“尚雯婕10篇20分钟学习”的版本间的差异

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=how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green=
 
=how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green=
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还差对正好再写一次  记得那些写错了没写出来的单词
  
 
https://singjupost.com/how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green-full-transcript/
 
https://singjupost.com/how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green-full-transcript/
  
尚雯婕外语学习法—英文听力资料(17分钟,英文字幕)
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尚雯婕外语学习法—英文听力资料(17分钟,英文字幕) 如果想下载 https://snapany.com/zh/bilibili
 
 
如果想下载 https://snapany.com/zh/bilibili
 
  
 
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We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.
 
We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.
  
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So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street. We found the entrance to the metro. The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world. The ride down the escalator took a full minute.
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Once we were down there, my friend headed right to an open train, and I pulled him back and said, “Wait! Let’s write down the name of the station so we can find our way back.” So I had a notepad, and I took a notepad, and I wrote down the letters of the station, and we hopped down the train and went on train hopping. And that was fun because – Well, actually, it was weird.
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There were a lot of people, probably all coming home from work. They were all dressed in brown and gray clothes, and it looked very, very different from what we were used to at home. But the stations were lovely. There were stations with statues, with paintings on the wall, and glass displays. It was really like museums. We would never have expected that.
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And everything was perfectly clean. Well, what was weird though is that the people – nobody seemed to speak, and everyone seemed to be looking at us and it kind of weirded us out. So after about 20-30 minutes, we’d had enough and we wanted to go home. I showed my note to someone and they directed me over there.
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Then over there, I showed my note to another person, and they directed us to the other way. And then a third person directed us sideways. That was a little confusing. Aw, then I saw it. Over the stairs, the sign. It turned out I had written down the Russian word for “Exit.”
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So we headed upstairs and we found a taxi. That was great. And we told the driver, you know, “Intourist Hotel,” and then he was willing to take us. And I remember sitting next to the driver, handing him 50 rubles. And he looked at me and he said, (Russian) No, dollar! Fifty dollars? That was like I don’t know 20 times that amount or something.
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That was not an option for us. So we had to get out of the taxi, and he drove away, leaving us standing there. It was a cold night, and you know everything was strange for us, and we were teenagers, and we were pretty nervous, didn’t know what to do. Well, we started walking. We walked to the end of the block.
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We turned the corner. And 200 yards in front of us, the Intourist Hotel. Well, this experience affected me in two ways. The first is that anytime after this trip that I would hear anyone speak Russian, I was just cringe. And the second one is that it taught me the importance of understanding the local language when you’re traveling. And it actually led to me learning another four languages fluently over the following years.
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Now, before I go on, I’d like to know in the audience – Can we have a little bit of light maybe in the audience? I’d just like to know who’s – By a show of hands, who is not a native English speaker? It must be 99%. Anyone who doesn’t speak English, stand up! All right, so I can assume all of you have, you know, gone through the process of learning a language.
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Anybody who speaks three or more languages? Wow, that’s maybe 70%. Four or more languages, anyone? That’s still quite a bit. Anyone speak five or more languages? Wow, come see me during the break. To me, learning a language is — for me, it’s like a deck of playing cards lying faced down on the table.
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As you start learning and understanding, the cards start opening up for you. Now there’s no standard way of classifying this. But as you learn, you reach certain milestones. And the first one would be when about 25% of the cards are turned up, you reach like a basic level. At this level, you have a base vocabulary, some grammar, and you’re able to have maybe very simple conversations and communicate a little bit.
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5-10m
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And your study goes on until you reach this magical point of fluency, what we call being fluent in the language. Now what does it mean, being fluent in a language? It means that you’ve turned up more than 50% of the cards in the deck, and that is the point where you have – where the language becomes part of your subconscious so that even if you don’t use it anymore for 10 years or longer, you will not forget it. You can get back into it within a very, very short time.
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So this is a level where you’re comfortable thinking in a language, and comfortable communicating in a language. Now, some people go on and, you know, reach like a mastery level. By that time, you know classic literature in the other language and have maybe in-depth knowledge of specialized fields. That’s often the point taken in academia.
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For me, when I learned my first foreign language, I had a head start because I was born to a German-speaking mother and an American father. Now, when I was a baby, I didn’t really understand that what my parents were speaking to me were two separate languages. But by the time I was two years old, I had figured it all out.
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Women speak only German. Men only speak English. Imagine the fun my parents had when they introduced me to couples. Being a bilingual was actually pretty helpful in learning my first language. It definitely helped.
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If you’re – But it also gave me something else. It gave me two identities and the ability to switch between them. When you’re a native speaker of more than one language, then your personality, your humor, your value system, they change as you switch languages. This can have huge advantages.
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I mean, some studies have shown an increased problem-solving ability or even a higher resistance to Alzheimer’s disease. But what I’m almost interested in is that it’s actually given me a lot of social benefits. When you’re a native speaker, then you feel at home among native speakers or in a culture, and also native speakers accept you as one of theirs.
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Now is this only relevant to native speakers? And that’s the big question. But wouldn’t it be cool if a person learning a foreign language could actually develop another identity and actually enjoy the social benefits of a native speaker that go beyond communication skills?
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Well, that’s what happened to me. I was able to do that, and I want to show you from my experience how I think this can be achieved
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So if we say this green area here is the level of the native speaker, the first thing to note is that on your way to reaching fluency, there is not really any shortcut. There are some methods that you can use such as the Burrito Principle where you identify 20% of the most effective materials to study. There are some apps, like stuff for time-spaced learning, that increase vocabulary retention. They save a little time, but in the end, there’s no way around working with the material, practicing it, until you reach the fluency level.
