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
66
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".
Throughout the passage, the writer’s tone towards the DNB was ______.
选项
A、complimentary.
B、supportive.
C、sarcastic.
D、bitter.
答案
C
解析
综合推论题。文章中“dinner-party game”“reputed”等用词,大量的设问句和语录等方法的运用,体现了作者的语气上是讽刺的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/gIqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thetouristtradeisbooming.Withallthiscomingandgoing,you’dexpectgreaterunderstandingtodevelopbetweenthenations
A、Theywereunregulatedmonopolies.B、Theyhadnoconcernforthewelfareofconsumers.C、Theyweremorepowerfulthantheircom
A、InaschoolB、Onthephone.C、Ataneducationfair.D、Inastreet.B
Inthe1950s,thepioneersofartificialintelligence(AI)predictedthat,bytheendofthiscentury,computerswouldbeconver
不久以前,个人加人一个组织,并常常待在那里工作一辈子。而那些组织会经常奖赏/回报那些忠实的雇员。然而,这样的组织忠诚概念已经淡化。自20世纪80年代中期以来,一般/普通的20岁(开始工作)的雇员有望在一生中换6次或7次工作。根据最近的统计,今天的大学毕业生
Canyouspotagoodmarriage?IwasprettysureIcould,startingwithmyown.MyhusbandandIrarelyargued,wehadsimilarca
Augustwasonceatimefordreaming,wanderingtheemptystreetsofthiscity,readingsilly-seasonnewspaperstoriesafterale
Theywerecominghomefromapark,onthisweekend,afterplaying.Andforthis,a10-year-oldandhis6-year-oldsisterendedu
A、Australiaistosend150specialforcestroopsbacktoAfghanistanbyNovember.B、Thedeploymentwouldlast20months.C、Thed
A、isanAmericanB、kidnappedtwoU.S.citizensC、wasborninAfghanistanD、receivedterroristtrainingfromtheAfghangovernmen
随机试题
阅读巴金的《爱尔克的灯光》中的一段文字,然后回答下列小题。“长宜子孙”,我恨不能削去这四个字!许多可爱的年轻生命被摧残了,许多有为的年轻心灵被囚禁了。许多人在这个小圈子里面憔悴地捱着日子。这就是“家”!“甜蜜的家”!这不是我应该来的地方。爱尔克的
下列关于累计编号法的说法中,正确的有()。
热电偶的补偿导线有分度号和极性之分。
改变彩色血流图的基线,使其向红色标尺方向调节,结果
非复方美沙酮口服剂量10mg,每6~8小时1次换算为非肠道用药的等效镇痛剂量为
A.易滞胃膈B.易使人气壅中满C.易伤脾阳D.易耗气E.易破血甘草、大枣、炙黄芪()
2018年8月8日,某县工商部门查获一起假冒服装销售行为,甲公司销售多种假冒名牌服装。为防止甲公司逃避处罚,执法人员要求甲公司当场缴纳2000元罚款。之后,执法人员告知甲公司,如果对处罚结果不服,可以向工商部门提出听证申请。根据上述资料,为下列问题从备选
交换积分次序后∫01dx∫x1f(x,y)dy=()
詹姆斯.乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》手稿在拍卖会上露面时,考虑到手稿并不完整,只是其中一个章节,拍卖行保守给出60万至90万美元的估价,最终成交价却高达150万美元。《尤利西斯》是爱尔兰的文学国宝,第一次公开出版却在巴黎。手稿也一直留在国外,几十年来爱尔兰人都以此
下列犯罪中,应按数罪并罚原则处理的有()
最新回复
(
0
)