2. 外语
  3. Bosses would do well to be alarmed. November is here, and with it a good chance that the back office isn’t processing data, but

Bosses would do well to be alarmed. November is here, and with it a good chance that the back office isn’t processing data, but

admin2013-09-23  55
问题     Bosses would do well to be alarmed. November is here, and with it a good chance that the back office isn’t processing data, but knocking out a novel on the sly. It’s " National Novel Writing Month" , a peculiar American invention that has improbably become an eagerly anticipated rite around the world.
    Knock out a novel in a month: it can’t be hard. The premise of the NaNoWriMo, as it’s known, is that all writers need a deadline and a kick in the backside. In 30 days contestants have to knock out 50, 000 words. How else to get those 1, 666 words a day, except on company time? Twenty-one Californian writers started the online writing spree in 1999. Last year more than 200, 000 joined in worldwide, though fewer than a fifth completed a full manuscript. If growth continues at the present rate, each American citizen will attempt to write a short novel by the year 2027, according to one calculation. The organizers call it all empowering and harmless fun. But still there’s something in the enterprise that feels annoyed.
    NaNoWriMo relies on the peculiarly American belief that every person has a story—or a novel, or a book of any kind—inside. There is no analogous drive to write the Great French Novel, or the English, or the German. The very notion that a novel is in everybody’s grasp, and could be knocked out as a draft in just a month, is far more likely to induce some cringing in other countries.
    Their horror can be summed up in a revelation shared by NaNoWriMo’s founder, Chris Baty, who found to his delight that " novel-writing, we had discovered, was just like watching TV. You get a bunch of friends together, load up on caffeine and junk food, and stare at a glowing screen for a couple of hours. " Most writers who are dedicated to the craft would beg to disagree. The more apt metaphor is that used by a New York columnist in the 1940s; "It’s easy: you simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed. "
    Some argue there is nothing wrong with building a small city in the Republic of Letters, populated with mostly 20-something enthusiastic amateurs. That, after all, is what NaNoWriMo really is, with its forums and pep talks and town meetings worldwide. Professional heavyweight authors such as Neil Caiman, Jonathan Lethem and Audrey Niffenegger cheerfully encourage all these scribblers, reasoning that forcing writers to sit down and write is no bad thing. The web has the power to unlock untapped riches of untutored talent, so the thinking goes. Indeed, Sara Gruen’s bestselling novel "Water for Elephants"(2006)began as a NaNoWriMo draft. So too did Erin Morgenstern’s debut "The Night Circus" , recently reviewed in The Economist.
    Others are more dubious. Laura Miller at Salon has attacked the program for its " nar-cisstic commerce" , complaining that the last thing the world needs is 37 , 500 more awful novels every year. Mr. Baty acknowledges that the vast majority of first drafts are utter rubbish , but he says that no one is imposing this nonsense on the marketplace—at least not yet.
    What’s new now is that many can. No longer must these green hand authors simply file their manuscripts away when NaNoWriMo ends. We instead expect to see them flooding Amazon and Lulu as self-published e-books. Thus enters a new oversupply of product on a saturated market. In recent years the pay for writing novels has been on the decline; it stands to reason that few established writers welcome a small army of amateurs biting into that shrinking pie.
Which of the following statements about the "National Novel Writing Month" is CORRECT?
选项 A、It is held in November all over the world.
B、It requires contestants to write a novel within one week.
C、Last year, only a few contestants finished with a complete draft.
D、The bosses in the enterprise think the event is fun.
答案C
解析 细节题。根据第二段第六句“去年，全球20多万人参加了这个活动，尽管只有不到五分之一的参赛者完成了完整的书稿”可知，[C]“去年，只有少数参赛者以完整的稿件结束比赛”表述正确，故为正确答案。根据第一段第二句“十一月已到来……”和第三句“它是一项独特的美国发明，已出乎意料地成为在全世界被热切期盼的仪式”可知，[A]”它于十一月份在全世界范围内举行”表述错误，故排除；根据第二段第三句“在30天内参赛者不得不写出5万字”可知，[B]”它要求参赛者在一周时间内写一篇小说”表述错误，故排除；根据第二段最后一句“但仍然有些企业反感此事”可知，[D]”企业的老板认为这个活动很有趣”表述错误，故排除。
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