首页
登录
职称英语
1 WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary
1 WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary
游客
2025-01-11
24
管理
问题
1 WHY SHOULD anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree. But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public and academic libraries will want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who escaped the net of the original compilers. Yet in 10 years’ time a revised version of the whole caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, professor Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13, 000 more than in the current DNB. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.
2 When Dr Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100, 000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to "other quality newspapers" too. ) As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn’t file copy on time; some who did sent too much. 50, 000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nicholls.
3 There remains the dinner-party game of who’s in, who’s out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted. Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr. John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie (entry in Missing Persons) notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried to escape by ship to America).
4 It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.
5 Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments: "Whether or not Hugo was a wall- painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript painter attest to his versatility." Then there had to be more women, too (12 per cent, against the original DBN’s 3), such as Roy Strong’s subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks. "Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory." Doesn’t seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J. W. Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote, "except for the entry in the List of contributors there is no trace of J. W. Clerke."
选项
A、because it is not worth the price.
B、because it has fewer entries than before.
C、unless one has all the volumes in his collection.
D、unless an expanded DNB will come out shortly.
答案
C
解析
▲decennial十年一次的;持续十年的
▲caboodle(俚语)一群人,一堆(物)
▲This rather puts the 1068 in Missing Persons in the shade.put sb.in the shade表示“使相形见绌”.“使黯然失色”。
▲whittle削减
▲file copy文件拷贝
▲repeal废止,取消
▲cursory粗略的
此题为细节理解题。据第1段第4句和第5句可知。据第1段第2句和第3句可排除 A。据第1段后半部分可排除B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3907721.html
相关试题推荐
______[br][originaltext]SentenceNo.1Youshouldinspectyourpurchasewhen
______[br][originaltext]SentenceNo.1Youshouldinspectyourpurchasewhen
______[originaltext]SentenceNo.1Youshouldinspectyourpurchasewhenitis
EveryoneseemstohateAmerica’slateststabatimmigrationreform,whichwe
EveryoneseemstohateAmerica’slateststabatimmigrationreform,whichwe
EveryoneseemstohateAmerica’slateststabatimmigrationreform,whichwe
Itshouldnotbetakenforgrantedthatrecyclingismoreefficientthanchu
Itshouldnotbetakenforgrantedthatrecyclingismoreefficientthanchu
Passage1[br][originaltext]TheOlympicGamesshouldbetracedbacktothe
Whyshouldmankindexplorespace?Perhapsthebestreasonforexploringspac
随机试题
IenjoyedreadingthestorybySarahPeterson.Itwasrathersad,______.A、thoug
统计分析数据的方法大体可分为()。A.经济统计 B.理论统计 C.描述统计
为完成建设工程施工,发生于该工程施工前和施工过程中的技术、生活、安全、环境保护等
X线平片判断心脏增大的方法时,心脏横径是A.右膈顶水平胸廓的内径 B.左心缘至
港口在实际收费时的计费方式有( )。A.基于货物体积 B.基于货物重量 C
小林用如图所示的电路研究串联电路的特点,闭合开关S后,发现灯L1较亮,灯L2较暗
信息工作流程是指各项信息管理任务的工作流程,如()。A、信息管理手册编制、修
学前教育过程中最基本的、最重要的人际关系是()。 A.教师与儿童的关
关于初步可行性研究与可行性研究的说法,错误的是( )。A.可行性研究是初步可行性
依据《矿山安全法》的规定,矿山企业的()必须接受专门培训,经考核合格取得操作
最新回复
(
0
)