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
考研
Americans no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift.
Americans no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift.
admin
2019-06-11
32
问题
Americans no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counterculture as responsible for the decline of formal English.
Blaming the permissive 1960s is nothing new, but this is not yet another criticism against the decline in education. Mr. McWhorter’ s academic speciality is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of "whom", for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.
But the cult of the authentic and the personal, "doing our own thing", has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page. Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness. In both oral and written English,
talking
is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.
Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like, care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including nonstandard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive—there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper.
Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms—he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English "on paper plates instead of china". A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.
The word "talking"(Para. 3)denotes
选项
A、modesty.
B、personality.
C、liveliness.
D、informality.
答案
D
解析
含义题。根据第三段第一句可知,“走自己的路”这一对事物真实性和个人性的崇高信条, 已经使正式演讲、写作、诗歌及音乐消亡了,即正式英语已经在退化了。最后一句指出,无论是 在书面还是在口语英语中,talking要胜过speaking,spontaneity(即兴发挥)也要胜过craft(精心 准备)。由此可知,talking之于speaking就类似于spontaneity和craft的对比,“即兴发挥”就是使 用非正式的语言,“精心准备”代表使用正式的语言。因此talking与speaking的对比也就是非 正式和正式英语语言应用的对比,talking代表的就是非正式英语,故选D项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/nB9Z777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Itamazesmewhenpeopleproclaimthattheyarebored.Actually,itamazesmethatIameverbored,orthatanyofusare.With
RunningfortheofficeofthePresidentoftheUnitedStatesisexceptionallyarduousandshouldnotbeundertakenbythe【C1】___
Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Youshould1)describethechartand2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout
OnSeptember28thTimCook,Apple’schiefexecutive,publishedanopenletterapologisingtocustomersfortheshortcomingsoft
Thesharingeconomyisalittlelikeonlineshopping,whichstartedinAmerica15yearsago.Atfirst,peoplewereworriedabout
TheEuropeanUnionreachedapreliminarydealtocurbbanker’scompensationthatwoulddrasticallylimittheaccountthatcanbe
TheEuropeanUnionreachedapreliminarydealtocurbbanker’scompensationthatwoulddrasticallylimittheaccountthatcanbe
TheTerm"CYBERSPACE"wascoinedbyWilliamGibson,ascience-fictionwriter.InthebookMr.Gibsondescribescyberspaceas"a
OnSeptember28thTimCook,Apple’schiefexecutive,publishedanopenletterapologisingtocustomersfortheshortcomingsoft
随机试题
Threepassions,simplebutoverwhelminglystrong,havegovernedmylife:thelongingforlove,thesearchforknowledge,andthe
GordonShawthephysicist,66,andcolleagueshavediscoveredwhat’sknownasthe"Mozarteffect",theabilityofaMozartsonat
中医治疗肿瘤的原则是
血小板抗原描述错误的是
采用质量成本评估法对工程咨询服务的投标文件进行评标时,技术建议书的权重一般不低于()。
下列关于各部门、各单位预算管理职权的说法正确的有()。
ItwasacoolOctobereveninginthehillcountryofsouthwestMississippi.【T1】Earlyfrosthadturnedleavestoagoldenhue.【
向敏中,字常之,开封人。父璃,仕汉符离令。性严毅,惟敏中一子,躬自教督,不假颜色。尝谓其母日:“大吾门者,此儿也。”及冠,继丁内外忧,能刻厉自立,有大志,不屑贫窭。太平兴国五年进士,任右赞善大夫,后命为枢密直学士。时通进、银台司主出纳书奏,领于枢
“国家活动不断增加的法则”,即随着高度的社会发展,政府的活动必将随之增加的法则,又可以称之为()。
DefendingtheTheoryofEvolutionStillSeemsNeededJudithS.Weis,abiologyprofessorwhoservesaspresidentoftheAmer
最新回复
(
0
)