Give us 15 Minutes A Day
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 vocabularyl 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.
son O';Connor of thee 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 percent 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 an, 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 s.
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 down town this afternoon you will find that you are saying to yourself:"I think I will go down town this afternoon." You can't make such a simple decision as this without using words.
Without words you could make no decisions and from 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 proper phrases inthe 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 a Rebellion" used in a Republican campaign speech threw the Catholic vote and the presidential victory to Grover Cleveland. Ears 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 van 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 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!
[參考譯文]
每天只需15分鐘
你老闆的詞彙量比你的詞彙量大。
這是他爲什麼會成爲你老闆的一個重要原因。
這一發現是在世界各地的語言實驗室裏得來的。它不是那些池有理論的英語教授信口胡謅的，而是那些一直以來就在探討着成功斬祕訣、精明而又計求實際的學者們發現的。
在經歷了大量的試驗和多年的驗證之後，他們發現：
如果你的詞彙量不大，你成功的機會也就不多。
最簡潔而又最迅速的改進方法之一就是有意識地擴大你的詞彙知識。
普通人的詞彙量到了二十五六歲左右就幾乎停止增長了。
從那以後要想繼續嗇詞彙量就必須有一個精心設計的計劃。隨意安排的、漫無目的計劃是不起作用的。
長期以來人們就有呈個想當然的看法：高級行政管理人員不會有很大的詞彙量，因爲處不那個位置上，他有的是機會。這未免有點本末倒置了。實際情況恰恰相反。他的言語技巧對他獲得那個職位有着巨大的幫助。
約翰遜·歐·康納博士爲波士頓的人才管理實驗室和新澤西州霍博肯市的史蒂文斯理工學院工作，他曾對100名學工業行政管理的年青人做過一次詞彙測試。
五年以後那些在考試中名列前十位的人全部地、無一例外地跨上了管理崗位，而考試中位列後二十五名的人中沒有一個能當上受理人員。
你瞧，有一些成功的因素是要以像試管裏的物質那樣被精確測量的，而人們發現，獲得傑出成貴州省的一個最普遍的要素就是“大量而準確地掌握英語詞彙”。
你對詞彙的把握程度反映了你的智力水平，當你通過學習掌握了更多的詞彙析時候，償大腦的思維能力也會嗇。以下事例就可以證明這一點。
一所高中的兩個班被挑選徠做了一個試驗。年齡相仿，所處的環境相同。每個班都代表着整個社會的一個完全相當的橫截面。其中一個班被作爲參照班，只上普通班應上的課程。另一個班則附加特別的詞彙訓練。到試驗期結束的時候，後一個班的成績，不音是英語成績，而是每一科的成績，包括數學和自然學科成績全都超過了參照班的成績。
無獨有偶，斯坦福大學的路易斯·M·特曼教授也發現，詞彙測試與三套普遍被人接受的斯坦福·賓尼特標準智商測試題中的任何一套一樣，可以準確地測定智力。
詞彙學習並非只是某種與文學有關的事情。詞彙是思維的工具。滑有了詞彙你甚至根本無法思維。你可以試一試。如果你打算今天下午進城，你會發現你在對自己說：“我候今天下午我要進趟城。”不借助詞的話，你就連這樣一個簡單的決定也作不了。
沒有了詞彙佻什麼決定也作不了，什麼判斷也作不成。一位鋼琴家的腦袋中可能想到了一首美妙的曲子，但是如果他的鋼琴上只有五個音鍵的話，他永遠也只能演奏出這首曲子的一些破碎的片段。
你的文科是你思維的關鍵。你所掌握的詞彙越多，你的思想就越深邃、越清晰、越準確。
掌握英語不僅可以改進償的思維方式，它還給你信心，令你自信，帶給你鮮明的個性，使你更受歡迎。你的用詞反映了你的個性。所謂詞如其人。
作爲你的朋友，我們大家都是從你的言辭中來了解你和評價你的。除此以外，你無法用別的什麼交際手段來告訴我們你的想法——無法使我們信服，無法勸服我們，無法給我們下命令。
單詞是具有破壞性的。詞組中則充斥着火藥。一個簡簡單單的詞可以摧垮一份友誼，可以使 一大批訂貨泡湯。售貨員言辭得體的話可以使商場的銷售額翻兩番。況選演說者用詞失當則會使他競選失利。例如，在一次共和黨的競選學說中，因演講者不慎將“離廳古怪，羅馬一塌胡塗主教和叛亂”等詞 連在了一起，結果羅馬天主教徒都投了格洛弗·克利夫蘭的標，讓他贏得了總統競選的勝利。戰爭也要靠言語來獲勝。戰士們往往爲一句中號而戰。“爲保衛世界民主而戰。”“一切爲了英格蘭。”“必勝。”西班牙內時代的口號是“牢記緬因河”，如今已換成“牢記珍珠港”了。
詞彙曾改變過歷史的方向。詞彙也能改變你生活的方向。它們常常使一個平凡之輩邁向成功。
如果你在有意識地增加着你的詞彙量，你將在不知不覺中爬到一個更顯要的位置上，得到這個新的，更高的位置以後，反過來，你又會有更好的機會進一步豐富你的詞彙量。這是一個誘人的、帶給人成功的循環過程。
正因爲詞和生活本身有着如此密切的關係，所以我們採用了一種新的方式來編排這本小書。我們不會讓你學記由一組組毫無聯繫的詞彙組成的詞彙表。我們將詞彙按照生活的各個方面組合了起來。
這本書的編排設計是建立在你會積極合作的假想基礎上的。作者們希望你在讀這本書的時候手裏要拿上一支鉛筆，因爲我們要求你經常做點筆記，或是將一些具體問題的答案寫下來。你動筆的時候越多，你就會看得越投入，而你越投入這本書對你就越有幫助。除了動筆之外，我們還會不時地讓你動動嘴——要求你把一些東西大聲地說出來。你知道，我們的確希望你能不斷地與我們對話。
這很有趣。也很容易做到。而且我們還把它弄得像做遊戲。我們在書裏集中了各種測試手段，希望它們能夠富於刺激性。這是對你和你的朋友們的挑戰。用這些試題去考考你的熟人吧。他們會從中得到樂趣並受到鼓舞，從而進一步深入地探索這一令人激動的言語領域。書中編排有遊戲型的動詞健美操，介紹了形形色色的語言客觀存在，還談到了詞語間的遊離現象，正是它們豐富了我們的言語，使之富於變化，並形成了現在這樣一個富有生氣的交際工具。
每天都讀一讀這本書。如果你喜歡的話，就把這本書帶在身邊。每天晚上關燈之前花一點時間讀上幾頁書要比時不時不定期地花上個把小時來讀要好。即使你每天只騰得出時間學兩到三個單詞——我們仍可向你保證,30天以後你將會得到新的興趣。如果你每天花上15分鐘的話，我們就可以保證，一個月之後，當你翻過了這本書的最後一頁時。你的詞彙，你的閱讀能力，你的談話技巧，乃至你的生活都將會達到一個更新和更高的程度。
因爲詞將使你卓越不凡！
