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
31
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://jikaoti.com/ti/bXH7FFFM
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Theimmunesystemisequalincomplexitytothecombinedintricaciesofthebrainandnervoussystem.Thesuccessoftheimmune
Evenbeforetheopeningceremony,arecordhadbeenbrokenatSochi;12newevents,themostforanyOlympics,werescheduledto
"WewillsafeguardBritain’screditratingwithacredibleplantoeliminatethebulkofthestructuraldeficitoveraparliamen
Itishardtomakemoneypeddlingsocialmediaanywhere.Duringtheirfirstfewyearsinbusiness,FacebookandTwitterlostpot
Itishardtomakemoneypeddlingsocialmediaanywhere.Duringtheirfirstfewyearsinbusiness,FacebookandTwitterlostpot
TheTerm"CYBERSPACE"wascoinedbyWilliamGibson,ascience-fictionwriter.InthebookMr.Gibsondescribescyberspaceas"a
Therobotsarecoming.Theseconddecadesofthe21thcenturywillseetheriseofmerchandizedarmythatwillrevolutionizethe
Shakespeare’slifetimewascoincidentwithaperiodofextraordinaryactivityandachievementinthedrama.【F1】Bythedateofh
Afifthgradergetsahomeworkassignmenttoselecthisfuturecareerpathfromalistofoccupations.Heticks"astronaut"but
ManyforeignerswhohavenotvisitedBritaincallalltheinhabitantsEnglish,fortheyareusedtothinkingoftheBritishIsle
随机试题
允许外国公使进驻北京的条约是()
流行性出血热病毒是
油性软膏基质中加入羊毛脂的作用是( )。
某男甲与某女乙2000年登记结婚,婚后两人的感情非常冷淡,无法一起共同生活。2004年1月,乙以感情破裂为由向法院请求离婚,法院支持其主张的理由可以包括:
十进制数140转换为十六进制数为()。
按投资作用不同,工程建设项目可分为生产性建设项目和非生产性建设项目两大类。下列项目中属于非生产性建设项目的是( )。
据某市交警部门公布的数据,在该市全市上个月发生的13000多起汽车交通事故中,只有10%是因为司机酒后驾驶造成的。由此可见,酒后驾驶的危险性并不像某些交通宣传中所说的那么大。“酒后驾驶,等于送死”只是危言耸听的夸张宣传而已。假定以上数据无误,那么
2008年以来,索马里附近海域先后发生累计逾120起的海盗劫船事件。海盗为何如此猖獗?甲乙丙丁四人有如下断定:甲:海盗猖獗的主因是被劫船只的船主通常都愿支付高额赎金。乙:如果海盗猖獗的主因是被劫船主愿支付高额赎金,那么肯定会助长海盗的气
Theearthiswitnessinganurbanrevolution,aspeopleworldwidecrowdintotownsandcities.In1800onlyfivepercentofthew
QueenMary’sReignI.HistoriceventsA.KingHenryVIIIplannedMary,his【T1】_______,tomarryhissonEdward.B.Hermothe
最新回复
(
0
)