巧用paraphrasing 化解长难句

广东 杨华新

巧用paraphrasing 化解长难句

广东 杨华新

阅读理解经常会涉及学生不懂的“新”词或长难句。笔者偶尔观摩同事或同行在讲评阅读理解的时候，唯恐学生不理解，教师往往会把其中的生词、长句或学生觉得费解的地方，直截了当地用中文解释给学生听。譬如，请看下面的例句（画线部分为关键词）。

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.

为了帮助学生理解，有些教师在课堂上直接把以上的句子口头翻译成中文：

1.她狂热地爱上了他。

2.他的评论在他们当中激发了一场争吵。

3.逃脱的罪犯仍然逍遥法外。

4.遗憾的是，实验以失败告终。

5.听到他的死讯，很明显她无动于衷。

对于以上简单粗暴的机械式英译汉处理手法，笔者不太苟同。无可否认，有了教师的中文解释，学生对篇章句意的理解是深入了，可是，除了一瞬间的茅塞顿开外，收益又有多少呢？对此笔者表示质疑。在英语课堂上，笔者坚持认为，教师应该尽可能多地用英语来冲击和刺激学生的听觉和视觉，以确保他们有足够的语言输入量。下面谈谈笔者对以上例句的粗浅做法，仅供参考。

例1：首先笔者会提问学生，“Can you think of a word or phrase close in meaning with ‘violently’?” 倘若学生想不出，笔者就会提供以下两个句子让他们填空：

She fell ____________ (crazy) in love with him.

= She is __________ ___________ him.

于是学生就想到了crazily是副词修饰动词fell, 以及be crazy about, be keen on等词组。

例2：笔者先让学生猜测spark off的词义，并鼓励学生开动脑筋，用学过的单词或词组来取代其意思。结果学生想到以下的句子：

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

2.Their violent quarrelresulted fromhis comments.

例3：提示学生根据句中的escaped及still猜测at large的中文意思，接着要求学生explain in their own words。结果，学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：笔者让学生按照原句的意思来填写以下的句子：

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

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

如此一来，学生就会联想到 It’s a regret / pity / shame that...“……真遗憾”和to one’s regret“令某人感到遗憾的是”这个词组。

例5：类似地，可以采用例4的方法，进行句型转换，要求学生填空：

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

2.Hearing the news _________ _________ ________________(用同位语从句 ), it was clear that she didn’t care about it.

3.She was _________ _________ (对……冷漠/无动于衷) his death.

于是，学生纷纷想到1. concerned about 2. that he was dead 3. indifferent to

长难句经常在阅读中出现，给学生的理解带来障碍，对他们的思路造成干扰。笔者强烈建议把阅读中那些典型的长难句挑选出来，让学生进行paraphrasing。训练他们用所学过的高频词(组)，根据近义或同义来替换阅读难句中的生僻词，这样不仅可以唤醒和激活他们现有的词汇，更能让他们举一反三，提升运用能力，让他们的表达更趋于灵活。

同理，用paraphrasing来对长难句进行分解，有助于学生对长难句意思和结构的把握，从而加深理解。以下面两道阅读理解中的长难句为例，笔者并没有一一为学生译成中文，而是要求他们结合语境，根据构词法，用英语来解释 (explain the following sentences in their own words)。

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

笔者鼓励学生根据构词法猜测justify的意思。just意为“正义的”，由terrify, qualify, beautify等后缀可推知，justify很明显是动词，表示“令……合理化”，于是学生有了以下的解释：

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

学生乙：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.

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

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

用paraphrasing来分解长难句，层层分析，层层剥离，从繁到简，由难变易。但凡遇到新词(词组)，学生再也不会条件反射般为其贴上中文标签，而是用近义词或同义词作为注脚，逐渐养成用英语来解释英语的好习惯。如此一来，日积月累，学生的词汇量扩大了，思路开阔了，表达多样了，处理生僻词和化解长难句的能力也进一步得到了锤炼，更重要的是学会了用英语来思考(think in English)。

【实战演练】为了进一步巩固学生paraphrasing的能力，笔者特意设置了以下相关的习题来检测学生。

一、单项选择 在四个选项中选出一个与画线单词意义最接近的选项。

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 高考阅读强化训练)

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、补全句子 根据语境把句子补充完整，使得原句和改写后的句子句意相同。

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 ·全国卷Ⅰ阅读七选五)

(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 · 江苏卷 )

(1) _______ is 21 years old.

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

(3) The message is that____________________________

三、句型转换 用另一种方式改写句子，保持句意不变。

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(项圈) 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(衣装，穿扮) though lie unforeseen characteristics,talents, desires, hurts, pains and dreams. (2016 · 广东肇庆一模 )

【实战演练】答案

一、单项选择 在四个选项中选出一个与画线单词意义最接近的选项。

1.B 在句中measure意为“计算”，和它意义最接近的是 figure out。

2.C 由于象龟能够提供优质鲜肉，可推知它们的数量在“下滑”，decline与decrease同意。

3.D 既然青少年喜欢电脑游戏，自然要把广告制作得更加“有吸引力”才能获得他们的青睐，故选D。

4.B 被表扬“努力”的孩子比表扬“聪明”的孩子更能去“承担”艰巨的任务。

5.A 句子前后存在因果逻辑关系，故because最佳。in that 意为 because。

6.D 电脑和网络的应用“促进”了纸的需求量，在四个选项中promote意为“提升，促进”，和push up的意思最贴近。

二、补全句子 根据语境把句子补充完整，使得原句和改写后的句子句意相同。

1. set about “着手（做）”；guess / imagine / expect /foresee / predict 等表“预测，想象”等意思；paid off“（努力）得到回报”；unbelievable / incredible“令人难以置信的”

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、句型转换 用另一种方式改写句子，保持句意不变。

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(项圈)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.

广东省开平市第一中学）