(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is the VOA Learning English Education Report.
A student from overseas did well on a research paper for an American college. She said, "Research takes up space, and the words in the research are correct because the writing is in English." Now, however, she has to write a narrative essay in her own words.
She is afraid she does not know enough English.
Such a paper can be hard for anyone. Experts at Purdue University in Indiana define a narrative essay as "often anecdotal, experiential and personal." In other words, this kind of essay usually tells a story from the writer's experience. It is about something the writer has lived.
A narrative essay usually provides an insight. For example, such essays might be named "How I Won the 100-Meter Dash" or "How I Came to Study in the United States." It is often written in the first person – the "I" form. And it offers a chance for creative writing, for expressing yourself about yourself in the paper.
The Purdue experts say that if your narrative essay is written as a story, you need to provide an introduction, a plot, a setting, a climax and a conclusion or ending. Often the narrative essay requires characters as well. And this essay usually follows events in the order they happened.
Judith Baumel is a poet and a professor at Adelphi University in New York.
"Sometimes I ask students to remember an early moment with their parents and sort of think about where they were physically. Think about what was in front of them, what was behind them, what was above them, below them. Just describe it out."
Professor Baumel describes the exercise as remarkable. Says she learned it from another writer, graphic novelist Lynda Barry.
Ms. Baumel also has advice for English students who worry about not using the right words. She says the language has a great vocabulary.
"And that's a real bonus for students who are just learning English. You really can play around with the vocabulary pretty early (in the process of learning the language)."
She says she introduces language learners to the thesaurus, which she calls "a great resource." A thesaurus is a kind of dictionary. It can help you replace a word with a synonym, another word having the same or similar meaning. Sometimes it also provides antonyms -- words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings from the word you are replacing.
Judith Baumel notes the example of words that all describe a place to sit, words like chair and sofa and couch and chaise.
"All of this is available online now. Anybody in the world can just go online and get an online thesaurus."
And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report for today. I'm Jeri Watson.
词汇解释
1.narrative n. 叙述；故事；讲述 adj. 叙事的，叙述的；叙事体的
She wants to fable up this narrative into a fiction.
她想把这个故事改编成小说。
2.anecdotal adj. 轶事的；轶事一样的；多轶事的
Anecdotal evidence suggests that sales in the Southwest have slipped.
传闻的证据表明西南部的销售量有所下滑。
3.thesaurus n. 宝库；辞典；知识宝库；分类词汇汇编
A thesaurus is a book of synonyms and antonyms.
同类语词典是一本拥有同义词和反义词的书.
4.climax n. 高潮；顶点；层进法；极点 v.(使)达到顶点，(使)达到高潮：
The drama builds steadly toward a climax.
这出戏逐步发展到高潮。
内容解析
1.She said, "Research takes up space, and the words in the research are correct because the writing is in English."
take up 拿起；开始从事；占据(时间,地方)
All available accommodation were taken up.
房间都住满了。
The piano takes up too much space.
这架钢琴占地方太多。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
一位来自海外的学生为美国一所大学写了一篇很好的研究论文，她说，“研究内容占了论文的篇幅，而且研究中的措辞很正确，因为是用英文写的。”不过现在，她只得用自己的语言来写一篇记叙文。
她担心自己对英文了解得不够。
这样的论文对每个人来说都很难，印第安纳州普渡大学的专家们将记叙文定义为“通常含轶事的、经验型和个性化”。也就是说，这种文章通常用一个故事来讲述作者的经历，与作者自身的生活有关。
记叙文通常提供一种洞见，比如，此类文章的名字通常是“我是如何赢得100米短跑的”或“我如何来到美国上学”。文章通常是用第一人称写的，同时也为创意写作提供了机会，你可以在文章中表达自己。
普渡大学的专家们说，如果你的记叙文是写成一个故事，就需要提供引语、情节、背景、高潮和结论。通常记叙文还要求有人物，这种文章一般按照事情发生的顺序来记述。
朱迪思·鲍梅尔是纽约阿德菲大学的一位诗人兼教授。
“有时我会要求学生记起早些时候和父母共处的情景，思考当时他们在哪里，他们的前后上下都有什么，然后描写出来。”
鲍梅尔教授说这种练习很有效，这是她从另一位作家兼图画小说家那里学来的。
鲍梅尔教授还给那些担心不会使用正确措辞的英语学生提供建议，她说英语有着丰富的词汇。
“这对那些刚刚学习英语的学生来说是个福利，你可以在学习这种语言的早期阶段就开始了解词汇。”
她说她向语言学习者推荐分类词典，她称之为“巨大的资源”。分类词典是一种词典，能帮助你用同义词来替换一个单词，同义词是指意义相同或类似的词，有时还提供反义词，反义词就是与想替换单词意思相反或几乎相反的词。
朱迪思·鲍梅尔以描述坐的地方的单词为例，这类单词包括椅子、沙发、长椅、躺椅。
“所有这些词都可以在网上查到，世界上的任何人都能上网查询分类词典。”
这就是美国之音慢速英语教育报道，我是杰瑞·沃森。
