Chapter 4 Part 1: How to say Stonehenge and the Pyramids in English

Stonehenge and Pyramids Stonehenge and Pyramids When did humans speak?I thought about this before I learned English, and I felt strange and endlessly confused.I think the birth of language, or the generation of language will always be a mystery to us. There are too many mysteries in this world, and as time goes by, there may be more and more mysteries through the ages.In fact, the development of human beings is a process of constantly solving puzzles, but some puzzles may remain puzzles forever.Some of the miracles that our ancestors created with extremely low productivity are difficult for us to do today with modern equipment. For example, who created those giant stone figures on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean?Whose statue is that?For example, how did the large stones at Stonehenge (Stonehenge) in Wiltshire, England stand up more than 4,000 years ago?Where did those boulders come from?How did it get here?There are also ancient hanging coffins in China's Three Gorges and other places (it is said that hanging coffins have also been found on cliffs in Southeast Asia in recent years). How did people at that time place such heavy wooden coffins on the cliffs?For another example, what are the secrets in the Egyptian pyramids?Many of you must have watched the 2002 live broadcast of an American-made robot drilling a pharaoh's tomb.During the live TV broadcast that day, my eyes were fixed on the screen all the time, for fear of missing the moment when I suddenly discovered the mystery of the ages. When I was a little excited and a little scared to see everything in the tomb, the little robot It stopped - another thick stone wall blocked its eyes...

This is human beings, and this is the mystery left by our ancestors!I would like to know what language people used to communicate at that time, and also who was the first translator in the world.When people set foot on a new land in a canoe, how did they communicate in their own language with people from another continent, another race?They undoubtedly express everything in words, friendship, love, joy, sadness, anger, disappointment, shock... How are so many words generated, and how do people remember them?To learn a language, memorization is the most important thing. When I first started learning English, I just memorized words mechanically, thinking that the more words I remembered, the faster I would learn them, but I couldn't really understand those letters.I don't know why those letters are connected together, and I have wondered how many changes can there be in the combination of the 26 letters in English?I even wrote to a friend who was in a university mathematics department and asked him to do some calculations using probabilities.

I am used to the square characters in my own language, and I find the combination of English words really incredible. I have asked myself many times, can you remember hundreds of words in another language?How different it is from the Chinese characters I am familiar with!For example, I want to record the Chinese word for a concert as concert, musicale in English, film as cinema, film, cine, movie, movies, silver screen, and marry as marriage, make a match, matrimony, get splice, spousal, wedding, etc.In short, it is to use another symbol to remember the meaning of the familiar square characters.When an adult learns a foreign language, it is very difficult to change the deep-rooted memory habit of his mother tongue.

Therefore, some people who learn English by themselves hope to have a trick, thinking that with the trick, they can learn English quickly.I also wanted to find the secret at that time, but after many years, I found that the secret of learning is actually within our own grasp. It may be the diligent pen in our hands, or the brain of unremitting thinking-English listening, The ability to speak, read, write and translate is achieved through firm self-confidence and assiduous self-training.There are no shortcuts that can be easily skipped on the way of learning. It is not like a computer that has an ignoring function, which can skip this program and enter the next program. Learning English cannot ignore any program.

Many years ago, I started to learn English in a remote small town.There are no trains and few cars. There are only horse-drawn carts, ox carts, donkey carts, and people's bicycles on the country roads.The information there is very limited. To buy books, I can only go to a very small Xinhua Bookstore, but I can hardly find the books and dictionaries I want there.My first English book was a first-year textbook for the School of Foreign Languages ​​sent to me by a friend.I hold that English book every day, and I don’t know how many times I flipped through it. Later, the corners of the book began to curl and break, and then the cover fell off, and the binding line also opened. After a few months, a book is in my hand. It became unrecognizable.