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But the second thing to note is that going from fluency to mastery is a much slower process, and it requires proportionally more effort. That’s why most people – they just stop at fluency. They know how to speak English, good enough, and they don’t even attempt to venture on, and I can understand it.
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But the good news is, to get the benefits of a native speaker, at a native-speaker level, you don’t have to go through mastery in the academic sense. In fact, you can skip this step altogether. So if you think about it, there are many native speakers do not have an in-depth knowledge of specialized fields or sophisticated vocabulary.
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So, that’s not really what is required. So how do you do it? What is required? Well, I want to give you three areas to focus on when you’re learning and interacting with native speakers. The first is: work on eliminating your accent. I’m aware I said eliminating. It should be at least minimizing it.
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10-15m
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This is, in my opinion, the most overlooked aspect of language learning today, but it’s also the most important one to reach what I call a native-speaker level or a speaker-like level. If you communicate without an accent or almost without an accent, this changes how natives behave towards you unconsciously, and it also gives you an ability to adapt to a new self-image.
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The best way that I’ve found – the best exercise I’ve found to improve your pronunciation is what I call the perfect-sentence technique. What you do is you find a native speaker to help you, and you take a book in the foreign language, you open it at a random page, and you read the first sentence. Then, you ask a native speaker to rate you on obvious accent, slight accent, no accent.
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Then the native speaker will read this sentence back to you. You have to listen carefully and then you repeat. And you repeat this process over and over until the native speaker tells you that he can no longer hear an accent when you read the sentence.
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Now, I realize it can take a very long time even just to get one sentence right. But I promise you if you are persistent, and if you patiently work on this, you’ll be amazed by what happens to your accent.
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The second area to focus on is using verbs and expressions that locals use. Now, we all know the situation that vocabulary can be region-specific. Like, in the US, you use “stand in line.” In the UK, you “queue.” That’s all good.
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But sometimes, the spoken word is so different, the speech is so different from what you get in textbooks, that the books are almost useless if you want to converse with natives. I want to give you an example.
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In the French language, there are words like “le travail,” which is “my work.” A French person talking to his friend would probably say “mon boulot,” which is a completely different word. The same for “the clothes,” “le vestments,” but you’ll hear “le fringues.” Or money is “l’argent,” but people say “le fric,” “le sou,” or many other expressions for this.
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So, obviously I’m only scratching the surface here. But here you actually have to learn all of these words and expressions one by one. And of course, you have to interact with natives to do that. But after you reach a critical mass that you’re comfortable with, it’ll actually be easier when you encounter something new.
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You’ll just pick it up in one go, like native speakers would, who hear words or expressions that they didn’t know before.
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The third area to work on is adopting cultural traits. What do I mean by that? So let me ask you: what does this gesture mean to you? Any Italians here? OK, now, depending on what culture you’re from, this could mean something rude, or it could just mean it’s something incredulous, like, “Why did you do that?” Or, “How could you?” Or it could just be signaling food, “Give me food!” Interesting!
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In the Middle East, this is just a standard way of signaling “Please, wait!” So these kind of traits you have to internalize, and sometimes, they’re hard to spot, and it takes a lot of active listening. I want to give you a few more examples.
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So imagine I am with three of my friends: an American, a German, and a Frenchman. And, like, we’re walking and maybe the American bumps his head, and his initial reaction might be, “Ouch!” That’s how you say it in English.
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But the German that, you know, gets, I don’t know, elbowed in the crowd, he would say, “Ow-ah!” And the French person might step on the nail and say, “Ay!” So this, of course, in your target language, this is something you have to observe and also internalize, and it has to become part of you.
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If again I’m with these three friends, and I sit with them, and let’s say I serve them tea, and I ask the American, “Would you like a biscuit with your tea?” And if he answers in the affirmative, he might say, “Uh-huh!”
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And I can ask the German, “Do you know what tea this is?” He’ll say, ”Mm- hmm!” And then I ask the Frenchman, “Do you like this?” He’ll say, “Hmm!” So these differences, they really require active listening.
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So all of these three things that I told you which is pronunciation, and colloquial speech and adopting cultural traits, they all require that you interact with natives as much as possible. Ideally, you should fully immerse yourself in the culture.
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Now if you have the chance to live abroad for a while, that will be great. Or maybe live among natives in your hometown.
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15-the end
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Perhaps just have a romantic relationship, or even just spend time, you know, with co-workers. So, romantic relationships, I could do a whole talk about that. That works really well for these things. But yeah – So this will be different for everybody, of course. But even when you’re not around natives, your learning must not stop.
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Because what you can do is you can watch TV shows and films, you can mimic the characters, you can write down anything that you haven’t heard of before, and practice that. I also want to encourage you to learn the lyrics of songs.
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Songs are really great because they tell stories. And they not only help your pronunciation when you sing them, but if they’re emotional, they can anchor these expressions into your active vocabulary. And it’s like speaking all day and really using the expressions unconsciously.
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It’s a great way. So music, definitely. The other thing you need to move towards native-speaker status is the right mindset, and a belief that if you sound like a native, express yourself like a native, talk like a native and act like a native, you’ll actually achieve a native-like level.
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So if I could only leave you with one thing today, it would be: work on your pronunciation. Because pronunciation helps any stage of the learning process, even in the very beginning. It’ll speed up everything. And it also is the key to reaching a native-speaker level, or almost-native-speaker status.
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So before I go, I’d like to tell you how I was able to overcome my fear of the Russian language. It was a very, very elegant solution. I married a Russian girl. And I now have little kids in my home that speak Russian to me every day. So I want to thank you.
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And before I go, I just want to wish you… (Spanish). A lot of success with your language studies… (French). It was a pleasure to present for you today… (Hebrew) I wish you lots of success with your studies. (Yiddish) Thank you for listening. Good luck to you all and…. (Russian).
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Thank you.
 
