干货 | 如何根据你的实际水平选择合适的精听材料

**小白老师说：不少同学（以后就把我们公众号的读者统一称作同学了）发信息给我，****希望推荐一些适合长期训练的听力材料，**他们中有的是要备考2017年的医博英语考试，有的则希望提高听说能力，为出国学习、工作做准备。

今天主要跟大家说说精听材料的选择。

我们选择政治经济类的新闻材料用作精听训练比较好，比如CNN Student News，BBC，The Economist等，所有的听力材料必须带有完整的听力文本。不推荐将美剧、电影等娱乐性节目作为听力训练材料。

英语听力训练在本质上是一个基于记忆的特殊技能训练过程，这种能力的基础在于头脑对语素的快速反应。这种反应包含了单词的辨音和句子结构的综合把握等过程。

我们训练的目的就是在头脑里建立一个适合自己工作、生活或考试等需要的语音反应库，将刻意的、自迫的反应过程转化成无意识或准无意识的过程，这样，我们的听力就能足以让我们应付工作和生活了。而这种训练方法的核心就是听写（后面细说，这次主要是讲如何选择精听材料）。

有同学问那是不是我只要每天听，大量地听，把自己“浸淫”在英语中我的听力就会自然而然提高呢？事实上没这么简单。关于听力训练有一个最浅显但也最容易被人忽略的原则，那就是——你最多只能听懂你读得懂的东西。（这句话有点绕口，请默读三遍，细细琢磨一下，因为这个原则非常重要，后面我要讲到的具体训练方法也是以这个原则为基础的。）

这句话包含了三层意思：

第一，你的听力直接受到阅读基础的影响。要提高听力首先要提高你的的阅读基础（包括词汇量，语法基础），你的阅读基础越好，能看得懂的东西越多，听力过程也会越顺畅。

第二，听力训练的目标是努力听懂能读得懂的东西，听懂你应该听懂的，对于读不懂的东西，只能通过提高词汇量来解决。

第三，要根据自己的实际水平（可以大致等同于词汇量水平）选择合适的听力材料，好高骛远是大忌。

在听力训练的方法、听力材料的选择上众说纷纭，每个人都能说出个一二三四，比如听VOA、BBC，看美剧，看英文电影，听英语新闻，听脱口秀，听名人演讲，听有声书…

这些方法有用吗？有。

任何一种方法，只要我们付出了时间和努力，都能够取得或多或少的进步，但我们另外还要考虑的是：**它是一种高效的方法吗？**答案就见仁见智了。

举个例子，众所周知，VOA和BBC是很好的听力素材，但事实上，对基础比较薄弱的初学者来说，却不是最好的选择。为什么呢？

我在VOA官网上随机找了一段VOA Standard （VOA常速听力）的文本，现在请你一口气把它读完，中间不能回头：

“The body of scientific knowledge about the virus is building rapidly. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the more that is known about the Zika virus, the worse things look. ‘A pattern has emerged in which initial detection of virus circulation is followed within about three weeks by an unusual increase in cases of Guillain Barre syndrome. Detection of microcephaly and other fetal malformations comes later…’ WHO reports 6,480 cases of microcephaly are suspected, mostly from northeast Brazil. Lisa Schlein, Geneva.”

好的，现在请考虑几个问题：这段听力材料您读懂了吗？中间碰到了多少生词？如果让您听的话有多少单词可能会反应不过来？

如果这段材料你读不懂的话，那么肯定也听不懂，即使听100遍也没用。

事实上，VOA Standard（VOA常速）和BBC新闻对于听力基础薄弱的同学来说并不是一种友好的听力材料，要比较顺畅地舒服地听懂它们，你的词汇量少说也要在12000以上吧，能达到这个词汇量的早就不是初学者了。任何****不考虑学习者的实际水平就推荐材料的行为都是耍流氓。

听力训练并没有可以速成的万能办法，那些所谓的“21天听力速成法”之类的都是骗纸好吗。在听力这件事情上，我们不要急于求成，也不要迷信，不要盲从，一定要根据自己的实际情况去选择适合自己的材料。

具体来说，选择听力材料时要考虑你的词汇量水平，在选听力材料时可以先读一读它的文本，确定一下难度。比如说对于下面这段听力材料（选自CNN Student News）：

And through the 1,000 Talents program, China hopes to lure Chinese-born researchers back from abroad. By 2010, China had already managed to bring back at least 80,000 Western-trained Ph.D.s in the life sciences.

