2. 外语
  3. Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the

Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the

admin2009-01-05  51
问题    Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the verbal changes originate. But listening critically to their talk I hear hardly any new words. It is all a matter of using old words in a new way and then copying each other, for much as they wish to speak differently from their parents, they want even more to speak like people of their own age. A new usage once took time to spread, but now a pop star can falsify it across the world in hours. Of course it is not only the young who like to use the latest in-word. While they are describing their idols as smashing, great or cosmic, their parents and the more discriminating of the younger set are also groping for words of praise that are at once apt and fashionable. However, their choice of splendid, brilliant, fantastic and so on will in turn be slightly dimmed by over-use and need replacement.
   Magic is a theme that has regularly supplied words of phrase (and the choice must betray something in our nature). Charming, entrancing and enchanting are all based on it. So also is marvelous, which has been used so much that some of its magic has faded while among teenagers wizard had a great run. Another of this group, though you might not think it, is glamorous, which was all the rage in the great days of Hollywood. Glamour was a Scottish dialect form of" grammar" or "grammarye", which itself was an old word for enchantment. (Grammar means the study of words, and words have always been at the heart of magic.) The change from "r" to "i" may have come about through the association with words like gleaming and glittering.
   On the whole, when a new word takes over the old ones remain, weakened but still in use, so that the total stock increases all the time. But some that start only as slang and never rise above the class can disappear completely. "Did you really say ripping when you were young?" my granddaughter asked me, rather like asking if I ever wore a suit of armor. Of course I did and it was no sillier than smashing, which some of her contemporaries are still saying.
According to the passage, words of praise keep changing because______.
选项 A、they lose their freshness
B、there are more words available in this area
C、young people are becoming more discriminating
D、older people try to avoid the in-words of the young
答案A
解析 与本题对应的是第二段。年长者也像青年人一样喜欢用那些“apt”(贴切)和“fashionable”(流行)等赞美类的词语。但是，一旦这些词用多了，便会黯然失色，失去了新鲜感，需要其他词来替代。这也就是赞美类的词语不断更新的原因。
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