VOA名师答疑2023 阅读技巧: 过渡和定义

（单词翻译）

Hello!

大家好!

This week on Ask a Teacher, we will answer a question about reading skills like finding definitions and transitions¹.

本周《名师答疑》，我们回答关于阅读技巧的问题，比如找到定义和过渡。

Greetings from Ecuador. Could you please provide me any information and guidance to improve my reading skills and share them with my English students?

来自厄瓜多尔的问候。你能给我一些信息和指导来提高我的阅读能力，并与我的英语课学生分享吗？

Thank you in advance for your help and support, Angel.

提前感谢你的帮助和支持，安吉尔。

Thanks for writing to us, Angel.

谢谢你的来信，安吉尔。

When we read, we are reading someone’s piece of writing.

当我们阅读时，我们就是在读某人写的东西。

So, we can bring writing skills to the activity of reading.

因此，我们可以把写作技巧迁移到阅读中。

Finding transitions and definitions can help us with our reading.

找到过渡和定义可以帮助我们阅读。

Transitions are words and phrases that connect ideas.

过渡是连接不同思想的单词和短语。

Transitions help with organizing thoughts in writing.

有助于在写作中组织想法。

They help develop ideas smoothly².

能帮我们流畅地阐述思想。

Identifying transitions while reading can help us better understand what we are reading.

在阅读时找出过渡部分可以帮助我们更好地理解所阅读的内容。

Transitions can be found within paragraphs, between paragraphs, and between longer divisions of text.

在段落内、段落之间，以及较长的文本部分之间都有过渡。

There are several kinds of transitions.

过渡有几种类型。

Time-order transitions are words like “first,” “next,” “second,” “finally,” and “lastly.”

时序过渡就是像“第一”“接下来”“第二”“最终”“最后”这样的词。

They establish the order of events or ideas.

这些词确立了事件或思想的顺序。

There are also transitions that show a relationship between ideas.

也有一些过渡显示思想之间的关系。

For example, we can show contrast between ideas by using “however” or “nonetheless.”

例如，我们可以用“然而”或“尽管如此”来表示不同思想之间的对比。

We can show results by using the phrases “as a result” or “consequently.”

可以用短语“结果是”或“因此”来显示结果。

Here is an example paragraph from a recent story called, “Five Ways That the Ukraine War Has Changed the World.”

下面是最近一篇报道中的一段话，这篇报道的标题为《乌克兰战争改变世界的五种方式》。

What transitions are used?

这段话中使用了什么过渡？

“Before the war, much of the grain and vegetable oil sent to the Middle East and Africa came from Ukraine and Russia….

“战前，运往中东和非洲的粮食和植物油大多来自乌克兰和俄罗斯…...

Now, countries are thinking about ways to provide their own food and energy.”

现在，各国都在考虑如何自己提供所需的食物和能源。”

Two time-order transitions, “before” and “now,” are used to show the time relationship between events that happened.

“之前”和“现在”这两个时序过渡词用来表示发生的事件之间的时间关系。

Spotting the transitions and knowing what they mean can be helpful when reading.

发现过渡部分并理解它们的含义在阅读时会很有帮助。

We can also find definitions within the text to help us better understand unfamiliar³ words.

我们还可以在文本内找到定义，帮助我们更好地理解不熟悉的单词。

There are a few ways to do this.

有几种方法可以做到这一点。

We can find verb phrases like “is/are,” “is defined⁴ as,” “is called,” “means,” or “is a type of.”

可以找到动词短语，如“是”“被定义为”“称为”“意思是”或“是一种”。

Noticing these phrases within the story can help us learn new vocabulary.

注意文章中的这些短语可以帮助我们学习新的词汇。

Here is an example from the article, “Study: Better Instruments Needed to Discover Life on Mars⁵.”

以下是从“研究表明，发现火星生命需要更好的工具”中摘取的一个例子。

“Such testing is carried out in areas where bodies of water once existed.

“这种测试是在曾经存在水体的地区进行的。

This is because those areas, called deltas⁷, contain higher levels of ancient microbes to study.

这是因为这些被称为三角洲的区域含有更多可以研究的古代微生物。

The Red Stone area was a river delta⁶ about 100 million years ago.”

红石地区在大约1亿年前是一个河流三角洲。”

We can see from this example, that “called” is used.

从这个例子中可以看到，使用了“称为”这个词。

The term “delta” is in an earlier paragraph, too.

“三角洲”一词也出现在前面一段中。

A delta is a kind of body of water, a place where a river meets the sea.

三角洲是一种水体，是河流与海洋交汇的地方。

We even have an example with The Red Stone area as a river delta.

还有红石地区作为河流三角洲的例子。

Another way to show definitions is through punctuation⁸ like dashes or commas.

另一种显示定义的方法是使用标点符号，如破折号或逗号。

Here is an example from our American Presidents stories: “George Washington: Reluctant.”

下面是关于美国总统故事中的一个例子，故事的标题为“乔治·华盛顿：不情不愿”。

This example uses two ways of showing a new word.

下面的例子用了两种方式来表示一个新词。

“He established a group of advisors⁹ -- called the cabinet -- as well as the nation’s official money.”

“他建立了一个顾问小组--称为内阁--以及国家的官方资金。”

Here, we see that the writer uses dashes and “called” to give an informal definition of the group of advisors.

在这里，我们可以看到作者使用破折号和“称为”给顾问小组下了一个非正式定义。

And, we can find definitions by reading further into the text.

而且，我们可以通过进一步阅读文本来找到定义。

Here is an example from another recent story called, “‘Imperfect’ Models in Italy Redefine Beauty.”

下面是最近一篇名为“意大利的‘不完美’模特重新定义美”的报道中的一个例子。

“Sonia Spartá is one of the models.

“索尼娅·斯帕塔是其中一名模特。

The 28-year-old from Sicily has a condition called hyperpigmentation or unusual skin coloring.

这位来自西西里岛的28岁模特患有一种名为色素沉着过度的疾病，也就是肤色异常。

It results in dark spots on her face and body.”

这导致她的脸和身体上有黑点。”

The word that is defined is “hyperpigmentation.”

被定义的词是“色素沉着过度”。

The definition is found right after the conjunction “or,” which shows the definition.

这个词的定义就在连词or（或者说）之后，or表明定义是什么。

But if you read further into the next sentence, you can find out more about Sonia’s condition.

但如果你继续阅读下一句话，你会发现更多关于索尼娅的情况。

The writer uses the verb “results” to show the relationship between the condition of hyperpigmentation and its results.

作者用动词“导致”来表示色素沉着过度与其结果之间的关系。

Please let us know if these explanations and examples have helped you, Angel!

请让我们知道这些解释和例子是否对你有帮助，安吉尔！

And that’s Ask a Teacher.

以上就是本期《名师答疑》。

I’m Faith Pirlo.

我是费思·皮尔洛。