afraid I disagree. I think ...’and so on.
我想你所提的“时断时续”(说英语)可能是指突然迸发式的说话方式。首先，你必须明白，大多数口头表达是与他人交往的产物。我们很少发表长篇大论，这就是说我们必须培养我们自己理解别人讲话的能力，然后根据我们所听到的内容作出回答。会话的性质不同，要求的技巧也自然不同。例如：
交流信息。这是我们每天最常见的交流形式。你的朋友告诉你他/她在业余时间所喜欢做的事。你仔细听，然后告诉他/她你在业余时间所想做的事。你就如此这般回答。在这种交流中，你一般会大量使用一般现在时。
叙述。你的朋友用过去时告诉你一段经历(他/她如何误车，然后上班迟到，老板说些什么，等等)。你仔细听，然后讲述你自己的经历。在这种交流中，你一般会使用一般过去时或过去进行时。按时间顺序讲述一个故事较为容易：某事开始于……，然后叙述正文，最后结束讲述。
交流看法和观点。你的朋友告诉你他/她对某事的看法，他/她先描述一段场景，然后发表他/她的意见，并给出理由。你仔细听，然后以同样的方式作出回答。你有可能陈述事实(你从报纸上读到的东西)，给出一个或几个例子，然后说明你的看法。你很可能用些诸如In my opinion...，I think...，I agree with what you say, but...和I’m afraid I disagree. I think... 等短语。
24. It’s always said that if you want to improve your spoken English, you should practise a lot. But when I meet a foreigner, I often miss the chance. I am afraid I have nothing to say. I worry about the topics. What should I do?
人们常说，要想提高英语口语，你就应该多多练习。但每当我遇见外国人，我经常抓不住这样的机会。我担心我没有什么可说。我所担心的是该谈什么主题。我该怎么办呢?
Yes, it is quite true that you can improve your spoken English by practising a lot, but don’t depend on meeting foreigners (by which I suppose you mean native speakers of English). If you do, you will severely reduce your opportunities to practise your English. First of all, it’s often hard to meet foreigners; second, they might not wish to be‘used’by you so that you can practise your English; third, if you are speaking to a foreigner, you might become very self-conscious about your English and be unable to express yourself at all (as seems to be the case here). So what do you do? You seek or create opportunities to practise speaking English with people in your own culture who are faced with the same problems you are faced with. You do this either by regularly attending English conversation classes, so that you have the supervision of a teacher, or you get together with other people like yourself and meet on a regular basis in order to talk. Choose topics you know about and enjoy talking about in Chinese. It’s an old truism that when you really have something to say, you will find the words you need to say it.
不错，平时多练习以提高你的英语口语，但不要指望遇见外国人(我想你所指的是来自说英语的国家的人)这个办法。如果这样的话，你练习说英语的机会就少多了。首先，经常遇见外国人是不容易的；其次，他们可能不愿被你用来练英语；再者，如果你与一位外国人交谈，你可能会对自己的英语水平不甚清楚，无法表达自己的思想(就像你所提的事例一样)。那么，你该怎么办呢?你可以给你自己创造机会。你可以找与你有相同的文化背景、面临类似问题的人练习英语口头表达能力。你可以定期参加英语会话课，在老师的监督下练习，也可以和与你情况相当的朋友聚会，共同敲定一个谈话的主题。可以选一些你们讲中文时了解或愿意聊的话题。当你心中感到言之有物的时候，你就会找到你所需要用的词来表达你的思想，这是个自明之理。
25. When I listen to English broadcast, I sometimes understand it, but I can’t write out the whole sentence.
听英语广播时，我有时可以听懂，但不能写下完整的句子。
Why should you want to write out a whole sentence if yoi’re listening to a broadcast? A broadcast is generally a flow of spoken English. It isn’t a dictation. What I think you’re really saying is that you don’t always grasp the meaning of individual words. My advice is this: when listening to spoken English don’t try to get the meaning of individual words. Concentrate on listening to complete sentences, trying to get the‘global meaning’where you can. This means you will have to guess the meaning of new words from the context. Train yourself to listen for meaning, not for words.
如果你在听广播的话，为什么非要写下一个完整句子呢?广播的播音通常是段英语口语。它并不是听写。我想你所说的是你没有抓住单个单词的意思。 我的建议是：在听广播时，不要试图抓住个别单词的意思，要集中注意力听完整的句子，尽力抓住全文的意思。也就是说你一定要根据上下文判断新单词的意思。要训练自己为理解文章的意思而听广播，而不是为个别单词而听广播。
26. It’s difficult to catch the words in the Voice of America sports report. Do you have some skills?
听美国之音体育报道，对词的理解有困难。您能介绍一些窍门吗?
One of the most difficult skills to acquire in a foreign language is the ability to understand the natural language spoken by native speakers at a normal speed. Additionally, with sports reports, the language is often delivered at speed. Listen to a commentary on a horse race or a car rally and you will find that the commentator can hardly keep up with himself as he tries to keep pace with the events he is witnessing. You can train yourself to cope with native speaker delivery in a number of ways. One way is to use ‘talking books’. These are published on audio tape, compact disc, or on video. They consist mainly of novels or biographies read by famous actors and are aimed at native speakers who like to listen to someone telling them a story, rather than reading one themselves. This is what you could do:
Buy the book and the recorded version (in British or American English according to your preference).
Play a small part of the audio version and concentrate on listening. Confine yourself to about two minutes at a time. Try to understand as much as you can. You will probably find it’s hard to‘keep up with the reader’.
Play the taped version again while reading the text at the same time. Guess the meaning from the context, looking up only those words which seem to you to be essential to the meaning.
Play the same part of the tape again without looking at the book. Contentrate only on listening. This time you will find that you can‘keep up with the reader’much more easily.
Keep doing this until you feel able to cope with native delivery. Of course, it’s not a sports commentary. But following this routine will provide you with the kind of practice you need to cope with English delivered at normal native-speaker speed.
一门外国语最难掌握的一项技巧就是听懂母语讲话人用正常速度所说的自然语言的能力。另外，在体育报道中，语速通常是快的。听一场赛马或汽车比赛的评论，你会发现评论员几乎都跟不上自己的速度，因为他要努力跟上他所看到的项目的进行速度。你可以通过几个方法来训练自己听懂母语讲话者说话的能力。一种办法是使用“有声读物”。这些读物以录音带、CD或录像带的形式出版。它们主要包括著名演员朗读的小说或传记，这些读物是面向那些不想亲自读故事而想听别人读的母语讲话者的。你可以：
购买有声读物及其配书(根据你自己的喜好选择英国英语或美国英语)。
播放一小部分有声读物，集中精力听。每次限制在两分钟内。尽量多地理解。你可能会发现要“跟上朗读人”有困难。
重复播放有声读物，看着配书听。根据上下文猜测意思，只有那些对理解意思起关键作用的词才去查词典。
再把磁带的同一部分播放一遍，不要看书。集中精力听。这次你会发现要“跟上朗读人”就容易多了。
坚持做下去，直到你觉得能够应付母语的讲话为止。当然，这不是体育评论。这种做法能为你提供实用的练习，使你听懂正常语速英语母语讲话。
27. When talking with English-speaking foreigners, my tongue often gets stup
