【本课内容】在本课中我们将读到、听到和感受到温馨而美丽的小小说《When Your Greatest Romance is Friendship》（当你遇见的最美情感是友谊的时候）的第二部分。
【刘博士英语学习法分享】
【刘博士英语学习法为什么不从单词教起】：让我们回想一下自己学习母语的过程。我们大约是在学习了多少个汉字以后开始读书呢？有的学者说，大约是200个-300个，有的学者说大约是500个字。但是国人很少有学了近千个字却不读书的。一个公认的事实是，国人多数的汉字是从书本上阅读学来的，这包括学前读物和学校里的各个科目教育。我们来看一下英语学习的情况。高中毕业时，学生要求掌握的英语单词会到达3000个字。四六级考试要求掌握的英语单词数是4000-6000个字。大家可以自己考虑一下，我们在高中毕业时，除了英语课本和英语考试材料以外是否有完整（地）读过英语书籍。（我知道北上广现在的初高中学生现在已经开始要求读原版书籍了，不过还是用于考试）。
此外我们在学校都已经学过使用英语字典查单词，拼读发音。学校里学英语单词有考试的目的。刘博士英语学习法总体不以考试为目的，而且所有的读物均会提供音频，所以除非是解答单词问题，我不教单词。
学单词的最好方法，就如同学中文的最好方法一样，是读书。
【刘博士英语学习法为什么不教语法】：
首先，我们在高中到大学的期间，学校已经完整地教授了大家语法；其次，人类语言和计算机语言不同，它的语法结构是在历史上当人们需要更准确地表达自己的思想和情感的时候逐渐形成的。除非我们做语言研究或是想让我们的表达更准确一些，否则语法和语言理解和表达分不开的，他一定是为了准确表达某种思想，而没有其他意义。我们学习母语时，是从什么时候开始学习语法的呢？我们是根据语法来遣词造句的吗，还是为了使用语法来帮助我们更准确，更有效地表达思想呢？所以语法是阅读之后理解的事情。
【那如果学习者在学习英语中记不住单词和语法怎么办】；
刘博士英语学习法目前的公开课内容，其主要目的有2个：一是帮助我们的英语学习者养成一种新的英语学习习惯：阅读-听读-跟读。让英语学习从一开始就是以声音和文字的方式同步进行的。我希望学习者用三个月的时间养成这个习惯。另外一个目的就是帮助我们英语学习者养成每天总计花30-60分钟听读说英语的习惯。
当你养成了坚持学习的习惯之后，刘博士会陪伴你用三年的时间读完至少三本书，你会发现你会自然而然地记住你希望理解的单词的。只要你能够坚持2年，你一定能够突破独立阅读英语的自由。如果你能坚持三年，并在听和说方面严格每天练习，三年下来你就一定能够实现英语的全面的突破和自由。
如果大家还记得的话，我们在学习母语的过程中，有两个里程碑: 一个是第一次清楚地叫出“爸爸妈妈”的时候；还有一个里程碑就是：当我们能够独立阅读的时候。
我希望我的陪伴能让大家尽快实现英语学习的第二个里程碑。
【刘博士译文】：《When Your Greatest Romance is Friendship 02》（当你遇见的最美情感是友谊的时候 02）
然而，在接下来的周末我们又在一起吃晚饭了，再接下来则每个周末都是如此。有时我们会出去下馆子，有时候会去山中徒步。Austin的那些老年朋友们似乎完全搞不懂。
“他是在帮你捣鼓电脑吗？”一个人这样问Austin。
当我第一次向自己在外地的朋友说起Austin时，他们还以为我只是找到了一个新的男性朋友。
“奥斯汀是个女的，”我会告诉他们，“而且，她都80多岁了。她只是和我聊得来。”
即便是他们回答说“太酷了”的时候，我几乎都能听到他们在想什么：“肯定是那地方实在没什么人可挑的啦。”
我猜想，最让人搞不懂的也许并不是我们两个年龄如此不相称的人怎么会成朋友，而是我们实际上成了最要好的朋友。别人会觉得我们的之间的情投意合是奇怪的甚至是奇葩的，就像是不同动物之间的一种友谊一样：比如说是一只猴子和一只鸽子的友谊。
如果我们从外表上来看说不通的话，那也没关系。我们多数时间都是望着对方的脸的。
一天晚上，Austin谈起了自己中年从事学术时为人妻的生活“我完全错过了60年代的那种狂野劲”。她说。
我告诉她我一样也错过了。
“你那时还没出生呢，”她说，“或者是刚出生没多久吧。”
我们常常在一起做饭，就像我们第一天见面那天晚上一样。饭后她会给我看她正在画的画。在她的要求下，我也开始给她读我正在写的书。我们给彼此提建议，我们各自的作品也有所提高。
当我的出租屋六个月的租约到期时，我续租了。我的小说还没有完成。加上我我实在想不出还有比Austin更好的邻居。
不知不觉，三年过去了。我一周七天都在写作，而且大部分黄昏时间都和Austin聚在一起。她现在会一阵阵地出现眩晕，因此当我们走在一块的时候，她会抓住我的胳膊。她开始常常地想说一些事情，却找不到合适的词来说。一次，当她想拒绝访客以便可以专心画画时，她在画室门上挂了一个牌子，上面写着：“不要破坏（原本是不要打扰的意思，译者注）。”
又过了没多久，她开始出现头痛，言语也变得更加支离破碎。“我得把我的来电给砸了，”她说，她的意思是她需要屏蔽一些电话了。
我们大笑了一阵儿，然后就清醒过来。我们安排好给她去医院做检查。
现在她已经病了八个月了，医生说这是一种在她大脑深处的毁坏性极大的病（老年痴呆症，译者注）。医生说他们没办法阻止病情恶化了。如果Austin幸运的话，她也许还能再多活一年。即使我拒绝相信这一点，我也得做好准备。
怎么做准备呢？那就是履行我曾对她许下的诺言。
在Austin确诊前的几个月，她参加了一场婚礼。她给我看了那份新婚誓言——那是在婚礼仪式上发给每位来宾的——里面列了一大堆事项。在Austin的要求下，我仔细阅读了这份誓言。那个时候，我们正坐在车里，等着我们最爱的泰国餐馆开门营业呢。
“我和我生命中的男人从来都没有过这种经历，”她指着那份誓言对我说道，“我们都曾彼此相爱，但我们没有像这样发过誓。”Austin哭了，她很少这样的。
我拉着她的手对他说：“好啦，我来给你发这个誓，除了性以外的一切。”
说到这里，我这只猴子亲吻了那只鸽子。
那天晚上，我有一个非常奇怪的领悟：我一生中的一些最美妙的浪漫故事其实都是友情。这些友情在很多方面比肌肤之爱更神秘：它更微妙，更少一些自私，更贴近善良。
Audio Transcript: When Your Greatest Romance is Friendship (02)
But there I was the next weekend having dinner with her, and then it was every weekend. Sometimes we went out to a restaurant or hiked in the mountains. Austin’s older friends seemed confused.
“Is he helping you with the computer?” one asked.
