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梅仁毅教授：阅读很重要(2008-01-03 14:49:52)
Now, reading
is important for four reasons.
1. the importance of reading
The first reason is, reading is the best way to improve your understanding of the language. And understanding is the first step, step to grasping the language. I'll give you three examples here.
The first is you will be graded on these matters; to grade means to give marks, and you will be graded on these matters. Mea- … if you know the word "marked", then you will know that you will get certain marks on these things.
The second example is: He read anger in her eyes. To read anger, here read doesn't mean reading, but you notice, you find, you find. So her look told us that she was angry. Her look told us that she was angry. Now that's the meaning of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence.
So if you know that, and the third one we'll come to that later. The progress of the evacuation was watched with anxious eyes and growing hope. Now if you don't know the meaning of evacuation and anxious eyes and growing hope, you won't be able to grasp the meaning. So that's why I say reading is the best way to improve your reading, because it gives you many chances of having contact with the language.
The second, reading is the main source of language material. Now, reading means you have a book before you or an article before you. It won't run. Well, you put it on the table, it will stay there. Now, that means you can keep your eyes on the lines, on the page. You can read with ease. You don't need to feel nervous, that if you don't pay attention to it, it will disappear. It won't disappear. It will be there. And you can look up the dictionary and think. If you still can't understand that, you can go back to the sentence again. So in a sense, reading is a better way to get material than listening.
Now, listening. If you suddenly don't pay attention to that, it escapes you. And then if your are listening to the radio, you won't get it back again. It's gone. It's gone. But in reading, you don't have that matter. It will be there all the time. So when you feel tired, you close your eyes, and then, when you open your eyes again, it is still there. So that would be an advantage in reading.
The third is, reading will open windows to the world. That means, that is what I mean by information. When you read different kinds of things, it will tell you a lot of things about the world. About the world we live in, and about for example, outer space. 太空, outer space.
For example, recently you have this about the landing on the Mars. And …Well, it is said that these robots found signs of water on Mars. Now, if you can read English about these things, you get to know a lot about the exploration, the exploration. That is how to find things, how to send things to the Mars, and so on. You know all these things.
So this is, if you read a history book, for those who are doing self-study and would take exam on the introduction to European culture, then, well, it will take you round the world, go back to ancient Greece, to Rome, to a lot of … meet a lot of people like Aristotle and other people, so it will open windows to you, to you. To you.
Certainly you say, I can read these things in Chinese. That's true. Well, to me, that is the case. If I can read English, I don't want to read the Chinese translation, because I'm not sure whether the Chinese translation is good or bad, especially today, you do have a lot of rather poor translations, especially when you come across a book which is called摘译。Well, I will say, 摘译means that when you don't understand the thing you drop it. That is摘，because it is not the whole thing. So I can drop anything I want to, and I will drop the things that I don't understand. So that will be the case. So in reading English, it will give you the feel, the feel.这种感觉。The feel. So that is the third reason.
1. the importance of reading
The first reason is, reading is the best way to improve your understanding of the language. And understanding is the first step, step to grasping the language. I'll give you three examples here.
The first is you will be graded on these matters; to grade means to give marks, and you will be graded on these matters. Mea- … if you know the word "marked", then you will know that you will get certain marks on these things.
The second example is: He read anger in her eyes. To read anger, here read doesn't mean reading, but you notice, you find, you find. So her look told us that she was angry. Her look told us that she was angry. Now that's the meaning of the sentence. The meaning of the sentence.
So if you know that, and the third one we'll come to that later. The progress of the evacuation was watched with anxious eyes and growing hope. Now if you don't know the meaning of evacuation and anxious eyes and growing hope, you won't be able to grasp the meaning. So that's why I say reading is the best way to improve your reading, because it gives you many chances of having contact with the language.
The second, reading is the main source of language material. Now, reading means you have a book before you or an article before you. It won't run. Well, you put it on the table, it will stay there. Now, that means you can keep your eyes on the lines, on the page. You can read with ease. You don't need to feel nervous, that if you don't pay attention to it, it will disappear. It won't disappear. It will be there. And you can look up the dictionary and think. If you still can't understand that, you can go back to the sentence again. So in a sense, reading is a better way to get material than listening.
