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
The moment I saw the sign Principals Office in my son’s school I knew the apostrophe was doomed. The correct English would have
The moment I saw the sign Principals Office in my son’s school I knew the apostrophe was doomed. The correct English would have
admin
2013-04-22
77
问题
The moment I saw the sign Principals Office in my son’s school I knew the apostrophe was doomed. The correct English would have been Principal’s Office, with an apostrophe indicating the office belonged to the principal or head of the school. Having an apostrophe in my name Noel O’Hare--frequently omitted--I have always felt rather attached to this misunderstood piece of punctuation. Apostrophe abuse, like drug abuse, can be found at every level of society, from the local school to the company boardroom. Shops and businesses are some of the worse offenders, omitting apostrophe as in "the Razors Edge, men’s hairdressing" (The Razors Edge is incorrect--it needs an apostrophe in Razor’s , but men’s hairdressing is correct).
You’d think that bookshop would at least have some feeling for proper English usage, but even major chains such as Whitcoulls have abandoned the apostrophe. It’s left to the American fastfood franchise McDonald’s to set an example.
Literacy is not something you expect to find in television. Despite the responsibility of serving a mass audience, television graphics writers appear never to have mastered the difference between "its" and "it’s", and other apostrophes are often misplaced or omitted. The misuse sometimes leads to wholesale plagiarism. Poor Charles Dickens; television versions of his novels are often passed off as "Charles Dicken’s" works.
The widespread misuse of the apostrophe is, the argument goes, impoverishing the language by reducing clarity. If I omit the apostrophe from a phrase such as "my friends house" it is impossible to tell whether I mean one friend or several ( though it may often be clear from the context). In correct usage, "my friend’s house" would mean the house of one friend; "my friends’ house" would mean a house where several friends lived. On the other hand, the gross misuse of the apostrophe in a sentence such as "Its you’re birthday" does nothing to diminish the meaning (the correct usage would be "It’s (It is) your birthday" ).
English teachers, though, no longer take a hard line on the use of apostrophes. Richard Hogg, professor of English at Manchester University and editor of The Cambridge History of the English Language, recently made news when he revealed that "he would not go to the stake" to maintain the difference between "it’s" and "its". The apostrophe, he suggested, is fast becoming redundant. Laurie Bauer, researcher in linguistics at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and a keen apostrophe watcher, agrees that the apostrophe is dying in its present form and that its misuse is not a major linguistic crime. "There are some (misuses) that don’t matter and some that may not matter. The number of times where you’re actually going to be confused between ’I’ll’ and ’Ill’ is actually small." There is greater ambiguity, for instance, between the present tense and past tense of the verb "read". "Sometimes that can be very con- fusing," says Bauer, "but people don’t complain, because it’s well established."
It’s easy for the likes of Bauer to be blase about the decline of the apostrophe--she doesn’t have an apostrophe in her name, as I do. Personally, I think this linguistic slovenliness is clear evidence the country is going to the dog’s.
By "wholesale plagiarism" in Paragraph 3, the writer means that ______.
选项
A、the apostrophe in all the expressions of "it’s" is omitted
B、a writer named Charles Dicken plagiarizes the major novels by Charles Dickens
C、TV graphics writers misplace an apostrophe in Charles Dickens’s name
D、The novels by Charles Dickens are copied illegally by TV program producers
答案
C
解析
第三段以幽默的笔法说明电视媒体也经常误用撇号,所谓“批发剽窃”是指在由 Charles Dickens作品改编的电视剧中,表明原作者的“Charles Dickens’s works”都被写成了“Charles Dicken’s works”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/qoQK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Didyousleepwelllastnight?Ordidyouwakeupfeelingfatiguedandsluggish—perhapsevenwonderingifyoureallysleptat
Mostpeoplepicturesharks【C1】______huge,powerful,frightening【C2】______readyatanymomentstousetheirsharpteethtoattack
Scientistswhobelievecellphonesaredangeroushavebeenthrowingouthypothesestoexplainawaythenegativeresults.Maybes
Whenquestionedbytheinterviewer,mymindwent______,andIcouldhardlyremembermyowndateofbirth.
OnApril8thEnvisat,Europe’slargestEarth-observingsatellite,unexpectedlystoppedtalkingtoitsusersontheEarthbelow.
WhichofthefollowingisNOTthereasonthatthemanwantstogoonadiet?
Themanismakingthecallbecausethecellphone
Shehasa(n)_____knowledgeofNewYork,whereshehaslivedfortwentyyears.
He’sbeenblowinghotandcoldaboutthetriptoHollandeversinceIfirstsuggestedit.Theitalicizedphrasemeans______.
Thedoctoradvisedhimtostayinbed,sayinghewasmuch_________.
随机试题
在行政权力的行使和运用过程中,最基本的、也是首要的环节是【】
诗经《氓》的表现手法是以赋为主,间用比兴。()
下列关于竣工验收的说法正确的有()。
背景材料: 某施工单位承接了一4×20m简支梁桥工程。桥梁采用扩大基础,墩身平均高10m。项目为单价合同,且全部钢筋由业主提供,其余材料由施工单位自采或自购。 在离本工程不远的江边有丰富的砂源,经检验,砂的质量符合要求。采砂点位于一跨江大桥下游
(2017年)甲公司系增值税一般纳税人。2×16年12月31日,甲公司出售一台原价为452万元、已计提折旧364万元的生产设备,开具的增值税专用发票上注明的价款为150万元,增值税税额为24万元,出售该生产设备时发生不含增值税的清理费用8万元。不考虑其他因
从所给的四个选项中,选择最合适的一个填入问号处,使之呈现一定的规律性()。
党的十六大提出,要建立健全社会保障体系,千方百计扩大就业和再就业,不断改善人民生活。这说明()。
-3,-l,0,2,10,()
拉文格认为,成人最难达到的自我发展的水平是()
Readthefollowingpassageandanswerquestions9-18.1.Whenoneofyourcartiresgoesflat,therearetwothingsyoucando.
最新回复
(
0
)