如何选择适合自己的英语原版书?

  • Oct. 19, 2016
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今天的这篇文章首先想要解答很多人对于原版书的恐惧,以及选择方面的问题。我是坚定的反应试反刷题者,也是原版书支持者。我从不相信所谓十天全面提高英语水平这种鬼话,也不相信刷过几百套题考出来的高分不掺杂水分,而阅读英文原著,无疑是我心目中提高英语水平的不二法门。



测试基础词汇量


不管是说自己英语水平多差的人,经过了从小学到大学长达十多年的英语学习,最基础的词汇量一定是有的。测试自己的基础词汇量,指的就是阅读词汇量,简单来说,就是“我认识”“我大概知道它的意思”的单词。


这一步推荐随便百度一些测量单词量的网站(扇贝、沪江英语等等都有,不过它们的上限基本都不会超过三万=  =),不要欺骗自己!(我只都有些小伙伴为了发朋友圈之类的还百度某些单词假装自己认识。。。)


测试结果3000以上的,开始阅读一些原版书就问题不大了。基本上可以分为:


3000-8000 高中,四级水平

8000-12000 六级、考研水平

12000-18000 雅思,托福水平

18000+ 英专,GRE水平


这个分类只是最简单粗暴的一个分法。那么很多人就问了,测出来的单词量明明也达到了10000+,怎么就还是看不懂雅思阅读呢?这就需要第二步啦~


阅读水平衡量

这个步骤其实是很多人无视的一步,当你想当然地以为自己过了六级,或者雅思阅读也考了8之类,看个原版书就没有问题了。然后你兴冲冲地从亚马逊上买了大几百块的原版,最后却都沦为书架上的摆设。其实我们只需要简单地进行一下阅读水平衡量,因为词汇量、语感、对于结构的理解和掌握对于阅读原版而言都是十分重要的:

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids(空袭). They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs Macready and three servants. ( Their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but they do not come into the story much. ) He himself was a very old man with shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to meet them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy( who was the youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund( who was the next youngest) wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose(搓鼻子) to hide it.

As soon as they had said goodnight to the Professor and gone upstairs on the first night, the boys came into the girls'room and they all talked it over.

"We've fallen on our feet and no mistake," said Peter. "This is going to be perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like."

"I think he's an old dear," said Susan.

"Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered. "Don't go on talking like that.


上面这一页选自《纳尼亚传奇:狮子,女巫和魔衣柜》。除了我标注出中文的两个词之外,如果能生词不超过三个,能够比较顺利地读完并理解意思,就达到了高中、四级这个阅读水平。接下来一起看看下面这一段:

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery(碗碟储藏室), and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.

As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar(公猪), had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way. Old Major (so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say.


上面这一页选自《动物农场》,同样的评判标准,大概是六级、考研这个阅读水平。

Back into speech again it passed, and with beating heart he was following the adventures of a dozen seaports, the fights, the escapes, the rallies, the comradeships, the gallant undertakings; or he searched islands for treasure, fished in still lagoons and dozed day-long on warm white sand. Of deep-sea fishings he heard tell, and mighty silver gatherings of the mile-long net; of sudden perils, noise of breakers on a moonless night, or the tall bows of the great liner taking shape overhead through the fog; of the merry home-coming, the headland rounded, the harbour lights opened out; the groups seen dimly on the quay, the cheery hail, the splash of the hawser; the trudge up the steep little street towards the comforting glow of red-curtained windows.


以上节选自《柳林风声》。本来选了与前面两段相当长度的选段,但因为这本书偏散文偏描写一些,很明显地能够看出词汇量的增加以及句型的复杂化,所以为了大家不要太纠结就选了一小段,这段能够很好地理解意思,雅思托福水平的原版阅读就基本无障碍了。

He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.


以上节选自《了不起的盖茨比》。这本书很好的体现了以英语为母语写作的较高水准,用词不算过于华丽,胜在语言的多变性,算是原版阅读的最高水平了。


原版书籍推荐

在经过了前两个部分的自测后,这个部分我为每个阅读水平的朋友们推荐几本不同类型的书籍,为了方便大家寻找我就写了中文。当然,由于个人阅读深度广度还是有一定局限性,不足之处还请海涵。

高中、四级水平

【童话类】纳尼亚传奇、彼得潘、彼得兔和他的朋友们、爱丽丝梦游仙境、绿野仙踪(奥兹国系列)、夏洛特的网、小王子 (这几本书大家都太熟悉了我就不多做介绍了。我从小就是看彼得兔和维尼熊绘本长大的,所以真的是爱得深沉。小王子最然不是英文原版,不过英文版本挺不错的,有空可以翻看一下。)

【小说类】

绿山墙的安妮(很适合一个人安安静静看的书,小女孩的成长会让你深陷其中无法放下。)

芒果街上的小屋(拉丁裔女孩美国的生活童话,乐观美好正能量,短章节的分割也很适合在地铁上一点一点看。)

怦然心动(纠结了一下还是把这本言情小说也写下来了。很美好很干净的感情,两个人的视角,小孩子的口吻,很适合初读原版的你)

星运里的错(很抱歉这又是一本言情小说。。。这个难度的原版其实很多都是言情啊畅销书这类的。不过真的不要瞧不起言情小说,毕竟在这个阶段读原版最重要的是能读懂读进去。作家John Green的一整套书我都有,可以说他塑造了我最初可怜的词汇量。)

【哲学社科类】

谁动了我的奶酪?(这个难度的哲学社科类书籍我实在是没读过太多。值得推荐的可能只有这本,设计得很漂亮,文字也是真的很简单。)

