书城教材教辅用美国小学课本学英语
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第36章 Literature文学艺术(1)

01 Two Kinds of Reading 两种阅读类型

All of the reading that people do can usually be divided into two kinds of reading. People read for fun because they enjoy reading, or people read to get information. Stories, like those in library books, that are not really true are called fiction. Fiction is read for fun.

Read “The Game of Baseball”. It is a short fiction story.

The Game of Baseball

One Saturday morning Jaime couldn’t think of a thing to do. Her morning tasks were done, so she asked her mother what she could do. Her mother suggested that she could help her brother with his chores. Jaime really didn’t have that in mind, but she got to work and soon they had his work done, too.

“I’ll bet I can find some friends to play baseball,” said her brother. “Why don’t you ask your friends to come and we’ll have a game at school on the baseball diamond.”

It wasn’t too long before quite a few boys and girls were at the school ready to play baseball. The teams were chosen and Jaime’s team took the field. Three people got hits and two runs were scored. But finally, there were three outs. Playing baseball was fun. Jaime was glad her brother had thought of doing this!

The game went very well for a while, but then Kenny said that he was not out on the first base and Keith said that he was.

Jamie didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want them to quarrel. No one was having any fun now, so she…

Reading fiction books is usually reading for fun. If a person wants some information or wants to learn something, that person usually reads nonfiction. A nonfiction book is true. A nonfiction book or story is factual. It tells information.

Most newspaper stories are nonfiction. Science and social studies books are nonfiction. The dictionary and encyclopedia are nonfiction. Any story that is true is nonfiction.

Here is another story about baseball. It has the same title as the first one you read, but this story is factual. This story is nonfiction.

The Game of Baseball

Baseball is called the national game of the United States. Abner Doubleday, who later became a general in the army, is the person who is said to have started the game.

Baseball became very popular fast. It is one of the best organized games in American sports, but it also can be played by most people in a vacant lot, in a park, or even in a backyard anywhere.

Baseball requires some skills such as throwing and running. The ability to catch and to bat requires good eyesight.

The game has spread to many countries of the world. American soldiers and sailors in World War II played it in their “free” time. The people in those countries watched them and they learned the game, too.

This story, “The Game of Baseball”. could have come from an encyclopedia. You learned that an encyclopedia is one kind of reference book. Dictionaries and an atlas are reference books, too. A dictionary is a book of words and an atlas is a book of maps. Reference books are nonfiction. Reference books give facts on subjects that are in alphabetical order.

Vocabulary 词汇

fiction ["fik??n] n. 小说、虚构的或想像出的事、并非完全真实的事

chore [t??:] n. 零星工作(尤指家常杂务)

diamond ["dai?m?nd] n. 金刚钻、钻石、菱形、(纸牌)方块、(棒球)内场、球场

quarrel ["kw?r?l] n. 争吵、口角 、抱怨……的原因;

vi. 争吵、挑剔

nonfiction ["n?n"fik??n] n. 非小说类文学作品

encyclopedia [en"saikl?u"pi:dj?] n. 百科全书、(某一学科的)专科全书

vacant ["veik?nt] adj. 未被占用的、空的、(职位)空缺的、茫然的、空虚的

reference ["refr?ns] n. 提及、涉及、参考、引文、参考书目、证明书、推荐信

Practice

Write fiction or nonfiction on the line.

1.the dictionary      .

2.a map      .

3.most of the newspaper      .

4.“Cinderella”      .

5.most comic books      .

6.what people read for fun      .

7.what people read for facts      .

译文

人们的阅读类型通常可以分为两类。人们能从阅读中找到乐趣,是因为他们喜欢阅读,或者是人们从阅读中得到很多的知识。故事书,像大多数图书馆中的书籍一样,并不是真正的小说。小说是供娱乐用的。

阅读《棒球比赛》这篇小故事:

棒球比赛

一个星期六的早上,雅伊梅无事可干。她早晨的任务已经完成了,所以她问妈妈她还可以做什么。妈妈建议她帮助哥哥做家务事。雅伊梅心里真的不想干,但她还是干了,很快他们就把事情做完了。

“我打赌我能找到一些朋友来打棒球,”她哥哥说。“为什么不叫你的朋友过来,我们在学校的棒球场进行一场比赛吧。”

很快就有几个男女同学来到了学校,准备开始棒球比赛。分好队后,雅伊梅的队在界内地区。三个人是投手,另外两个跑垒均得分。但是最后,仍然有三个出局。打棒球很有意思,雅伊梅很高兴她哥哥想出了这么一个好主意。

游戏有一会儿进行得很顺利,但肯尼说他不是在一垒应该出局的人,而基斯说他就是。

雅伊梅不知道要怎么做才好,她不想他们之间为此而争吵。此时没有谁觉得愉快,于是她……

阅读小说通常是为了娱乐。如果一个人想得到一些信息或者是想学东西,就要读纪实的书籍。纪实书是真实的,是事实,能提供很多的信息。

大多数报纸上的故事都是纪实的,科学和社会研究书籍也是纪实的,字典和百科全书是纪实的,一个真实的故事也是纪实的。

以下是关于棒球的另外一个故事。它和之前阅读的故事标题相同,但下面这个故事是真实的,是纪实的。

棒球比赛

棒球是美国的国球。据说阿布那·窦布戴伊组织了第一场棒球比赛,他后来成为军队中的一位将军。

棒球很快就风靡全国。它是美国体育中最好组织的一项比赛,而且只要在一块空地上、公园里甚至后院等任何地方,很多人都可以参与进来。

棒球要求具有如投掷和跑步等技能,接球和击球都需要很好的眼力。

棒球比赛流传到全球很多国家,在二战时期,美国士兵和水手在他们的“空闲”时间就进行这项比赛。有美国士兵的国家观看了他们的比赛,也学会了这个比赛。

“棒球比赛”这个故事可能出自百科全书。我们知道,百科全书就是一种参考书,字典和地图也是参考书。字典就是词语书籍,而地图集就是地图书籍。参考书是纪实的,给按字母顺序排列的科目提供一些事实依据。

练习

在下划线上填写虚构或纪实。

1.字典     。

2.地图     。

3.大多数的报纸     。

4.“灰姑娘”     。

5.大多数的连环漫画册     。

6.供娱乐的书籍     。

7.提供事实的书籍     。

1.nonfiction           2.nonfiction

3.nonfiction           4.fiction

5.fiction             6.fiction

7.nonfiction

02 Studying the Market 研究市场

The writing of many talented young authors is often rejected because they send their work to the wrong type of magazine. For example, a beautiful poem sent to the editor of a magazine that publishes only science fiction is bound to be rejected. “Rejecting” a piece of writing means the editor does not want to print it in the magazine.

A sensible way to cut down the number of times a piece of writing is rejected is to first “study the markets”. Remember, writers’ markets are the magazines and newspapers that publish writers’ work. “Studying” a particular market simply means that you should carefully read a copy of the magazine you would like to be published in. You can find many magazines for children in public libraries. If the magazine you want is not available, ask the librarian to help you find the magazine’s address. Then write to the editor and ask for an old “back issue” of the magazine.

Knowing the type of writing a magazine publishes will help you “target” your market. “Targeting” simply means sending what you write to a magazine that publishes your type of writing. If you first study the markets, then target them, you will send your beautiful poem only to magazines that publish poetry. You will send your science fiction story only to magazines that publish science fiction.