老师们可以通过讲故事的方式让孩子们认真地接受英语的学习，其中一个方式就是学习一些英语小故事，我在这里整理了相关信息，希望能帮助到您。

　Story 1 Three Good Friends

　One day, a monkey rides his bike near the river. This time he sees a lion under a tree. The lion runs at him. He is afraid and falls into the river. He can?t swim. He shouts. The rabbit hears him. He jumps into the river. The rabbit swims to the monkey, but he can?t help him. Luckily, an elephant comes along. He is very strong. He helps the rabbit and monkey. Three friends are very happy. They go to the elephant?s home. Then, three of them become good friends.

　故事1 三个好朋友一天，一只猴子在河边骑车。这时他看见树下有一只狮子，狮子向他跑来。他非常的害怕，掉进河里。他不会游泳，大叫起来。兔子听见了，跳进水里，但他却没有办法救猴子。幸运的是，一只大象过来了。大象非常强壮，救出了兔子和猴子。他们来到大象的家，在那里吃了一顿大餐。从此他们成了好朋友。

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　Story 2 The Old Man and the Old Cat

　An old man has a cat. The cat is very old, too. He runs very quickly. And his teeth are bad. One evening, the old cat sees a little mouse. He catches it, but he can?t eat it because his teeth are not strong enough. The mouse runs away. The old man is very angry. He beats his cat. He says: “You are a fool cat. I will punish you!” the cat is very sad. He thinks：“When I was young, I worked hard for you. Now you don?t like me because I?m too old to work. You should know you are old, too.”

　故事2 老人和老猫一个年迈的老人养一只猫。这只猫也非常老了。她跑得很快，但是牙齿很糟糕。一天王还是那个，这只老猫看见一只小老鼠。它抓住了小老鼠，但是它却吃不了它，因为它的牙齿不够锋利了。这只小老鼠逃跑了。 老人很生气，他打了小猫，并且对它说：“你这只蠢猫!我要惩罚你!”猫非常伤心，它想：“在我还年轻的时候，我为你努力工作。现在你却因为我太老了不能工作而不喜欢我。你应该知道你也老了。”

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　Story 3 Spring is coming

　Spring is the first season of the year. In China, spring comes in February. It is still cold, but it is getting warmer and warmer. The days get longer and longer. The leaves on the trees begin to turn green. Then they come up green leaves in the spring wind on the ground. Spring is also sowing time season.

　故事3 春天来了春天是每年的第一个季节。在中国，春天二月来临，那时候还是很冷，但是会运来月暖和，白昼悦来越长。树上的叶子开始变绿，沐浴着大地春风长出了嫩芽。春天也播种的季节。

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　Story 4 Look for a Friend

　Sam is a little fish. He lives in the sea. He is very lonely. He wants to have a friend. The friend looks like him. Sam sees an ink fish. The ink fish has eight legs. He doesn?t look like Sam. So Sam goes away. Sam meets a shark. He wants to say hello to the shark. The shark opens his big mouth. Sam runs away quickly. Sam is tired and hungry. He wants to have a rest. Then he sees a round fish. She says to him. “Hello! Would you like to be my friend?” Sam answers: “Of course! But you are round. I am flat.” The round fish days: “But we are both fishes.” Sam thinks and says, “You are right. Let?s be friends.” They become good friends.

　故事4 找朋友塞姆是一条小鱼，他在海里。他生在海里。他很孤独，想要找一个朋友，那个朋友看起来要想他。 塞姆看见一条墨鱼。墨鱼有8条腿，看上去不像塞姆。因此塞姆游走了。塞姆遇见一条鲨鱼。他想跟鲨鱼问好。鲨鱼张开大嘴，塞姆有迅速地逃走了。 塞姆又累又饿，他要休息一会儿。这时他看见一条圆鱼，圆鱼对他说：“你好!你愿意做我的朋友吗?” 塞姆回答：“好哇!可你是圆形的，我是扁的。”圆鱼说：“但是我们俩都是鱼啊!” 塞姆思考后说：“你讲得对，让我们做朋友吧。”他们就成为好朋友了。

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　Story 5 The Hippo and I

　A hippo lives in the zoo. I like him very much. I often go to see him. He often thinks of me, too. Today is Sunday. It is fine day. I go to see him again. After I leave the zoo, he follows me to my house. I give him lettuce, cabbages, bananas, apples and other food. He eats them up. When I sing songs, he stays in the pool. He is as quite as a rabbit. In the evening, he jumps onto my bed with me. My mum tells him to go home. He has to pack his bag and go back to the zoo. My mum lets me see him every week.

