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It is hard to convince them that they are still making progress toward fluency and that their English is certain to improve, given time and dedication.
很难让学生们相信：他们仍在朝着流利的目标前进，而且只要花上时间和精力，他们的英语一定会有所提高。
In such circumstances it is hardly surprising that some give up in disgust,
在这种情况下，有些学生厌恶地放弃了学习并不出人意表，
while others still wait hopefully for the teacher to give them the same confident guidance he was able to offer them at first.
而另外一些学生则仍然满怀希望地等待着老师像最初那样给他们以充满自信的指导。
The teacher, for his part, frequently reduced to trying to explain the inexplicable, may take refuge in quoting proverbs to his colleagues such as:
就教师来说，由于经常被迫设法去解释一些无法解释的东西，他们就可能对同事们引用一些谚语来聊以自慰，如：
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink,"
“引马河边易，逼马饮水难。”
or, more respectfully if less grammatically: "It ain't what you say. It's the way that you say it."
或者引用一句虽不太合乎语法却比较尊重学生的话：“重要的不在于你说什么，而在于你怎么说。”
His students might feel inclined to counter these with: "The more I learn, the less I know."
对这些话，学生们也许很想反驳说：“我学得越多，懂得越少。”
Of course this is not true.
当然，这话并不正确。
What both students and teachers are experiencing is the recognition
因为不管是学生还是老师，他们现在都经历着这样一个认识过程，
that the more complex structures one encounters in a language are not as vital to making oneself understood and so have a less immediate field of application.
即我们在某种语言中所碰到的比较复杂的结构，对于表达自己的意思来说并不是那么不可或缺，因此它们的应用范围也就不那么直接。
For the same reason, from the teacher’s point of view, selecting what should be taught becomes a more difficult task.
由于同样的原因，以教师的观点来看，选择适当的教材就成了一项更为困难的任务。
It is much easier to get food of any kind than to choose the dish you would most like to eat on a given day from a vast menu.
比起在某个特定的日子从一份丰盛的菜单中选出你最想吃的一道菜来，随便准备点吃的东西毕竟要容易得多。
Defining the problem is easier than providing the solution.
把问题讲清楚是容易的，而要提出解决办法可就难了。
One can suggest that students should spend two or three years in an English-speaking country, which amounts to washing one's hands of them.
有人可能会建议让学生到一个讲英语的国家去住两三年，这等于把他们甩掉，不再管他们，
Few students have the time or the money to do that.
因为有时间或有钱出国的学生为数并不多。
