【小阅读^大脑袋】0129 NO.308

Tell a story and tell it well, and you may open wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.“ Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “ Cinderella, or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoner too, helping them knowing who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story. Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. “For every advance in business,” she says, “there is a greater need for communication.” Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.Pugh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says, “ What I do is to focus on the value of the stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody’s story.”

DAD
答案解析：
1. What do we learn about American storyteller from Paragraph 2?
A. They share the same way of storytelling.
B. They prefer to tell the stories from other cultures.
C. They learn their stories from the American natives.
D. They find storytelling useful for both children and adults.
解析：D正确
从第二段我们可以知道美国说书人怎么样？
先总结一下第二段的大意：美国说书人的故事的来源广泛，和说故事的作用。
A与第一条不符合；B,C,文中没有提到

2. The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners can _____.
A. start a new life
B. settle down in another place
C. direct films
D. become good actors
解析：A正确
划线句子暗示犯人们可以怎样？
If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story.这里的story代表的就是life

3. What is the main idea of the text?
A. Storytelling can influence the way people think.
B. Storytelling is vital to the growth of business.
C. Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school.
D. Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others.
解析：D正确
文章的主要思想是什么？
A．说故事可以影响人们的思维方式。思维方式不是说故事改变的对象。
B．说故事对商业的发展至关重要。文中说的是需要，说故事并不是促进增长的关键力量。
C．说故事是学校中最好的教育方式。这是一个极端。
D．说故事帮助人们了解自己和他人。这是文章主要在谈论的内容。They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
下文就是对这句话的陈述。

参考译文：
将一个故事娓娓道来，你也许会拓宽一个孩子的视野，在商务交往中打开门路，或者让人们坦然接受另外一种文化或是种族。

许多地方的人们挖掘出古老的民间故事，找出其中传递的信息。例如，大多数的美国说书人从广泛的材料资源，文化和时代中寻找故事。他们认为说故事不仅是教育孩子的一个有用的工具，也是帮助成年人了解自己和与他们本身文化不同的其他文化的非常有意义的活动。

“多数的本土故事建立在一个更加宏大的主题上，”美国说书人Opalanga Pugh说，“灰姑娘或是一个善良的孩子受到她的神保护的中心思想，在世界上几乎每一个文化中都以各种形式有所体现。

Pugh帮助在校学生了解他们自己的文化，理解故事大意。她也与犯人接触，给他们讲故事，帮助他们了解自己。而犯人们可以用笔记下故事，通过故事的指导，在自己的生活中作出一番表现。如果他们不喜欢自己现在所过的生活，他们可以去改变它。Pugh也帮助在管理者和员工之间拓宽交流。“对业务的每一次前进，”她说，“都更加需要交流。”说故事对劳资关系的双方都有很大影响，她说。

Pugh在尼日利亚度过了几年，在那里她了解到说故事与那里的人们的日常生活有着怎样的紧密联系。她说，说故事的益处随处可见。

“我知道了人们是如何利用故事传播文化，”她说，“我所要关注的是人们能够转化到自己日常生活中的故事的价值。我们都是说故事的人。我们都有一个可以讲述的故事。我们说的是大家的故事。”

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词汇及短语：
open up: 变宽; 展现; 揭示
例：After a while the road opened up and they traveled more quickly.
过了一会儿, 路变宽了, 他们也走得更快了。

open one's mind：对…吐露心意〔真情〕
例：The poor girl opened her mind and told me everything about herself.
那可怜的姑娘向我吐露心声, 把她的一切情况都告诉了我

dig up:掘起，找到，发现，揭露
例：Where did you dig up the fresh evidence?
你从哪儿弄到那些新证据的?

storyteller：讲故事的人; 说书人

tale：故事，传言，谣言

Cinderella：灰姑娘

goodness：良好, 善良, 优良;上帝

rewrite：vt. 改写

translate into: 把…转化成
例：We must make efforts to translate our ideal into reality.
我们必须努力把理想变为现实。