听美国之音体育报道，对词的理解有困难。您能介绍一些窍门吗??

One of the most difficult skills to acquire in a foreign language is the ability to understand the natural language spoken by native speakers at a normal speed. Additionally, with sports reports, the language is often delivered at speed. Listen to a commentary on a horse race or a car rally and you will find that the commentator can hardly keep up with himself as he tries to keep pace with the events he is witnessing. You can train yourself to cope with native speaker delivery in a number of ways. One way is to use ‘talking books’. These are published on audio tape, compact disc, or on video. They consist mainly of novels or biographies read by famous actors and are aimed at native speakers who like to listen to someone telling them a story, rather than reading one themselves. This is what you could do:?

(1) Buy the book and the recorded version (in British or American English according to your preference).?

(2) Play a small part of the audio version and concentrate on listening. Confine yourself to about two minutes at a time. Try to understand as much as you can. You will probably find it’s hard to‘keep up with the reader’.?

(3) Play the taped version again while reading the text at the same time. Guess the meaning from the context, looking up only those words which seem to you to be essential to the meaning.

(4) Play the same part of the tape again without looking at the book. Contentrate only on listening. This time you will find that you can‘keep up with the reader’much more easily.

(5) Keep doing this until you feel able to cope with native delivery. Of course, it’s not a sports commentary. But following this routine will provide you with the kind of practice you need to cope with English delivered at normal native-speaker speed.

一门外国语最难掌握的一项技巧就是听懂母语讲话人用正常速度所说的自然语言的能力。另外，在体育报道中，语速通常是快的。听一场赛马或汽车比赛的评论，你会发现评论员几乎都跟不上自己的速度，因为他要努力跟上他所看到的项目的进行速度。你可以通过几个方法来训练自己听懂母语讲话者说话的能力。一种办法是使用“有声读物”。这些读物以录音带、CD或录像带的形式出版。它们主要包括著名演员朗读的小说或传记，这些读物是面向那些不想亲自读故事而想听别人读的母语讲话者的。你可以：

(1) 购买有声读物及其配书(根据你自己的喜好选择英国英语或美国英语)。

(2) 播放一小部分有声读物，集中精力听。每次限制在两分钟内。尽量多地理解。你可能会发现要“跟上朗读人”有困难。

(3) 重复播放有声读物，看着配书听。根据上下文猜测意思，只有那些对理解意思起关键作用的词才去查词典。

(4) 再把磁带的同一部分播放一遍，不要看书。集中精力听。这次你会发现要“跟上朗读人”就容易多了。

(5) 坚持做下去，直到你觉得能够应付母语的讲话为止。当然，这不是体育评论。这种做法能为你提供实用的练习，使你听懂正常语速英语母语讲话。

Along with listening to the radio, I always read some books about listening comprehension. I have got little progress in my listening comprehension. How can I improve it?

在听收音机的同时，我还读一些有关如何提高听力的书。但仍然进步缓慢。我该如何提高呢?

? The way to train listening comprehension in a language course is through the technique of‘active listening’, not ‘passive listening’. If a teacher introduces a text with a short commentary and sets a question, students will listen actively. For example, the teacher says: ‘Today I’m going to read you a story about an accident. After I have finished reading, I will ask you how the accident happened.’ This will encourage students to listen actively in order to find out the answer. If, however, the teacher introduces a story by saying: ‘Listen to this story’, the students will have no listening focus. They will listen (perhaps) with their eyes open, but with their minds shut. Here are a few tips to improve your listening skills:?

(1) Listen for particular information; don’t worry about the meanings of individual words.?

(2) If you have recordings of texts (the listening comprehension books you mention), first listen to the recordings, trying to pick up as much as you can at first hearing. Then listen again, while reading silently at the same time. Then listen to the text a third time (without reading)

(3) Try sharing a listening activity with a friend or with friends, so you can ‘pool’ your listening experience with others.?

练习语言听力的方法是要采取积极主动而非被动的方式。如果老师在介绍一篇课文时稍加一个短评，并且提出一个问题，学生们就会积极主动地聆听。例如，老师说：“今天我准备给你们读一则讲述一个意外事件的故事。读完之后，我要问你们这件事是如何发生的。”这会鼓励学生们积极认真地听，以求找到问题的答案。如果老师只是说：“请听这个故事”，学生们则没有聆听的重点。他们的双眼可能是睁着的，但头脑确是封闭的。在此，我给你提供一些建议，供参考：?

(1) 为汲取特定的信息而听；不要担心个别词的意思。

(2) 如果你所说的听力课本中的课文有录音，首先听录音，尽量在第一次听时多听懂些，然后再听一遍，同时你可以默读。之后，你可以再听第三遍(可以不读课文了)。

(3) 可以试着与一个朋友或几个朋友一起进行听力训练，这样你们可以集思广益，互相借鉴。