It’s difficult to catch the words in the Voice of America sports report. Do you have some skills?
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:
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：
Buy the book and the recorded version (in British or American English according to your preference).
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)
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’.
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。
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.
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。
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.
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。
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.
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。
文：路易亚历山大 新概念英语作者