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
65
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] According to the passage, what is a "free-for-all verb"?
选项
A、An irregular verb like "grow" or "speak".
B、A verb that is converted from a noun at will.
C、A verb that is formed by taking off an affix from a noun.
D、A verb that does not comply with grammatical rules.
答案
B
解析
事实细节题。根据第四段的两个例子,我们可以看出,所谓的free-for-all verb是指通过此类转换随意将名词动词化的那些词语。所以答案为B 。选项C 从文中的论述看不出来;选项A 不规则动词和选项D 不遵守语法规则的动词是干扰项,但是前者不能在文中找到支持,后者根据前一句话“he acknowledges… before citing a few funny instances of what happens when ’things get a little out of hand’”,这些动词只不过是稍微出格,而不是完全不合语法规则,予以排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3200735.html
相关试题推荐
Mr.Brown’sconditionlooksveryseriousanditisdoubtfulifhewill_______.A、
Little______aboutherownsafety,thoughsheherselfwasingreatdanger.A、shec
We’vejustinstalledtwoair-conditionersinourapartment,______shouldmakeg
Barryhadanadvantageoverhismother______hecouldspeakEnglish.A、sincetha
TheEnglish-Chinesedictionaryofmedical______compiledbyProfessorSmithwas
Yetthedifferenceintomeandlanguagemuststrikeus,sosoonasitisp
Yetthedifferenceintomeandlanguagemuststrikeus,sosoonasitisp
AdictionaryofEnglishlanguage,______byDrSamuelJohnson,wasthefirstrea
Themountain-climberstookevery______tominimizethedangersoftheirtrip.A、
Primaryschoolteachers’poor【C1】______ofEnglishandmathsisundermin
随机试题
Accordingtothespeakers,whatfunctionhastapaplayedinthefollowingcountr
Onanaverageofsixtimesaday,adoctorinHollandpractices"active"eutha
具有报警和检修作用的是下列哪个部件()。
MHC限制性是指A.抗原与抗体结合受MC限制 B.补体激活受MHC限制 C.
当水泥实测强度达不到所标注的强度等级时,该水泥应判定为不合格品。()
简述十二指肠溃疡外科手术治疗指征?
以下哪项是导致糖尿病的主要因素A.胰岛素绝对或相对缺乏 B.胰岛素分泌过多
《变电运维管理规定第21分册端子箱及检修电源箱运维细则》:在对变电站进行全面巡视
C各项依次写为。各项分子组成一个公比为2的等比数列,各项分母组成一个等差数列,相邻两项之差依次是2,3,4,5,(6)。
各种运输方式内外部的各个方面的构成和联系,就是( )。 A.运输系统
最新回复
(
0
)