听力技巧

I Focus on the Main IdeaListening and reading require many skills in common. Finding the main idea in a paragraph is just one of these skills. The purpose of this talk is to discuss what a main idea is and how to _____recognize______ the main idea. Perhaps the best way to understand the main idea is to think of it as the __central___ idea, or the most important idea which gives the paragraph purpose and ___direction__. That is to say, when you are trying to find the main idea, you are actually thinking about the purpose of the given paragraph: Is it to ____inform____ you about something, to explain, to narrate? Or is it to __compare___, to argue, to persuade, ect.? When you get the right answer for yourself, you are likely to have got the main idea.The main idea of a paragraph is usually ___stated___ in what is called a topic sentence. More often than not, the topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph. It is followed by other sentences, containing supporting ____details__ . When a difficult idea is discussed or when the purpose of the paragraph is to ___persuade___ and convince, the topic sentence is sometimes placed at the end of the paragraph. If a paragraph has an ___implied___ main idea, it does not have a stated topic sentence. The main idea is ____hinted__ at by the sentences in the paragraph as a whole.II Don’t attempt to write too muchNote taking is a very __complex__ skill. But it is essential in listening. It helps us organize facts and retain concepts for later use. Taking good notes requires us to do two things quickly. First, to recognize the main topics; and second, to write down the important details and ___supporting___ examples as we hear and understand. In other words, our note-taking should keep ___pace___ with the speaker’s thinking process.The general principle for note taking is to ___reduce___ the language by shortening the words and sentences that we hear. It is important to remember that we should not attempt to write too much. That is to say, we should learn to write the ___minimum___ to give sufficient meaning. And we should also learn to choose an ___appropriate___ time to write the notes quickly and lay them out clearly. Some commonly used Latin ___abbreviations___ are often very useful in note taking. Forexample, cf. ----compare or compare with; i. e.----that is; e.g. ---- for example; and etc. ---- et cetera, and so on.One way to take notes of dialogues or conversations is to write down different speakers’words in separate spaces, such as separate ___columns___ or lines. This will help us ___sum___ up each speaker’s views and opinions correctly. Of course, note taking is a highly ___personal___ skill. So we should make constant efforts to develop good ways of note taking which are effective and suitable to ourselves.III Be careful with numbersQuick and accurate response to numbers is very important in daily communication. Telephone numbers, addresses, prices, temperatures, time and dates are all closely ___linked___ with the use of numbers. Besides, numbers also play a very important part in ___broadcast___ programs such as scientific stories, statistics update, and reports about ongoing events of various kinds. Although identification of numbers in ___print___ is usually easy, number identification through listening proves to be a big problem for many people. In actual listening, we are often required to get the numbers immediately after we hear them. And failure to get a correct number, sometimes a mere mistake in ___digit___, can seriously affect the understanding of the whole story and therefore cause severe ___losses___. The differences between million and billion, “teen’s”and “-ty’s” are so great that no one can simply afford to ignore them.Numbers are sometimes read in different ways. For example, “seventeen point five million”or “seventeen million five hundred thousand”can also be read as “seventeen and one half million.”___Intensive___ training in numbers can help us get familiar with these different yet still regular ways of number ___presentations___. For easy reading and writing, numbers of more than four digits are often separated by ___commas___ into groups of three digits each. For example, 1,234,567 is one million, two hundred and thirty-four thousand, and five hundred and sixty-seven. Saying numbers over to yourselves after you hear them can increase your ___sensitivity___ to numbers. Numbers are all around us. Let us practice withnumbers and learn to be ___good___ at numbers.IV How is it being said—formal or informal languageA distinction is sometimes made between “formal”language situations and “informal”language situations. For example, a difference exists between a formal lecture and an informal __chat__ between friends. A lecture or a public address is expected to consist of relatively __well-organized__ speech. The language is more __structured__ than would be heard in informal conversation. Most lecturers and public speakers plan in advance what to say, and may have notes, or even a complete text, to guide them through the speech. The language they use tends more towards written language than that used in ordinary everyday talk. Their language is “formal”in contrast with the “informal” language of __spontaneously__ produced speech.Unfortunately for the language learner, the division is not as neat as this. Frequently, for example, a lecturer delivering a very formal lecture __switches__ to informal language when making an aside or recounting an anecdote. Or a person describing a __complicated__ matter to a friend over coffee may switch in and out of formal and informal styles. A doctor, for example, talking to a friend about his medical condition will probably describe the condition in fairly formal language and then go on to explain it in more informal language. Between the ___extremes__, a range of formality or informality exists. This depends on the social setting, the relative ages and status of the speaker and listener, their attitudes to each other and the topic, to what extent they share the same __background__ knowledge, and so on.Many language learners have limited experience of English language in informal