So that gives you a sense of how the course is going to flow

这样你们知道了课程的流程
and what these readings are going to do,

还有这些阅读的作用
which brings me to the portion of the lecture that I'm going to call

这就把我带到了课程的一个部分我称之为
Freeman's Top Five Tips for Studying the American Revolution,

"弗里曼研究美国革命的五个建议"
and I want to explain

在进入正题前
before I launch into them what the heck I mean.

我想解释一下这句话的含义
Basically, when I was preparing this lecture and thinking to myself

简而言之我在备课时一直在思考
what do I want you to know about right at the outset

在我们开始讨论革命本身之前
before we even start talking about the Revolution itself.

在课程的一开始我想让你们了解什么呢
And I ended up with a list of things

最终我列出了一堆东西
that as I talk about them here may seem obvious,

我现在谈论时可能会很明显
but the more I talk about them,

但我谈论得越多