不錯，我們都知道生字或詞彙數量愈多愈好。但我們也知道，一個英文不是母語的人，學習英文比母語人士慢一至兩倍左右。(就如我先前文章提及的。)而英文字實在太多了。(出名的多)
那麼如何才能有效的，運用最短的時間得到最佳的效果?
Tom Cobb 教授是語言學權威，他和他的研究隊伍時間整合了50年不同的研究成果，研究出英語字與出現機率的關係。
就是說，在一篇文章內，概然率來說就是那些常用的2000字會佔據了79.7%文章的內容。
這上是在"讀"這個範圍內一百個最常用字:
1. the
2. of
3. and
4. a
5. to
6. in
7. is
8. you
9. that
10. it
11. he
12. was
13. for
14. on
15. are
16. as
17. with
18. his
19. they
20. I
21. at
22. be
23. this
24. have
25. from
26. or
27. one
28. had
29. by
30. word
31. but
32. not
33. what
34. all
35. were
36. we
37. when
38. your
39. can
40. said
41. there
42. use
43. an
44. each
45. which
46. she
47. do
48. how
49. their
50. if
51. will
52. up
53. other
54. about
55. out
56. many
57. then
58. them
59. these
60. so
61. some
62. her
63. would
64. make
65. like
66. him
67. into
68. time
69. has
70. look
71. two
72. more
73. write
74. go
75. see
76. number
77. no
78. way
79. could
80. people
81. my
82. than
83. first
84. water
85. been
86. call
87. who
88. oil
89. its
90. now
91. find
92. long
93. down
94. day
95. did
96. get
97. come
98. made
99. may
100. part
試看以下一段文字:
If _____ planting rates are _____ with planting _____ satisfied in each _____ and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the _____ wood supplies could further increase to about 36 million _____ meters _____ in the period 2001-2015. (Nation, 1990, p. 242.)
(Text A: 80% of words known)
這就是一個有大約2000個常用字詞彙的人看到的東西。再看看以下。
If current planting rates are maintained with planting targets satisfied in each _____ and the forests milled at the earliest opportunity, the available wood supplies could further _____ to about 36 million cubic meters annually in the period 2001-2015.
(Text B: 95% of words known)
這就是有大約95%的字讀者都是懂的。當然大意更清楚了。可以看出，其實大約明白90%左右的內容，文章大意已可十分清楚。
對"讀"這範疇來說，文章亦提及只要把2000個常用字記好，然後再加上570個常用"拉丁變形字" (意指由拉丁文轉變而來)例如probability, hypotheis, conclusion等等，已能明白一篇學術文章90%的用字。
當然，如果有興趣的話，大家也可不停的每天學十個生字/詞語，而這亦是讀寫英語不停進步的必經之路 (事實上，過了這2570字左右，就要靠自己了，而這亦是一些"英語大師"追求的境界)
但對於追求高效的朋友來說，以上的策略確是比較實用的。
延伸閱讀:
http://www.lextutor.ca/research/
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