situations. In their lessons they tend to use formal language. They have particular difficulty when switching to informal language within a formal language. For the foreign language learner, __judging__ the importance of these scattered informal __utterances__ is a problem. Therefore, focusing not only on what is said, but also on how it is being said, is an important listening skill.V Making Use of Them ----Signals and FillersA speaker has many ways to indicate that he or she is moving from one point to another, or giving an example, or repeating a point, or whatever. To a language learner these signals can easily be ___missed___. Lecturers, for example, in a formal situation generally show clearly when a new point begins. They use expressions like “Secondly…”or “Then…”. They may pause or make a ___gesture___ or move slightly. A change to a new point is often made by increased loudness or a change of pitch. In spontaneous conversations, a different ___intonation___ indicates a new idea or the repeating of something the listener already knows. Students need to learn to listen to and watch the speaker for the “signals” in order to ___connect___ the various parts of a speech.Pauses in speech give the listener time to think about what has been said and to relate it to what has gone before. Beginning students find it easier to listen to speakers who make long pauses between the “bits”of their utterances. Pause ___length___ depends on the speaker’s speech habits, on the behavior and reactions of those listening, and on the speaker’s ___need___ to work out what to say next. Long ___gaps___ in speech are often filled with sounds or expressions such as “er…”, “erm…”, “and er…”simply to avoid long silences, which are thought to be ___embarrassing___ in English conversation. A good idea is to explain the use of these “fillers”, particularly to speakers of languages where long silences are a normal conversation feature. They can then ___recognize___ them and know that fillers such as “er…”, “erm…”, “and er…” are not part of the ___essential___ message.VI Letting Things Go—Speed and V ocabularyMany English language learners believe that the greatest difficulty with listening comprehension is that the listener cannot ___control___ how quickly a speaker speaks. They feel that the utterances disappear before they can sort them out, whereas the words in a written text remain on the page where the reader can ___glance___ back at them or examine them thoroughly. This frequently means that students who are learning to listen cannot keep up. They are so busy working out the meaning of onepart of what they hear that they miss the next part. Or they simply ignore a whole section because they fail to sort it all out quickly enough. Either way, they ___fail___.Another difficulty is that the listener is not always in a ___position___ to get the speakers to repeat what has been said. And, of course, repeats cannot be asked for when listening to the radio or watching television.Choice of vocabulary is in the hands of the speaker, not the listener, although in some circumstances it is possible to stop the speaker and ask for ___clarification___. Sometimes, listeners can get the meaning of a word from its context. But very often, for people listening to a foreign language, an unknown word can be like a suddenly dropped ___barrier___ causing them to stop and think about the meaning of the work and thus making them miss the next part of the speech. In listening, it really is a case of “He who hesitates is lost!”Indeed, ___determination___ to listen to what is coming, and letting things that have passed go rather than dwelling upon them, often gives surprising good results. Speakers often say things more than once, or rephrase them, or another speaker echoes what has been said. The listener who has not “stopped”to dwell on a half-missed point gets a second, or even third chance to fill the ___gap___ in the message he or she is receiving.Students need to develop the skill of keeping up with the speaker (even being ahead of the speaker) even if this means letting parts which they have failed to sort out ___pass___. Professor H. H. Stern says that the good language learner is the one who “can tolerate vagueness and ___incompleteness___ of knowledge.”This is especially true of good listeners.VII Thinking Ahead of the Speaker—Anticipation Helps Listening is an extremely complex ___communicative___ activity. In this book Principles and Implications of Cognitive Psychology, Neisser defines listening as a “temporally extended activity”in which the listener “continuously develops more or less specific readiness for what will come next.” In other words, an effective listeneris constantly setting up a hypothesis in his mind, and also, he is constantly testing his hypothesis by ___matching___ it with what he has heard in reality. If he hears what he has expected, he receives the information. But if what he hears is totally out of his expectation, he fails to get the message.The skill to anticipate what is coming in listening comprehension depends largely on the listener’s ___familiarity___ with the theme of the message. It also depends on the listener’s ___knowledge___ of the speaker as well as the setting. Obviously, when we listen to something that we already have some information about, it is generally a lot easier for us to take in the new information. Therefore, ___pre-listening__ preparation seems to have a big role to play in enhancing listening comprehension. Before actual listening, we could perhaps first give some thought to the topic, discuss it with others, read some ___related___ materials and do some vocabulary work. If we could make ourselves fully ___orientated___ for the forthcoming talks or lectures, we are more likely to become effective listeners.Of course, ___readiness___ beforehand is not at all enough. Active thinking must take place all the way through. If fact, we should always try to think ahead of the speaker. The ability to anticipate helps us in ___logical___ and intelligent guesswork. It does not only enable us to know generally what a person is going to talk about in a certain situation, but also, interestingly