Celestial Echoes of Yesteryears

A little English vocabulary improvement path:

I roughly tested my vocabulary level on a website (vocabulary.com 8700, shanbei 13000), and it is still far from that of a native adult. I can manage things in class, but I may struggle with my paper. (I am a heavy user of Grammarly ChatGPT is the best English teacher)

This book can be considered as an introductory book on economics, C language basics, the story of art, and world history. Don't expect your vocabulary to increase from 3000 to 7000, 7000 to 10000, or 10000 to 20000 just by reading it. If you get relatively high scores in each test, it means it has been helpful.

I will gradually share how to apply it, but for now, let's focus on how to "read" this book.

Root Knowledge#

Roots, also known as root words, are basic morphemes that carry the main lexical information and are the basic building blocks of word formation, contrasting with affixes.

There are two types of roots: free roots, which can form words independently, and bound roots, which must be combined with other morphemes to form words.

When do you need this book?#

The prerequisite for word formation is that you are familiar with a sufficient number of words; otherwise, you may find yourself in an awkward situation of searching for words. I think you should consider this book at least after passing the CET6 English test in China. Of course, it would be even better if you have already taken exams like IELTS, TOEFL, or PTE for studying abroad.

The first two chapters of this book are exam chapters. If your results are below average, the author suggests that you think carefully. If they are average or above, it is recommended to proceed.

How to use it?#

Here is my method:

• Make progress in at least one session every day.
• Read every word.
• Do exercises and draw your own etymology tree (examples are provided later).
• When reviewing, read and spell at the same time (because there may be differences between roots and actual words).

| Currently, I don't plan to use it to make sentences or articles, which brings us back to the problem I mentioned at the beginning: limited output.

After finishing Part 1 using the above method, I scored 94/120, and most of the points I lost were due to spelling mistakes... a painful lesson. Therefore, I still recommend everyone to focus on spelling and pronunciation.

How to plan?#

I use Trello to manage my plans. I used Linear.app for a while, which is also free, but it doesn't have a mobile app and the user experience is not good. Trello has richer built-in features, making it better for project planning than Notion.

There are many tutorials for Trello, and this one is good for a quick start:
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=6drUzoeHZkg&ab_channel=Kim%26Co.byKimberlyAnnJimenez

Here are my cards:

Later, I started using Notion to manage projects and tasks, and it works great!

Specific Usage#

Reading and Interpretation#

Reading is the most important part of this book, which means you must read every word the author writes. For words you don't know how to pronounce, you can try to imagine how to pronounce them first. Then, refer to the author's pronunciation guide in the "Can you pronounce the words" section of each chapter, for example:

' indicates a secondary stress, '+capital letter indicates a primary stress.

Then, use a dictionary to correct the pronunciation. The dictionaries I often use are:
Cambridge: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Practice and Correction#

If you have really read this book, then you must have completed all the exercises. Don't expect additional exercises. If there are any, they would be reading the books recommended by the author and accumulating, using, and building your roots and vocabulary in your daily life.

But I have provided some post-session exercises with my own answers, for reference only!:

• Session10:
  1. cacography, cacographic
• Session46:

3. superferior, superficial, superfluous, supernatural, supervise;

Etymology Tree#

I use red for Greek etymology, blue for Latin etymology, and purple for French etymology.

(The idea is that Athens is the mother of Western civilization, Latin is close to America, and France has a romantic label. Remembering these colors will help you remember my color coding method. Gray indicates that the combination of meaning and root has changed over time.)

To take the example of the session10 article on psychiatrists, the etymology tree can be drawn as follows:

Note! Note! Note! Do not annotate the meanings in Chinese.

If you want to see the complete etymology tree I drew for each chapter, please check here: (drawn using drawIO)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/169vodHFGfrvv-jKUL57xWsnWZmDV9_ks/view?usp=sharing

Phonological Rules in Spoken Language#

Q: These are some phonological rules I summarized myself. I still recommend watching my YouTube video for a better understanding.
A: Please note that phonetic writing serves spoken language, not the other way around (this also relates to the question of being a good speller in the end). And many times, vocabulary will make concessions or degrade for spoken language (a/an before a vowel is a good example). For example, the commonly used asap=as soon as possible should be pronounced as "eisep" instead of "esesp." Why? Because it makes it easier for people to understand.

Q: Can I learn pronunciation rules from this book?
A: These are the rules I have summarized so far. I believe you will also feel the patterns after reading it (I use "feel" because once you feel it, you will really be able to use it naturally). When a root is not stressed, it will more or less be influenced by the partially stressed syllables.

• For words related to professions or disciplines, the profession is stressed the most:
  e.g.,

psychologist ->  /saɪˈkɒl.ə.dʒɪst/

Note that "ch" is not a vowel, so it is intensified by the vowel "o" (even though "ch" is part of "psyche")

• For words related to professions, the profession itself is stressed:
  e.g.,

orthodontist -> /ˌɔː.θəˈdɒn.tɪst/   [Focus on "dontist"]
optician ->/ɒpˈtɪʃ.ən/  [Focus on "physician"]
psychiatrist -> /saɪˈkaɪə.trɪst/  [Focus on "iatreia"]

For "optician," if you try not to stress "ti," you will find it difficult to put emphasis on the following syllables. Therefore, the best choice is to stress "ti" as well (even though "ti" in "opti-" is part of "optiko"). But sometimes you may find that both stressing the first syllable and the second syllable are acceptable. Usually, when you look it up in the dictionary, you will find that it does have two pronunciations!

What is the use of this book?#

It is to eliminate some doubts (complexity) about English and make you fall in love with this language.

Although it sounds strange, English is indeed the best choice for an introduction to the Indo-European language family, and your grammar system has been laid out for you in compulsory education. Don't you love it?

English is not a "precise" language, but it is indeed a highly logical language. English precision is built on its infinite modifiers. Word formation is a modifier, word chunks are modifiers, sentences are modifiers, and subordinate clauses and main clauses are also modifiers. Are there analytical components? Yes, but you need to wait for them to finish modifying.

So, in order to keep the listener awake, you need to say the important components as much as possible. To keep English readers awake, you need to apply this rule when writing articles.

Appendix: Recommended Book List by the Author (Updated on June 18, 2023)#

Here are only some of the book recommendations. Please check here for the complete list!

https://cultured-tellurium-ab3.notion.site/Bibliomaniac-4ccbf3b25c904fbe84cb27a92891a1ae?pvs=4

Psychology#

Related Videos#