滾動：2005年考研英語閱讀真題及解析【第四篇】

2023-06-08 05:07:23 來源：嗶哩嗶哩

passage4

注解：標題為紅色，翻譯為藍色，分析為綠色。

Americans no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of language and Music and Why We Should Like, Care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English.

Blaming the permissive 1960s is nothing new, but this is not yet another criticism against the decline in education. Mr. McWhorter’s academic specialty is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of “whom”, for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.

【資料圖】

But the cult狂熱崇拜 of the authentic and the personal, “doing our own thing”, has spelt導致 the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought(seek過去式) an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page. Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness. In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity自發(fā)性?over craft精心制作的工藝品.

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1.spell我們知道有”拼寫“的意思，但是這里的屬于熟詞辟意，表示“導致”。spell?v. (過去式和過去分詞分別是 spelt, spelt) 導致=induce=prompt

2.genre? 體裁，類型 gene基因區(qū)別記憶：帶r人的，就是人寫的文章的體裁和類型。不帶人的，就是生物都會有的基因。

3.spontaneity自發(fā)性?over?craft精心制作的工藝品. ，就是自發(fā)靠感覺隨意創(chuàng)作的作品超過了精心制作的工藝品。

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Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr .McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like, care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive—there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper.

Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms—he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English “on paper plates instead of china”. A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.

一、文章結構分析

本文是一篇關于語言演化的議論文。

文章首段指出了當今語言變化的趨勢——美國人不再指望公眾人物能有技巧和天分地使用英語這門語言。并且提出英語越說越俗的現(xiàn)象，并且特別在第五段提出，正式英語不是絕對的必要，因為非正式英語僅僅是語言美感的喪失而不是語言功能的喪失，并且還飽含更豐富的表達情感。

第二、三段分析這一現(xiàn)象產生的原因，

第四、五段屬于總結性段落，在分析了原因之后，作者指出，其實無論什么語言都有很強的表現(xiàn)能力，而語言這種變化的趨勢僅僅是語言美感的喪失而不是語言功能的喪失。

36. According to McWhorter, the decline of formal English ________.

[A] is inevitable in radical education reforms

[B] is but all too natural in language development

[C] has caused the controversy over the counter-culture

[D] brought about changes in public attitudes in the 1960s

36．根據(jù)麥荷特的觀點，正式英語的退化_________。

[A] 在徹底的教育改革中不可避免

[B] 只不過是語言發(fā)展過程中的自然現(xiàn)象

[C] 引起了對反文化潮流的爭議

[D] 導致 20 世紀 60 年代公眾態(tài)度的變化

37. The word “talking” (Line 6, Paragraph 3) denotes ________.

[A] modesty

[B] personality

[C] liveliness

[D] informality

37．第三段第六行的單詞 talking 表示的是_______。

[A] 謙遜

[B] 個性

[C] 生動

[D] 非正式

38. To which of the following statements would McWhorter most likely agree?

[A] Logical thinking is not necessarily related to the way we talk.

[B] Black English can be more expressive than standard English.

[C] Non-standard varieties of human language are just as entertaining.

[D] Of all the varieties, standard English can best convey complex ideas.

38．麥荷特最有可能贊同下面哪個論述?

[A] 邏輯思維并不一定和我們說話的方式相關。

[B] 黑人英語比標準英語更具有表達力。

[C] 非標準類型的人類語言只是娛樂性的。

[D] 在所有語言類型中，標準英語最能表達復雜的思想。

39. The description of Russians’ love of memorizing poetry shows the author’s ________.

[A] interest in their language

[B] appreciation of their efforts

[C] admiration for their memory

[D] contempt for their old-fashionedness

39．有關俄羅斯人背誦詩歌愛好的描述表現(xiàn)出作者__________。

[A] 對他們語言的興趣

[B] 對他們所做努力的欣賞

[C] 對他們記憶力的羨慕

[D] 對他們這種過時風尚的輕視

40. According to the last paragraph, “paper plates” is to “china” as ________.

[A] “temporary” is to “permanent”

[B] “radical” is to “conservative”

[C] “functional” is to “artistic”

[D] “humble” is to “noble”

40．根據(jù)最后一段，“紙盤子”和“瓷盤子”之間的比較是________。

[A] “暫時的”比“永恒的”

[B] “激進的”比“保守的”

[C] “實用的”比“藝術的”

[D] “卑微的”比“高貴的”

二、核心詞匯與超綱詞匯

1. aspire to/ after 渴望，追求，有志于

2. degradation n. 惡化，退化

3. controversialist n. 善辯者，好辯者

4. permissive a. 許可的，自由的，縱容的

5. conservative a. 保守的

6.counter-culture 反正統(tǒng)文化

7. cult n. 狂熱的崇拜，膜拜；時尚

8. spell v. (過去式和過去分詞分別是 spelt, spelt) 導致

9. elevated a. 高雅的，高尚的

10. genre n. (文學藝術等的)類型，流派

11. spontaneity n. 自發(fā)性，自發(fā)行為

12. an array of 一排，一群，一批

13. illustrate v. 舉例說明

14. chunk n. 大塊，相當大的數(shù)量

15. elaborate v. 詳細制定(某事物)

16. grieve over 對……感到非常后悔，懊悔

三、閱讀答案：B D A B C

四、全文翻譯：?

美國人不再期待公眾人物在演講或寫作中能運用技巧和文采來駕馭英語，而公眾人物自己也不渴望這樣。語言學家麥荷特喜好爭論，他的觀點混雜著自由派與保守派的看法。在他最近的書《做我們自己的事：語言和音樂的退化，以及為什么我們應該喜歡或在意？》中，這位學者認為 60 年代反文化運動的勝利要對正式英語的退化負責。

責備放縱的六十年代不是什么新鮮事，但這次算不上是對教育衰落的又一場批判。麥荷特先生的學術專長在于語言史和語言演變。舉例來說，他認為“whom”一詞的逐漸消失是自然的，并不比古英語中詞格的消失更讓人惋惜。

然而，“做自己的事”這一對事物真實性和個人性的崇尚信條，已經導致了正式演講、寫作、詩歌及音樂的消亡。在 20 世紀 60 年代以前，僅受過一般教育的人在下筆時都會尋求一種更高雅的腔調；而那之后，即使是最受關注的文章也想帶上口語風格。同樣的，對于詩歌來說，非常個性化的和富有表現(xiàn)力的創(chuàng)作風格成為了能夠表達真實生動含義的唯一形式。無論作為口語還是書面語言的英語，隨意言談勝過了雅致的言辭，自我發(fā)揮也壓過了精心準備。

麥荷特先生從上層和下層中列舉了一系列有趣的例子，從而說明他所記錄的這種趨勢是確鑿無誤的。但就書中副標題中的疑問：為什么我們應該喜歡或在意，答案卻不夠明確。作為語言學家，麥荷1特認為各種各樣的人類語言，包括像黑人英語這樣的非標準語言，都具有強大的表達力——世上沒有傳達不了復雜思想的語言或方言。不像其他大多數(shù)人，麥荷特先生并不認為我們說話方式不再規(guī)范就會使我們不能夠準確地思考。

俄羅斯人深愛自己的語言，并在腦海中存儲了大量詩歌；而意大利的政客們則往往精心準備演講，即使這在大多數(shù)講英語的人們眼里已經過時。麥荷特先生認為正式語言并非不可或缺，也沒有提出要進行徹底的教育改革——他其實只是為那些美好事物而不是實用的東西的消逝而哀嘆。我們現(xiàn)在用“紙盤子”而非“瓷盤子”盛著我們的英語大餐。真是慚愧啊，但很可能已無法避免。

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