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We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.
 
We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.
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句子结构与成分分析
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    “We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us.”
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        这是一个主被动结合的复合句。
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        主句是 “We were given an official tour guide”,是被动语态结构。“We” 是主语,指 “我们” 这群人;“were given” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “were”(be 动词的过去式,用于复数主语)和动词 “give” 的过去分词 “given” 构成,表示 “被给予” 的动作;“an official tour guide” 是宾语,即被给予的对象,是 “一名官方导游” 的意思。
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        “who was assigned to us” 是一个定语从句,用来修饰先行词 “an official tour guide”。在这个定语从句中,“who” 是关系代词,指代先行词 “an official tour guide”,在从句中作主语;“was assigned” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “was”(be 动词的过去式,用于第三人称单数主语)和动词 “assign” 的过去分词 “assigned” 构成,表示 “被分配、被指派” 的动作;“to us” 是状语,说明分配或指派的对象是 “我们”。
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    “And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night.”
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        这里是由两个并列的简单句通过 “and” 连接而成。
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        第一个简单句 “the tour would start in the morning”:“the tour” 是主语,指这次旅行;“would start” 是谓语动词,“would” 是 will 的过去式,在这里表示过去将来时,说明在过去某个时间点来看,旅行将会在早上开始;“in the morning” 是时间状语,明确了旅行开始的时间。
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        第二个简单句 “we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night”:“we” 是主语;“were checked in” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “were”(be 动词的过去式,用于复数主语)和动词短语 “check in” 的过去分词形式构成,表示 “被办理入住手续” 的动作;“to our hotel rooms” 是地点状语,说明入住的地点是 “我们的酒店房间”;“for the night” 是目的状语,表明入住酒店房间是为了过夜。
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    “My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.”
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        这是一个直接引语的句子。
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        “My friend” 是主语;“said” 是谓语动词,用了一般过去时,表示过去发生的说话动作;“to me” 是状语,说明说话的对象是 “我”。
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        “Let’s go outside and look at the city.” 是直接引语部分,是一个祈使句的简略形式,完整形式应该是 “Let us go outside and look at the city.”,其中 “Let” 是使役动词,“us” 是宾语(在简略形式 “Let’s” 中,“us” 和 “Let” 缩写在一起),“go outside” 和 “look at the city” 是并列的动词短语,作宾语补足语,分别表示 “出去” 和 “看看这个城市” 的动作建议。
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    “I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.”
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        这实际上包含了两个句子,但表述上较为口语化。
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        第一个句子 “I thought it was a great idea.”:“I” 是主语;“thought” 是谓语动词,用了一般过去时,表示过去的想法;“it was a great idea” 是一个宾语从句,作 “thought” 的宾语。在这个宾语从句中,“it” 是主语,指代前面朋友提出的出去看城市的建议;“was” 是系动词 be 的过去式,用于第三人称单数(it);“a great idea” 是表语,说明 “it” 所代表的建议是个好主意。
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        “Dumb idea.” 是一个省略句,完整表述应该是 “It was a dumb idea.”,这里再次提及前面的建议,只不过改变了看法,认为是个 “愚蠢的主意”,同样是主系表结构,只是在口语表达中省略了主语和系动词。
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时态分析
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这段文章主要使用了一般过去时,如 “were given”“said”“thought” 等动词形式,因为是在描述过去发生的一系列事件,包括被分配导游、旅行计划开始时间、办理入住以及当时朋友提出建议和自己的想法等,都属于过去已经发生的情况,所以用一般过去时来准确呈现这些过去的经历。同时还使用了过去将来时 “would start”,用来表示在过去某个时间点看未来(也就是当时即将到来的早上)旅行将会开始的情况。
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词汇与短语用法分析
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    “were given”:被动语态,强调动作是 “被给予”,与主动语态 “gave” 相对应,例如主动句 “We received an official tour guide.”(我们收到了一名官方导游)和被动句 “We were given an official tour guide.” 意思相近,但强调的重点不同,被动句更强调导游是被给予我们的这一被动情况。
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    “check in”:动词短语,在这里是被动语态 “were checked in” 的形式,意思是 “办理入住手续”,常用于酒店、机场等场所,表示办理相关的登记入住或报到手续等,例如 “You need to check in at the hotel before 6 pm.”(你需要在下午 6 点之前在酒店办理入住手续)。
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    “Let’s”:是 “Let us” 的缩写形式,是使役动词 “Let” 的一种常见用法,用于提出建议、邀请等,后面接动词原形,如 “Let’s go shopping.”(让我们去购物吧)。
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===3 ===
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So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street. We found the entrance to the metro. The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world. The ride down the escalator took a full minute.
  
