Hi, Im Gina. Welcome to Oxford Online English!
嗨,我是Gina。欢迎来到牛津大学在线英语课堂!
In this lesson, you can learn how to tell a story in English. Stories are powerful.
在本节课程中,你会学到如何用英语讲故事。故事非常具有力量。
When you meet someone new, go to a job interview or take a speaking exam like IELTS, you need to tell stories, whether you realise thats what you e doing or not. Becoming a better storyteller will make you a more convincing speaker.
当你遇到新的人的时候、参加工作面试的时候或者是参加雅思这种考试的时候,无论你是否意识到了你正在讲故事,你都需要讲。成为一个更好的讲故事的人会让你变成一个更有说服力的演讲者。
People are attracted to good stories—its a fundamental part of being human. Learning how to tell better stories can help you become a more effective English speaker, and a better communicator generally.
人们会被好故事吸引——这是人类基本的一部分。学会如何讲更好的故事能够帮助你成为一个令人印象深刻的说英语的人,也会让你变成一个更好的沟通者。
In this class, youll learn how to build a story, step by step. Youll see three different stories, and youll see how you can use the same simple ideas in almost any story.
在本节课程中,你会学到如何一步步地组织一个故事。你会看到三个不同的故事,而且你会看到你可以如何在任何故事中都使用相同的简单的小点子。
If you want to read the stories before the lesson, make sure you e watching this on our website: Oxford Online English. com. If you e watching on YouTube, you can find a link in the video description.
如果你想在课程之前阅读一下故事,确保你是在网站上看的我们的视频:Oxford Online 。如果你是在YouTube上看的,你能在视频描述部分看到一个链接。
There, you can read the three stories in full. We want you to take part in this lesson.
在那里你能看到三个完整的故事。我们想让你参与这堂课程。
Think of a story you want to tell. As you go through the lesson, youll hear our stories, but you should also be building your own story.
思考一下你想讲的一个故事。在课程中你会听到我们的故事,但是同时你也要组织自己的故事。
So, think of something funny, scary, interesting or weird that happened to you. Do you have an idea for a story?
所以,想一些发生在你身上的滑稽的、可怕的、有趣的或者是奇怪的事情吧。你有什么想法吗?
Then lets begin! A clear story needs to start with some background.
让我们开始吧!一个清晰的故事需要从背景开始。
Think about basic wh- questions: who, when, where, what? Start your story with one sentence which gives some of this information.
想想基本的wh—问题:谁、什么时候、在哪里以及什么?用一句开始你的故事,而这句话里包括这几个信息。
For example: It was summer, and I went with some friends to a beach in Crimea which you could only get to by boat.
比如说:那是一个夏天,我和朋友去了Crimea的一个沙滩,你只能划船去那里。
I was travelling in Kyrgyzstan, and I decided to go hiking in the mountains. At university, I shared a flat with three other guys.
我当时在吉尔吉斯斯坦旅行,我决定去山里远足。在大学里,我和其他三个人一起住一套公寓。
Keep it simple at the beginning: who, when, where, what? Next, add one or two more sentences to give more background details.
刚开始的时候要简单一点:谁、什么时候、在哪里、干了什么?接下来,加上一两个句子,给出更多的背景细节。
You need a balance here: you want to give enough background details to make your story feel real, but you also need to get to the heart of your story quickly. People will lose interest if you don get to the point.
这里你需要做好权衡:你想要给出足够的背景细节让你的故事更加真实,但是你也需要迅速进入你的故事中心。如果你一直说不到点上的话,人们会丧失兴趣的。
Lets see how you can do this. Look at our first example:
让我们看看怎么做吧。首先让我们看一下第一个例子:
It was summer, and I went with some friends to a beach in Crimea which you could only get to by boat. Think: if you heard this, what questions could you ask to get more details?
那是一个夏天,我和几个朋友去了克里米亚的沙滩,而沙滩只能乘船到达。想一下:如果你听到这句话的话,你会提什么问题来询问更多细节呢?
You might ask things like: Who were your friends?
你可能会这样问:你的朋友是谁?
Why did you go to this beach? What was the place like?
