首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as
WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as
admin
2010-03-25
42
问题
WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree. But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public and academic libraries will want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who escaped the net of the original compilers. Yet in 10 years’ time a revised version of the whole caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, Professor Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13,000 more than in the current DNB. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.
When Dr Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100, 000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to "other quality newspapers" too. ) As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn’t file copy on time; some who did sent too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nicholls.
There remains the dinner-party game of who’s in, who’s out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted. Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christie’s entry in Missing Persons) notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried to escape by ship to America).
It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.
Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments. "Whether or not Hugo was a wall painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript painter attest to his versatility." Then there had to be more women, too (12 per cent, against the original DBN’s 3), such as Roy Strong’s subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks.. "Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory." Doesn’t seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote, "except for the entry in the List of Contributors there is no trace of J. W. Clerke".
The writer suggests that there is no sense in buying the latest volume
选项
A、because it is not worth the price.
B、because it has fewer entries than before.
C、unless one has all the volumes in his collection.
D、unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly.
答案
C
解析
作者认为没必要购买最新一册DNB是因为整套书有31本,只买一本没有意义。他问:And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31.是不是如A那样物无所值,作者没有说。B显然与事实不符。D的内容也没有提到。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/9nqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Emailcapturestheessenceoflifeatthecloseofthe20thcenturywithanauthoritythatfewotherproductsofdigitaltechnol
Studentsshouldbehelpedbyacoursethatconsidersthecomputer’svariousimpactsoncommerce,economy,science,technology,c
Studentsshouldbehelpedbyacoursethatconsidersthecomputer’svariousimpactsoncommerce,economy,science,technology,c
Studentsshouldbehelpedbyacoursethatconsidersthecomputer’svariousimpactsoncommerce,economy,science,technology,c
A、Thelatestcomputertechnology.B、Theorganizingofanexhibition.C、Thepurchasingofsomeequipment.D、Thedramaticchanges
A、Theeffectoftheatmosphereonrainfall.B、HowconditionsonEarthsupportlife.C、HowwateroriginatedonEarth.D、Anewest
A、Stormsandfloods.B、Diseaseandfire.C、Lessspacefortheirgrowth.D、Rapidincreaseoftheanimalpopulation.B
A、JaneJensenissuccessfulindesigningclothes.B、JaneJensenwouldratherbecomeawriter.C、JaneJensenhaswonnumerousawa
Intheevenings,theygotothemall.Onceaweekormore.Sometimes,theyevenleavethedinnerdishesinthesinksotheywill
Thirty-twopeoplewatchedkittyGenovesebeingkilledrightbeneaththeirwindows.Shewastheirneighbor.Yetnoneofthe32he
随机试题
膀胱镜检查术后,患者应
A.薄荷B.紫苏C.荆芥D.防风E.升麻能够治疗肝气郁滞所致胸闷胁痛的药是
从疾病生态学的角度来看,与疾病发生有关的三大因素是
关于审判制度的特点,下列哪一选项是错误的?()
根据国际惯例,全过程咨询服务应包括的工作内容,以下哪项是全面的?Ⅰ.项目建议书;Ⅱ.可行性研究报告;Ⅲ.工程设计;Ⅳ.工程监理;Ⅴ.工程管理
扣缴义务人未按照规定办理扣缴税款登记的,税务机关应当自发现之日起3日内责令其限期改正,并()。
________合同自始没有法律约束力。
近日,研究人员通过安装在鸽子头顶的一个摄像头,研究为何鸟类能够快速、准确无误地穿过茂密的树林或障碍,该项研究结果认为鸽子的飞行技术如应用在无人机上,操作人员只需发出最终目标指令即可,而不必关心无人机在飞行路线上可能遇到的各种障碍。下列最适合做论据的是:
系统总线中地址线的功能是用于选择()。
如果在一个过程中不包括RETURN语句,或只有一条RETURN语句,但没有指定表达式,那么该过程返回
最新回复
(
0
)