材,高考也有,比如2015年全国I卷B篇:
Swimming pools, wine tasting, and pink sunsets (at normal evening hours, not 4 in the afternoon) filled the weekend, but the best part - particularly to my taste, dulled by months of cold-weather root vegetables - was a 7 a.m. adventure to the Sarasota farmers’ market that proved to be more than worth the early wake-up call.
Delighted as I was by the tomatoes in sight, my happiness deepened when I learned that Brown’s Grove Farm is one of the suppliers for Jack Dusty, a newly opened restaurant at the Sarasota Ritz Carlton, where -luckily for me- I was planning to have dinner that very night.
2019年全国2卷C篇:
"I prefer to go out and be out. Alone, but together,you know?" Bethtel said, looking up from her book. Bethtel, who works in downtown West Palm Beach, has lunch with coworkers sometimes, but like many of us, too often works through at her desk. A lunchtime escape allows her to keep a boss from tapping her on the shoulder. She returns to work feeling energized. " Today, I just wanted some time to myself," she said.
Just two seats over, Andrew Mazoleny, a local videographer, is finishing his lunch at the bar. He likes that he can sit and check his phone in peace or chat up the barkeeper with whom he‘s on a first-name basis if he wants to have a little interaction. “I reflect on how my day’s gone and think about the rest of the week,” he said. “It‘s a chance for self-reflection. You return to work recharged and with a plan.“
以上都是在课堂上我们需花时间像教材中处理课文一样处理的材料。
教材中,没有拉撒的话题。有的学生从小学到高中,学了近10年的英语,连放屁都不会说。尽管高考英语中,命题人也不会涉及这个话题,但若我们遇到关于拉撒的文章还是有必要介绍给他们,让他们知道当the call of nature 来临时,如何去表达。
下面就是今早我看到的一篇关于拉撒的趣闻的片段。我收藏起来,下次有机会就介绍给学生。
So it is when it comes to potty training. I’ve already been through it once—well, twice, if you include my own personal transition to drier bed sheets—and yet I simply cannot remember the details of how it’s achieved. My eldest son, Harvey, now six, can take himself to the loo, aim his appendage with precision and wipe his bum like a champ, but I have no recollection of how it all happened. I just know that he used to be in nappies, and now, three years later, he isn’t, and, presumably, at some point in-between, we worked it all out. This presents a challenge, because the time has come for our second son, Toby, to be inducted into the defecatory Hall of Fame. Selfishly, determined the timeline for his urinary conversion around our holiday schedule: I insisted upon waiting until after Easter, because we were in Cyprus, and I couldn’t face queuing for the Easyjet lavs with wee running down my arm. And we’re off to the South of France in July, and I don’t want to be changing nappies in the heat either. So, the time is now. Frankly, after nearly three years wrapping Toby’s soiled paper pants into scented plastic bags and chucking them into landfill, we’ve punished the planet enough.
现如今,高考不断提高的难度逼学生要更加努力,更是逼我们老师要不断上新台阶。要提高学生的综合素养,提高他们的得分,我们教师先得提高我们自己的专业素养。