enough, sometimes even exactly what a person’s next ___utterance___ is going to be in a discussion!VIII Y ou Just Can’t Remember So Much—Learn to Select, Learn to SimplifyAt a certain stage of English listening, some students may report a kind of unpleasant or even ___frustrating___ experience. They say that while listening, they seem to understand everything that they hear, but as soon as the voice stops, all is gone! They say that they just can’t remember what they heard, not to mention writing down or speaking out. What causes this problem? Is it also your complaint?Let us try to discuss the matter from two perspectives. First, knowing some difference between comprehension and ___production___ is important. When welearn a new language, we usually pass through at least three communication stages, namely, the one-way stage, the ___partial___ two-way stage and the full two-way stage. Obviously, there’s a gap between. Just as Brown and Terrell point out in their books on language learning and language teaching. “The ___inability___ to produce an item should not be taken to mean that the learner cannot comprehend it.” Therefore, if we can comprehend what is being said to us, we have achieved the first ___goal___. That’s quite encouraging! Secondly, of course, we’ll have to move on. And we must be aware of some possible traps on our way to effective listening. When we listen, are we paying equal attention to every element in each utterance? Are we attempting to memorize and repeat and write down all the details in a passage? If so, we need to think for a while. Human memory can retain only a limited amount of information at a time. Therefore, only by learning to select and ____simplify___ can we possibly absorb what is really important and then remember what is the most ___essential___. In fact, when we listen, we usually listen with a purpose. Although it is sometimes necessary to get detailed and specific information on the subject, it is, more often than not, quite enough for us to ___grasp__ the key words and the main points. Furthermore, in the course of listening, if we are capable of ___turning___ the complicated sentence structures into simple ones, interrogative into affirmative, or passive into active, our brain will certainly do a much ___smarter___ job helping our memory.IX Represent the Idea Clear and Clean—OutliningOutlining is a method of __classifying__ and organizing ideas. It is a skill very useful to language learners when they are taking lecture notes, reading, or writing a paper. In listening, the skill of outlining reflects, to a certain extent, the listener’s ability in understanding how the facts or ideas, or the __scattered__ pieces of information are related to one another.People generally use a system of Roman numerals, Arabic numbers, and letters to show relationships. There is a kind of standard form for using these __symbols__ to show which ideas are most important. The symbols used, in order of__decreasing__ importance, are Roman numerals (I, II, III,…), capital letters (A, B, C, …), Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, …), and numbers in parentheses[(1), (2), (3), …].The placement of the topics on paper is also important. The most important items are entered farther to the left. __Lesser__ items are entered farther and farther to the right. Headings of __equal__ importance are indented the same distance from the left margin. The purpose of this indentation is to make each idea easy to see and also to show just how it is __related__ to the ideas before and after it. No __punctuation__ is needed at the end of an idea unless it is written as a __complete__ sentence.Outlining, as a fairly comprehensive and effective method in language learning, certainly deserves our attention and __practice__, particularly for advanced listeners. The blank form of an outline looks like this:I. _____________________________________________A.__________________________________________B.__________________________________________1. _______________________________________a. _____________________________________b. ______________________________________2. ________________________________________C. ___________________________________________II. _____________________________________________A.___________________________________________1._________________________________________2._________________________________________B._____________________________________________C._____________________________________________X. The "Inverted Pyramid” in News ReportingBroadcasting news in English has some particular __characteristics__, such as its style, its structure, the choice of words, and the logical order of presentation, etc.The standardized narrative _procedure___ in news reporting is often called the “inverted pyramid”. That is to say, the most important information is usually included in the news lead. And a news lead, in a sense, is also a condensed form of a complete news story. Each __succeeding__ sentence becomes less significant, providing further information on the “who”, “what”, “were”, “when”, or “how”.If we want to sum up a certain news item, we can take words from either inside or outside the news stories. We can say, for example, “this news is about somebody’s __view__ on something”, or “it’s about the __relationship__ between country A and country B”. Other words such as __comments__, remarks, attitudes, analysis can also be very useful.Apart from current news, radio reports on some breaking-throughs in science and technology also help update our knowledge about the world. However, vocabulary has proved to a problem that often __hinders__ our understanding of the new information. Therefore, in order to enhance our ability in listening, words that frequently appear in some popular science programs should be carefully studied. Besides, if we have a close examination of the __experiment__ reports, we may find that they are often divided into different parts or paragraphs on the “__subject__”, the “test or experiment procedures”, the “observations”, the “findings or results” and so on. This kind of knowledge also helps us in following the __latest__ developments in science.。