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句子结构与成分分析
  
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    “So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street.”
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        这是由两个并列的简单句通过 “and” 连接而成的句子。
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        第一个简单句 “So we grabbed our coats”:“So” 在这里可视为承接上文的连接词,表示因果或顺承关系;“we” 是主语,指 “我们”;“grabbed” 是谓语动词,是动词 “grab” 的过去式,意思是 “抓起,拿取”,在这里表示拿起外套的动作;“our coats” 是宾语,即抓取的对象。
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        第二个简单句 “we snuck out past security and into the street”:“we” 依旧是主语;“snuck” 是动词 “sneak” 的过去式,“snuck out” 表示 “偷偷溜出” 的动作;“past security” 是状语,说明溜出的路线是经过保安(区域);“and into the street” 同样是状语,与 “past security” 并列,说明最终溜到了街上,这里 “into” 表示进入到某个地方的方向。
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    “We found the entrance to the metro.”
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        这是一个简单句。
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        “We” 是主语;“found” 是谓语动词,是动词 “find” 的过去式,意思是 “找到”;“the entrance to the metro” 是宾语,其中 “the entrance” 是核心部分,表示 “入口”,“to the metro” 是介词短语作后置定语,用来修饰 “the entrance”,说明是通往地铁的入口。
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    “The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world.”
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        这是一个主系表结构的句子。
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        “The Moscow underground transportation system” 是主语,指莫斯科地下交通系统;“is” 是系动词;“the deepest one in the world” 是表语,其中 “the deepest” 是形容词最高级形式,用来描述主语的特征,即莫斯科地下交通系统是世界上最深的;“one” 在这里指代前面提到的 “transportation system”,起到避免重复的作用;“in the world” 是范围状语,明确了比较的范围是在全世界。
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    “The ride down the escalator took a full minute.”
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        这是一个简单句。
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        “The ride” 是主语,指乘坐(电梯等)的这一过程;“down the escalator” 是介词短语作后置定语,用来修饰 “the ride”,说明是沿着自动扶梯的乘坐过程;“took” 是谓语动词,是动词 “take” 的过去式,在这里表示 “花费(时间)” 的意思;“a full minute” 是宾语,说明花费的时间是整整一分钟。
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时态分析
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这段文章整体使用了一般过去时,如 “grabbed”“snuck”“found”“took” 等动词形式,因为文章是在描述过去发生的一系列动作和情况,包括拿外套、偷偷溜出去、找到地铁入口以及乘坐自动扶梯花费的时间等,这些都是过去已经完成的行为,所以用一般过去时来准确表述这些过去的经历。
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词汇与短语用法分析
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    “grabbed”:动词 “grab” 的过去式,常用于表示快速地抓取、拿起某物的动作,比 “took”“picked up” 等词更强调动作的迅速和随意性,例如 “He grabbed his bag and ran out.”(他抓起他的包就跑出去了)。
 +
    “snuck out”:是动词 “sneak” 的过去式形式 “snuck” 加上 “out” 构成的短语,意思是 “偷偷溜出”,强调动作的隐蔽性和偷偷摸摸的性质,比如 “She snuck out of the house while her parents were sleeping.”(她在父母睡觉的时候偷偷溜出了房子)。
 +
    “the entrance to”:介词短语,用来表示 “…… 的入口”,其中 “to” 是介词,后面接名词或名词短语,用来明确入口所通往的地方,如 “the entrance to the park”(公园的入口)。
 +
    “took”:动词 “take” 的过去式,在这里表示 “花费(时间、金钱等)” 的意思,通常的用法是 “it takes/took sb. some time/money to do sth.”,但在这个句子中,主语是 “the ride”,直接用 “took” 表示乘坐过程花费了一定时间,例如 “It took me two hours to finish my homework.”(完成我的作业花了我两个小时)。
  
 
</pre>
 
</pre>

2024年11月21日 (四) 11:14的最新版本

how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green

还差对正好再写一次 记得那些写错了没写出来的单词

https://singjupost.com/how-to-talk-like-a-native-speaker-marc-green-full-transcript/

尚雯婕外语学习法—英文听力资料(17分钟,英文字幕) 如果想下载 https://snapany.com/zh/bilibili

My story starts in Moscow. I was 15 years old. My best friend and I, we were part of a group of Westerners, visiting the Soviet Union. This was in 1987, a few years before the fall of the communist regime.

We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.

So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street. We found the entrance to the metro. The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world. The ride down the escalator took a full minute.

Once we were down there, my friend headed right to an open train, and I pulled him back and said, “Wait! Let’s write down the name of the station so we can find our way back.” So I had a notepad, and I took a notepad, and I wrote down the letters of the station, and we hopped down the train and went on train hopping. And that was fun because – Well, actually, it was weird.

There were a lot of people, probably all coming home from work. They were all dressed in brown and gray clothes, and it looked very, very different from what we were used to at home. But the stations were lovely. There were stations with statues, with paintings on the wall, and glass displays. It was really like museums. We would never have expected that.

And everything was perfectly clean. Well, what was weird though is that the people – nobody seemed to speak, and everyone seemed to be looking at us and it kind of weirded us out. So after about 20-30 minutes, we’d had enough and we wanted to go home. I showed my note to someone and they directed me over there.

Then over there, I showed my note to another person, and they directed us to the other way. And then a third person directed us sideways. That was a little confusing. Aw, then I saw it. Over the stairs, the sign. It turned out I had written down the Russian word for “Exit.”

