首页
登录
职称英语
The moment I saw the sign Principals Office in my son’s school I knew the
The moment I saw the sign Principals Office in my son’s school I knew the
游客
2023-11-14
34
管理
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. [br] Which of the following statements about Laurie Bauer is true?
选项
A、She is strongly against Richard Hogg’s view about the misuse of apostrophes.
B、The writer finds it difficult to agree with her view about the misuse of apostrophes.
C、She thinks that the omission of apostrophe from "I’11" cannot lead to ambiguity.
D、She believes that people are unaware of the ambiguity between the present tense and past tense of the verb "read".
答案
B
解析
文章倒数第二段谈Laurie Bauer对撇号误用的看法,总的说来这位研究者对这种现象的态度比较宽容,但作者在最后一段中对此表示难以苟同,因此选B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3185047.html
相关试题推荐
Schoolstartedona______colddayinFebruary.A、severeB、bitterC、suchD、frozen
Alltoo______itwastimetogobacktoschoolaftertheSpringFestival.A、quick
NickGibb,theSchoolMinister,saidthatreadingbooksforjusthalfanhou
NickGibb,theSchoolMinister,saidthatreadingbooksforjusthalfanhou
Itisnogood______tocomenow.Heisbusyatthemomenttodealwithotherurge
______inthepast,atthemomentitisafavoritechoiceforweddinggown.A、Unpo
WhatproblemattheofficeareCathyandStandiscussing?[originaltext]W:Stan.
Whenpreparingelementaryschooltest,careshouldbetaken_____.A、nottomaket
Theestimatesofthenumbersofhome-schooledchildrenvarywidely.TheU.S.
Theestimatesofthenumbersofhome-schooledchildrenvarywidely.TheU.S.
随机试题
B挤压应力等于挤压力除以挤压面积。钢板和铝铆钉的挤压力互为作用力和反作用力,大小相等、方向相反;而挤压面积就是相互接触面的正投影面积,也相同。 答案:B
突然昏仆,不省人事,口吐涎沫,喉有痰声,面色晦滞,舌苔白腻,脉滑,辨证为:(
支配颈阔肌的神经是() A.面神经下颌缘支 B.耳大神经 C.
甲公司拥有一项投资性房地产,采用成本模式进行后续计量。2018年1月1日,甲公司
男性,25岁。1天来接触油漆后喘息伴轻咳,咳少量白痰。既往有过敏性鼻炎史。最可能
初产妇,26岁,孕37周,近1周头痛、视力模糊,昨晚头痛开始加重,呕吐2次,急诊
房地产经纪人员知识结构核心的外层是( )。A.房地产经纪相关专业基础知识 B
Thechangeinthatvillagewasmiraculou
根据合伙企业法律制度的规定,下列关于普通合伙企业的利润分配、亏损分担的表述中,正
男性,42岁,近期出现腹泻呈水样便,有脓血,伴下坠及里急后重。腹部平片显示横结肠
最新回复
(
0
)