你们为什么想去沙滩?那个地方怎么样?
Were there any other people there? Answering these questions gives you details you can add after your opening sentence.
那里还有其他人嘛?回答这些问题能够给你更多细节,这些细节可以加在开头句之后。
For example: People had been going there for years, and there were benches and tables, places to camp, fire places and so on.
比如说:人们去过那里很多年了,那里有椅子、桌子、可以露营的地方以及生火的地方等等。
It was kind of a hippy place, with everyone walking around naked and doing whatever they felt like. Here, we e focusing on one thing—the place—because its the most interesting and unusual detail.
那是一个有点嬉皮士的地方,人们赤裸着身体到处走,做任何想做的事情。在这里,我们侧重于一件事——那个地方——因为那是最有趣、最不同寻常的细节。
For a different story, you might focus on different details: We were all good friends, but like lots of guys in that situation, we played a lot of pranks on each other.
想要一个不同的故事的话,你可以侧重于不同的细节:我们都是好朋友,但是那种情况下有很多人,我们对彼此搞恶作剧。
In this story, the people are more important, so you would give more details about them. Okay: your turn!
在这个故事中,人更加重要,所以你可以给出一些关于人的细节。好的,到你了!
You need to start your story. Make an opening sentence.
你需要开始的你的故事。组织一个开头句。
Remember: who, when, where, what? Then, add 1-2 sentences giving more background details.
记住:谁、什么时候、在哪里、以及干了什么?然后,加上一两个句子,给出更多的背景细节。
Focus on the most important elements in your story. Pause the video and do it now!
关注你的故事中最重要的元素。暂停视频,现在开始吧!
Write it down if you want. Whats next?
如果你想的话,可以写下来。下一步是什么?
Big question: what makes a story a story? If I tell you that I went to the shop to buy some bread, and then I came home and ate the bread, is that a story?
很重要的问题:什么造就了一个故事呢?如果我告诉你我去商店买了一点面包,然后我回家之后吃了面包,那是一个故事吗?
Not really. If it is, its not a good one.
并不是。就算是的话,也不是个好故事。
So, think about it: what makes a story a story? A story needs two things.
所以,想一下:什么造就了一个故事呢?一个故事需要两个东西:
One: there needs to be a goal. The person or people in the story should want something.
一:需要有一个目标。故事中的人物想要某种东西。
Two: there needs to be tension. That means the goal can be too easy to reach.
二:故事中需要张力。那就意味着目标并不容易达成。
In this section, lets look at putting a goal in your story. Heres the question: what do the people in your story want?
在这个部分中,让我们试一下把目标放进你的故事中。这里有一个问题:你的故事中的人物想要什么呢?
They must want something. This is the heart of your story.
他们肯定想要什么东西。这是你故事的核心。
If the people in your story don want anything, then you don have a story. Lets do an example together: On the last day, we had to catch a train in the evening.
如果你故事中的人们不想要任何东西,那你就并没有一个故事。让我们再一起看一个例子:在最后一天,我们需要在晚上去赶火车。
Pause the video if you need extra time to read. Here we have a simple goal: we needed to catch our train.
如果你想要额外时间阅读的话,那就暂停视频。我们有一个简单的目标:我们得赶火车。
Lets do one more: To reach Issyk-Kul lake, which was the end of my journey, I had to cross a mountain pass, almost 4,000m high. Whats the goal here?
让我们再来看一个:要想到达我的旅程尽头的伊塞克湖的话,我就得穿过一座山,大概四千米高。这里的目标是什么呢?
The goal is getting across the mountain pass to the lake. The goal in your story can be something big or something small.
目标是穿过高山,到达湖泊。你故事中的目标可以很大,也可以很小。
You can see in these two examples that we have something very easy and simple—catching a train—and something bigger and more difficult—crossing a 4,000-metre mountain pass on foot. What about your story?
你可以看到在这两个例子中,我们有非常简单的事情——赶火车——以及更大更加困难的事情——徒步穿过四千米的高山。那么你的故事呢?
Whats the goal? What do the people in your story want?
目标是什么?你故事中的人物想要什么呢?
Keep this simple. Just add one sentence to your story, setting a goal for you or the other people in your story.