六级、考研水平

【童话类】

圣诞颂歌(如果你还惧怕于狄更斯厚重的双城记,雾都孤儿,大卫科波菲尔,那么这本书无疑是颠覆你对狄更斯认知的时候了。人们从这本书开始说Merry Christmas,每个欧美国家的人儿时一定会看的小书~)

圣诞忆旧集(我最喜欢的美国作家卡波蒂的温暖小书,一共三篇关于节日的小文章,一边阅读文字学习英语,一边体会一下美国乡村节日风俗。作为送给朋友的圣诞节礼物书也是极好的。)

【小说类】

喜福会(不厚的一本小书,四对母女,两种文化,冲突最终消融为和谐。对于理解美国华裔,以及中美教育差异有着很好的借鉴作用。)

小妇人(姐妹情深,家庭、爱情、友情,关于成长的故事看了太多,却依然感动于这四个姐妹的一步步成熟。)

动物农场(每个人都该读读奥威尔,而动物农场无疑是最好上手的一本小书了。语言简单,内涵深刻,适合用一个下午好好思量。)

【哲学社科类】

苏菲的世界(我的哲学启蒙书。一直觉得大多数惧怕哲学的人可能都是没看过这本书,小女孩苏菲与“哲学世界”的通信与探索,像是一场华丽的冒险,也是西方哲学简史的最好入门。)

公正课(哈佛公正课大概也是每个英专学生的必看课程。Justice这本书也很不错,不像很多哲学书籍那么厚重,却条理地总结了课程中出现的所有重点难点,最后的参考书目也很有价值。)

雅思、托福水平

【童话类】

柳林风声(从小到大看过最美好的一本书,之前也专门写过书评。海鼠、鼹鼠、蟾蜍···小动物们单纯美好的友情,一次次阅读更能很好地学习其中散文诗一般的场景描写。)

王尔德童话集(如果我有小孩子,我一定会给他念王尔德。夜莺与玫瑰、快乐王子、自私的巨人···也许不够完美,也许带了些许成人世界的忧郁,但足够美好,足够让人遐想一整个童年。)

【小说类】这个水平能选择的小说太多了我就随便列举几个特别推荐给大家的

杀死一只知更鸟(据说这本书是以卡波蒂为原型的,看得时候我的代入感太强烈了。很多桥段都在流泪,它简单却深刻,反思了有关正义、敬畏、教育与教养等等美国社会中最最尖锐的问题,却给出了一个关于成长的答案。去读吧,收获的一定不止是一本小说这么简单。)

呼啸山庄(刚上大学时迷恋勃朗特三姐妹和简奥斯丁,读多了会觉得有点太过单调。但呼啸山庄无疑是其中最为顶尖的作品了。初读可能感觉用词略微生涩(可以尝试先读理智与情感作为铺垫),略微忧郁的语言基调,纠葛三代的感情,宏大的场景与故事架构,绝对与其他情感小说大不同!)

冷血(卡波蒂的代表作,犯罪纪实题材的作品。我一贯不喜欢小格局的东西,比如他的蒂凡尼的早餐、夏日的十字路口之类的,翻看就足够了。但这本冷血构思精妙,用词如刀,锋利机警,紧张到看时会忘记呼吸。)

永别了,武器(如果只读一本海明威,我不会推荐老人与海。当你翻开永别了,武器,那种沉痛厚重的笔触一定会给你一个读下去的理由。)

【哲学社科类】

制造共识(新闻传播类很有用的一本书,用了不少美国历史上“臭名昭著”的扭曲事实的案例,解读出人们心中所谓“共识”,是怎样通过大众传媒和政府机构被制造出来的。乔姆斯基写作结构清晰,用词也尽量简单,很适合英语水平适中对传媒有兴趣的朋友们。)

新教资本主义与伦理道德(没看过韦伯怎么好意思说自己喜欢社科。这本书是大一暑假必读的一本书,当时痛不欲生强迫自己一天读十页终于读完。前些日子重读轻松很多,所以还是建议有一定宗教伦理学基础,以及对韦伯有了一定了解的朋友们入坑。读完确实解决了不少长久以来的疑问。)

努尔人(人类学很适合入门的书,讲了非洲努尔人部落不同寻常的时空观、价值观、生育观等等细节。最开始冷冰冰的人类学开始变得鲜活有趣了。)

GRE 英专水平

【小说类】

了不起的盖茨比( 垮掉的一代最好的代表作……实在是太有名了,并且名副其实。)

莎士比亚戏剧全集( 个人非常喜欢莎士比亚,虽不曾看完他的全部戏剧,但二三十部还是有的。最推荐的有第十二夜,尤利西斯凯撒,哈姆雷特,仲夏夜之梦,暴风雨,兹认为已囊括莎翁全部精髓。)

织工马南( 乔治伊利亚特的小说我本人非常欣赏,这本很薄上手更容易。看完后相信你会去找她的全集来看的。)

少年派( 如诗如画的描写,比电影更激动人心。)

月亮和六便士( 毛姆的书虽然只读过两本,还有一本寻欢作乐,不过之后一定会再多读一些。他的笔触是平实与华丽的交杂,看似矛盾却很真切。这本书同王尔德的自深深处,都很适合作为进阶读本。)

【哲学社科类】

一间自己的房间( 伍尔夫有关女权主义的长篇演讲。混杂大量意象与意识流的笔触,柔软又不失力量,娓娓道来。)

东方学( 看名字我就不想看的一本书,没想到课上要求看后,觉得其实挺简单的。是一本了解西方如何看待东方的入门书。)

纯洁与危险( 不是很确定这本书的中文名字,探究人们对于不洁之物的历史渊源的一本书。同样的不厚,不难,很有趣。)


最后,希望每个人都能找到适合自己的那本原版书。


文/Cherry好姑娘

来源:简书  作者授权转载


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