First Day: Give Us 15 Minutes a Day

Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis

Your boss has a bigger vocabulary than you have.

That's one good reason why he's your boss.

This discovery has been made in the word laboratories of the world. Not by theoretical English professors, but by practical, hard-headed scholars who have been searching for the secrets of success.

After a host of experiments and years of testing they have found out:

That if your vocabulary is limited your chances of success are limited.

That one of the easiest and quickest ways to get ahead is by consciously building up your knowledge of words.

That the vocabulary of the average person almost stops growing by the middle twenties.

And that from then on it is necessary to have an intelligent plan if progress is to be made. No haphazard hit-or-miss methods will do.

It has long since been satisfactorily established that a high executive does not have a large vocabulary merely because of the opportunities of his position. That would be putting the cart before the horse. Quite the reverse is true. His skill in words was a tremendous help in getting him his job.

Dr. Johnson O'Connor of the Human Engineering Laboratory of Boston and of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, gave a vocabulary test to 100 young men who were studying to be industrial executives.

Five years later those who had passed in the upper ten per cent all, without exception, had executive positions, while not a single young man of the lower twenty-five per cent had become an executive.

You see, there are certain factors in success that can be measured as scientifically as the contents of a test-tube, and it has been discovered that the most common characteristic of outstanding success is “ an extensive knowledge of the exact meaning of English words.”

The extent of your vocabulary indicates the degree of your intelligence. Your brain power will increase as you learn to know more words. Here's the proof.

Two classes in a high school were selected for an experiment. Their ages and their environment were the same. Each class represented an identical cross-section of the community. One, the control class, took the normal courses. The other class was given special vocabulary training. At the end of the period the marks of the latter class surpassed those of the control group, not only in English, but in every subject, including mathematics and the sciences.

Similarly it has been found by Professor Lewis M. Terman, of Stanford University, that a vocabulary test is as accurate a measure of intelligence as any three units of the standard and accepted Stanford-Binet I. Q. tests.

The study of words is not merely something that has to do with literature. Words are your tools of thought. You can't even think at all without them. Try it. If you are planning to go downtown this afternoon you will find that you are saying to yourself: “I think I will go downtown this afternoon.” You can't make such a simple decision as this without using words.

Without words you could make no decisions and form no judgments whatsoever. A pianist may have the most beautiful tunes in his head, but if he had only five keys on his piano he would never get more than a fraction of these tunes out.

Your words are your keys for your thoughts. And the more words you have at your command the deeper, clearer and more accurate will be your thinking.

A command of English will not only improve the processes of your mind. It will give you assurance; build your self-confidence; lend color to your personality; increase your popularity. Your words are your personality. Your vocabulary is you.

Your words are all that we, your friends, have to know and judge you by. You have no other medium for telling us your thoughts — for convincing us, persuading us, giving us orders.

Words are explosive. Phrases are packed with TNT. A simple word can destroy a friendship, land a large order. The proper phrases in the mouths of clerks have quadrupled the sales of a department store. The wrong words used by a campaign orator have lost an election. For instance, on one occasion the four unfortunate words, “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” used in a Republican campaign speech threw the Catholic vote and the presidential victory to Grover Cleveland. Wars are won by words. Soldiers fight for a phrase. “Make the world safe for Democracy.” “All out for England.” “V for Victory.” The “Remember the Maine” of Spanish War days has now been changed to “Remember Pearl Harbor.”

Words have changed the direction of history. Words can also change the direction of your life. They have often raised a man from mediocrity to success.

If you consciously increase your vocabulary you will unconsciously raise yourself to a more important station in life, and the new and higher position you have won will, in turn, give you a better opportunity for further enriching your vocabulary. It is a beautiful and successful cycle.

It is because of this intimate connection between words and life itself that we have organized this small volume in a new way. We have not given you mere lists of unrelated words to learn. We have grouped the words around various departments of your life.

This book is planned to enlist your active cooperation. The authors wish you to read it with a pencil in your hand, for you will often be asked to make certain notations, to write answers to particular questions. The more you use your pencil, the more deeply you will become involved, and the deeper your involvement the more this book will help you. We shall occasionally ask you to use your voice as well as your pencil — to say things out loud. You see, we really want you to keep up a running conversation with us.

It's fun. And it's so easy. And we've made it like a game. We have filled these pages with a collection of devices that we hope will be stimulating. Here are things to challenge you and your friends. Try these tests on your acquaintances. They will enjoy them and it may encourage them to wider explorations in this exciting field of speech. There are entertaining verbal calisthenics here, colorful facts about language, and many excursions among the words that keep our speech the rich, flexible, lively means of communication that it is.

