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
(1)WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad,
(1)WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad,
admin
2016-11-03
43
问题
(1)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.
(2)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.
(3)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).
(4)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.
(5)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 DNB’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".
What is the role of the entries quoted in the last paragraph?
选项
答案
To emphasize the author’s argument.
解析
作者在最后一段引用了词典中的一些人物条目,并加以评述。其目的决不是赞美讴歌,而是强调说明自己的观点:DNB的编纂方法与内容存在问题,故答案可表述为To emphasize the author’s argument。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/M07O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
FrancisBacon’s______isregardedasamilestoneinthehistoryofEnglishprose.
TheproblemofacidrainoriginatedwiththeIndustrialRevolution,andithasbeengrowingeversince.Themoreaccuratescie
TheproblemofacidrainoriginatedwiththeIndustrialRevolution,andithasbeengrowingeversince.Themoreaccuratescie
TheSeattleTimesCompanyisonenewspaperfirmthathasrecognizedtheneedforchangeanddonesomethingaboutit.Inthene
Theexplorationofinternationalbusinessisanexciting,important,andnecessarytask.Internationalbusinessisexcitingbec
EuropeanimmigrantstoColonialAmericabroughtwiththemtheirculture,traditionsandphilosophyabouteducation.Muchofthe
Foryears,nonprofithospitalshaveshiedawayfromquantifyingtheamountofcharitablecaretheyprovidecommunities.Hospit
Foryears,nonprofithospitalshaveshiedawayfromquantifyingtheamountofcharitablecaretheyprovidecommunities.Hospit
Therelianceoncreditreportsinhiringisbecomingwidespread.AsurveybytheSocietyforHumanResourceManagementfoundt
PASSAGEFOURWhydoscientistsexaminethegenomesofastronauts?
随机试题
Peterisusedtoasimplewayofliving.Hedoesn’twantto______somuchmoneyonfoodorclothing.
A.梅毒B.淋病C.软下疳D.性病淋巴肉芽肿(LGV)E.非淋菌性尿道炎沙眼衣原体LGV生物变种可导致的疾病为
A.腕横纹上5寸,掌长肌腱与桡侧腕屈肌腱之间B.腕横纹上3寸,掌长肌腱与桡侧腕屈肌腱之间C.腕横纹上2寸,掌长肌腱与桡侧腕屈肌腱之间D.腕横纹上1寸,掌长肌腱与桡侧腕屈肌腱之间E.腕横纹中央,掌长肌腱与桡侧腕屈肌腱之间善于治疗心痛、烦闷、口疮,
人事争议仲裁委员会由哪些人员组成?()
为了满足某市数字城市建设的需要,某市计划生产该地区的1:2000比例尺的数字正射影像图(DOM)和1:2000比例尺数字地形图。已于××××年××月完成了全部测区的航空摄影工作;并完成了区域网外业控制点的布设和测量工作,现阶段的工作是完成全部测区的解析空中
下列关于安全生产保证计划编制的关键点的说法,错误的是()。
下列关于业主对专有部分以外的共有部分权利和义务关系的说法,正确的是()。
初中学生的年龄在12—15岁之间,处于少年期,是个体生理发展的第()个高峰期。
大学生村官创业“扬帆计划”项目评比中,甲得了83分,乙的得分比丙高,丁和丙的得分之和大于甲和乙的得分之和,甲的得分比戊高,此次测试85分以上为优秀,5人之中有2人没有达到优秀。可以推出5人成绩从高到低排序最符合题干论述的是:()
在面向对象的设计中,用来请求对象执行某一处理或回答某些信息的要求称为【】。
最新回复
(
0
)