Dear Ms. Farrell,
Thank you for sending us your novel. Our readers enjoyed the first hundred pages, and we would like to publish the book next spring.
Before we sign anything, two points must be settled. First, the middle section moves slowly; we suggest cutting about forty pages. Second, your English is clean, but several very long sentences will be hard to translate, and we plan to sell the book in Japan as well.
Could you come to our office at two o'clock on 12 May? Our chief editor and one translator will join us.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Reed, Grey Owl Press
法瑞爾女士您好：
感謝您把小說寄給我們。我們的審稿人很喜歡前一百頁，我們希望在明年春天出版這本書。
在簽約之前，有兩件事必須先談定。第一，中段的節奏偏慢，我們建議刪掉大約四十頁。第二，您的英文很乾淨，但有幾個特別長的句子會很難翻譯，而我們也打算把這本書賣到日本。
您能否在五月十二日下午兩點到我們辦公室一趟？我們的主編和一位譯者會一起出席。
謹啟
格雷貓頭鷹出版社 艾倫‧里德
Rooms 3 and 4, Central City Library
Members must return each borrowed book within three weeks. Anyone who keeps a book longer than that faces a two-month suspension from the club.
The Thursday group is full until September. Add your name to the waiting list at the desk on the second floor.
中央市立圖書館 3 號與 4 號室
成員必須在三週內歸還每一本借出的書。逾期未還者將被停權兩個月，不得參加社團。
週四組的名額已滿至九月。請到二樓櫃檯登記候補。
Every few years a newspaper announces that grammar teaching is dead. Language, such writers argue, is picked up the way music is: by listening, and by reading enough literature.
The truth is less tidy. Beginners really do learn many patterns without being taught. Yet adults who never study the rules often stop improving after two or three years. Their speech stays clear but simple, and their real strength, a large vocabulary, is wasted.
A short weekly lesson on one point, say the auxiliary verbs used in questions, seems to work best. What fails is a whole term spent naming parts of speech while nobody writes a single paragraph.
每隔幾年就有報紙宣告文法教學已死。這些作者主張，語言是像音樂那樣自然學會的：靠聆聽，以及讀夠多的文學作品。
事實沒有那麼乾淨俐落。初學者的確能在沒人教的情況下學會許多句型。可是從不研究規則的成人，往往在兩三年後就不再進步。他們的口語清楚卻簡單，而真正的優勢——龐大的字彙量——反而被浪費掉。
每週針對單一重點上一堂短課，例如疑問句所使用的助動詞，效果似乎最好。真正沒用的，是整個學期都在為詞類命名，卻沒有人寫過一個段落。
A high school library asked 300 students what they read most often outside class.
| Type | Boys | Girls |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction and fantasy | 32% | 45% |
| Comics | 32% | 16% |
| Essays and news | 21% | 19% |
| Poetry | 15% | 20% |
Each student chose one answer only. Next year the library will spend most of its budget on fiction and fantasy.
某高中圖書館詢問 300 位學生，他們課外最常讀什麼。
| 類型 | 男生 | 女生 |
|---|---|---|
| 小說與奇幻 | 32% | 45% |
| 漫畫 | 32% | 16% |
| 論說文與新聞 | 21% | 19% |
| 詩 | 15% | 20% |
每位學生只能選一個答案。明年圖書館將把大部分預算用在小說與奇幻作品上。