Come to this book every day. Put the volume by your bedside, if you like. A short time spent on these pages before you turn the lights out each night is better than an irregular hour now and then. If you can find the time to learn only two or three words a day — we will still promise you that at the end of thirty days you will have found a new interest. Give us fifteen minutes a day, and we will guarantee, at the end of a month, when you have turned over the last page of this book, that your words and your reading and your conversation and your life will all have a new and deeper meaning for you.

For words can make you great!

第一天：每天给我们15分钟

威尔弗雷德·芬克 诺曼·刘易斯

你的老板词汇量比你大。

这就是他成为你的老板的一条非常充足的理由。

这一发现是在世界各地的词汇研究室里作出的。发现者并非精于理论的英语教授，而是一些讲究实际、头脑清醒、一直在探寻成功奧秘的学者。

经过大量实验和多年检测，他们发现：

如果你的词汇有限，你成功的机会也有限。

获得成功最容易、最迅速的方法之一就是有意识地扩大你的词汇知识。

一般人的词汇到25岁左右就几乎停止增长了。

从那以后，如要取得进步就必须有一个明智的计划。漫无计划，随随便便的方法是不行的。

早就有人令人满意地证实，髙级主管人员之所以拥有大量词汇，并非仅仅因为其所处的地位给了他许多机会。那样看就本末倒置了。事实正好相反。他运用词语的技能对他找到工作是个极大的帮助。

波士顿人类工程学实验室和新泽西州霍博肯市史蒂文斯理工学院的约翰逊·奥康纳博士曾对100名要做工业行政主管的年轻学生进行了一次词汇测试。

五年之后，那些名列前10%内的人无一例外全都有了行政主管职位，而名列最后25%内的没有一个人成为行政主管。

要知道，有某些成功的因素可以像试管里的东西一样科学地加以测定，而据发现,显著的成功最普遍的特点就是“对英语词汇的确切意义具有广泛的知识”。

你的词汇量的大小表明了你的智力程度。当你学会更多的词汇时，你的智力就会增强。下面就是证据。

有人选了某中学的两个班进行试验。他们的年龄和环境都是相同的。每个班代表了同等的典型群体。一个班是对照班，学习正常的课程。另一个班则给予特殊的词汇训练。试验结束时，不仅在英语而且在包括数学和自然科学的各门科目上，后一个班的分数都超过了对照组的分数。

同样，斯坦福大学的刘易斯·M·特曼教授发现，用词汇测试来衡量智力与用标准的、公认的斯坦福·比奈智商测试的任何三种计量单位来衡量同样准确。

学习词汇不仅是与文学有关的事情。词汇是你的思维工具。没有它们你甚至根本没有办法思维。试试看。如果你计划今天下午去市中心，你就会发现自己对自己说：“我想今天下午我要去市中心。”不用词汇你连这样简单的决定也无法作出。

没有词汇你就无法作出决定，也无法作出任何判断。一位钢琴家也许在头脑中有最优美的曲调，但如果他的钢琴上只有五个琴键，他最多也只能弹出曲调的一小部分。

你的词汇就是表达你思想的琴键。你掌握的词越多，你的思想就会更深刻、更清晰也更精确。

掌握英语不仅会改进你的思维进程。它还会给你信心；树立你的自信；使你的个性更真实可信；使你更受欢迎。你的词汇就是你的个性。你的词汇就是你。

你的词汇就是我们——你的朋友——借以了解和判断你所具有的全部。你没有别的媒介用来告诉我们你的思想——用来说服我们，规劝我们，命令我们。

言词具有爆炸性。短语里装满了梯恩梯烈性炸药。一句简单的话可以摧毁友谊，也可以获得一大笔定单。店员们口中得体的话语使一家百货商店的销售额增加了三倍。一位竞选演说家用词不当致使竞选失败。例如，有一次，在一篇共和党的竞选演说中使用不当的四个词“朗姆酒、天主教和反叛”就使天主教教徒的选票投给了格罗弗·克利夫兰，使他赢得了总统选举的胜利。战争往往依靠言词取得胜利。士兵们常为了一个短语而战。“为了民主打出一个安全世界。”“全力拯救英格兰。”“V代表胜利。”西班牙战争时期的“牢记‘缅因号’事件”而今已改为“牢记珍珠港事件”。

言词改变了历史的方向。言词也可以改变你人生的轨迹。它们常常使人从平庸走向成功。

如果你有意识地增加你的词汇量，你就会不知不觉把自己提高到生活中一个更重要的职位，而你赢得的更高的新职位反过来又会给你更好的机会来进一步丰富你的词汇。这是一种美妙而成功的循环。