At that time, I copied the words I learned in the notebook every day, just like elementary school students copying new words in Chinese class. I copied each word dozens or even hundreds of times. In this way, I copied dozens of times. small notebook.But I found that I couldn't read Beijing Review ("Beijing Weekly") smoothly, because I didn't know how to read in context, but just blindly piled up words to understand the article. I still remember that that year, my friend H sent me a worn-out English book, which was published in 1939, and the title of the book was "English in January". H said in the letter, Heidi, you only need to memorize a text in this book every day, memorize the words in it, and you will be able to learn English in a month!At that time, I was eager to learn, and I had no teacher and no method, so getting that book felt like a precious treasure.But when I opened the book, I was puzzled. Each text was very short, with only a few sentences, just like a jingle. I read the first text:

One two three, I love coffee, ………… Before I finished reading the text, I couldn't help laughing out loud.That day I wrote to H and said, I don’t think there will be a shortcut to learning English, and I still rely on hard work and a solid attitude to persevere, like a river rushing to the sea, with hundreds of twists and turns, never stopping, I also said that I am determined to fight Protracted battle, but also to create their own learning methods. From then on, I went to study on the stone bridge of a big river every day.Looking far away from the bridge in the winter morning, there are only curls of white mist drifting with the breeze in the open field.I must have looked very lonely there.But I am not alone in my heart, because I live in another world, where I read English texts aloud, just like a film director, according to the text, design scenes for myself, design characters and plots, give full play to imagination, use this A method to remember texts and words.For example, when the wind blows, I ask myself and answer:

Do you feel the breeze's caressing your face? (Do you feel the breeze caressing your cheek?) Yes, I feel very pleasant. (Yes, I feel very comfortable.) If it's very cold, I'll say this: Do you see that the river is frozen? (Did you see the river freeze?) Yes, the ice is so thick that I can walk on it. (See, the ice is so thick that I can walk on it.) Every day I come up with all kinds of reasons to talk to my imaginary person, like I might say, Would you mind my inviting you to go to cinema this evening? (Can I take you to a movie tonight?) No, thanks. I have a math exam tomorrow morning. I should brush up on it.

(No, thanks. I have a math test tomorrow morning, and I have to review my homework.) ………… Today people have all kinds of conditions for learning English, not only various professional books, but also the Internet that can provide people with all learning conveniences. There are texts with pictures and texts, flash, and voices that are simulated or read by real people. You can watch the English media news of some countries in real time, and listen to the English speeches of many politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, movie stars, and celebrities... Today's English reference books are also dazzling.In the bookstore, there are all kinds of English dictionaries on the shelves, ranging from English dictionaries weighing a few kilograms to pocket dictionaries weighing tens of grams, as well as various professional dictionaries, usage dictionaries, slang dictionaries, idiomatic dictionaries, etc. .In department stores, large supermarkets, and electronic markets, there are also various English electronic dictionaries, Quick Ditto, notepads, and handheld computers.If you install English learning software and turn on the computer, the icons of English-English, English-Chinese, and English-Chinese-Chinese-English dictionaries will appear on the desktop...

Looking back on the past learning situation, I think there are two disadvantages in memorizing words mechanically. One is that it is easy to forget, and the other is that I only memorize one or two Chinese meanings of the words. improper.Because English is the same as Chinese, many words have specific meanings when used in specific situations and in specific contexts.For example, the following dialogue: Taxi driver: Here we are, sir. 12 dollars 60 cents, please. (TAXI DRIVER: Here we are, sir. The fare is twelve dollars and sixty cents.) Passenger: Here you are, the change is for you.

