Suppose you have two friends,A and B,both of whom have been learning English for some years.Both are clever young men,and both are anxious to acquire a good knowledge of the language.But now they have got very different results from the several years of study: A can write short letters and read easy news items but cannot read any passage[1] in the classics,while B can read here and there in some classics but cannot write short letters or read easy news items.Reader,which of your two friends would you prefer to be like?
I believe you would prefer to be like A rather than[2] B.You should[3].I am sorry to find that among Chinese learners of English there seem to be more like B than like A.The trouble lies chiefly in[4] what is read.
Well,what do you read? I mean to ask what you take as your chief reading matter.Is it a novel or a volume of essays written more than a hundred years ago? If it is,my advice to you is to change it for something else.Your chief reading matter must have been written far less than a hundred years ago,a few weeks ago if possible,must have been written in simple English,and must have been written by an Englishman or an American.
I am not going to give a list of books here.But I think I have to make some general remarks.Your chief reading matter need not be a literary masterpiece[5].Nor need it be written by a famous author.A volume of short pieces of narration or exposition is better than a novel or some long argumentative essays[6].
You must have noted that in the above I have talked about only what your chief reading matter should be.You have a book or two for your chief reading matter.You should also read something else,which may be a little more difficult,but which still had better not[7] be a classic of more than a hundred years ago.
NOTES
[1]passage （一段）文字
[2]rather than 而非
[3]should=should prefer to be like A rather than B.
[4]lie chiefly in … 主要在于……
[5]literary masterpiece 文学著作
[6]argumentative essays 议论文
[7]had better not … 最好不……
