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
2010-05-14
48
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 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 DN B. 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 send too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nieholls.
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 Christies 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 author quoted a few entries in the last paragraph to______
选项
A、illustrate some features of the DNB
B、give emphasis to his argument.
C、impress the reader with its content.
D、highlight the people in the Middle Ages.
答案
B
解析
推断题。作者的写作目的不是为宣传DNB的特点,亦不是为介绍中世纪人物,而是为强调自己的观点,即DNB编辑人员的条日的选择标准是不科学的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/FElO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thesedayssearchingforanumber【C1】______telephonedirectoryseemsveryold-fashioned.Voicerecognitionsystemsarebecoming
A、Engenderthehatred.B、Changesociopoliticalposture.C、Clarifythemisunderstanding.D、Liftaidblockade.D
GeorgeBushwaswidelyquotedoninternational【B1】______buthadratherlesstosayaboutthePlanof【B2】______totacklethe"s
A、Thetypesofthingsmembersofacollaboratorycando.B、Thereasonwhyacollaboratoryisacommunity,notasetoftechnolog
IfJapan’seconomyhasbeenpulledsteadilyoutofthesloughintowhichithadfallenformorethanadecade,Japan’scorporate
A、Tofundhugeincreasesinhealthandeducationexpenditure.B、Tohindertheeconomicgrowthbytheway.C、Toearnthetrustof
A、SouthAfricahasspentquitesometimeinquestioningthedrugs’efficacyandsafety.B、Thenationisfinallyembracingallap
I’dliketodiscusssomeofthewaysresearcherstrytomeasurequalityoflifeorwell-beingandthedifficultieswithsuchmea
isawayinwhichthemeaningofawordcanbedissectedintomeaningcomponentscalledsemanticfeatures.
得病以前,我受父母宠爱,在家中横行霸道,一旦隔离,拘禁在花园山坡上一幢小房子里,我顿感打人冷宫,十分郁郁不得志。一个春天的傍晚,园中百花怒放,父母在园中设宴,一时宾客云集,笑语四溢。我在山坡的小屋里,悄悄掀起窗帘,窥见园中大干世界,一片繁华,自己的哥姐、堂
随机试题
Sofarthereisnoproof()peoplefromotherplanetsdoexist.
Thesentenceneeds______.
可引起腓总神经损伤的骨折是( )。
患者,女,20岁。月经血多、皮肤紫癜3个月。Hb100g/L,WBC5.5×109/L,血小板25×109/L,骨髓有核细胞增生活跃,粒、红两系比例及分布正常,巨核细胞75个,其中颗粒型0.70,裸核0.30,未见产板型巨核细胞。该患者最可能的诊断是
甲向乙购买一台二手电脑,并签订买卖合同,合同约定甲确定电脑能用后立即付款给乙。乙依约将电脑送到甲处后,甲发现电脑根本不能用,于是拒绝收电脑,并拒绝付款。后甲从丙处购得一台电脑。为此甲、乙发生纠纷。就此,关于甲的权利下列哪些选项是正确的?
为保证预埋件与主体结构连接的可靠性,连接部位的主体结构混凝土强度等级不应低于()。轻质填充墙不应作幕墙的支承结构。
有一宗“七通一平”待开发建筑用地,面积为1000平方米,使用期限为50年,容积率为5,拟开发建设写字楼,建设期为2年,建筑费用为3500元/平方米,专业费用为建筑费用的10%,建筑费用和专业费用在整个建设期内均匀投入,写字楼建成后拟对外出租,租金水平预
实验法的优点包括()。
(97年)已知f(x)=在x=0处连续,则a=______.
A、Historicaldifferencebetweensexeshaspartiallyvanished.B、SAT,EXPLORE,andACTaresubstitutesforTIP.C、Onlygiftedmal
最新回复
(
0
)