巧用 Thesaurus 解决英文写作中总觉得“词穷”

An anchor chart is a tool that is used to support instruction (i.e. “anchor” the learning for students). As you teach a lesson, you create a chart, together with your students, that captures the most important content and relevant strategies. Anchor charts build a culture of literacy in the classroom by making thinking—both the teacher’s and students’—visible.

The first thing you need to know about creating them is that you do not need any special materials or artistic skills—just chart paper and a colorful assortment of markers. It’s easy to incorporate anchor charts into your lesson plans. All it takes is a clear purpose and some pre-planning.

Most of the time you will prepare the framework of your chart ahead of time, giving it a title, including the learning objective, and creating headers for the main points or strategies you want to highlight. It’s very important not to create the whole poster ahead of time. Anchor charts are best used as an interactive tool.

这张Anchor Chart的名字是“Alternatives to Said”。就是在写作中可以用来替换“said”的英文词的整理。任何和学习有关的概念、方法、问题，都可以画成 Anchor Chart （要点图/锚形图），Anchor Chart是美国老师的一种教学利器，在美国的学校里相当受欢迎。老师利用Anchor Chart，帮助孩子理解复杂的概念、梳理思维和流程、遵守规则和约定等等。

看到这张图表是不是有一目了然的感觉？各种表情代表了说话人说话时的心情和状态，而所有的词又都可以在适当的情境下用于替换said。有了这张图我的英文写作中终于不再都是“说”“说”“说”（said）了！

但是转念一想，要整理出这张图也不容易呢，这就需要Thesaurus来帮忙啦！

Thesaurus是什么？

a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms, such as the online Thesaurus.com.

any dictionary, encyclopedia, or other comprehensive reference book.

a storehouse, repository, or treasury.

an index to information stored in a computer, consisting of a comprehensive list of subjects concerning which information may be retrieved by using the proper key terms.

a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms stored in memory for use in word processing.

（Page 39《Junior Illustrated Thesaurus》，Usborne 出版）

以cold一词为例，这幅图展示的是冬天，最上面看到Winter，在cold后标注了它在这个情境下的词性是形容词（adjective）。随后先用了一个例句展示cold的含义，然后在其下整理了一系列cold的近义词。可以看到该页面中其他词汇也是如此，例如hard，cover等。下图左侧一页是该书的目录，可以看出这本书是根据词汇的描写类别进行划分的。

Usborne出版Thesaurus，针对英语初级水平的小朋友们设计。根据类别进行了近义词整理，书中配有精美的图示来帮助孩子理解词义，了解其适用的情境。

其他的还有很多，如下图，适合不同的人群：

要提醒大家的是，含义之间还是可能有细微差别的。上文中的cold ，例句下第一个词是chilly。chilly“微冷”，让人感到不舒服，可能会打冷战；cold所指的冷比chilly的程度更高。另外，cold更强调温度的低。所以二者的含义尤其是使用语境还是有区别的。想马上用起来？附上一些马上就可以用的网络版本：

常用的Thesaurus网络链接

http://www.freethesaurus.com/

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus

https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus

https://www.lexico.com/en/english-thesaurus

更多请尤其参考下文链接第六期