So we headed upstairs and we found a taxi. That was great. And we told the driver, you know, “Intourist Hotel,” and then he was willing to take us. And I remember sitting next to the driver, handing him 50 rubles. And he looked at me and he said, (Russian) No, dollar! Fifty dollars? That was like I don’t know 20 times that amount or something.

That was not an option for us. So we had to get out of the taxi, and he drove away, leaving us standing there. It was a cold night, and you know everything was strange for us, and we were teenagers, and we were pretty nervous, didn’t know what to do. Well, we started walking. We walked to the end of the block.

We turned the corner. And 200 yards in front of us, the Intourist Hotel. Well, this experience affected me in two ways. The first is that anytime after this trip that I would hear anyone speak Russian, I was just cringe. And the second one is that it taught me the importance of understanding the local language when you’re traveling. And it actually led to me learning another four languages fluently over the following years.

Now, before I go on, I’d like to know in the audience – Can we have a little bit of light maybe in the audience? I’d just like to know who’s – By a show of hands, who is not a native English speaker? It must be 99%. Anyone who doesn’t speak English, stand up! All right, so I can assume all of you have, you know, gone through the process of learning a language.

Anybody who speaks three or more languages? Wow, that’s maybe 70%. Four or more languages, anyone? That’s still quite a bit. Anyone speak five or more languages? Wow, come see me during the break. To me, learning a language is — for me, it’s like a deck of playing cards lying faced down on the table.

As you start learning and understanding, the cards start opening up for you. Now there’s no standard way of classifying this. But as you learn, you reach certain milestones. And the first one would be when about 25% of the cards are turned up, you reach like a basic level. At this level, you have a base vocabulary, some grammar, and you’re able to have maybe very simple conversations and communicate a little bit.

5-10m

And your study goes on until you reach this magical point of fluency, what we call being fluent in the language. Now what does it mean, being fluent in a language? It means that you’ve turned up more than 50% of the cards in the deck, and that is the point where you have – where the language becomes part of your subconscious so that even if you don’t use it anymore for 10 years or longer, you will not forget it. You can get back into it within a very, very short time.

So this is a level where you’re comfortable thinking in a language, and comfortable communicating in a language. Now, some people go on and, you know, reach like a mastery level. By that time, you know classic literature in the other language and have maybe in-depth knowledge of specialized fields. That’s often the point taken in academia.

For me, when I learned my first foreign language, I had a head start because I was born to a German-speaking mother and an American father. Now, when I was a baby, I didn’t really understand that what my parents were speaking to me were two separate languages. But by the time I was two years old, I had figured it all out.

Women speak only German. Men only speak English. Imagine the fun my parents had when they introduced me to couples. Being a bilingual was actually pretty helpful in learning my first language. It definitely helped.

If you’re – But it also gave me something else. It gave me two identities and the ability to switch between them. When you’re a native speaker of more than one language, then your personality, your humor, your value system, they change as you switch languages. This can have huge advantages.


I mean, some studies have shown an increased problem-solving ability or even a higher resistance to Alzheimer’s disease. But what I’m almost interested in is that it’s actually given me a lot of social benefits. When you’re a native speaker, then you feel at home among native speakers or in a culture, and also native speakers accept you as one of theirs.


Now is this only relevant to native speakers? And that’s the big question. But wouldn’t it be cool if a person learning a foreign language could actually develop another identity and actually enjoy the social benefits of a native speaker that go beyond communication skills?

Well, that’s what happened to me. I was able to do that, and I want to show you from my experience how I think this can be achieved

So if we say this green area here is the level of the native speaker, the first thing to note is that on your way to reaching fluency, there is not really any shortcut. There are some methods that you can use such as the Burrito Principle where you identify 20% of the most effective materials to study. There are some apps, like stuff for time-spaced learning, that increase vocabulary retention. They save a little time, but in the end, there’s no way around working with the material, practicing it, until you reach the fluency level.

But the second thing to note is that going from fluency to mastery is a much slower process, and it requires proportionally more effort. That’s why most people – they just stop at fluency. They know how to speak English, good enough, and they don’t even attempt to venture on, and I can understand it.

But the good news is, to get the benefits of a native speaker, at a native-speaker level, you don’t have to go through mastery in the academic sense. In fact, you can skip this step altogether. So if you think about it, there are many native speakers do not have an in-depth knowledge of specialized fields or sophisticated vocabulary.

So, that’s not really what is required. So how do you do it? What is required? Well, I want to give you three areas to focus on when you’re learning and interacting with native speakers. The first is: work on eliminating your accent. I’m aware I said eliminating. It should be at least minimizing it.


10-15m
This is, in my opinion, the most overlooked aspect of language learning today, but it’s also the most important one to reach what I call a native-speaker level or a speaker-like level. If you communicate without an accent or almost without an accent, this changes how natives behave towards you unconsciously, and it also gives you an ability to adapt to a new self-image.

The best way that I’ve found – the best exercise I’ve found to improve your pronunciation is what I call the perfect-sentence technique. What you do is you find a native speaker to help you, and you take a book in the foreign language, you open it at a random page, and you read the first sentence. Then, you ask a native speaker to rate you on obvious accent, slight accent, no accent.

Then the native speaker will read this sentence back to you. You have to listen carefully and then you repeat. And you repeat this process over and over until the native speaker tells you that he can no longer hear an accent when you read the sentence.

Now, I realize it can take a very long time even just to get one sentence right. But I promise you if you are persistent, and if you patiently work on this, you’ll be amazed by what happens to your accent.