Now, listening. If you suddenly don't pay attention to that, it escapes you. And then if your are listening to the radio, you won't get it back again. It's gone. It's gone. But in reading, you don't have that matter. It will be there all the time. So when you feel tired, you close your eyes, and then, when you open your eyes again, it is still there. So that would be an advantage in reading.
The third is, reading will open windows to the world. That means, that is what I mean by information. When you read different kinds of things, it will tell you a lot of things about the world. About the world we live in, and about for example, outer space. 太空, outer space.
For example, recently you have this about the landing on the Mars. And …Well, it is said that these robots found signs of water on Mars. Now, if you can read English about these things, you get to know a lot about the exploration, the exploration. That is how to find things, how to send things to the Mars, and so on. You know all these things.
So this is, if you read a history book, for those who are doing self-study and would take exam on the introduction to European culture, then, well, it will take you round the world, go back to ancient Greece, to Rome, to a lot of … meet a lot of people like Aristotle and other people, so it will open windows to you, to you. To you.
Certainly you say, I can read these things in Chinese. That's true. Well, to me, that is the case. If I can read English, I don't want to read the Chinese translation, because I'm not sure whether the Chinese translation is good or bad, especially today, you do have a lot of rather poor translations, especially when you come across a book which is called摘译。Well, I will say, 摘译means that when you don't understand the thing you drop it. That is摘，because it is not the whole thing. So I can drop anything I want to, and I will drop the things that I don't understand. So that will be the case. So in reading English, it will give you the feel, the feel.这种感觉。The feel. So that is the third reason.
And the fourth reason is reading can acquaint you, that means to make you understand, to make you familiar with the subtlety, 这种比较含蓄的and beauty of the language, of the language.
Now in English you have this sentence: it paled into insignificance. The word "pale", you know that when you are frightened, you become pale. Right? Now "It paled into insignificance", that means if you compare the two things, the other thing becomes so important, so significant that this one loses its color. So the word "pale" is very well used here. It tells you a lot, although it is a very small word.
The second is "they went out into the glaring white sunlight. "You know the word "glare", but when you have glaring sunlight, you will know that it is like the kind of weather you will experience maybe, someday it's about 40 degrees C And at mid noon when you have the sun coming down, terribly hot, that is the glaring sunlight. 都能够白热化了这种。It gives you two things, one is the whiteness of the thing; the other thing is the heat. One word. Now this is what I mean by the subtlety and beauty of the language.
Now when you can feel that, I think you are getting into the way, the right way of learning the language. If you read it, and it doesn't make any sort of response in you, you still can't appreciate it yet. But when you can appreciate that, appreciate, you know the word? Yes, 欣赏。When you can appreciate it, you know, you are getting near to grasping the language.
梅仁毅简介
梅仁毅，北京外国语大学教授，博士生导师，美国研究中心主任。1957年毕业于北京外国语学院（北京外国语大学前身）后，开始留校任教至今。1958年至1960年，攻读北京外国语学院英语系研究生，获硕士学位。
主要经历
1957年 在北京外国语学院任教
1982年-1983年 美国富布赖特访问学者，在耶鲁大学从事研究工作
1983年-1984年 广西大学外语系客座教授
1984年 参加在美国加州圣地亚哥举行的美国学年会
1996年 参加在奥地利萨尔斯堡举行的美国学研讨会
1996年 香港大学美国研究中心访问学者
2000年 参加在马来西亚吉隆坡举行的亚洲美国学年会
2000年 参加蒙特利国际问题研究所军控研究中心研修班
历年开设课程：
英语精读、英语泛读、英语写作、国际金融阅读与翻译、
战后美国外交史、中美关系史、国际关系理论与实践
主要作品包括
1、《美国研究读本》，主编；
2、《英语国家概况》，美国部分主编；
3、《现代大学英语》，第五册主编；
4、《国际金融阅读与翻译》，主编；
5、《高级英语：教师手册》第1册，主编之一；
6、《论语》，英译本；
7、《寂夏》，中译本；
主要学术团体职务：
1、 中华美国学会理事；
2、 中美关系史学会理事；
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