在眾多英語外刊中，《經濟學人》內容和質量壹直為人所稱道和支持，每個學英語的人都向往最後可以實現無壓力閱讀。其內容的豐富和權威值得每個學英語的人作為英語學習的進階材料。
雖稱為經濟學人，可是整本雜誌的涵蓋內容不僅僅包含經濟金融方面的內容，而是極其廣泛。
如圖：
《經濟學人》各個板塊條例清晰，側重不同，觀點鮮明，建議大家找來體悟壹下。
《經濟學人》為國內考試所認可，常常被改編為考研和考博的題目內容。同時，也可以作為攻克出國考試，如雅思，托福等考試的輔助材料。
因為，它既可以滿足雅思的9分標準：
Task Achievement
Coherence and Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
又可以滿足托福考試選材廣泛，學術要求較高等諸多特點。
那麽，在讀了數百篇《經濟學人》以及其他為數不少的外刊後，漸漸有些有益的實踐經驗的我，選取前壹段時間高考在外媒引起的相關話題來推介自己的閱讀方法，希望為讀者提供絲毫的啟發。選文清晰明了，詞匯難度中等，希望起到拋磚引玉的作用。
China’s education system is deeply unfair（Excerpts）
Jun 4th 2016
NO CAR may? honk? nor lorry? rumble? near secondary schools on the two days next week when students are taking their? university entrance exams, known as gaokao . Teenagers have been cramming for years for these tests, which they believe (with justification) will determine their entire future. Yet it is at an earlier stage of education that an individual’s life chances in China are usually mapped out, often in ways that are deeply unfair.
Notice ：
Honk：
1 . n. a loud noise made by a car horn or goose ，雁叫聲；汽車的喇叭聲。
2 .? v If a car horn or a goose honks, it makes a loud noise: （使）發出雁叫似的聲音，鳴（喇叭），按（喇叭）
Rumble：
1 . v.?to make a series of long low sounds, especially a long distance away from you: 隆隆作響；（車輛）轆轆行駛
2 . n. a series of long low sounds. 隆隆聲，轆轆聲
University entrance exams, known as gaokao.：高考
括號內內容可以作為關於考試的相關話題的習作觀點和論點支持。表達自己對於考試決定壹生這種觀點的的不認可和反對。值得背誦~
在這裏，如果讀者水平比較好，筆者建議使用英英釋義，更為準確、地道。因為所有的漢語釋義在讀者閱讀之前，已經被字典的譯者“加工”壹遍了，意思或許會發生微變~
To give more students access to higher education, the government has increased its investment in the? sector? five fold since 1997. The number of universities has nearly doubled. In 1998 46% of secondary-school graduates went on to university. Now 88% of them do. About 7m people—roughly one-third of those aged between 18 and 22—now gain entry to some form of higher institution each year.
Sector：one of the?areas?into which the?economic?activity?of a?country?is divided
（壹國經濟活動的）部門，領域，行業
例句：In the?financial?sector,?banks?and?insurance?companies?have both?lost?a lot of money.在金融領域，銀行和保險公司都損失嚴重。
在這壹段中，重點提到了國家對於中國學生上學的難題采取的措施，大量的數字羅列。Increase, double, roughly等是描述數據的時候十分常見的詞匯。
重點在於學習如何進行數字有效表達信息，說明問題所在，在表述數字的時候註重連詞的正確和流暢使用。
China’s universities offer more opportunity for? social mobility? than those in many other countries, says James Lee of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. But the social backgrounds of those admitted have been changing. Until 1993, more than 40% of students were the children of farmers or factory workers. Now universities? are crammed with? people from wealthy, urban backgrounds. That is partly because a far bigger share of young people are middle-class. But it is also because rural Chinese face bigger hurdles getting into them than they used to.
