廣東 楊華新

巧用paraphrasing 化解長難句

廣東 楊華新

閱讀理解經常會涉及學生不懂的“新”詞或長難句。筆者偶爾觀摩同事或同行在講評閱讀理解的時候，唯恐學生不理解，教師往往會把其中的生詞、長句或學生覺得費解的地方，直截了當地用中文解釋給學生聽。譬如，請看下面的例句（畫線部分為關鍵詞）。

1.She fellviolentlyin love with him.

2.His commentssparked offa heated quarrel between them.

3.The escaped criminal is stillat large.

4.Regrettably, the experiment ended in failure.

5.She heard the news of his death withapparent unconcern.

為了幫助學生理解，有些教師在課堂上直接把以上的句子口頭翻譯成中文：

1.她狂熱地愛上了他。

2.他的評論在他們當中激發(fā)了一場爭吵。

3.逃脫的罪犯仍然逍遙法外。

4.遺憾的是，實驗以失敗告終。

5.聽到他的死訊，很明顯她無動于衷。

對于以上簡單粗暴的機械式英譯漢處理手法，筆者不太茍同。無可否認，有了教師的中文解釋，學生對篇章句意的理解是深入了，可是，除了一瞬間的茅塞頓開外，收益又有多少呢？對此筆者表示質疑。在英語課堂上，筆者堅持認為，教師應該盡可能多地用英語來沖擊和刺激學生的聽覺和視覺，以確保他們有足夠的語言輸入量。下面談談筆者對以上例句的粗淺做法，僅供參考。

例1：首先筆者會提問學生，“Can you think of a word or phrase close in meaning with ‘violently’?” 倘若學生想不出，筆者就會提供以下兩個句子讓他們填空：

She fell ____________ (crazy) in love with him.

= She is __________ ___________ him.

于是學生就想到了crazily是副詞修飾動詞fell, 以及be crazy about, be keen on等詞組。

例2：筆者先讓學生猜測spark off的詞義，并鼓勵學生開動腦筋，用學過的單詞或詞組來取代其意思。結果學生想到以下的句子：

1.His commentscaused / led to / resulted ina violent quarrel between them.

2.Their violent quarrelresulted fromhis comments.

例3：提示學生根據句中的escaped及still猜測at large的中文意思，接著要求學生explain in their own words。結果，學生提供了自己的答案：

1.The criminal manages to escape being caught by the police.

2.The police are in search of the criminal but fail to catch him.

例4：筆者讓學生按照原句的意思來填寫以下的句子：

1.It is a __________ that the experiment failed at last.

2.______ ______ ______ (令大家感到遺憾的是), the experiment failed in the end.

如此一來，學生就會聯想到 It’s a regret / pity / shame that...“……真遺憾”和to one’s regret“令某人感到遺憾的是”這個詞組。

例5：類似地，可以采用例4的方法，進行句型轉換，要求學生填空：

1.When she heard of his death, obviously she was not________ _________ it.

2.Hearing the news _________ _________ ________________(用同位語從句 ), it was clear that she didn’t care about it.

3.She was _________ _________ (對……冷漠/無動于衷) his death.

于是，學生紛紛想到1. concerned about 2. that he was dead 3. indifferent to

長難句經常在閱讀中出現，給學生的理解帶來障礙，對他們的思路造成干擾。筆者強烈建議把閱讀中那些典型的長難句挑選出來，讓學生進行paraphrasing。訓練他們用所學過的高頻詞(組)，根據近義或同義來替換閱讀難句中的生僻詞，這樣不僅可以喚醒和激活他們現有的詞匯，更能讓他們舉一反三，提升運用能力，讓他們的表達更趨于靈活。

同理，用paraphrasing來對長難句進行分解，有助于學生對長難句意思和結構的把握，從而加深理解。以下面兩道閱讀理解中的長難句為例，筆者并沒有一一為學生譯成中文，而是要求他們結合語境，根據構詞法，用英語來解釋 (explain the following sentences in their own words)。

例 6：Dr. Larks thought theriskof an operation wasjustified.

筆者鼓勵學生根據構詞法猜測justify的意思。just意為“正義的”，由terrify, qualify, beautify等后綴可推知，justify很明顯是動詞，表示“令……合理化”，于是學生有了以下的解釋：

學生甲： The operation would be a greatrisk, but Dr. Larks thought he hadgood reasonsto take the risk and perform the operation.

學生乙：Dr. Larks held the belief that although performing the operation would berisky, it wasreasonableand worthwhile to do that.

例 7：As the sunrose higher, thirst began to take a central place in Peter’sconsciousness.

學生丙：As itgot hotter, Peter became more and moreconscious ofhow thirsty he was.

學生丁：With thetemperaturebecoming higher, Peter became more and moreawarethat he was very thirsty.

用paraphrasing來分解長難句，層層分析，層層剝離，從繁到簡，由難變易。但凡遇到新詞(詞組)，學生再也不會條件反射般為其貼上中文標簽，而是用近義詞或同義詞作為注腳，逐漸養(yǎng)成用英語來解釋英語的好習慣。如此一來，日積月累，學生的詞匯量擴大了，思路開闊了，表達多樣了，處理生僻詞和化解長難句的能力也進一步得到了錘煉，更重要的是學會了用英語來思考(think in English)。

【實戰(zhàn)演練】為了進一步鞏固學生paraphrasing的能力，筆者特意設置了以下相關的習題來檢測學生。

一、單項選擇 在四個選項中選出一個與畫線單詞意義最接近的選項。

1. It is difficult tomeasurethe quantity of paper used as a result of use of Internet-connected computers, although just about anyone who works in an office can tell you that when e-mail is introduced, the printers start working overtime.（NMET2003，E篇）

A. make up B. figure out

C. look for D. take on

2. The numbers of Galapagos tortoises are said to have begun theirdeclinewhen it was realized that they could supply excellent fresh meat for passenger ships, because they were known to be able to survive for six months without food and water.

