Thereisnodoubtaboutit.Thebestwaytolearnnewwordsistodoitunconsciously.Idon’tmeanwhileyou’reunconscious.Imeanwhileyouareunconsciousofthefactthatitissinkingin.
ThatishowIlearntthe30000wordsinmyvocabularybylivinginanEnglish-speakingworldmothertongue.Ijustpickthemup.Butsomeofthemmaybemisunderstood.Nowtomisunderstanddoesnotmeannottounderstand.Tomisunderstandistounderstandbutincorrectly.
The5%mislearntofallthewordswe“know”willbetheleastfrequentlyusedwordsasthemorefrequentlyusedwordsarelesslikelytobemislearnt.Someofthemisunderstandingsmaylivewithallourliveswithoutknowingthatwegotthemwrong.
ManyEnglishteachersthinkthatthisnaturalmethodoflearningwordsinone’sownmothertonguecanbeusedforasecondlanguagelearning.TheyteachtheirstudentshowtoplaytheGuessingGame.“Thereisnotimetolookupinyourdictionariesallthenewwordsyoucomeacross”theywillsay.“Youhavetopractiseguessingwhatthewordmeansfromthecontext.”
Thismethodofguessinginasecondlanguagelearningdoesnotwork.Itmaysucceedinmanycasesbutresultsinhundredsorthousandsofwrongly-guessedmeaningsofwords.
Andwhat’smoretherearemoreseparatemeaningsthantherearewordsthemselves.Ourlearners’dictionariesusuallyhavemanymeanings.Agooddictionaryiswhatmakesself-learningpossible.
Don’tguess!Lookitup!
59.Itiscertainthatthebestwaytolearnnewwordsis_____________.
A.tolearnthembyoneself
B.tolearnbylivinginanEnglish-speakingworldandusingthemfrequently
C.toguessthemfromthecontext
D.togetmoreseparatemeaningsofeachword
60.Theunderlinedword“them”inParagraph2refersto_________.
A.the30000words B.Englishteachers
C.misunderstoodwords D.frequentlyusedwords
61.WhichofthefollowingismostlikelyNOTtrue?
A.Someofthewordsthewriterknowsmusthavebeenmisunderstood.
B.Mostofthe30000wordsthewriterlearnedarefrequentlyusedones.
C.Howmanywordsthewritergotwrongarenotknown.
D.Allthewo