Social mobility ：the?ability?to?move?from one?level?of?society?to another (個人從壹個社會階層轉向另壹個社會階層的)社會流動
在這壹段中，主要介紹了全國高考學生的背景和不公平根源所在，解決困難之大。
The problem lies with inequality of access to senior high schools, which take students for the final three years of their secondary education. Students from rural backgrounds who go to such schools perform as well in the university entrance exams as those from urban areas. But most never get there. Less than 10% of young people in the countryside go to senior high schools compared with 70% of their urban counterparts. The result is that a third of urban youngsters complete? tertiary education , compared with only 8% of young rural adults.
Tertiary education ：education?at college or university?level:高等教育，大學教育
例句：More than 60% of American high school?graduates?start?some?form?of?tertiary education.
這壹段主要介紹出生在的鄉村高中生的學習窘境，由於環境原因最後可能無法進入大學學習之門，相比之下，城市高中生的升學率則高的太多。
經濟學人中常見壹些長難句（但是沒有英語專業論文那麽冗長，那麽艱澀難懂），
The problem lies with inequality of access to senior high schools, which take students for the final three years of their secondary education. Students from rural backgrounds who go to such schools perform as well in the university entrance exams as those from urban areas.定於從句與狀語從句組成的復合句，雖然在理解上可能會產生壹定難度，但兩個句子本身難度不大。….which…引導非限定性定語從句, as…as句型用來比較城市和鄉村的區別。語法結構明晰，易於分析。
One reason is that junior high schools in the countryside are far weaker? academically? than urban ones. Local governments invest less in them per student than they do in cities. Urban parents tend to be better educated and thus better able to help children with their studies. Rural pupils often suffer from a “poverty of expectations”, says Jean Wei-Jun Yeung of the National University of Singapore: they are not encouraged to think they can succeed, so they do not try to.
Academically：?學術上; 理論上。
在這壹段主要介紹的是新加坡國立大學的專家提出為什麽農村的孩子更加難以上大學的原因，其特點不僅僅在於外部環境，還在於家庭的壓力，雙重的窘境和困難使求學之路艱巨難行。
本段落主要表現的是某壹方的觀點，多具說理性。可以進行相關話題的仿寫和背誦。對於應對托福，雅思寫作訓練的多論點和兩論點話題仿寫和實戰大有裨益，也可作為文章論據的存儲。
這樣，通過以上的分析和舉例，我們可以總結出讀外刊的壹些方法：
解決選文詞匯難題，挑出重點短語，縷清句子結構，分析大致含義，補充背景知識，學習地道寫作。通過這樣有目的和計劃的訓練，經濟學人等外刊的閱讀不再是難題，而更是提高眼界、更換視角的過程。
如果妳的詞匯量可以達到2萬詞，那麽閱讀《經濟學人》的詞匯障礙會大大減小，如果可以達到3萬詞，那麽讀起來就會暢快很多。閱讀的過程，也是快速增長詞匯量的過程。在此，由於每個人的術業專攻不同，建議取長補短，逐步建立專屬詞庫，或者多分類詞庫，以實現詞匯的豐富度和數量擴展。
網絡資源***享是獲得《經濟學人》的壹個有效途徑，在線字典的出現使得查詢詞匯便利和更具可獲得性。《牛津雙解詞典》 ，《柯林斯高階詞典》 ，《韋氏大字典》等字典可以較為全面的提供紙質詞匯研讀途徑。書寫好電子筆記，可以分門別類歸納，比如，段落，文化背景，謄寫在紙質筆記上形成《經濟學人常用語字典》進行記憶背誦。
正是由於《經濟學人》的權威性、難度高、內容廣泛等特點，常常也會被選為翻譯練習的源文章，專註於《經濟學人》翻譯分析的公眾號，微博比比皆是，為我們做翻譯練習提供了參看。因此，若想提高雙語理解，可以選擇相關文章進行翻譯，和網上較為優美的譯文對比。這樣，翻譯的水平就會不斷提高。
最後，《經濟學人》可以作為英語學習進階提高的優秀材料。工科學生具有努力學習的精神，只要認真做好記錄，勤加練習，壹定可以在英語學習的過程中收獲良多，提高自己的水平！