要说得简单一点。只给故事加一两个句子,给你自己或者故事中的任务设定一个目标。
Pause the video, write your sentence, then well move on to the next part. Ready?
暂停视频,写下你的句子,然后我们就进入到下一部分。准备好了吗?
Ok, remember that we said there are two things every story needs. Whats the second?
好的,记住我们说过每个故事需要两个元素。那第二个是什么呢?
Every story needs tension. What does that mean?
每个故事都需要张力。那意味着什么?
Simply, it means that your goal shouldn be too easy to reach. Heres a story:
简单来说,那意味着你的目标不应该很容易达成。这是一个故事:
There was a monster which liked to eat people. A hero killed the monster.
曾经有一个怪兽,很喜欢吃人。一个英雄杀了怪兽。
Everyone was safe. The end.
每个人都安全了。结束。
Good story? Obviously not!
这是个好故事吗?当然不是啦!
If the goal in your story is too easy, then your story will be very short and boring. There needs to be tension.
如果你故事中的目标太简单的话,你的故事就会很短也很无聊。故事需要张力。
As they listen to you, people should be thinking: whats going to happen next? Will everything be ok?
当他们听你说的时候,人们应该在想:下一步会发生什么呢?一切都好吗?
How are they going to get out of this problem? The goal needs to be difficult.
他们如何解决这个问题?目标应该是很难的。
There need to be problems. People need to doubt whether you e going to succeed or fail.
需要有一些问题。人们需要猜你会成功或者失败。
This is tension. For example: On the third day, I had to cross a mountain pass, almost 4,000m high.
这就是张力。比如说:在第三天,我需要穿过一条山路,大概4000米高。
It was so hard, because the air is thin up there and I was carrying a very heavy pack. It seemed to take forever, but finally I got close to the top… and then a storm boiled over the ridge and landed right on my head.
这非常困难,因为空气非常稀薄,我背了很重的背包。看起来要走到永远,可是最终我接近了尽头,然后风暴在山脊翻涌,直接落在我的头上面。
There was lightning all around me, even below me! The noise was unbelievable.
我四周都是闪电,甚至下面也是!这声音简直无法置信。
First, you hear how difficult it was, even before the storm hit. Then, the storm arrives.
首先,你会听到它有多难,即使在风暴袭击之前。然后,风暴将临。
Whats going to happen? Did I make it over the pass?
会发生什么呢?我成功越过了那条路吗?
Did I get hurt? Lets look at one more example: One weekend, I was going home to visit my parents.
我受伤了吗?让我们再来看一个例子:一个周末,我在回家看我父母的路上。
I said bye to my flatmates, and told them not to do anything to my room. "Don worry, we won .
我和我的室友告别,告诉他们不要动我的房间。“别担心,我们不会的。”
Have a good weekend." they said. I knew they were going to do something, but I couldn believe what they actually did:
“周末愉快。”他们说。我知道他们肯定会做点什么的,但是我不相信他们竟然那么做了:
This is a very different kind of story, but the structure is the same.?I have a goal, which is to visit my parents and come back without my friends doing anything to my room.
那是一个非常不同的故事,但是结构差不多。我有一个目标,那就是去看我的父母,然后回家的时候我的朋友并没有动我的房间。
You also have some tension. You hear sentences like this:
你也有张力。你听到这样的句子:
I told them not to do anything to my room. I knew they were going to do something.
我告诉他们不要动我的房间。我知道他们肯定要做点什么的。
When you hear these, you know they e going to do something to my room, but you don know what. This is called foreshadowing.
当你听到这些的时候,你知道他们肯定会对我的房间做点什么,但是你并不知道到底做了什么。这就叫做预示。
You know something bad is going to happen, but you aren sure exactly what. Thats where the tension comes from.
你知道很不好的事情要发生,但是你并不确定到底是什么。那就是张力的来源。
What did they actually do? Hopefully, you want to know what happened next.
他们到底做了什么呢?希望你想要知道接下来发生了什么。
Now, think about your story. How can you add some tension?
现在,想想你的故事。你如何增加一些张力呢?
