首页
登录
职称英语
The English language exists in a condition of everlasting danger, its Ameri
The English language exists in a condition of everlasting danger, its Ameri
游客
2023-11-19
35
管理
问题
The English language exists in a condition of everlasting danger, its American branch most particularly, assaulted as it is from all sides by those who would reduce it to puzzling and obscure jargon, pop-psycho-logical nonsense and vague beautified words, but it is not without its defenders. Ken Smith, author of Junk English, is the leading figure. He begins with a brief and clear declaration:
"Junk English is much more than loose and casual grammar. It is a signal of human weaknesses and cultural license: abandoning the language of the educated yet giving birth to its own self-glorifying words and phrases, favoring appearance over substance, broadness over precision, and loudness above all. it is sometimes innocent, sometimes lazy, sometimes well intended, but most often it is a trick we play on our-selves to make the unremarkable seem important. Its scope has been widened by politicians, business executives, and the PR and advertising industries in their employ, who use it to spread fog before facts they would rather keep hidden. The result is...a world of humbug in which the more we read and hear, the less we know."
Smith is, of course, saying something not true--it is difficult to imagine that Junk English will be noticed, much less read, by those who most could profit from it---but it is an instructive and entertaining instructions and explanation all the same. He tries his hands at all the right places--jargon, clichés, euphemisms, and exaggeration--but he doesn’t swing blindly. "Although jargon often sounds ugly to outsiders, it speeds communication within the community that uses it"--and that "clichés, though popular objects of scorn, are useful when they most compactly express an idea; deliberate avoidance of an appropriate cliché sometimes produces even worse writing."
In other words, Smith may be passionate but he’s also sensible. In a section about "free-for-all verbs," for example, he acknowledges that "There is no law against inventing one’s own verbs" before citing a few funny instances of what happens when "Things get a little out of hand," i.e. "We’re efforting to work this out" or "She tried to guilt him into returning the money." In the end, though, being sensible about language is in essence trying to insist that words mean what they properly mean and are used accordingly. Thus, for example, Smith insists that "dialogue" and "discussion" are not synonyms and should not be used interchangeably; that "complimentary" does not mean "free"; that "experience" does not mean "feel"; that "facilitate" does not mean "ease"; that "generate" does not mean "produce"; that "lifestyle" does not mean "life".
Smith obviously has spent a lot of time making notes about the ways in which we ruin and abuse our language, with results that are impressive in their thoroughness and depressing in their going to far. Occasionally he overlooks the obvious--among euphemisms he mentions "customer care representative" but not "courtesy call," and among the previously mentioned palsy-walsy language he inexplicably overlooks "Your call is important to us"--but then, as he says at the outset, he intended to write a short book and as a result had to leave out many misdeeds. The ones he includes more than do the job. [br] Which of the following best describes Junk English?
选项
A、Overblown.
B、Complicated.
C、Vulgar.
D、Unfashionable.
答案
A
解析
事实细节题。根据文章第二段第二句话可以确定选项A 为正确答案。选项D 只是表层现象,并未涉及垃圾英语的本质特点;选项C 偏离文章意思,并不是“粗俗的,粗鄙的”;根据本段最后两句话可知这种英语很盛行,故排除选项D 。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3200732.html
相关试题推荐
Itisnot______muchthelanguageasthebackgroundthatmakesthebookdifficult
【B1】[br]【B5】A、timesB、eventsC、situationsD、conditionsA固定搭配题。句意为:直到最近,一些国家还把用
Peoplewhowaitforallconditionstobeperfectbeforeacting,______A、neverha
Barryhadanadvantageoverhismother______hecouldspeakEnglish.A、sincetha
TheEnglish-Chinesedictionaryofmedical______compiledbyProfessorSmithwas
Yetthedifferenceintomeandlanguagemuststrikeus,sosoonasitisp
Yetthedifferenceintomeandlanguagemuststrikeus,sosoonasitisp
Yetthedifferenceintomeandlanguagemuststrikeus,sosoonasitisp
Shedidn’tquiteunderstandyou,becausesheknew______English.A、suchlittleB
Primaryschoolteachers’poor【C1】______ofEnglishandmathsisundermin
随机试题
IntheBritishMuseumonaSundayafternoon,ancientfaceslookbackatchil
ThestructureofasyllablecanbedividedintoallthefollowingexceptA、coda.
喷淋灭火系统的末端试水装置,放水1分钟后,其压力不应小于0.5MPa。
既可治疗口苦、胁肋疼痛,又善于治疗筋脉失养病证的穴位为A.阳陵泉 B.支沟
下列关于预算调整的说法中,错误的是()A.各级政府对于必须进行的预算调整
左边给定的是多面体的外表面,右边哪一项能由它折叠而成?请把它找出来。 A.如上
资产负债表中,资产的顺序是按照其项目的()排列的。A.收益性 B.重要性
根据《证券公司信息隔离墙制度指引》的规定,下列对业务限制的表述,错误的是()。A
桥梁实体墩台混凝土宜选用的水泥是()。A.普通硅酸盐水泥 B.硅酸盐水泥 C
在边坡工程中,关于影响边坡稳定因素的说法,错误的是()。A.影响边坡稳定的因素包
最新回复
(
0
)