作者序
《睡前5分鐘的英語自修課》
Do not be fooled by the brevity of the chapters in this book. They have been purposefully structured to be short—short and concise. As study after study has shown, language learning is best done bit by bit: thirty minutes to an hour a day. Exceeding an hour a day is not beneficial and may in fact be harmful. Indeed, cramming is the refuge of the poorly prepared student, and if your goal is to master English, you do not want to emulate such a student and cram. Instead, you want to pace yourself, and this book allows you to do that.
While the chapters are short, they are very dense and diverse. Each chapter has five parts. The first part is a picture. Following the picture is the second part, which consists of four vocabulary words related to said picture, and example sentences for the four vocabulary words. The third part is a short composition that is also related to the picture. Within the composition two words have been selected, and four synonyms to each word have been provided. These two words are not necessarily related to the picture. They are, however, important and useful words, as are their synonyms. The fourth part is another composition, this one discussing the topic as it manifests in both the East and West and exploring the differences between how it manifests itself in the two places. Finally, each chapter ends with the fifth and final part, which is two conversational sentences that are related to the topic.
I hope you find this book both useful and interesting. And remember, the best way to master a language is to study every day yet to spend no more than an hour a day every day studying, and this book is perfect for this.
不要被這本《睡前五分鐘的英語自修課》的外表騙了,書籍雖然看起來小本,但內容卻是非常豐富的,能夠讓學習者按部就班地學習。
許多研究表示「想學好語言,最好是每天花0.5~1小時學習,若超過一個小時的話,學習效果反而不好」。的確,英文不好的人最喜歡的就是死記硬背,但如果學習目的是「精通英文、靈活運用」的話,就不能用硬背的方式來學習,反而需要安排自己的學習步調,而這本書就提供了這樣的學習內容。
書中的章節雖然簡短,但內容很豐富且多樣。每個單元都有完整的學習內容,從單字、例句、簡短文章、衍生學習、小故事……等,透過各種不同的內容,讓讀者學到最全面、實用的英文。再加上繪者精心繪製的插圖,讓這本書看起來更加豐富,希望各位讀者覺得這本《睡前五分鐘的英語自修課》有用又有趣。
請記得,最好的語言學習方式是「每天學習,但每天不要超過一個小時學習」。而這本《睡前五分鐘的英語自修課》將因為這樣的學習方式而更臻完美。
Ian Crews、懶鬼子英日語編輯群
《睡前5分鐘的英語文法課》
英文文法書那麼多本,到底要選哪一本?寫了幾本文法書後的我,一直在思考這個問題。我認為不同的讀者有不同的需求,但有一個趨勢是文法書有愈來愈簡單的趨勢、讀者可以用愈來愈有趣的方式來學習,這就是你現在看到的這本《睡前5分鐘的英語文法課》。讀完《睡前5分鐘的英語文法課》後,你不會變成文法專家,但你可以把基本文法讀懂、實際應用。章節一開始的重要句型,讓你一目了然,全盤理解,再搭配各種有趣的圖解文法,資訊視覺化後,讓你印象深刻;而重複的例句,利用學習中的重要「重複」要素,讓你熟悉文法當中的「規則」與「不規則」性,再加上衍生單字,一下子就讓你字彙量倍增。輕輕鬆鬆地你就學會了發音、八大詞性與用法、五大句型、動詞時態與假設語氣,建立起該有的英語實力。
吳宜錚