The second area to focus on is using verbs and expressions that locals use. Now, we all know the situation that vocabulary can be region-specific. Like, in the US, you use “stand in line.” In the UK, you “queue.” That’s all good.

But sometimes, the spoken word is so different, the speech is so different from what you get in textbooks, that the books are almost useless if you want to converse with natives. I want to give you an example.

In the French language, there are words like “le travail,” which is “my work.” A French person talking to his friend would probably say “mon boulot,” which is a completely different word. The same for “the clothes,” “le vestments,” but you’ll hear “le fringues.” Or money is “l’argent,” but people say “le fric,” “le sou,” or many other expressions for this.

So, obviously I’m only scratching the surface here. But here you actually have to learn all of these words and expressions one by one. And of course, you have to interact with natives to do that. But after you reach a critical mass that you’re comfortable with, it’ll actually be easier when you encounter something new.

You’ll just pick it up in one go, like native speakers would, who hear words or expressions that they didn’t know before.

The third area to work on is adopting cultural traits. What do I mean by that? So let me ask you: what does this gesture mean to you? Any Italians here? OK, now, depending on what culture you’re from, this could mean something rude, or it could just mean it’s something incredulous, like, “Why did you do that?” Or, “How could you?” Or it could just be signaling food, “Give me food!” Interesting!

In the Middle East, this is just a standard way of signaling “Please, wait!” So these kind of traits you have to internalize, and sometimes, they’re hard to spot, and it takes a lot of active listening. I want to give you a few more examples.

So imagine I am with three of my friends: an American, a German, and a Frenchman. And, like, we’re walking and maybe the American bumps his head, and his initial reaction might be, “Ouch!” That’s how you say it in English.

But the German that, you know, gets, I don’t know, elbowed in the crowd, he would say, “Ow-ah!” And the French person might step on the nail and say, “Ay!” So this, of course, in your target language, this is something you have to observe and also internalize, and it has to become part of you.

If again I’m with these three friends, and I sit with them, and let’s say I serve them tea, and I ask the American, “Would you like a biscuit with your tea?” And if he answers in the affirmative, he might say, “Uh-huh!”

And I can ask the German, “Do you know what tea this is?” He’ll say, ”Mm- hmm!” And then I ask the Frenchman, “Do you like this?” He’ll say, “Hmm!” So these differences, they really require active listening.

So all of these three things that I told you which is pronunciation, and colloquial speech and adopting cultural traits, they all require that you interact with natives as much as possible. Ideally, you should fully immerse yourself in the culture.

Now if you have the chance to live abroad for a while, that will be great. Or maybe live among natives in your hometown.

15-the end 

Perhaps just have a romantic relationship, or even just spend time, you know, with co-workers. So, romantic relationships, I could do a whole talk about that. That works really well for these things. But yeah – So this will be different for everybody, of course. But even when you’re not around natives, your learning must not stop.


Because what you can do is you can watch TV shows and films, you can mimic the characters, you can write down anything that you haven’t heard of before, and practice that. I also want to encourage you to learn the lyrics of songs.

Songs are really great because they tell stories. And they not only help your pronunciation when you sing them, but if they’re emotional, they can anchor these expressions into your active vocabulary. And it’s like speaking all day and really using the expressions unconsciously.

It’s a great way. So music, definitely. The other thing you need to move towards native-speaker status is the right mindset, and a belief that if you sound like a native, express yourself like a native, talk like a native and act like a native, you’ll actually achieve a native-like level.

So if I could only leave you with one thing today, it would be: work on your pronunciation. Because pronunciation helps any stage of the learning process, even in the very beginning. It’ll speed up everything. And it also is the key to reaching a native-speaker level, or almost-native-speaker status.

So before I go, I’d like to tell you how I was able to overcome my fear of the Russian language. It was a very, very elegant solution. I married a Russian girl. And I now have little kids in my home that speak Russian to me every day. So I want to thank you.

And before I go, I just want to wish you… (Spanish). A lot of success with your language studies… (French). It was a pleasure to present for you today… (Hebrew) I wish you lots of success with your studies. (Yiddish) Thank you for listening. Good luck to you all and…. (Russian).

Thank you.

语法分析

1

My story starts in Moscow. I was 15 years old. My best friend and I, we were part of a group of Westerners, visiting the Soviet Union. This was in 1987, a few years before the fall of the communist regime.

