英文原版小说入门，为什么都推荐读罗尔德·达尔的儿童小说？
文摘
教育
2025-01-02 21:14
美国
一直觉得人就算长大了，也不应该抛弃童心。就像在罗尔德·达尔的女儿眼中，父亲总是有着无穷无尽的好玩点子，会开着车带他们去追热气球，会在晚上把他们从床上叫起来找狐狸，会教她们用梨罐头、牛奶和食用色素调制“女巫药剂”...... 这样一个极富童心的人，难怪会创造出那么多让全世界孩子们喜欢的作品。 而儿童青少年原版阅读的较高境界，就是把小说中活色生香的表达转化为自己的日常口语写作。如果还能以原版书为窗口，了解文化和历史，则是锦上添花。有没有这么一套书籍，从易到难，以“i+1可理解输入”的方式，把鲜活的语言贯彻到底？罗尔德·达尔的作品，就是典范。 在《哈利波特》到来前，达尔的书早已风靡世界；在《哈利波特》之后，达尔的书更是桥梁读物的不二之选。从最简单、五十几页的《魔法手指》，到活色生香、吃货必备的《巧克力工厂》，再到句句惊心，好评如潮的《女巫们》、《玛蒂尔达》。十六本达尔全集，如果能够跟着老师一起享用这份精神大餐，你的英文将突飞猛进。 不过达尔可不仅仅是一个作家，他的一生可以用“开挂”来形容。他在二战时期当过飞行员，是当时的战争英雄；他在战时为英国提供来自美国华盛顿的情报，是在觥筹交错间获取机密信息的王牌特工；他曾与奥斯卡金像奖得主、美国女星派翠西亚·尼尔（Patricia Neal）成婚，两人共同养育了5个孩子；他为了帮助因车祸而患上脑水肿的儿子，与其它两位专家共同研究出了一种能缓解症状的医疗器械“WDT”(Wade-Dahl-Till)，最终使得儿子顺利长大成人......感觉玛丽苏小说里的男主角也不敢这么设定啊！
向老师录播导师制课程有一本书《玛蒂尔达》。这本书曾被改编成音乐剧版本，在西区和百老汇都是拿奖拿到手软。它在2012年拿下了英国戏剧最高奖项奥利弗奖的七项大奖，2013年又在美国戏剧最高奖托尼奖上捧走五座奖杯。这部剧牛到什么程度呢？2015年中国领导人和夫人去英国访问的时候，看的就是《玛蒂尔达》的表演片段，你们感受一下。剧中我最喜欢的一首曲子叫 When I grow up，一起来看看这首歌的表演片段吧！ 记得李光耀孙子李绳武在悼念她奶奶柯玉芝的演讲中提到。奶奶从小引导他培养阅读兴趣，以放满书的高高书架代替了别人家孩子看的电视机。这个高得让小孙子们够不着的书架上的藏书，帮助他在童年就开始锻炼读写能力。藏书从彼得兔（Peter Rabbit)到奇异动物图书，从亚瑟王传奇（Arthurian Lengend)到罗尔德·达尔，都是经历时间考验的儿童经典文学。悼词引用：Eulogy by Li Shengwu at the funeral service of his grandmother, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, Mandai Crematorium, October 6, 2010. 本期以达尔的小说《女巫们》（The Witches）为例，谈谈为什么英文原版必读罗尔德·达尔，为什么这是一条值得孩子选择的进阶路线。我们先列出三点理由。
男孩——父母双亡后与姥姥相依为命，两次遭遇女巫，第二次被变成老鼠...
1. A REAL WITCH hates children with a red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and red-hot than any hatred you could possibly imagine.据向老师学生反应，一翻开达尔的书，你的唾液腺就会分泌加速。作者写女巫对小孩子的恨意，用了sizzling一词，“炽烈且嘶嘶作响”，色声味俱全。对应烤羊肉串的画面，都不需要脑补。2. Her mind will always be plotting and scheming and churning and burning and whizzing and phizzing with murderous bloodthirsty thoughts.
