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Alice: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Alice…
大家好，欢迎收英语六分钟节目，我是爱丽丝。
Rob: And I’m Rob.
我是罗伯。
Alice: So, it’s nearly exam time again. And the subject of today’s show is how to prepare well for an exam.
又快到考试周了。所以今天节目的主题是如何准备考试。
Rob: I’ve got some great tips, actually, Alice.
事实上我有很多小窍门。
Alice: Have you really? Can you remind me what grades you got at school?
真的吗？你在学校的成绩如何？
Rob: Yes, well … [mumbles] …
额…
Alice: So, you didn’t get very good grades.
所以，你的成绩不是很好。
Rob: I probably should’ve started revising earlier. But my learning strategies were very good.
也许我应该早点复习。但是我的学习方法还是很好的。
Alice:
Oh, really? Well, when you revise for an exam you study information you
learned before. OK, Rob, I’d love to hear more about your learning
strategies, but first here’s today’s quiz question for you. What’s the
word for a system, such as use of special poems or rhymes to help you
remember something? Is it …a) pneumatics b) mnemonics or c) hypnotics?
真的吗？那么，你考试之前什么时候开始复习之前学过的内容。好了，罗伯，我很想继续听你的学习方法，但你先来回答一下今天的问题吧。下面哪个表示借助特殊的诗词或韵律帮助记忆？a) 气体力学b) 记忆术还是 c) 催眠药?
Rob: I’ll go for b) mnemonics.
我选b) 记忆术。
Alice:
Well, we’ll find out whether you got the answer right or not later on
in the show. Now, according to current scientific research, some study
methods popular with students aren’t actually very effective.
好的，节目最后我们再公布你的回答是否正确。根据现有的科学调查，一些在学生中非常流行的学习方法实际上非常没有什么效率。
Rob: Don’t tell me – putting your textbook under your pillow at night doesn’t work.
别告我晚上把课本放在枕头下面没有用。
Alice: Did you try doing that, Rob?
罗伯，你试过？
Rob: Yes, I did, but without much success. Maybe I was using the wrong kind of pillow? !
是的，但没有多大效果。也许我用错了枕头？
Alice:
Well, let’s talk about more conventional methods than the
book-under-the-pillow one. These include summarising, highlighting or
underlining text to help you remember it… I do love a pack of
highlighting pens, though.
我们来谈谈比枕头下放书更传统的方法。其中包括总结、标出重点、下划线标注等帮助记忆的方法。我还是喜欢用荧光笔标重点。
Rob:
Oh yes, me too. And actually highlighting text was one of my top tips.
But I used to get so absorbed with the highlighting I’m not sure I was
actually learning anything useful. My notebooks were works of art,
though!
我也是。而且将课文标亮是我的窍门之一。但是我过去太沉迷于标亮课文，我也不确定是否学到了有用的东西。我的笔记本就像美术作品一样！
Alice:
Yes, and that’s the point made by John Dunlosky, Professor of
Psychology at Kent State University in the US, who says that you need to
do more than just highlight information. You need to test yourself on
it. Let’s hear from him now.
这就是美国肯特州立大学心理学教授约翰·当罗斯基提到的重点，他说你需要做的还很多而不是仅仅标亮信息。你需要检测自己学到的知识。我们现在听听他是怎样说的。
Students
who can basically test themselves or try to retrieve material from
their memory are going to learn that material in the long run a lot
better. So for instance maybe you start by reading a textbook using your
favourite highlighter and favourite colours, but then you go back and
make flashcards of all the critical concepts and instead of just
rereading those, you basically try to test yourselves on them.
从长远来看，那些经常检测自己或重新加强对材料记忆的学生，对材料的理解会更好。例如，你开始阅读一本教材并用你喜欢的荧光笔和你喜欢的颜色来标亮信息，然后你回忆一遍内容并将所有重要的概念制作成抽认卡。而不是仅仅重读一边，你要经常检测自己的记忆。
Rob:
Professor John Dunlosky there. So he says trying to memorise the
material isn’t enough. You need to do something with it, for example,
making flashcards of critical – or important – concepts and then testing
yourself on them.
上面是约翰·当罗斯教授的观点。他说尝试记忆材料内容是不够的。你需要做一些其他的工作，如制作重要概念的抽认卡，然后自我检测。
Alice:
By repeatedly testing yourself on something, you strengthen the
pathways between neurons – or nerve cells – in the brain. And the more
often you do this, the easier it becomes to retrieve information.
通过重复性的自我检测，你能加强大脑中神经元之间的联系。越是经常这么做，越容易获取之前记忆的信息。
Rob: And retrieve means to get something back.