句子结构与成分分析

    “My story starts in Moscow.”
        这是一个简单的主谓结构的句子。
        “My story” 是主语,表示所讲述的故事这个主体;“starts” 是谓语动词,在这里使用了一般现在时,表示故事开始这一动作或状态,其主语是第三人称单数形式,所以动词用了 “starts”;“in Moscow” 是地点状语,说明故事开始的地点。
    “I was 15 years old.”
        同样是主系表结构的简单句。
        “I” 是主语,指说话人自己;“was” 是系动词 be 的过去式,用于第一人称单数(I)的过去时态;“15 years old” 是表语,用来描述主语的年龄状态。
    “My best friend and I, we were part of a group of Westerners, visiting the Soviet Union.”
        整体上是一个主系表结构的句子,其中包含了现在分词作后置定语的用法。
        “My best friend and I” 是主语部分,这里 “and” 连接了两个并列的主语 “my best friend” 和 “I”;“we” 在这里是主语的同位语,起到强调主语的作用,在语法分析上可视为一种补充说明,并非句子必要成分。
        “were” 是系动词 be 的过去式,用于复数主语(My best friend and I)的过去时态;“part of a group of Westerners” 是表语部分,其中 “part of” 表示 “…… 的一部分”,“a group of Westerners” 是 “of” 的宾语,整体说明主语所属的群体情况。
        “visiting the Soviet Union” 是现在分词短语作后置定语,用来修饰前面的 “a group of Westerners”,表示这个西方人群体当时正在进行访问苏联的动作,从语法功能上来说,它对所修饰的名词短语起到了进一步限定和描述其动作状态的作用。
    “This was in 1987, a few years before the fall of the communist regime.”
        这是一个主系表结构的句子,同时包含了同位语的用法。
        “This” 是主语,指代前面所提到的相关情况或事件;“was” 是系动词 be 的过去式,用于第三人称单数(this)的过去时态;“in 1987” 是表语,说明时间。
        “a few years before the fall of the communist regime” 是 “1987” 的同位语,对 “1987” 这个时间进行更具体的说明,表明它是在共产主义政权垮台之前的几年,其中 “the fall of the communist regime” 是 “before” 的宾语,整体构成了一个时间状语性质的同位语结构。

时态分析

这段文章主要使用了一般过去时,如 “was”“were” 等动词形式,因为文章是在描述过去发生的一系列情况,包括当时的年龄、所处的群体以及相关事件发生的时间等,都属于过去已经发生的事情,所以用一般过去时来准确传达这些过去的经历和状态

词汇与短语用法分析

    “part of”:表示 “…… 的一部分”,常用于描述某个事物或人所属的整体中的部分情况,例如文中 “part of a group of Westerners”。
    “a group of”:意为 “一群;一组”,后接可数名词复数,用来修饰和限定某个群体的数量和性质,如 “a group of Westerners” 表示 “一群西方人”。
    “visiting the Soviet Union”:现在分词短语,这里体现了现在分词的主动和进行的语法意义,即表示与所修饰的名词(a group of Westerners)存在主动关系且正在进行访问苏联的动作。


总体而言,这段文章语法运用较为规范,通过清晰的句子结构、合适的时态以及常见词汇和短语的搭配,较为流畅地讲述了过去相关的经历和背景情况。

2

We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us. And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night. My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.” I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.

句子结构与成分分析

    “We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us.”
        这是一个主被动结合的复合句。
        主句是 “We were given an official tour guide”,是被动语态结构。“We” 是主语,指 “我们” 这群人;“were given” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “were”(be 动词的过去式,用于复数主语)和动词 “give” 的过去分词 “given” 构成,表示 “被给予” 的动作;“an official tour guide” 是宾语,即被给予的对象,是 “一名官方导游” 的意思。
        “who was assigned to us” 是一个定语从句,用来修饰先行词 “an official tour guide”。在这个定语从句中,“who” 是关系代词,指代先行词 “an official tour guide”,在从句中作主语;“was assigned” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “was”(be 动词的过去式,用于第三人称单数主语)和动词 “assign” 的过去分词 “assigned” 构成,表示 “被分配、被指派” 的动作;“to us” 是状语,说明分配或指派的对象是 “我们”。
    “And the tour would start in the morning, and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night.”
        这里是由两个并列的简单句通过 “and” 连接而成。
        第一个简单句 “the tour would start in the morning”:“the tour” 是主语,指这次旅行;“would start” 是谓语动词,“would” 是 will 的过去式,在这里表示过去将来时,说明在过去某个时间点来看,旅行将会在早上开始;“in the morning” 是时间状语,明确了旅行开始的时间。
        第二个简单句 “we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night”:“we” 是主语;“were checked in” 是被动语态的谓语形式,由助动词 “were”(be 动词的过去式,用于复数主语)和动词短语 “check in” 的过去分词形式构成,表示 “被办理入住手续” 的动作;“to our hotel rooms” 是地点状语,说明入住的地点是 “我们的酒店房间”;“for the night” 是目的状语,表明入住酒店房间是为了过夜。
    “My friend said to me, ”Let’s go outside and look at the city.”
        这是一个直接引语的句子。
        “My friend” 是主语;“said” 是谓语动词,用了一般过去时,表示过去发生的说话动作;“to me” 是状语,说明说话的对象是 “我”。
        “Let’s go outside and look at the city.” 是直接引语部分,是一个祈使句的简略形式,完整形式应该是 “Let us go outside and look at the city.”,其中 “Let” 是使役动词,“us” 是宾语(在简略形式 “Let’s” 中,“us” 和 “Let” 缩写在一起),“go outside” 和 “look at the city” 是并列的动词短语,作宾语补足语,分别表示 “出去” 和 “看看这个城市” 的动作建议。
    “I thought it was a great idea. Dumb idea.”