“When I left China in 1985, I went to my professors’ labs, and they were very obsolete – no modern equipment whatsoever,” Pei said.“When I came back (in 2002,) it was a very different world.”

对听力基础不太好的同学们来说，上面的这段才是“友好”的材料，难度适中，生词量适中，是比较合适的听力训练材料。

听力材料的选择是至关重要和压倒一切的。

下面我们把市面上主流的听力材料按难度做一个粗略的划分：

初阶的材料

新概念英语2，VOA Special English （VOA 慢速英语)，高中英语听力教材，华东师范大学外语系曾经出过一套书叫“英语听力入门 Step By Step”，里面的第一册和第二册也可以算是初阶材料。
高阶的材料

VOA Standard （VOA常速），BBC，CNN，新概念4，经济学人，原版有声书等。

初阶和高阶的材料都比较丰富，问题可能会出在中级阶段上。

基于我和很多医院里的朋友的交流，我发现大多数同学现在就处于“听VOA慢速觉得太简单，但听VOA常速又听不懂”这个节点上。这是一个看起来有些尴尬的阶段，我把它叫做中级向高级提升的bottleneck，（有点类似于经济学上的“中等收入陷阱”，跨过了就是欧美，跨不过就成了拉美），只要能够跨过这个bottleneck，后面就好受多了。

目前市面上好的中级阶段材料并不是很多，但也还有，比如说新概念3

其作者 Alexander是世界著名的英语教学权威，曾任欧洲现代语言教学委员会理事。他的著作为交际教学法奠定了基础，其中一些如New Concept English（《新概念英语》）和Follow Me（《跟我学》）已经成为经典英语教材。.

新概念3里面的文章无论是用词，文采还是故事性都堪称一流，它其实是作为教材使用的，每篇文章都有对应的音频，音频分有英英版本和美英版本，作为听力材料练习是非常好的。

比如新概念3第24课**↓↓↓**

Lesson 24: A skeleton in the cupboard

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.

Who was Sebastian?

We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible secret which has been concealed from strangers for years. The English language possesses a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation. The terrible secret is called ‘a skeleton in the cupboard’. At some dramatic moment in the story, the terrible secret becomes known and a reputation is ruined. The reader’s hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of the novel that the heroine a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody, had, in her youth, poisoned every one of her five husbands.

It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction. To varying degrees, we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friends to learn, but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton, and he is very pound of the fact. George studied medicine in his youth. Instead of becoming a doctor, however, he became a successful writer of detective stories. I once spend an uncomfortable weekend which I shall never forget at his house. George showed me to the guestroom which, he said, was rarely used. He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner. After I had stacked my shirts and underclothes in two empty drawers, I decided to hang one of the tow suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of two suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it suits I had brought with me in the cupboard. I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified. A skeleton was dangling before my eyes. The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave me the impression that it was about to leap out at me. Dropping my suit, I dashed downstairs to tell George. This was worse than "a terrible secret’; this was a read skeleton! But George was unsympathetic. ‘Oh, that,’ he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend. ‘That’s Sebastian. You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.’

另外一个非常好的中阶听力资源是CNN Student News**↓↓↓**

**CNN Student News 可以说是VOA慢速和常速之间的一个完美补充。**CNN官网上对这档节目的介绍是这样的：

“CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program designed for middle and high school classes. It is produced by the journalists at CNN.This award-winning show and its companion website are available free of charge throughout the school year.” ↓↓↓