A.change B. increase

C. decrease D. double

3. For example, adolescent boys are more likely to buy computer games than any other group, so it makes sense to make computer game ads thatappeal tothis group.

A. delight B. bore

C. disgust D. attract

4. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on testes and were more likely totake ondifficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”. (2013 高考閱讀強化訓練)

A. receive B. shoulder

C. suffer D. complain

5. Our parties are aimed for children 2 to 10 and they’re very interactive and creativein thatthey build a sense of drama based on a subject. (NMET2002, E篇)

A. because B. although

C. once D. when

6. Perhaps the best sign of how computer and Internet usepushes updemand for paper comes from the high-tech industry itself, which sees printing as one of its most promising new market. (NMET2003，E篇)

A. satisfies B. weakens

C. varies D. promotes

二、補全句子 根據語境把句子補充完整，使得原句和改寫后的句子句意相同。

1.When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract of the publisher—to be a published writer—is unbelievably rewarding.

→ When you ______ doing something different, it’s hard to _________ the result. So when I become a published writer now, I know my efforts have _________ although it sounds_________.

2. A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative consequences of a decision.

(1) A new review is _____________________________.

(2) It is shown in the review that ____________________.

(3) The result is that ____________________________.

3. But you can’t be successful when there’s a lack of trust in a relationship that results from an action where the wrongdoer takes no responsibility to fix the mistake. (2015 ·全國卷Ⅰ閱讀七選五)

(1) A relationship is lacking in _____________________.

(2) The lack of trust in a relationship is because ____________________.

(3) In that case, you are unlikely to __________________.

4. The 21-year-old Best hopes his message—that this is a new time in agriculture—will motivate the next generation to turn around the statistics. (2012 · 江蘇卷 )

(1) _______ is 21 years old.

(2) He hopes that his message will encourage __________________ to turn around the statistics.

(3) The message is that____________________________

三、句型轉換 用另一種方式改寫句子，保持句意不變。

1. Newton is shown as a gifted scientist with very human weaknesses who stood at the point in history where magic ended and science began. (NMET2003，C篇)

2.He suggests that we should change this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of,which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.

3. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1000 huge stone figures, called moat, for which the island is most famous. (NMET2003，A篇)

4.The magazine is male-targeting because young guys generally won’t pick up a magazine that appears to be directed at females, whereas girls usually will.

5.Mobile phone SIM cards which are put in the collars(項圈) of elephants automatically send a text message when they get too close to farms, allowing wildlife workers to drive them off rather than shoot them.

6. Behind every human trapping(衣裝，穿扮) though lie unforeseen characteristics,talents, desires, hurts, pains and dreams. (2016 · 廣東肇慶一模 )

【實戰(zhàn)演練】答案

一、單項選擇 在四個選項中選出一個與畫線單詞意義最接近的選項。

1.B 在句中measure意為“計算”，和它意義最接近的是 figure out。

2.C 由于象龜能夠提供優(yōu)質鮮肉，可推知它們的數量在“下滑”，decline與decrease同意。

3.D 既然青少年喜歡電腦游戲，自然要把廣告制作得更加“有吸引力”才能獲得他們的青睞，故選D。

4.B 被表揚“努力”的孩子比表揚“聰明”的孩子更能去“承擔”艱巨的任務。

5.A 句子前后存在因果邏輯關系，故because最佳。in that 意為 because。

6.D 電腦和網絡的應用“促進”了紙的需求量，在四個選項中promote意為“提升，促進”，和push up的意思最貼近。

二、補全句子 根據語境把句子補充完整，使得原句和改寫后的句子句意相同。

1. set about “著手（做）”；guess / imagine / expect /foresee / predict 等表“預測，想象”等意思；paid off“（努力）得到回報”；unbelievable / incredible“令人難以置信的”

2. (1) based on a research

(2)acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages

(3) the brain focuses on pleasure and ignore the possible negative consequences of a decision 3. (1) trust / confidence

(2) the wrongdoer doesn’t carry out his duty to fix /mend / correct the mistake

(3) succeed / be successful 4. (1) Best

(2) young people

(3) this is a new time in agriculture

三、句型轉換 用另一種方式改寫句子，保持句意不變。

1. Newton had a gift for science. On the other hand, he had human weaknesses. He lived in the times when magic came to an end and science came into existence.

2. He advises us to look into the available ten thousand species to change this situation. In this way, we can reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals in order to make farming areas larger.

3. They lost touch with the outside world for over a thousand years. This gave them much time to build more than 1 000 huge stone figures called moat. The island is best-known for moat.

4. The magazine is aimed at males because if the magazine seems to be designed for females, young men usually won’t read it, but girls usually will.

5. Mobile phone SIM cards are put in the collars(項圈)of elephants. They can send a text message when elephants approach farms. This allows wildlife workers to drive them off instead of shooting them.

6. Every human is dressed in different clothes. However,behind their clothes there are characteristics, talents, desires,hurts, pains and dreams which are hard to foresee.

廣東省開平市第一中學）