前几天提到英文儿童的词汇量问题。如果你读过英美儿童读物，你会发现它们一点也不简单，里面出现的一些单词可能国内大学生都看不懂。举个例子，国外有一个儿童读物网站freechildrenstories.com，上面根据儿童的年龄提供不同难度的短篇小故事。其中有一个故事名字是I WANT A MONKEY! 难度为幼儿园等级，可以感受一下：

Wally was sure that he wanted a pet.

He talked to his Dad about which pet to get.

“I want a Monkey who scratches his head!

He’d swing in the house and he’d jump on the bed.”

“Well,” said his Dad in a kind sort of way,

“Did you know that monkeys eat bugs everyday?”

“Oh No,” Wally said, “We have none to eat.”

Mom likes to squash all the bugs with her feet.”

“Then I want a Hippo!” he screamed to his Dad.

“He’d eat all our trash, and Mom would be glad!”

“Hippos need water, it helps them stay cool.

I guess we can build him a giant sized pool.”

“No,” Wally said, “he’d be too big to dry,

We’d need a mountain of towels to try.”

“I want an Otter who triple back flips,

I’d practice swimming when we go for dips.”

“Did you know most otters can whistle and chirp?

They growl and snort, and perhaps even burp?”

“Oh,” Wally said with a sad looking frown,

“We’d have to tell him to keep the noise down.”

故事里面出现了不少生词和表达，比如scratch（抓，挠），squash（压扁），hippo（河马），otter（水獭），triple back flips（做三个后空翻），go for dips（游泳，泡水），chirp（吱喳叫），burp（打嗝）。这其中很多单词都是“超纲词”，即使你背完了四六级单词表，也未必就能认识它们。

从上面的例子我们还可以发现，英美儿童学习的大多数是日常生活词汇和短语，比如各种动植物名和日常动作的说法，这些放在日常交流中确实很有帮助。而国内的四六级考研词汇表跟这些单词侧重点不同。比如四六级词汇表中会出现类似preservation, harmony, sedentary, heritage这些比较抽象的单词，它们在学术英语里面很常见，但是在日常生活话题中不一定用得上。

因此，如果要想提高交流能力，我们需要提升词汇量，特别是与日常生活相关的各类名词和短语。这些可以通过读原版小说或者看英美影视剧来积累。