Retrieve是指重新获得。
Alice:
That’s right. When you repeatedly test yourself over a longer period of
time – for example, over months or weeks-this is called distributed
practice – and psychologists believe this is a very effective way to
learn.
是的。长时间的重复性自我检测——如几个月或几周——被称为分布练习。心理学家们认为这是非常高效的学习方法。
Rob:
It sounds like hard work, though, doesn’t it? I prefer the cramming
method – which means to try and learn lots of information in a short
period of time. For example, the night before the exam.
听起来很不容易，不是吗？我喜欢填鸭式的学习方法——在短时间内尝试学习很多知识。例如考试前一晚临时抱佛脚。
Alice:
I don’t know, Rob. We don’t cram to learn other things – like music or
dancing, or football or language learning. It’s far more effective to
join a conversation class and practise speaking every week than to
practise for hours in front of the mirror the night before your oral
exam!
我不知道。我们不能通过填鸭式方法学习其他东西，如音乐、舞蹈、足球或语言。每周参加演讲课程来练习口语，比口语考试前一晚在镜子前苦练好几个小时要高效得多。
Rob:
That’s a good point. In fact, I used to sing irregular French verbs to
myself, every day in the shower for weeks before my French exam, and
that helped me remember them more easily.
这是个好主意。实际上，法语考试前几周，我每天洗澡时都会哼唱不规则法语动词，这样能帮助我更容易记忆这些单词。
Alice:
Excellent! Making different types of associations with what you’re
trying to learn– for example, musical associations – is meant to be
effective. Let’s listen now to Professor Dunlovsky talking about visual
associations.
没错！可以将学习的内容与其他东西联系在一起——比如和音乐联系在一起——是很高效的学习方法。我们来听听当罗斯基教授讲述的视觉联系。
I
would encourage students as they are reading to try and elaborate
mentally using images, as they’re reading, to kind of develop a more
vivid picture of what they’re reading. Again, that’ll help quite a bit
for some kinds of studies – maybe history and so forth – and a little
bit less so for more conceptual studies.
我会鼓励学生在阅读时，尝试把相关画面详细地描绘在脑海中，将所阅读的内容在脑中生成生动的画面。这会对历史等课程的学习有帮助，但对学习概念较多的课程帮助较少。
Rob: And if you elaborate on something, it means you add more information – in this case, mental pictures.
elaborate on something是指添加更多信息，这里是指脑海中的画面。
Alice:
So, creating mental pictures is useful for some subjects – like history
or languages. But conceptual subjects – ones based on abstract ideas
rather than things – like maths, for example– it might not be so easy to
associate ideas with pictures.
在脑海中形成画面，有助于历史或语言课程的学习。但是对于概念性课程——基于抽象概念的课程——如数学，则不容易与画面联系在一起。
Rob: Now what about Albert Einstein? People say he was a very visual thinker.
那爱因斯坦呢？人们都说他善于视觉思考。
Alice:
Well, you’ve got me there, Rob. I don’t know the answer to that but I
can give you the answer to today’s quiz question. I asked: What’s the
word for a system, such as use of special poems or rhymes to help you
remember something? Is it … a) pneumatics, b) mnemonics or c) hypnotics?
你把我难倒了。我不知道这个问题的答案，但是我能告诉你今天问题的答案。我问你，下列哪个表示借助特殊的诗词或韵律帮助记忆？a) 气体力学? b) 记忆术 还是 c) 催眠药?
Rob: I said mnemonics.
我选的是b) 记忆术。
Alice: And you were right!
回答正确！
Rob: Great!
太好了！
Alice:
Well done! Research on mnemonics suggests they are a good strategy for
learning certain kinds of things, like how to spell difficult words. For
example, the first letters of this sentence: ‘big elephants cause
accidents under small elephants’ spells ‘because’. Now, do you think you
can remember the words we heard today, Rob?
不错！对记忆术的研究表明，记忆术是帮助学习某种事物的绝佳方法，如学习如何拼写较难的单词。例如这句话的首字母’big elephants cause accidents under small elephants’可以拼出单词because。现在，罗伯，你还记得我们今天学到的单词吗？
Rob: We heard:
我们听到的单词有：
revise
复习
critical
重要的
neurons
神经元
retrieve
重新得到
distributed practice
分布练习
cramming
填鸭式
elaborate
详细描述
conceptual
概念性的
Alice: Well, that’s the end of today’s 6 Minute English. Remember to join us again soon!
今天的英语六分钟就到这里了。请记得收听我们下期的节目。
Both: Bye.
再见！