        这实际上包含了两个句子,但表述上较为口语化。
        第一个句子 “I thought it was a great idea.”:“I” 是主语;“thought” 是谓语动词,用了一般过去时,表示过去的想法;“it was a great idea” 是一个宾语从句,作 “thought” 的宾语。在这个宾语从句中,“it” 是主语,指代前面朋友提出的出去看城市的建议;“was” 是系动词 be 的过去式,用于第三人称单数(it);“a great idea” 是表语,说明 “it” 所代表的建议是个好主意。
        “Dumb idea.” 是一个省略句,完整表述应该是 “It was a dumb idea.”,这里再次提及前面的建议,只不过改变了看法,认为是个 “愚蠢的主意”,同样是主系表结构,只是在口语表达中省略了主语和系动词。

时态分析

这段文章主要使用了一般过去时,如 “were given”“said”“thought” 等动词形式,因为是在描述过去发生的一系列事件,包括被分配导游、旅行计划开始时间、办理入住以及当时朋友提出建议和自己的想法等,都属于过去已经发生的情况,所以用一般过去时来准确呈现这些过去的经历。同时还使用了过去将来时 “would start”,用来表示在过去某个时间点看未来(也就是当时即将到来的早上)旅行将会开始的情况。
词汇与短语用法分析

    “were given”:被动语态,强调动作是 “被给予”,与主动语态 “gave” 相对应,例如主动句 “We received an official tour guide.”(我们收到了一名官方导游)和被动句 “We were given an official tour guide.” 意思相近,但强调的重点不同,被动句更强调导游是被给予我们的这一被动情况。
    “check in”:动词短语,在这里是被动语态 “were checked in” 的形式,意思是 “办理入住手续”,常用于酒店、机场等场所,表示办理相关的登记入住或报到手续等,例如 “You need to check in at the hotel before 6 pm.”(你需要在下午 6 点之前在酒店办理入住手续)。
    “Let’s”:是 “Let us” 的缩写形式,是使役动词 “Let” 的一种常见用法,用于提出建议、邀请等,后面接动词原形,如 “Let’s go shopping.”(让我们去购物吧)。

3

So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street. We found the entrance to the metro. The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world. The ride down the escalator took a full minute.

句子结构与成分分析

    “So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street.”
        这是由两个并列的简单句通过 “and” 连接而成的句子。
        第一个简单句 “So we grabbed our coats”:“So” 在这里可视为承接上文的连接词,表示因果或顺承关系;“we” 是主语,指 “我们”;“grabbed” 是谓语动词,是动词 “grab” 的过去式,意思是 “抓起,拿取”,在这里表示拿起外套的动作;“our coats” 是宾语,即抓取的对象。
        第二个简单句 “we snuck out past security and into the street”:“we” 依旧是主语;“snuck” 是动词 “sneak” 的过去式,“snuck out” 表示 “偷偷溜出” 的动作;“past security” 是状语,说明溜出的路线是经过保安(区域);“and into the street” 同样是状语,与 “past security” 并列,说明最终溜到了街上,这里 “into” 表示进入到某个地方的方向。
    “We found the entrance to the metro.”
        这是一个简单句。
        “We” 是主语;“found” 是谓语动词,是动词 “find” 的过去式,意思是 “找到”;“the entrance to the metro” 是宾语,其中 “the entrance” 是核心部分,表示 “入口”,“to the metro” 是介词短语作后置定语,用来修饰 “the entrance”,说明是通往地铁的入口。
    “The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world.”
        这是一个主系表结构的句子。
        “The Moscow underground transportation system” 是主语,指莫斯科地下交通系统;“is” 是系动词;“the deepest one in the world” 是表语,其中 “the deepest” 是形容词最高级形式,用来描述主语的特征,即莫斯科地下交通系统是世界上最深的;“one” 在这里指代前面提到的 “transportation system”,起到避免重复的作用;“in the world” 是范围状语,明确了比较的范围是在全世界。
    “The ride down the escalator took a full minute.”
        这是一个简单句。
        “The ride” 是主语,指乘坐(电梯等)的这一过程;“down the escalator” 是介词短语作后置定语,用来修饰 “the ride”,说明是沿着自动扶梯的乘坐过程;“took” 是谓语动词,是动词 “take” 的过去式,在这里表示 “花费(时间)” 的意思;“a full minute” 是宾语,说明花费的时间是整整一分钟。

时态分析

这段文章整体使用了一般过去时,如 “grabbed”“snuck”“found”“took” 等动词形式,因为文章是在描述过去发生的一系列动作和情况,包括拿外套、偷偷溜出去、找到地铁入口以及乘坐自动扶梯花费的时间等,这些都是过去已经完成的行为,所以用一般过去时来准确表述这些过去的经历。
词汇与短语用法分析

    “grabbed”:动词 “grab” 的过去式,常用于表示快速地抓取、拿起某物的动作,比 “took”“picked up” 等词更强调动作的迅速和随意性,例如 “He grabbed his bag and ran out.”(他抓起他的包就跑出去了)。
    “snuck out”:是动词 “sneak” 的过去式形式 “snuck” 加上 “out” 构成的短语,意思是 “偷偷溜出”,强调动作的隐蔽性和偷偷摸摸的性质,比如 “She snuck out of the house while her parents were sleeping.”(她在父母睡觉的时候偷偷溜出了房子)。
    “the entrance to”:介词短语,用来表示 “…… 的入口”,其中 “to” 是介词,后面接名词或名词短语,用来明确入口所通往的地方,如 “the entrance to the park”(公园的入口)。
    “took”:动词 “take” 的过去式,在这里表示 “花费(时间、金钱等)” 的意思,通常的用法是 “it takes/took sb. some time/money to do sth.”,但在这个句子中,主语是 “the ride”,直接用 “took” 表示乘坐过程花费了一定时间,例如 “It took me two hours to finish my homework.”(完成我的作业花了我两个小时)。







tom-hanks-gives-2023-harvard-commencement-speech 尚雯婕外语学习法英语听力素材(20分钟版)

尚雯婕外语学习法英语听力素材(20分钟版)

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/tom-hanks-gives-2023-harvard-commencement-speech-transcript