One way is to add problems or difficulties: things that get between you and your goal. Another way is to use foreshadowing, like our story above.
一种方式就是增加问题或者困难:那就是阻挡在你和你的目标之间的事情。另一种方式就是使用预示。
Pause the video and add tension to your story. This is an important part of your story, so think about it carefully.
暂停视频,给你的故事增加一点张力吧。这是你故事中很重要的一部分,所以要认真思考。
Aim to write 2-3 sentences, and start again when you e done. Okay?
写下两三个句子,然后写完之后再次开始。好吗?
Now, you e ready to think about the end of your story. To finish your story, you need to resolve the tension.
现在,你可以想想你的故事的结尾。为了结束这个故事,你需要解决张力。
At this point, the people listening to your story should want to know what comes next. Youve created some tension.
在这个时刻,听你故事的人应该想要知道接下来会发生什么。你已经创造了一些张力。
They aren sure whats going to happen, but they want to know. So, finishing your story is simple: explain what happened in the end, and whether you (or whoever) reached your goal or not.
他们并不确定会发生什么,但是他们想要知道。所以,结束故事非常简单:解释最后发生了什么,以及是否你(或者其他人)达成了目标。
Lets finish the three stories youve seen in this lesson: Remember that you can pause if you need more time to read or review the story.
让我们完成你在本节课中看到的三个故事吧:记住,如果你需要更多时间来阅读或者复习故事的话,你可以暂停。
Lets read the end together. We loaded our stuff onto a kayak and swam almost a kilometre around the cliffs.
让我们一起看看结尾。我们把东西放到了独木舟上,然后绕着悬崖大概游了一千米。
A naked hippy paddled the kayak, which was piled high with our things and looked like it could sink at any minute. We made it to land, and after several hours of hitchhiking and walking, we caught our train.
一个赤裸的嬉皮士划着独木舟,舟上堆满了我们的东西,看起来随时都会沉掉。我们终于到了陆地,在几个小时的远足和步行之后,我们终于赶上了火车。
It was stressful at the time, but looking back now it makes a good story! You can see that the ending does two things.
当时我们压力非常大,但是现在回头一看,真的是一个很棒的故事!你可以看到结尾处理了两件事。
In this story, we have tension: theres a mine in the harbour and we can leave by boat. How did we solve it?
在这个故事中,我们有张力:港口有一个煤矿,我们没法乘船离开。我们如何解决的呢?
By swimming for a kilometre, with a naked hippy transporting our stuff in an overloaded kayak. Secondly, the ending explains whether we reached our goal or not.
我们游了一千米,然后赤裸的嬉皮士用一个超载的独木舟运输我们的行李。第二,结尾解释了我们是否达成了目标。
In this case, happily, we caught the train! What about our second story?
在这种情况下,幸运的是,我们赶上了火车!那么第二个故事呢?
I forgot how tired I was and ran down the slopes to get to safety. I stayed the night lower down and tried again the next day.
我忘记了我有多累,为了安全跑下斜坡。我在低一点的地方过了一夜,第二天继续尝试。
I made it over the pass, but it was a very frightening experience. Again, the ending resolves the tension—I ran below the storm and tried again the next day—and also explains whether I reached my goal or not.
我成功穿过了那条山隘,但是那是一次非常惊险的体验。同样的,结尾解决了张力的问题——我在风暴下奔跑,第二天继续尝试——而且解释了我是否达成了我的目标。
Finally, what did happen to my room at university? They made my room into a jungle!
最后,我大学里的房间到底怎么样了呢?他们把我的房间弄成了一个热带丛林!
Im not kidding: there were flowers, plants, three whole trees, jungle animals made from paper, and a sounds of the forest mix playing on my stereo. It took me three hours to clean up, and also I have hay fever—an allergy to pollen.
我真的没在开玩笑:里面有花、植物、三整棵树、纸做的丛林动物和用我的立体音响播放的“森林之声”。我花了三个小时才清理干净,我有花粉热——对花粉过敏。
So I was sneezing and blowing my nose the whole time. For my flatmates, that just made it funnier…
所以我一直在打喷嚏、擤鼻子。对我的室友而言,那只是让整个故事更加滑稽了。
Its the same pattern: we resolve the tension by answering the question: what did my flatmates do to my room? We also find out whether I reached my goal or not (I didn ).
