To cultivate one’s taste in English prose, the most effective way is to read English books extensively. Yet one may be at a loss to choose the appropriate books, especially as a beginner. I would like to share some of my experience.

在培養(yǎng)閱讀英文的興趣方面，有效的途徑就是廣泛的閱讀英文作品。但是尤其對于初學者而言，在面對應該選擇什么樣的讀物時很容易不知所措。在此呢，我希望可以分享一些自己經(jīng)驗來給大家一些指引。

My first English novel was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, recommended by many English teachers and professors as an ideal book for English learners. But my experience was somewhat disastrous. Stumbling along the lines, I had great difficulty in understanding the novel, let alone enjoying it. It’s not the vocabulary that troubled me, but rather the way Austen constructs sentences, and her way of thinking, which seemed too remote to me at that time. My fading enthusiasm was much recovered after reading Hemingway’s novel Farewell to Arms. No long and complicated sentences. And I particularly liked his concise and straightforward style. So my first suggestion is, as a beginner, you’d better choose contemporary novels instead of classical ones. You can easily engage yourself in reading, get fun out of it, and gradually build up confidence. I do not mean to exclude classical novels for ever. Actually, the second reading of Pride and Prejudice greatly pleased me (probably the result of my improved English comprehension). It is only that classical novels are less accessible to beginners due to their language styles and social background. I’d like to recommend three contemporary novelists to you－Ursula Le Guin, Ernest Hemingway, and Doris Lessing.

我所讀的第一本英文小說是簡·奧斯丁的《傲慢與偏見》，這本書被許多英語老師和教授推薦給英語學習者。但是我個人的經(jīng)驗卻比較悲催。在閱讀的過程中我連理解文章都非常困難，更談不上欣賞文章了。倒不是里面有很多生詞，更多的時候是簡·奧斯丁的句法結構，還有她的思維模式，總讓我覺得和我不在一個維度。而我的熱情是在讀了海明威的《永別了，武器》才重新回到我身邊的。這本書里沒有什么復雜的句子。我非常喜歡這種簡約明快的文字風格。所以我對于初步涉足英文閱讀的人的第一個建議就是，先讀一些當代的文章而不是經(jīng)典的文章。你可以更為輕松的獲得閱讀快感，并且找到閱讀樂趣，終慢慢的建立起自信。我并不是說就完全不用去讀古典小說了。事實上，當我第二次拿起《傲慢與偏見》來讀的時候，閱讀體驗非常不錯（當然也不排除是由于我的英文水平提高了的緣故）。主要的原因是因為古典文章對于新手來說由于它的年代和語言方式更為難以理解。我在此推薦3個當代的小說家給大家：厄休拉·勒奎恩，歐內斯特·海明威還有多麗絲·萊辛。

However, reading novels is not the only way to improve your English. In fact, if you restrict yourself to novels you will miss a lot of treasures. English essays can at once inform you, entertain you, and refine your taste in English. The best example is Bertrand Russell’s work. Its language is plain, yet you cannot help feeling the elegance and the peculiar sense of humor. His simple language enables his philosophy within the reach of ordinary people. The same is true of George Orwell’s work. Here comes my second suggestion－essays are indispensable.

但是呢，閱讀英文小說并不是唯一一個提升英文水平的辦法。事實上，如果你只讀小說，就會錯失一大塊寶藏。英語散文同樣可以在第一時間給你知識和娛樂，同時還提高你的英文閱讀品味。好的例證就是伯特蘭·羅素的作品了。雖然說他的語言本身比較平實，但是你依然能夠從他的語言當中體會到那份優(yōu)雅和特別的幽默。他語言的簡單明了使得他的哲學可以被大多數(shù)普通人所理解。具有相同特點的還有喬治·奧威爾。所以我的第二個建議就是——散文同樣是必不可少的。

My last advice is never follow others’ recommendations and opinions blindly, however famous or influential the person might be. Some days ago, I listened to the audiobook of Somerset Maugham’s autobiography The Summing Up. In a chapter he regards Edward Gibbon and Samuel Johnson’s style as pompous. Though I admire Maugham’s prose, I cannot agree with his view. Probably one can label Johnson’s work as pretentious, but definitely not Gibbon’s. In fact, his lucid style makes his works highly readable, and you can hardly believe they were written over 200 years ago. Therefore, we should be open to various ideas, but always think and determine for ourselves. As a saying goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. With that in mind, we are bound to find out our favorite writers through reading and develop our fine taste in English.

我的后一個建議就是永遠都不要盲目地跟隨那些所謂名人或者有社會影響力的人的建議和推薦。我記得以前，我聽毛姆自傳《總結》的音頻書籍。在某一章，他認為愛德華·吉布森和薩繆爾·約翰遜的風格是非常浮華的。雖然我非常欣賞毛姆，但是我并不同意他的觀點。可能人們可以把約翰遜的文章說成是浮華，但是吉布森的文章則絕對不能這么說。事實上，吉布森的文字非常容易理解，以至于你都難以相信那是200年以前的作品。因此，我認為我們應該保持開放的心態(tài)，但是保持對自我的忠實。就像一句老話所說的，一個人的佳肴可能是另一個人的毒藥。有這句話在心中，我們就可以盡情的去尋找那些我們喜歡的作者，并提高自己的英語閱讀品味。