　故事5 我与河马我与河马 河马住在动物园里，我很喜欢他。他经常去看它，他也经常想我。 今天是星期日，是个好天气，我又一次去看望它。在我离开动物园之后，他跟随到我的家。我给他莴苣、生菜、香蕉、苹果和其他食物。他都吃了。 当我唱歌是，它待在水池里，像兔子一样安静。 晚上，他跳到床上同我睡觉在一起睡。 妈妈要它回家。它不得不背起包回到动物园。妈妈允许我每周去看它。

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　Story 6 What Animals are the sea?

　There are all kinds of animals in the sea. Look! They are coming. This is an octopus. The octopus is spraying ink. This is a shark. The shark has sharp teeth. This is a whale. The whale shoots water into the air. This is a sea turtle. The sea turtle has a hard shell. These are starfishes. The starfishes have five legs. These are angelfishes. The angelfishes have beautiful colors. This is a lobster. The lobster has strong claws. This is a jellyfish. The jellyfish has a soft body. They are different. But all of them live in the sea.

　故事6 海里有什么动物在海洋里有各种各样的动物。 看!他们过来了。 这时一条章鱼，章鱼在喷墨。 这是一条鲨鱼，鲨鱼有锐利的牙齿。 这是一只鲸鱼，鲸把水喷射到空中。 这时一直海龟，海龟有坚硬的壳。 这些是海星，海星有五条腿。 这些是扁蛟鱼，扁姣鱼有美丽的花纹。 这是一只龙虾，龙虾有强壮的爪子。 这是一个水母，水母有一个柔软的身体。 他们各不相同，但他们都居住在海洋里。

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　Story 7 naughty Monkey

　It?s very hot.. An old man is asleep on the chair. A fly comes and sits on the end of the man?s nose. The old man has a naughty monkey. He chases the fly. The fly comes back again and sits on the old man?s nose again. The monkey chases it away again and again. This happens five or six times. The monkey is very angry. He jumps up, runs to the garden and picks up a large stone. When the fly sits on the old man?s nose again, the monkey hits it hard with the stone. He kills the fly and breaks the old man?s nose.

　故事7 调皮的猴子天气很热。一位老人在椅子上睡着了。 一只苍蝇飞来落在老人的鼻子上。 老人有一只顽皮的猴子。猴子在追打苍蝇。 苍蝇再次飞落在老人的鼻子上，猴子一再追打苍蝇。 这样往返了五六次，猴子很生气。 他跳着跑到花园，捡起一块大石头。 当苍蝇再次落在老人的鼻子上时，猴子用石头击中老人的鼻子上的苍蝇。 他砸死了苍蝇也打破了老人的鼻子。

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　Story 8 A Beautiful Doll

　Tina is a lovely girl. She has a lot of dolls. One of these dolls is very beautiful. She has long blond hair and wears a white dress. The little girl likes her very much. She called her “Sandy”. You would forget all the sad things and become happy when you see her. Tina tried to teach Sandy to speak, but she failed. When she is free, Tina always made clothed for her. When she is unhappy or met with some difficulties, Tina talked to her, because they are close friends. What a lovely girl she is! Do you like it, too?

　故事8 漂亮的洋娃娃缇娜是一个可爱的女孩， 她有许多洋娃娃。其中有个是很没得：她有着金色的长发，穿着一件白色的连衣裙。小女孩非常喜欢它，因此， 小女孩叫她“桑迪”。当你看到它的时候就会高兴，会忘记所有不开心的事。 缇娜试着教桑迪说话，可她失败了。 当缇娜空闲时，她时常会桑迪缝衣服。当她遇到不快乐的事或碰倒困难的时候，缇娜中哦你对它倾述，因为他们是亲密的朋友。多么可爱的一个女孩啊! 你也喜欢它吗?

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　Story 9 It?s Good to Walk

　A group of penguins at a zoo in Japan take a walk to lose weight. Every day, 15 king penguins there walk 500 meters twice. “Just like human, penguins don?t exercise much during winter. They become fat easily,” says a zookeeper.

