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
2024-10-13
37
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/3799609.html
相关试题推荐
ThereisawindowintheofficewhereIworkthatoverlookstheplayground
Teenagerswhodropoutofschooldo______fordifferentreasons.A、themB、/C、itD
Wheredoesthemoneyforpublicschoolscomefrom?[br][originaltext]Educ
Wheredoesthemoneyforpublicschoolscomefrom?[br][originaltext]Educ
Wheredoesthemoneyforpublicschoolscomefrom?[originaltext]Education
WhatdoesTheMomentofIsaacNewtonrefertointhenews?[originaltext]He
______hearrivedatthespot,herealizedwhathadhappenedthere.A、Themoment
IthinkIwasatschool,______Iwasstayingwithafriendduringthevacation
InIndia,______schoolingbeginsatage6andendsatage14.A、compulsoryB、compe
Inamomentthelittlebird,setfreeafterbeingencagedforweeks,wouldrise
随机试题
[originaltext]Yearsagobeforetherewererefrigerators,anicehousewasab
Inthequesttofinda__________forcancer,scientistsmustdrawonacollecti
Scientistsstudyingtheactivityofthelivingbrainwithwidelyusednewim
FluandHowNottoCatchItThiswinter,inoffices
包价旅游合同应当采用书面形式,旅行社未与旅游者订立书面合同的,旅游行政主管部门可
电线电缆成束敷设时,应采用()。A.普通电线电缆 B.阻燃型电线电缆 C.
“月有阴晴圆缺”,用科学的观点看待这件事,原因是() A.人有悲欢离合 B.
(2021年真题)2019年1月中国居民张某将一项专利的使用权提供给甲公司,取
某施工项目适用简明施工合同,关于该合同价格的说法正确的是()。A.承包人以基准日
(2019年真题)低压电器可分为控制电器和保护电器。保护电器主要用来获取、转换和
最新回复
(
0
)