红色部分-ing动词排比使用，读来朗朗上口，展现出女巫无时无刻不在搜肠刮肚想坏主意的画面感；plotting 和scheming强调"谋划"，churning表示内心“搅动”（like churn milk to make butter），whizzing有站在路边，跑车从面前呼啸而过的感觉，最后的phizzing是face expression的俗语形式，此处可理解为”面目狰狞”。向老师告诫，生词多了不要怕，怕的是让生词落单。如果把众多生词以一种鲜活的语境作为纽带，记忆的粘性就不言而喻。3. Very carefully a victim is chosen. Then the witch stalks the wretched child like a hunter stalking a little bird in the forest. She treads softly. She moves quietly. She gets closer and closer. Then at last, when everything is ready … phwisst! … and she swoops! Sparks fly. Flames leap. Oil boils. Rats howl. Skin shrivels. And the child disappears.
由下文划线部分可猜出stalk表示“追踪、偷偷靠近”。原版阅读不必纠结于每一个生词，与情节相关的keywords往往会反复出现，让你不得不查；细节描写方面的生词可以存而不论，“继续往下读，通过文本猜测”也不失为一种有效途径；另外，红色部分的两个动词前后呼应——stalk描绘狩猎者的“耐心等待”，下面的swoop由静变动，激活画面，展现出苍鹰搏兔的气势。4. A REAL WITCH gets the same pleasure from squelching a child as you get from eating a plateful of strawberries and thick cream.She reckons on doing away with one child a week ... Squish them and squiggle them and make them disappear.达尔的小说是向老师学员的最爱，因为鲜活的文字竟可以产生“具身认知”。读着读着，你会手舞足蹈、捧腹大笑，甚至惊声尖叫！作者用“the same...as...”的比较结构将女巫嗜杀的乐趣具体化——就像你吃一盘奶油草莓一样”；“踩碎”（squelch）一词自带走在泥地中扑哧声，下文的squish是它的同义词，means “to squeeze or crush together or into a flat mass；squash”——小朋友落到女巫手里，分分钟变惨叫鸡（Shrilling Chicken）。5. While my father and mother and I were driving in icy weather just north of Oslo, that our car skidded off the road and went tumbling down into a rocky ravine. My parents were killed.
学习英语，要抓住有动感的动词。汽车打滑，在空中翻滚、坠落悬崖（tumbling down into a rocky ravine），tumble这个词用的好！Fast and Furious的既视感。6. You'll be quite safe in your bed. Come along. I'll tuck you in.日常表达也要讲究地道。tuck对应中文的“掖”，比如我们日常穿正装时会tuck shirt into trousers，而在北方寒冷的冬天，就寝前一定要用棉被把自己裹得严严实实，掖好被角（tuck in）是必要步骤。7. I reeled. I was stunned. ‘Dogs’ droppings!’ I cried. ‘I am not smelling of dogs’ droppings! I don't believe it! I won't believe it!’ What's more,’ my grandmother said, speaking with a touch of relish, ‘to a witch you'd be smelling of fresh dogs’ droppings.
可怜的孩子，洗的干干净净，结果在女巫鼻子里就像Dogs droppings。你的英语写作灵感也会受到达尔尖锐的文风和巧妙的对比激发。开头I reeled和 I was stunned同义反复，突出“我”的震惊程度——脑袋发晕、目瞪口呆；relish指饭前的开胃小菜，或咸或甜，佐餐刺激食欲，这里的speaking with a touch of relish类似中文的“津津乐道”。索尔维格——被女巫施法困在油画中的小女孩，画中的年龄和位置随时间不断变化。
1. This old lady, as far as I could gather, was just about the only surviving relative we had on either side of our family.固定句型，可以有千万种搭配，但万变不离其中。此处的“as far as I can gather/from what I could gather”表示“我记得/据我所知”，适合用在回忆录中，比如曼联传奇教练“老爵爷”下面这一段。
2. She was apparently a great expert on these creatures and she made it very clear to me that her witch stories, unlike most of the others, were not imaginary tales. They were all true. They were the gospel truth. They were history. Everything she was telling me about witches had actually happened and I had better believe it.写作中如何运用形容词，是一门学问。大多数人写的形容词都可以直接去掉，这样反而让名词显得干净利落。但达尔却能用出画面感十足的形容词！对，Adjective! “The gospel truth”指一件事儿“千真万确”，就像印在《福音书》上一样，“真真儿的”，当我们想表达某种观点倍受推崇，受到大众的普遍信任，就可以用take it for gospel——“The professor's opinions on the economy are often taken as gospel by financial analysts.”3. ‘You swear you aren't pulling my leg?’ I kept saying to her. ‘You swear you aren't just pretending?’
