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
2024-10-06
47
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-psychological nonsense and vague beautified words, but it is not without its defenders①. 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 some times innocent, sometimes lazy, sometimes well intended, but most often it is a trick we play on ourselves 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 far②. 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] The item "humbug" in the last sentence of Para. 2 can be replaced by ______.
选项
A、tempt or temptation
B、deception, or trickery
C、nonsense or rubbish
D、mannerism, pretense
答案
D
解析
词义理解题。文章第二段第二句话指出:垃圾英语矫情虚饰,华而不实;倒数第二句又说许多人利用它来“to spread fog before facts they would rather keep hidden”,最后一句说结果是以至于满世界都足humbug,所以“the more we read and hear,the less we know”,可以推断humbug在这里意思是“矫揉造作”,选项A “诱惑”不合题意;选项B 言过其实;选项C 没有抓住中心要害,应排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3789261.html
相关试题推荐
ThevocabularyandgrammaticaldifferencesbetweenBritishandAmericanEnglish
Themedicalexpertswarnedtheauthoritiesofthedangerofdiseasesinthe____
Itisnotmuchthelanguage______theculturalbackgroundthatmakesthebookdif
Iftherewerenosubjunctive,English______mucheasiertolearn.A、couldhavebee
Languagebelongstoeachmemberofthesociety,tothecleaner______totheprofe
Mr.Brown’sconditionlooksveryseriousanditisdoubtfulifhewill______.A、p
Itisnotsomuchthelanguage______theculturalbackgroundthatmakesthebook
IfyouhavereallybeenstudyingEnglishforsolong,it’sabouttimeyou______
Whohasn’twantedtomasternotjusttwolanguagesbut10?TakeGiuseppeMez
Whohasn’twantedtomasternotjusttwolanguagesbut10?TakeGiuseppeMez
随机试题
Fiftyvolunteerswerealphabeticallydividedintotwoequalgroups,GroupA
Whensomebodycalls,firstofall,thehostwouldofferhimacigaretteand
TopicLiveaLowCarbonLifeForthispart,youareallowed30minutesto
AwomaninGuangzhouwasbittenbyherpetafterataxistruckthedogata
大熊猫是中国的国宝,是和平的象征。大熊猫也是一种世界濒危物种,极易受人类活动的影响。由于栖息地(habitat)遭到了破坏,它们的数量正在急剧下降。在中
AFP最常用于哪种卵巢肿瘤的诊断A.晚期上皮癌 B.原发绒癌 C.畸胎瘤
在证券投资基金运作的三大部分中,处于核心作用的是(),其他活动都围绕和服务于这
信用利差是用以向投资者()的、高于无风险利率的利差。A:补偿利率波动风险 B
根据《建筑安装工程费用项目组成》(建标【2013】44号),应计入措施项目费的有
以下关于银行贷款损失准备金的提取,表述错误的是( )。A.普通准备金是用来弥补
最新回复
(
0
)