There is no doubt that the fourth volume of the new concept is a textbook that has been sent to the altar. In China, most people have only learned three volumes of new concepts (according to the data of FLTRP, the number of new concepts can reach hundreds of millions every year, but how many students are learning the new four? ), those who don't learn because they can't persist, find a scapegoat: it's too difficult to learn. I even heard many teachers hold the same view that the new four is a "book of zoology". Let's first determine the difficulty of the fourth book of new concept English from the source, vocabulary and sentence patterns of the article.
Let's first look at the source of the article:
The first lesson, Looking for Fossil Man, is taken from a short book on page 126. Its name is also the fossil hunter. This is written by Robin Price. This is a primary book of biology, in which all anthropological knowledge is common sense. For example, in areas where there are no words, record their own history by oral complaints. This book is for high school students. Nowadays, many people want to go abroad to study undergraduate and postgraduate courses, IELTS and TOEFL. How can a middle school student's book be difficult to extract?
Some articles come from some famous newspapers and magazines. Lesson 10, Silicon Valley, from American News and Vocabulary Report, an English weekly with comprehensive reports and comments in the United States. It is the third largest news magazine after Time and Newsweek. Lesson 10 talks about silicon valley, which was a popular term ten years ago. This article uses simple words, 275 words in two paragraphs, and the content is not deep. It mainly talks about the rapid development of silicon valley chip production.
Trade standards Trade standards, from The Economist. The magazine was first founded by james wilson in September 1843. The Economist has a circulation of about 880,000 copies, and more than 80% of its readers are outside the UK. The Economist is a serious and humorous current economic magazine. The magazine thinks its readers are highly educated, so it never disdains to explain many economic and technical terms. The Economist will have some simple articles and some interesting charts, but on the whole, it is a magazine that needs a certain vocabulary. Advanced English learners are proud to understand The Economist. But the eighth lesson belongs to the simple category of The Economist. The text was published in 1997, mainly talking about the different trade standards of countries that hinder the development of trade. The full text is 263 words, but there is no personal capital who is too professional, and there is no irony and humor, lacking the usual characteristics of economists.
It is worth noting that there are a lot of articles about scientific experiments in the new concept four volumes, such as the fourth lesson "Seeing Hands", which tells that a little girl in Russia can recognize things with her hands; Lesson 13, looking for oil and exploring oil, talking about the methods of oil exploitation; Lesson 65438 +09, dream things, is about people's understanding of sleep; Lesson 25, the non-auditory effect of noise, talk about whether noise affects people. These articles are very close to the subject matter and difficulty of IELTS and TOEFL reading. The style of the article is formal and neutral, and there is not much literary talent, but the words are broad and rigorous, which is a good basic intensive reading article before learning TOEFL IELTS.
The most famous articles in New Four are all about humanism, such as the youth of Fieldden Hughes in the fifth lesson, the aging of the British philosopher Russell in the first lesson 1 1, the beauty of the British philosopher C.E.M Joad in the 24th lesson and Churchill's hobby in the 46th lesson. From the perspective of words and expressions, beauty and hobbies are the most difficult. The words used in other articles are not uncommon, but they are rich in connotation, philosophical and memorable. For example, when Russell answered how to overcome the fear of death, he said: The best way to overcome fear-at least it seems so-is to gradually make your interests more extensive and important. Until the wall of self recedes bit by bit, your life is more and more integrated into the life of the universe. The best way to overcome the fear of death-at least in my opinion-is to gradually broaden one's interests and get rid of one's narrow personal circle until one's own wall collapses bit by bit and one's life is gradually integrated with the life of the whole universe. There is not a difficult word in the whole sentence, but its connotation has infected every student in the new four.
His metaphor for life is that a person's existence should be like a river-small at first, narrowly confined between the two banks, and rushing passionately through boulders and waterfalls. Gradually, the river widened, the banks retreated, and the water became calmer. Finally, without any obvious interruption, they merged into the sea and lost their existence painlessly. Personal existence should be like a river, small at first, tightly sandwiched between the two banks, and then rushing passionately over boulders and flying down waterfalls. Then the river gradually widened, the banks retreated, the river flowed slowly, and finally it merged into the sea and lost its existence painlessly. This passage, not to mention the subtlety of metaphor, is a pleasure to read aloud when you look at English alone. It is precisely because of these famous seals that the new four has a vivid humanistic atmosphere while being serious. However, we should oppose a trend, take these famous articles to represent the whole volume of the new four, and deliberately increase the difficulty of the new four.
Let's look at the vocabulary of the new four:
If it is not the textbook for normal students, there must be many abnormal words, but this is not the case. Most of the new four words are very practical. We divide vocabulary into three types:
The first kind, with the characteristics of the new four characters, has great aesthetic feeling just because of learning the new four characters, such as serenity, mediocrity, reminiscence, or exaggerated atmosphere: promiscuity is messy, indulgence is debauchery, fatuity is stupid, and licentiousness is licentious.
The second category is the vocabulary that overlaps with the exam category. According to statistics, there are 793 words in four volumes, including 3 17 words in Band 4, (40%), 542 words in Band 6, (68%) and 428 words in postgraduate entrance examination, (54%). Take 14 as an example: speculative fluctuations, deterioration, multiplication, turbulence,
The third category is remote and rarely used words, such as: tight grip, willfulness, cactus, stratum rock, coring bit.
Of course, there are many simple words in the new four-word list, such as legend, glory, dedication, chip, deception and so on.
Finally, look at the sentence difficulty of the new four:
Is that sentence of Xinsi extremely abnormal and incomprehensible? Of course not. The new four rules are: the more difficult it is, the more difficult it is to retreat. The more difficult things are, the more exciting they are. There are also more vague expressions, such as sports, such as belonging to their scope. However, comparing a moderately difficult sentence with TOEFL, IELTS and postgraduate entrance examination, we can find that the difficulty of the new four is equivalent to the level of these examinations.
Let's take a look at the two sentences of Let's Go Bats in Lesson 7 of New Four and Cambridge 7, 1, the latest IELTS test:
Sword 7 introduces the echolocation as follows: the blind, even unaware of this fact, actually use the echo of their own footsteps and other sounds, and the existence of obstacles.
The fourth new concept is introduced as follows: It is found that some bats emit screams and by receiving the echoes, they can locate and avoid obstacles-or find flying insects on which they live.
Readers can compare the difficulty of the two.
It is said that one person can only understand 30% of The Economist. How about English? The answer he got was: You are almost illiterate. In this way, the four new concept books are necessary books to help you get rid of illiteracy, the perfect end of the whole set of teaching materials, the last link to complete the intensive learning system, and the last battle before reading a lot.
We are afraid of one thing because we don't understand it. For example, a few years ago, you might think that a person's English was particularly good. When your English is good, you will find that it is not that good. We refused something because we were afraid, so I suggested to readers to get to know the new four, which is not as difficult as you think!
This article is taken from teacher Hu Zhonghua's blog in New Oriental.