有些典故是反直觉的，不过合理脑补后会恍然大悟。不同于字面义，pull (one's) leg means to tease or joke with someone, often by trying toconvince them of something untrue. ——“Quit pulling my leg, I know there isn't a Hollywood director calling me right now”（别逗我了，怎么会有好莱坞导演打电话来呢）.4. ‘Would you like a puff of my cigar?’达尔喜欢描写打破禁忌的角色，因为打破禁忌同时，能促进孩子的思考和个人选择。"Would you like...."是经常挂在嘴边的基础款句型，say, "Would you like a cup of coffee?","Would you like to dance"，外婆酷爱吸烟，吞云吐雾的同时不忘问外孙“要不要来一口”，个性开朗；从语法上讲，因为would和could等情态助动词包含虚拟的意思，用在对话中显得更加礼貌和委婉，尊重对方的意愿。5. ‘You must listen to me,’ my grandmother said. ‘You must remember everything I tell you. After that, all you can do is cross your heart and pray to heaven and hope for the best.’中文常说“尽人事而听天命”（do one's level best and leave the rest to God's will），上面的段落提供了一个不同版本的表达，可以一并记下来，强化中英文之间的转换能力。![]()
6. ‘But wasn't there a most tremendous fuss when this happened?’ I asked.把习惯用语拆解，也是写作灵活的一种体现，比如这个fuss。“make a fuss”表示引起关注或骚乱，比如小朋友不想去上学，大哭大闹，让家里不得安宁（The kid didn't want to go to the nursery today. He kicked up a real fuss.）7. ‘She's rolling,’ my grandmother said. ‘Simply rolling in money. Rumour has it that there is a machine in her headquarters which is exactly like the machine the government uses to print the bank-notes you and I use.有些典故，一般词典查不到。要用类似Urban Dictionary才能找到。英语学习就是升级工具箱，提升搜商，成为哆啦A梦小叮铛的过程。说一个人很有钱，有花不完的钞票，“滚在钱堆里”是不是很形象呢；“Rumour has it that...”（据说/我听说...）则适合用在聊天中破冰套近乎，在电影《肖申克的救赎》中，Andy和Red的初次对话就有这个短语。姥姥——酷爱吸烟，拥有识别女巫、故事大王、掖被子等技能。
1. On the other hand, a ghoul is always a male. So indeed is a barghest. Both are dangerous. But neither of them is half as dangerous as a REAL WITCH.
有些异国的文化，你一辈子都碰不上。但阅读可以让你以“最温柔”的方式与它们相遇，难道不就是人生体验的乘数效应？小说诡异之气十足，除了邪恶女巫，出场妖怪还包括食尸鬼ghoul以及犬魔barghest——英国民间传说中神秘黑狗，在名人显要即将去世的时候会献身嚎叫，被视为死亡的象征，能够隐身，弱点是无法跨越河流。2. She went to church every morning of the week and she said grace before every meal, and somebody who did that would never tell lies.
宗教话题在英文阅读中是家常便饭，适时可以深挖。“外婆的虔诚见于日常，我相信她不会说谎”。基督徒餐前祷告，感谢上帝的慈悲和恩典即saying grace，源于《圣经》中耶稣和圣保罗的餐前祈祷，下面是插画家洛克威尔1951的同名作品——吵杂的餐馆中，一对母子静默祈祷，众人注视。3.‘She is the ruler of them all,’ my grandmother said. ‘She is all-powerful. She is without mercy. All other witches are petrified of her.希腊神话也是。西方的文化源头说到底就是希腊文化和基督教文化的合体。petrified表示被吓得呆呆的，宛如石化。据希腊神话，少女美杜莎在神庙受到奸污后，被雅典娜惩罚变成蛇发女妖，又因神的怜悯获得法力——凡是直视其双目者，皆会化作石像，后来为半神珀耳修斯斩杀。![]()
4. The next morning, we sailed for England and soon I was back in the old family house in Kent, but this time with only my grandmother to look after me. Then the Easter Term began and every weekday I went to school and everything seemed to have come back to normal again.
比如宗教节日和学校放假都有关联。英国中小学的学年分三个学期，以9月初到12月中的秋季学期开始，接着是1月份到复活节的春季学期，从复活节假期结束到7月初是最后一学期——《女巫们》的故事就发生在这段时间——除了正常的寒暑假外，每个学期中间会设置一周休假，称为“half term”。
