你是否对这样的场景感到很熟悉？你在中国的英语学习中，渐渐掌握了语法和阅读，也能与人流利交流，但听力始终是个难题。
首先，你要知道别人也会遇到你这样的问题。几乎对于所有将英语作为外语来学习的人来说，听力可能是难度最大的一项了。最重要的就是要多听，尽可能经常听。
下一步就是找到听力材料。网络对于英语学习者来说则是一个非常有用的工具。
Strategies策略
Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated by limited understanding.
What should you do?
Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything.
Keep calm (idiom = stay relaxed) when you do not understand – even if you continue not to understand for a long time.
Do not translate into your native language (synonym = mother tongue).
Listen for the gist (noun = general idea) of the conversation.
Don’t concentrate on details until you have understood the main ideas.
First, translating creates a barrier (noun = wall, separation) between the listener and the speaker.
Second, most people repeat themselves constantly.
By remaining calm (adjective = relaxed), you can always understand what the speaker has said.
Translation Creates a Barrier Between You and the Person Who is Speaking
While you are listening to another person speaking a foreign language (English in this case), the temptation is to immediately translate into your native language.
This temptation becomes much stronger when you hear a word you don’t understand.
This is only natural as we want to understand everything that is said.
However, when you translate into your mother tongue, your attention is taken away from the speaker and concentrated on the translation process taking place in your brain.
This would be fine if you could put the speaker on hold (phrasal verb = to make a person wait).
In real life, however, the person continues talking while you translate.
This situation obviously leads to less – not more – understanding.
Translation leads to a kind of block (noun = no movement or activity) in your brain which sometimes doesn’t allow you to understand anything at all!
Most People Repeat Themselves
Think for a moment about your friends, family, and colleagues.
When they speak in your native language, do they repeat themselves?
Not literally (adverb = word for word), rather, the general idea.
If they are like most people, then they do.
That means that whenever you listen to someone speaking, it is very likely that they will repeat information, giving you a second, third, or even fourth chance to understand what has been said.
By remaining calm, allowing yourself not to understand, and not translating while listening, your brain is free to concentrate on the most important thing: understanding English in English.
Probably the greatest advantage of using the internet to improve your listening skills is that you can choose what you would like to listen to and how many and how often you would like to listen to it.
By listening to something you enjoy, you are also likely to know a lot more of the vocabulary required!
Use keywords (noun = principal words) or key phrases to help you understand the general ideas.
If you understand "New York", "business trip", "last year", you can assume that person is speaking about a business trip to New York last year.
This may seem obvious to you, but remember that understanding the main idea will help you understand the details as the person continues to speak.
Let’s Imagine
Imagine your English-speaking friend says, "I bought this great tuner at JR’s. It was really cheap and now I can finally listen to National Public Radio broadcasts."
You don’t understand what a tuner is.
If you focus on the word tuner, you might become frustrated.
However, if you think in context (noun = the situation described during the conversation), you probably will understand.
For example: "bought" is the past tense of "buy", "listen" has no problem, and "radio" is obvious.
Now you understand: He bought something – a tuner – to listen to radio broadcasts. So tuner must be some kind of radio!
This is a simple example that demonstrates what you need to focus on: Not the word that you don’t understand, but the words that you do understand.
Listening often is the most important way to improve your listening skills. Enjoy the listening possibilities offered by the internet and remember to relax.