During my listening, I can understand most of the words, but I can’t get the idea of the whole article. Why?
在练习听力过程中，大多数词我都理解，但我却抓不到全文的大意，这是为什么呢?
Because you are listening to words and not to meaning. I remember a visit to Beijing I made back in 1981. My interpreter constantly complained of this problem. She used to say‘I can’t keep up with the words you are using’and frequently her attempts to interpret broke down completely. My advice to her is the same as my advice to you: Don’t listen to individual words trying to translate into Chinese as you go, but listen to whole meanings. Listen to the English, without thinking about the Chinese. This is exactly what interpreters do: they get the sense of a piece of language, then interpret it in another language so that the listener gets the meaning of what is being said.
这是因为你把精力放在听单词上，而不是理解意思上。这使我想起我的1981年的北京之行。当时陪同我的译员不停地抱怨这个问题。她常说“我跟不上你说的话”，经常就完全译不下去了。我当时给她的建议与现在给你的建议一样：不要听单个的单词，然后就试图把它们译成汉语，应该听懂全文的意思。听英语时，要排除汉语干扰。这正是优秀译员所要具备的：他们先要弄懂一段语言的意思，然后把它译成另一种语言，以便听者可以听懂说话的大意。
文：路易亚历山大 新概念英语作者