之前我们讲过用列表的形式记单词，这种方法比较省事，在较短的时间内可以记住大量的单词。
但是，现在越来越多的方法是把单词在文本里呈现。与单词列表相比较，文本里呈现单词，不仅可以呈现单词的意思，而且可以呈现生单词使用的典型环境，比如常用搭配，和语法结构。
正如之前我们所讲的，意义和形态上联系不紧密的单词，在同一话题下呈现，记忆效果好于意思和形态相近的词放在一起记忆。
短文章特别适合课堂使用，因为这样的文章语法和词汇学习密集呈现，而且文章短小，不会给学习者完成太大的压力。一篇语意连贯的文章，应当由与话题相关的几个单词贯穿始终，这些词就是所谓的词汇链（lexical chain）。
课堂活动可以要求学生找出一篇文章的词汇链。然后，识别出单词链中单词之间的关系，是词组搭配，近义词，反义词，还是上位词和下位词。
下面以新概念英语二的一篇文章为例，找找一下文章中的词汇链。
Late in the afternoon, the boys put up their tent in the middle of a field. As soon as this was done, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry and the food smelt good. After a wonderful meal, they told stories and sang songs by the camp fire. But some time later it began to rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire and crept into their tent. Their sleepingbags were warm and comfortable, so they all slept soundly. In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began shouting. The tent was full of water! They all leapt out of their sleepingbags and hurried outside. It was raining heavily and they found that a stream had formed in the field. The stream wound its way across the field and then flowed right under their tent!
文章里有许多与go camping 相关的词汇，比如 put up their tent, cook a meal, tell stories, sing songs, put out the fire,。以及与方位相关的介词短语，比如，in the middle of a field, over an open fire, by the camp fire。另外还有与雨相关的词汇，begin to rain, be full of water, be raining heavily, a stream had form. 意思有点相反的，creep into their tent 和 leap out of sleep bag and hurry outside.
这篇文章简单，如果文章难的情况下，可以运用词汇链，可以把原文进行重构，或者对文章进行缩写。
