【一起闲话英语】怎样学习—How to study

Transcript: 

Good morning. Today I’m going to talk about how to study. Now you probably think you know all about that, right? You’ve been studying for years. And I expect some of you are fantastic at studying, really organised and good at concentrating. But there’s always room for improvement¹, and your exams aren’t far away, so these tips are for all of you.

 

Right, so, what’s the best way to study? Well, first of all, it’s a good idea to have some kind of plan or timetable. This could be for the week or a longer revision timetable for an exam, from one month to six months. Yes, if you’re studying for an important exam it’s important to think long term. Draw up a timetable, but revise it often. If it’s not going to plan, you may have to rethink it.

 

Next, think about your environment. Make sure the place where you are going to study is comfortable with enough light, air, etc. Not too hot, not too cold. Make sure there are no distracting² noises around, such as television. If you think you concentrate better listening to music, experiment and see if it’s really true. Some people really do seem to work better with music in the background, especially classical music, but for many people it spoils³ their concentration⁴. However, if you have to work near a TV, you might have to use headphones to play music to drown out the sound of the TV. In this case, find out what kind of music works⁵ best for you, maybe something without words. By the way, you might think you work fine with the TV on, but, again, experiment. You might be surprised at how much better you work away from a TV. Oh, and the other thing is the internet, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Forget about all of that while you’re studying. No, really, you can ignore it for an hour or so; it won’t be the end of the world if you don’t reply to a message immediately.

 

Right, planning breaks. Plan your study periods in chunks⁶ with regular breaks. Many people recommend half an hour of concentrated study, then a ten-minute break. But you can adjust this to suit you. If you study for too long at a stretch your mind will work less effectively, so be careful. In your short break, you can give yourself a treat, such as a cup of green tea. I wouldn’t advise a chocolate bar as a treat – a sugar rush is not great for concentration.

 

OK, so next let’s think about what you do when you’re studying. Some people just read through their notes or textbooks and underline in pencil or highlight⁷ important bits. If this works for you, fine, but I’d suggest that it’s better to write notes of some kind, so your mind is processing the information more. This way you are also producing material which will be useful for last-minute revision. I don’t recommend very last-minute revision, by the way, but we’ll come back to that later.

 

Have a look at these examples of student notes. Which do you think are best? The first person has written important phrases at random⁸, the next has a table with clear headings and boxes with notes, the next has summaries, and the last one has mind maps: you’ve got the main topic in the circle, then lines coming off the circle attached to subcategories, then more lines to further details. Mind maps are great for showing the connections between different bits of information. They seem to work in the same way the brain works. So what do you think? To me, the first one wouldn’t be very useful to come back to and use in the future. But the others are all fine – it depends on your personal preference. Mine is for mind maps. I would suggest using colours, though, and even little drawings. They can make things much more memorable⁹.

 

Obviously¹⁰, when you are studying, the first thing to think about is whether you understand the information, and the second thing is how you are going to remember it. Let’s look at some more ways of making information more memorable …

1 improvement   

n.改进，增进；改进之处，改善的地方

参考例句：

• The doctor noticed a gradual improvement in his patient.医生注意到病人在逐渐恢复健康。
• I can detect signs of improvement in your thinking.我可以察觉出你思考问题方面的进步。

2 distracting   

v.使（人）分心，分散（注意力）( distract的现在分词 )；打扰

参考例句：

• You're distracting me from my work. 你使我不能专心工作。
• Nothing is more distracting than a neurotic boss. 没有什么比神经过敏的老板更恼人的了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 spoils   

n.战利品，赃物v.变质( spoil的第三人称单数 )；损坏；毁掉；破坏

参考例句：

• There are some spoils of war in his hands. 在他的手里有些战利品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The thief escaped with his spoils. 这个小偷带着赃物逃走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 concentration   

n.集中；专注；浓度；浓缩

参考例句：

• She wrinkled her brows in concentration.她蹙额皱眉，陷入沉思。
• If smoke is going that way,then it means the concentration here should be decreasing.如果烟雾沿着这个方向飘，这意味着，这里的浓度应该是减少的。

5 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

6 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

7 highlight   

n.加亮区；v.加亮，强调；[计算机]醒目

参考例句：

• Her performance was the highlight of the show.她的表演是那场演出中最精彩的部分。
• The highlight of this term is the school trip to Austria.这学期最重要的活动就是去奥地利的校外旅行。

8 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

9 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

10 obviously   

adv.显然；明白地

参考例句：

• Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
• Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。