英语单词就像建房子的砖头，非常重要。

但是单纯只背单词，不会有很大提高，因为效率太低。单纯背单词是很枯燥无味的，事倍功半！如何能做到事半功倍，有效地习得单词了？是习得，而不是学得。例如：碰到同一个不认识的单词，甲，乙两个人用不同的方法来记忆这个生词，看哪一个人能够更有效？！甲赶紧查字典，把单词意思背下来，需要大概3分钟。乙先联系上下文，对这个生词的意思做一个猜测，然后再查字典。查完字典后，他会做一个语境分析，然后用这个生词造句，最后把这个生词记在生词本上，以便今后复习，大概需要5分钟。一个月之后，毫无疑问，乙今后碰到这个生词，一定很熟悉。而甲再碰到这个单词，还得查字典。孤立的一个单词，靠死记硬背，是低效率。怎么样有效地，事半功倍地记忆单词？阅读，阅读，阅读！重要的事情说三遍，这是重中之重。选择一些适合自己阅读的英文小短文（一篇英文短文，生词在5-8个之间），最好带音频（音频可以跟读），像英文简易小说，寓言故事，童话……按照乙的做法，先读一遍短文，划出生词，猜测词意，最后查字典编入生词本。冰冻三尺非一日之寒,所以坚持很重要.按照艾宾浩斯记忆曲线，有效率地复习生词本，这样能做到永久记忆单词。英语是一门很看重积累的科目 ，坚持阅读，随着音频坚持跟读，日积月累，量的积累是为了质的飞跃。下面我们来阅读这篇英文小寓言（300个单词左右），适合初中生阅读。A Boy and His Nail（男孩和钉子）There once was a little boy who had a bad temper .His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that evevy time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.The first day,the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.Over the next few weeks,as he learned to control his anger.the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails to the fence.Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all.He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.The days passed by and the boy finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.The father took his son by the hand and led him to the hence.He said,＂You have done well,my son,but look at the holes in the hence.The hence will never the same.When you say something in anger ,they leave a scar just like this one.You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.It won’t matter how many things you say I’m sorry the wound is still there.”这篇小短文基本覆盖了初中的基本语法。能读懂这篇小寓言，说明你有了2000的词汇量，基本掌握了高频词的用法。每个学习阶段都会有高频词（经常会用到的单词），小学英语有250个高频词（sight words）。初中英语有1000个高频词，高中有2500个高频词，大学6级有4000个高频词。而这些高频词都有相对应的阅读材料，这些阅读材料都可以在网上买到。掌握了这些高频词，就算碰到生词，你也能猜出扣十有八九。有时接到某些教育机构的促销电话，：这”一个小时能够背400个英语单词，我们有独门记忆法。”我默默地放下电话，思绪万千。肯定会有不少家长会上当，尤其是那些自己孩子英语比较差的家长，会病急乱投医。所以再次强调一下，英文阅读是记忆单词的最有效，最潜移默化的方法。切莫投机取巧，一定要扎扎实实。