　故事9 散步有益在日本的一个动物园里一群企鹅在散步减肥。哪里的15只金企鹅媒体散步两次，每次500米。 动物园工作人员说：“和人类一样，企鹅冬天不怎么运动，容易发胖。”

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　Story 10 The Panda in China

　A panda looks like a little bear. It has black and white fur. It lives only in China, so it is called the national treasure of China and protected by the law. We all see panda on TV or in the zoo. They look stupid and walk slowly, but they are lovely and everyone likes them. A panda is lucky animal. We Chinese like it, and people of the world like it, too. Now there are China?s pandas in many other countries, such as Japan and the USA? A panda isn?t a common animal, it is bridge of friendship.

前言

作为一个从小生长在海边的孩子，我却一直没有见过海的样子。但这并没有妨碍年幼的我对大海的幻想和憧憬。

童年的大海，是海洋馆里的蝙蝠（后来才知道叫蝠鲼），是千奇百怪的水母，是色彩斑斓的珊瑚……

后来长大些，大海变成了家里书架上的一本本书名：海底两万里、金银岛、鲁滨逊漂流记……

现在还知道，大海见证了哥伦布的大航海，促成了达尔文的进化论，也承载着路飞的海贼梦。

正文

一晃十几年，回想小时看的关于大海的书，情节早已忘得一干二净。感慨时光飞逝的同时，也勾起了我重温老书的兴趣。

小时候， 老人与海 是我最爱读的小说，所以就从这本入手。由于我迫切地想知道小说到底讲了些什么，也想发掘一些之前忽视的东西。于是这次， 我尝试通过统计分析来了解这部小说 。

这是一部由2516个单词组成的小说。小说总字数为26780。看起来平均每个单词出现了10次左右。

1.首先，我想知道这本书单词的难易程度。

通常， 越短的单词越简单 ，于是我统计了不同长度单词数量的分布。

占比最多的是3个字母的单词 。打开单词列表，我发现这其中大部分是初中词汇，例如：all, sky, sea，当然也有生僻一些的单词，比如:rig(用具), fin(鱼鳍)等。

老人与海中，4个字母的单词只占1/4 。为了对比，我又统计了60篇雅思阅读真题的单词分布。如下图， 雅思阅读中，词长大于4的单词占了1/2之多 。

这说明 老人与海的单词要比雅思阅读的容易很多 。细想下也合理，老人与海的内容更生活化一些，而雅思阅读的取材则是科学美国人(Scientific American)和经济学人(The Economist)这类专业性较强的文章。

2. 然后，我想知道不同单词在小说中的出现频率。

于是，我又对比了去重前后的单词数量的分布。

（去重：相同单词重复出现只计算一次）

红色为去重前单词数量，蓝色为去重后单词数量。很明显，去重前大部分是2-4个字母的单词，而去重后，则大部分是4-7个字母的单词。可见 2-4个字母的单词虽然少，但却被频繁使用 ，可谓语言中的基石。而另一方面， 超过4个字母的单词，单词越长，使用次数越少 。而这些也是学习英语时，最令我们头疼的单词。

3. 那最短的和最长的单词都是什么呢？

经统计发现， 1个字母的单词只有3个，却在小说中出现了907次 。这三个单词是： a, i, j 。a和I是当之无愧，但j是什么单词？我打开小说，开始搜索，发现了原文：“"Tell me aboutthe great John J. McGraw." He said Jota for J .”原来J是middle name Jota的缩写。

2 个字母的单词有35个，在小说中出现了4700次 。一番观察，我发现了几个奇怪的单词，如va, la等。在小说中搜索la，找到了原文。原文为：“He always thought of the sea as la mar which iswhat people call herin Spanish when they love her.” la mar （乍一看以为是那个死贵的护肤品牌la mer），原来是西班牙语，意为 the sea(大海) 。

看到这个词，我马上想到了英语中的marine（海洋的，海军）。词源上，marine从拉丁单词mare（sea）演化而来。而西班牙语是罗曼语，也是latin的分支，所以 西班牙语中的mar和英语中的marine都是由拉丁单词mare变化来的 。看来学好词源，不只可以帮助学习英语，还能融会贯通其他罗曼语。

除了这些，我还很好奇这本书最长的单词是哪些。虽然他们只有2个，一共才出现了5次。经过统计，发现他们是conscientiously（良心上地）和phosphorescence（磷光）。第一个单词还算正常，至于第二个单词，如果你不考gre，还是忽略它吧。