结构是一样的:我们通过回答——我的室友对我的房间做了什么——这个问题解决了张力。我们也弄清楚了我是否达成了我的目标(我没有)。
Now youve seen the three stories; can you see what each one has right at the end? Each story ends with a retrospective comment.
现在你已经看了三个故事,你能看到每个结尾都有什么嘛?每个故事都以回顾性的评论结尾。
Retrospective means looking back. A retrospective comment tells people how you feel now about the story, or how other people felt.
回顾性意味着“往回看”。回顾性的评论告诉人们你现在对故事是怎样的感受,或者其他人有什么感觉。
For example: It was stressful at the time, but looking back now it makes a good story!
比如说:当时我压力很大,但是现在想起来真的是一个很棒的故事!
It was a very frightening experience. For my flatmates, that just made it funnier…
那是一次非常令人害怕的体验。对我的室友而言,那只是让情形更加好笑了...
You don have to put a retrospective comment at the end of your story, but its a good way to finish. Most of all, a retrospective comment sounds like an ending.
并不是非要在你故事的结尾加一个回顾性的评论,但是那是一种很好的结尾方式。最重要的是,回顾性的评论听起来很像一个结尾。
Thats useful, especially if you e speaking, because it shows your listener that youve finished speaking. Now, you need to finish your story.
那非常有用,尤其是如果你在讲话的时候,因为那会告诉你的听众你要结束讲话了。现在,你需要给你自己的故事结尾。
Pause the video and write an ending. Remember that you need to do two things: resolve the tension, and explain whether or not you reached your goals.
暂停视频,写一个结尾。记住你需要做两件事情:解决张力,然后解释你是否达成了目标。
Lets review: To tell a good story, you need to:
让我们复习一下:要讲好一个故事,你需要:
- Set the scene and give some background information. - Establish a goal for the person or people in your story.
— 设置场景,然后给一些背景信息。— 给故事中的任务设立目标。
- Add some tension, so that people aren sure what will happen in the end. - Finish the story and add a retrospective comment.
— 增加一些张力,保证人们不知道结尾会发生什么。— 结束故事,增加一个回顾性的评论。
Of course, there are other things which are important in a story. Adding interesting details and descriptions can make your story more lifelike.
当然了,故事中也有一些其他的重要事情。增加一些有趣的细节和描述会让你的故事更栩栩如生。
Adding jokes and humour can improve many stories. Giving some background on the people and their personalities can bring the people in your stories to life.
加一点笑话或者是幽默能够提升很多故事的质量。给你的人物和他们的性格一点背景信息,能够让故事中的人物更加生动。
But, nothing is more important than structure, and thats what youve seen in this lesson. A story without good structure isn really a story.
但是,没有什么比结构更加重要,那就是你在本节课程中学到的东西。没有好的结构的故事算不上一个故事。
Get the structure right first. Maybe you e thinking, "I don have the vocabulary to tell stories like that."
把结构放在第一位。可能你在想:“我没有讲那种故事的词汇量。”
Not true: Ive heard very powerful stories from students who spoke very basic English. Vocabulary doesn make a good story.
那并不对:我听过很多只会说非常基础的英语的学生讲的很具有力量的故事。词汇并不能构成一个好故事。
Structure and emotion make a good story. Focus on structure and practise what youve learned in this lesson.
结构和情感才能造就一个好故事。专注于结构,然后练习你在本节课程中学到的东西。
You can tell great stories in English, too! Do you have a story youd like to share?
你也可以用英语讲很棒的故事啦!你有想要分享的故事吗?
Please post it in the comments. You can see the sample stories we used in this lesson in the full lesson on our website: Oxford Online English dot com.
在评论中告诉大家吧。你可以在我们的网站上看到本节课全部的故事范例:Oxford Online English dot com.
We also have many other free English lessons which you can watch and study from. Thats all for this lesson.
我们还有其他的免费课程可供你观看学习。本节课程结束。
Thanks for watching! See you next time!
谢谢观看!下次见!
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