When I first starting talking about Austin to my own out-of-town friends, they assumed I had found a new boyfriend.
“Austin’s a woman,” I would say. “Besides, she’s in her 80s. She’s just a pal.”
Even as they replied, “That’s cool,” I could almost hear them thinking: “Must be slim pickings out there.”
What was perplexing, I suppose, was not that two people of such different ages had become friends, but that we had essentially become best friends. Others saw our devotion as either strange or quaint, like one of those unlikely animal friendships: a monkey and a pigeon, perhaps.
If we made no sense from the outside, it didn’t matter. We were mostly looking at each other.
One night, Austin chatted about her life as a middle-aged wife in academia. “I completely missed out on the wildness of the ’60s,” she said.
I told her I had missed out, too.
“You weren’t born yet,” she said. “Or hardly.”
Often we cooked together, as we had that first night, after which she would show me whatever painting she was working on. At her request, I also started reading to her from my book-in-progress. We gave each other feedback; our work improved.
When my six-month lease was up, I renewed it. The novel wasn’t finished. Plus, I couldn’t imagine a better neighbor.
Before I knew it, three years had passed. I was writing seven days a week and spending most evenings with Austin. She had spells of vertigo now, and when we walked together she held my arm. Often she couldn’t find the right word for something. When she wanted to keep away visitors so she could paint, she hung a sign on her studio door: “Do not destroy.”
Soon the headaches came, and more jumbled language. “I need to screw my calls,” she said, meaning she needed to screen them.
We laughed, then sobered. Tests were scheduled.
Now she is eight months into what the doctors say is a quick-ravaging illness deep in her brain. They say there is no stopping it. A year more, if she’s lucky. Even as I refuse to believe this, I prepare for it.
How? By keeping my promise to her.
A few months before her diagnosis, Austin had attended a wedding. She showed me a copy of the vows, which had been distributed at the ceremony — a detailed list. I read it carefully, at Austin’s request. We were sitting in a car, waiting for our favorite Thai restaurant to open.
“I never had anything like that with the men in my life,” she said, pointing to the vows. “We loved each other, but we didn’t have that.” She was crying now, something she rarely did.
I took her hand and said, “Well, you have it with me. Everything but the sex.”
At which point, the monkey kissed the pigeon.
That night, I had an odd realization: Some of the greatest romances of my life have been friendships. And these friendships have been, in many ways, more mysterious than erotic love: more subtle, less selfish, more attuned to kindness.
(To be continued.)
语录网网友总结：友情在很多方面比肌肤之爱更神秘：它更微妙，更少一些自私，更贴近善良。
英语 我们一起学英语,