4. 接着，我想看看这本小说的长难句是哪些。

所以我又统计了不同长度语句数量的分布。

经统计，整部小说由 1918句话 组成。相同长度的句子被分在一组，一共有63组。 由6个单词组成的句子是最多的，共140句。

作为一个被中国应试培养出来的学生，我最关心的就是长难句，毕竟那才是考试的拦路虎。于是我统计出了最长的那句话。这句话由 69个单词 组成，它是：“After that he began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come down onto it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy.”不难看出，这句话虽然长，但是由多个简单句组成的复合句。只要把每个简单句攻克就可以了。

如果你觉得这句话已经挺长了，那我们来比较下雅思阅读中的长句。在统计了60篇雅思阅读真题后，我找到了雅思阅读中最长的句子。

这句话来自 雅思剑桥8阅读真题 ，这篇阅读的名称是“The Nature of Genius”。这句话由 118个单词 组成，长度几乎是上一句话的一倍。它是：“In the mythology of giftedness, it is popularly believed that if people are talented in one area, they must be defective in another, that intellectuals are impractical, that prodigies burn too brightly too soon and burn out, that gifted people are eccentric, that they are physical weaklings, that there's a thin line between genius and madness, that genius runs infamilies, that the gifted are so clever they don't need special help, that giftedness is the same as having a high IQ, that some races are more intelligent or musical or mathematical than others, that genius goes unrecognised and unrewarded, that adversity makes men wise or that people with gifts have a responsibility to use them”。

看完这句话，我觉得海明威友好多了。

这个对比，也在语句层面上证明了老人与海要比雅思阅读简单许多。

5. 下一步，为了弄清楚这本小说在说什么，我尝试找出最重要的单词。

在这里，我使用了TF-IDF统计方法。这种算法会 给一系列文章中每篇文章的每个单词的打分，打分越高，这个单词对这篇文档越重要 。

为了尽量得到准确的结果，我的语料库包含了几十部小说和著作，涵盖范围从《血字的研究》，到《哈姆雷特》，再到《国富论》。

现在我们来看看统计结果。

上图是 对老人与海最重要的40个单词 。首先吸引我的单词有： fish ,dolphin(海豚),sardine(沙丁鱼),turtle 等。看着这些词，我仿佛已经潜到了海里，看着一群群鱼儿从身边游过。

此外，还出现了 boat,oar(桨),mast(桅杆),stern(船尾),tiller(舵柄),harpoon(鱼叉) 。一个渔夫划着小船，拿着鱼叉盯着海里的画面已经跃然纸上了。 sun和breeze(微风) ，也许意味着有时天气还不错。

现在我已经知道故事发生的大背景了。但具体发生了什么，我依然云里雾里。毕竟一部获得诺贝尔文学奖的小说不大可能只是讲述渔民轻松惬意的捕鱼生活。

6. 为了进一步了解故事情节，我想在时间轴上重新审视这些单词。

于是我使用了另一个工具： 单词位置分布图 。

上图中，蓝色竖条标记单词在文章中出现的位置。我用红框将小说分成了三部分，每部分约9000字，然后用黑框选出了一些位置。

一眼就能发现 fish 是全篇的重点。无疑这是一个关于捕鱼的故事。

先来看第一部分，密集出现的词是 big和bait ，也许说明渔民发现了很大的鱼，然后开始准备放鱼饵了。在第二部分里，频繁出现了 dolphin ，难道是渔民想抓海豚？

小说的前两部分风平浪静，好像没有什么可圈可点的地方。

开始看第三部分，这部分信息量最大。

首先出现的词是 circle ,是鱼在绕着船游吗？接着看，发现第三部分反复提到了 shark 。也许小船遭遇了鲨鱼的袭击！那渔民的反应是怎么样的呢？

往下找，看到先频繁出现 harpoon(鱼叉) ，然后是 knife(刀子) ，难道渔民在向鲨鱼反击？接着，我发现了单词 hit ，这个词和 shark 的出现位置高度重合，也许是鲨鱼在撞击小船，也许是渔民在反击。

接着往下看， oar(船桨)和skiff(轻舟) 也被反复提及，也许是深处险境的渔夫在用船桨击打鲨鱼，也许是他在拼命划着船想逃离危险。

一场激烈的搏斗正在展开，渔夫的命运将会如何？

毋庸置疑，用统计的方法可以更加量化地理解小说。但如果想体会情节的精彩，还是要打开书卷，逐句品读。