(Passenger: Here you go, here’s the change. Thank you.) Taxi driver: Thank you. You are welcome. (Taxi driver: Thank you. You are very kind.) In this short conversation, Here we are and Here you are, with only one pronoun difference, they mean different things. For another example, see is a very commonly used word, its basic meaning is "to see", but as can be seen from the following dialogue, its meaning is far more than this: Peter Rogers: Glad to see you again, Carl. (Peter Rogers: Nice to see you again, Carl.) Carl: Glad to see you, Peter. Come in, and meet our manager and see how to fix up your account. (Carl: Nice to meet you, Peter. Come on in and meet our manager to see how to open your account.) Manager: I'm very glad to meet you, Mr. Rogers. I imagine you need a deposit account and a Visa card account as well, won't you? (Manager: Nice to meet you, Mr. Rogers. I think you need a deposit account and a MasterCard account, don't you?) Peter Rogers: Yes, I will. Thank you. (Peter Rogers: Yes, thank you.) Manager: Good. Well, all we need now are some specimen signatures and then you can have a card for the Visa card account and the deposit account pass book. See to that, Carl, won't you? (Manager: Alright. So, we need to leave a sample of your signature now, and then you can get a MasterCard and a passbook. Carl, you go and get it, okay?) Carl: Certainly, Mr. Manager. (Carl: Of course, Mr. Manager.) Manager: And you'll come and see me, Mr. Rogers, won't you, if you need any help in financial matters? (Manager: Mr. Rogers, if there is anything you want me to do financially, please come to me, please?) Peter Rogers: With pleasure. And thank you very much. (Peter Rogers: I am very happy. Thank you very much.) In this conversation, see is used in several different ways: The see in glad to see you is "to meet"; The see in and see how to means "to understand" what to do; see to that means to let Karl "take charge of the formalities"; come and see me means "come to me if you have something to do". English vocabulary is sometimes flexible.I always remember words from the texts and materials I read, and memorize them on the basis of understanding.I think the text and materials provide the background and specific situations in which words appear, and the meaning of words is formed in such specific situations.The above dialogue illustrates this point.Another example: Let me try. If this sentence is said in a clothing store, it means, let me try it on.If it is in front of a computer, there may be a problem with a certain program of the computer, and the speaker has to try to deal with it. Some experts advocate that the amount of new words in reading materials should be about 5% of the total vocabulary. I think this must be the experience of experts.Because there are too many new words, I stutter when I read it, and I have to go to the dictionary frequently, so that I will be tired of reading the wonderful places, and gradually the interest in reading becomes less and less.Therefore, reading something understandable is the best choice.Don't think that what you understand is simple, everything is from easy to difficult, this process cannot be bypassed.For example, when reading English poetry, a beginner who starts to read Shakespeare's Sonnets will definitely be discouraged, and may even stuff the book into a corner, or even think it's best to forget it forever.But if you first read Burns, Shelley, Keats, then Lord Byron, Wordsworth... and then Shakespeare, then there will be different.Maybe I’ll search through the boxes and cabinets for the books that I’ve stuffed somewhere, but if I can’t find them, I might even go to a bookstore to buy a copy. Now for many people, learning has become quick and convenient. For example, at this moment, I used the mouse to click the icon of the English-Chinese dictionary on the screen, and a window popped up on the desktop immediately, and lines of words appeared in the window. : astronomy biology chemistry ecology geometry linguistics physics (physics)... I clicked on astronomy, and a bunch of words related to it drifted across the screen like little clouds, and at the same time a very gentle baritone read out the words: astronaut astronautics astronomer (astronomer) astronomical astrophotography astrophysics (astrophysics)… How can we remember so many, countless words?There are more and more dictionaries in bookstores, and many new words are constantly being created and added to the dictionaries. On the Internet, cooler and newer words will pop up one by one... No matter how English itself is For change, I think the most important thing is that learners do not give up their daily efforts, just like the ancients built Stonehenge and Pyramids.Both Stonehenge and the Pyramid were built by the ancients with huge stones, and what they paid for it was not only countless labor, sweat and life, but also their unique imagination and exquisite conception.When we witness the first ray of sunlight on the summer solstice pass through the arches of Stonehenge, and the sunset glow casts mysterious light on the pyramids, we may be amazed, and we may also ask questions—how much wisdom and strength have we dedicated to our lives today? ?