正是由于词汇与生活本身之间有着这种密切的联系，我们才以一种新的方式编写了这本小册子。我们并没有给你一些彼此不相干的词汇表让你死记，而是围绕着你生活的各个方面把词汇加以归类。

本书的设计旨在得到你的积极配合。作者希望你在阅读本书时手握一支铅笔，因为我们会经常请你作一些批注，对某些问题写出答案。你使用铅笔越多，你参与的程度就会越深，而你参与的程度越深，这本书就会对你越有帮助。除了用铅笔外，我们偶尔也会请你用一下你的声音一大声说出一些东西。你知道，我们真的希望你和我们保持连续的对话。

这很有趣。而且又是这样容易。我们把它编得像是一种游戏。我们在书中精心设计了许多题目，希望它们具有刺激性。这里是些激励你和你的朋友的东西。拿这些测试在你的熟人身上试验一下。他们会喜欢它们的，这也许会鼓励他们对语言这一令人激动的领域作更广泛的探索。书中有引人人胜的词语操练，有丰富多彩的语言知识，有可供漫游的词语园地，正是这些词语使得我们的语言一直像现在这样成为丰富、灵活、生动的交际手段。

请每天都接触本书。如果你喜欢就把它放在你的床边。每天晚上熄灯前花上一点时间读几页要比没有规律地偶尔读一小时好。如果你能挤出时间每天只学两三个词——我们仍向你保证，在30天结束时你会发现一种新的爱好。每天给我们15分钟，我们将保证到一个月结束时，当你翻过这本书的最后一页时，你的词汇，你的阅读，你的会话和你的生活都将给你带来新的、更深刻的意义。

因为词语可以使你变得伟大！

Key Words:

consciously    ['kɔnʃəsli]

adv. 有意识地，自觉地

minutes  ['minits] 

n. 会议记录，(复数)分钟

limited    ['limitid] 

adj. 有限的，被限制的

haphazard     [.hæp'hæzəd]

adj. 偶然的，随意的，杂乱无章的 adv. 杂乱地，

executive              [ig'zekjutiv]   

adj. 行政的，决策的，经营的，[计算机]执行指令

merely    ['miəli]    

adv. 仅仅，只不过

intelligent       [in'telidʒənt]  

adj. 聪明的，智能的

established    [is'tæbliʃt]     

adj. 已被确认的，确定的，建立的，制定的 动词est

reverse   [ri'və:s]   

n. 相反，背面，失败，倒档

adj. 反面的

theoretical      [θiə'retikəl]    

adj. 理论上的

executive              [ig'zekjutiv]   

adj. 行政的，决策的，经营的，[计算机]执行指令

environment  [in'vaiərənmənt]    

n. 环境，外界

measure ['meʒə]   

n. 措施，办法，量度，尺寸

v. 测量，量

outstanding   [aut'stændiŋ]

adj. 突出的，显著的，未支付的

control    [kən'trəul]      

n. 克制，控制，管制，操作装置

vt. 控制

intelligence    [in'telidʒəns]  

n. 理解力，智力

n. 情报，情报工作，情报

certain    ['sə:tn]    

adj. 确定的，必然的，特定的

pron.

extent     [iks'tent] 

n. 广度，宽度，长度，大小，范围，范围，程度

exception       [ik'sepʃən]     

n. 除外，例外，[律]异议，反对

extensive [iks'tensiv]     

adj. 广泛的，广阔的，广大的

fraction   ['frækʃən]      

n. 分数，小部分，破片

popularity      [.pɔpju'læriti] 

n. 普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

merely    ['miəli]    

adv. 仅仅，只不过

assurance      [ə'ʃuərəns]     

n. 保证，确信，肯定，自信，(人寿)保险

decision  [di'siʒən]

n. 决定，决策

command      [kə'mɑ:nd]    

n. 命令，指挥，控制

v. 命令，指挥，支配

accurate  ['ækjurit]

adj. 准确的，精确的

election   [i'lekʃən] 

n. 选举

campaign      [kæm'pein]   

n. 运动，活动，战役，竞选运动

v. 从事运

orator     ['ɔrətə]    

n. 演说者，演讲者，雄辩家

rebellion [ri'beljən]

n. 谋反，叛乱，反抗

convincing     [kən'vinsiŋ]   

adj. 使人信服的，有力的，令人心悦诚服的 vbl.

harbor    ['hɑ:bə]  

n. 海港，避难所

vt. 庇护，心怀，窝藏