Pre-reading

Question: How did Robinson teach Friday English?

Intensive Reading

I wanted to teach Friday to speak English very well. I wanted to teach him English as fast as possible. I wanted to be a good teacher. I took my role very seriously. I thought about the best method to teach him English.

我想教星期五把英语说好。我想尽快教会他英语。我希望做一个好老师。我认真对待我的角色。我思考教他英语最好的方法。

When I spoke to him fast and when I used all the words and grammar, he didn’t understand me. So I tried to speak mainly in the present. And I used simple words. I also said only short sentences. This way, Friday understood more. We spoke about many topics.

当我说话很快，用所有的单词和语法时，他听不懂。所以我试着主要用现在时来说话。我只用简单的词汇和短句子。这样星期五就能听懂更多了。我们谈论了很多话题。

When Friday didn’t understand something, I pointed at it. Or I tried to explain the word to him. If it didn’t help, I made a picture of the thing in the sand.

当星期五不理解的时候我会用手指。或者我试着把这个词解释给他听。如果不起作用，我就在沙子上把它画出来。

Soon Friday started to understand many of my sentences in the present. He also started to use some words. His pronunciation was very bad at the beginning. But it wasn’t important for me. I understood him. And I was very happy that somebody spoke to me.

很快星期五开始理解我用现在时说的很多句子了。他也开始用一些词了。一开始他的发音不行。但是这对我来说不重要。我理解他。而且我很开心有人跟我说话。

Friday was a good student. He was clever and he was improving quickly. Soon he could say some words like an Englishman. Of course not all the words. But the words which he said correctly made me very happy.

星期五是一个好学生。他很聪明，进步迅速。很快他就可以像英国人一样说一些单词了。当然不是所有的词。但他正确说出的这些词让我很开心。

Notes:

1. role：角色，常用play来搭配表示“扮演……角色，发挥……作用”，如play a key role，发挥关键作用。

2. mainly：主要地。

3. point：指，“指向某物”用point at/to/towards sth.。

4. pronunciation：发音，注意它的动词拼写为pronounce，n的后面多了一个o。

Exercise:

What would Robinson do if Friday couldn’t understand him?