在新东方，如果一位学员词汇基础较弱，老师通常会推荐学员背诵《雅思词汇胜经》中附录的“2000个最常用词汇”。而这份“2000个最常用词汇”是从1953年由迈克尔·韦斯特(Michael West)发布的“通用词汇表”(General Service List，GSL)改编而来的——原表将2284个通用词汇按照词频由高到低排列，“2000个最常用词汇”则改为按照字母顺序由A到Z排列。“通用词汇表”所含2284个词，是由迈克尔·韦斯特在前电脑时代，积20余年之功，在广泛参考前人及同代学者的成就的基础上，由250余万字的语料库中统计出的高频词汇。迈克尔·韦斯特的想法，是希望英语学习者能有一份表单，其中收录有英语中最常见、最常用的词汇，以方便他们的学习。也就是说英语学习者只要优先掌握了这些高频词汇，就能大体读懂英文了。

　　迈克尔·韦斯特的“通用词汇表”在很长时间里都具有相当的权威，然而随着时间的推移，这份词汇表的问题也越来越为人所识。首先，以250万字的语料库作为统计基础，在前电脑时代已是壮举，但是以今日的眼光来看，则未免有所不足。而也正由于作为统计基础的语料库不够庞大，统计所得高频词汇，是否真能当得起“通用词汇”之名，也就成了疑问。此外，时移世易，彼时的通用词汇，于今已未必通用，譬如先令(shilling)、鳏夫(widower);而今日通行的词汇，彼时尚未流行或尚未存在，如塑料(plastic)、电视(television)、电池(battery)等等。

　　所以推荐学员直接背诵《雅思词汇胜经》中附录的“2000个最常用词汇”是一个不失简便却未必最优的办法。我在这里向大家推荐“牛津3000”(Oxford 3000)，有想要短期快速积累阅读词汇的学生，不妨将它用作学习材料。

　　牛津3000是收录在《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》(Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary)附录中的一份单词表(网上可以找到电子版)，有关这份单词表的选词标准及用法，《牛津高阶》的编纂者有如下说明(对于与本文主旨相关的信息，我择要译述为中文供读者参考)：

　　The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been carefully selected by a group of language experts and experienced teachers as the words which should receive priority in vocabulary study because of their importance and

　　usefulness. The selection is based on three criteria.

　　牛津3000所录核心词汇是经由一群语言专家与有经验的教师细心挑选出来的，这些单词应该在你的词汇学习中被放在最为优先的位置，因为它们既重要又有用。我们是基于三个标准选出这批词汇的。

　　The words which occur most frequently in English are included, based on the information in the British National Corpus and the Oxford Corpus Collection. (A corpus is an electronically held collection of written or spoken texts, often consisting of hundreds of millions of words.) H owever, being frequent in the corpus alone is not enough for a word to qualify as a keyword: it may be that the word is used very frequently, but only in a narrowly defined area, such as newspapers or scientific articles. In order to avoid including these restricted words, we include as keywords only those words which are frequent across a range of different types of text. In other words, keywords are both frequent and used in a variety of contexts. In addition, the list includes some very important words which happen not to be used frequently, even though they are very familiar to most users of English.

　　These include, for example, words for parts of the body, words used in travel, and words which are useful for explaining what you mean when you do not know the exact word for something. These words were identified by consulting a panel of over seventy experts in the fields of teaching and language study.

　　最为常用的单词被选入本表。然而一个单词可能仅仅在某一范围或某一领域是常用的词汇，比如在报纸中，或在科学类的文章中，对于这类词汇，我们避免将其选入。这就谈及了我们的第二条标准：选入本表的单词，广泛地应用于不同领域、不同主题的文章。此外，本表在选词时，还收录了一些非常重要，却并不那么常见的词汇——尽管大多数英语使用者对于这些词汇是非常熟稔的。比如用来指称身体各部分的单词，在旅行中会用到的词汇，还有当你不确知某一单词，又想要向人解释你的意思时会用到的那些词。这部分单词的选定是经由与专家组商议做出的，该专家组由超过70位在教学和语言研究领域工作的专家学者构成。

　　The words of the Oxford 3000 are shown in the main section of the dictionary in larger print, and with a key symbol immediately following. On the CD-ROM the keywords are shown in red. The most useful parts of the

　　entries (particular parts of speech, meanings, phrasal verbs and idioms) are marked with a small key symbol. The entries for keywords often have extra information in the form of more examples of use, special notes explaining synonyms or related words, or helpful illustrations. This means that the keywords make an excellent starting point for expanding your vocabulary. With most keywords, there is far more to learn about them than the first meaning in the entry: often these words have many meanings, have a large family of words derived from them, or are used in a variety of patterns. All of this means that each one of the keywords repays close study.

　　牛津3000所录单词在《牛津高阶》中的对应词条是以较大的字体显示的，同时词条旁边还有一个钥匙标志以示关键。这些核心词汇的词条通常附有更多信息，如更多例句，用以解释同义词或者相关词汇的特别注解，又或者有用的图示。这意味着本表所录核心词汇可成为你拓展单词量的极佳的入手处。对绝大多数的核心词汇来说，你可以学的远不止词条的第一项释义，通常这些单词都有很多意思，有很多由其衍生而来的词，又或者有许多用法上的固定搭配。所有这一切意味着细心学习这些核心词汇将会获益甚丰。

　　The list covers British and American English. It is arranged to emphasize the connections between words, so that words which are very closely related (including adverbs ending in –ly and opposites starting with un-) are grouped together. Some basic phrases are also included. Proper names (names of people, places, etc. beginning with a capital letter) and numbers are not included in the main list.

　　本表覆盖英式英语及美式英语。本表在排列上强调单词间的联系，所以紧密相关的单词(如由形容词加ly变来的副词，又或者加un变成的反义词)被放在一起。一些基本的短语也被收录表中。专有名词(人名、地名等等)以及数字则未被收入。

　　A separate list of words which are important for language study, but less important in everyday life, follows the main list. Knowing these words will help you to understand more of the information given in the entries, especially regarding the word’s grammar and register (whether it is formal, informal, etc.).

　　一个对语言学习来说非常重要的单词表附在本表之后。其所录单词在日常生活中没那么重要，但掌握它们可以帮助你理解词条释义中给出的信息，特别是那些涉及语法和语域(是正式用语又或是非正式用语等等)的部分。

点击查看>>>教师解读雅思核心词汇表（下）

　　作者简介： 寇淮禹，北京大学毕业， 独立选题并翻译美国波普艺术大师安迪·沃霍尔的POPism(《波普主义》)一书，全书28万字，已出版。雅思阅读满分获得者。

　　职位及教授科目：北京新东方学校雅思VIP教师，教授雅思阅读。

　　个人页面：http://www.douban.com/people/2853083/

　　北京新东方VIP学习中心报名电话：400-817-1818

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