时间:2018-11-30 作者:英语课 分类:历年考研英语阅读理解


英语课
[00:00.00]在线英语听力室(www.tingroom.com)友情制作
[00:05.63]2005 Text4
[00:07.86]Americans no longer expect public figures,
[00:11.18]whether in speech or in writing,
[00:13.41]to command the English language with skill and gift.
[00:17.76]Nor do they aspire 1 to such command themselves.
[00:21.81]In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing:
[00:24.83]The Degradation 2 of Language and Music
[00:27.62]and Why We Should, Like, Care,
[00:31.36]John McWhorter, a linguist 3 and controversialist
[00:34.49]of mixed liberal and conservative views,
[00:38.22]see the triumph of 1960s counter-culture
[00:41.94]as responsible for the decline of formal English.
[00:45.57]Blaming the permissive 1960s is nothing new,
[00:49.59]but this is not yet another criticism
[00:51.78]against the decline in education.
[00:55.40]Mr. McWhorter's academic specialty
[00:58.05]is language history and change,
[01:00.45]and he sees the gradual disappearance 5 of "whom", for example,
[01:04.60]to be natural and no more regrettable
[01:06.90]than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.
[01:11.34]But the cult 4 of the authentic 6 and the personal,
[01:14.30]"doing our own thing",
[01:15.98]has spelt the death of formal speech,
[01:18.39]writing, poetry and music.
[01:21.52]While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone
[01:25.46]when they put pen to paper before the 1960s,
[01:29.49]even the most well regarded writing since then
[01:32.73]has sought to capture spoken English on the page.
[01:36.44]Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre
[01:41.42]is the only form that could claim real liveliness.
[01:46.56]In both oral and written English,
[01:49.29]talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.
[01:55.34]Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples
[01:58.47]from both high and low culture,
[02:00.99]the trend that Mr.McWhorter documents is unmistakable.
[02:04.93]But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle,
[02:08.85]why we should, like, care.
[02:12.19]As a linguist, he acknowledges
[02:14.13]that all varieties of human language,
[02:16.77]including non-standard ones like Black English,
[02:20.39]can be powerfully expressive
[02:22.41]--there exists no language or dialect in the world
[02:26.13]that cannot convey complex ideas.
[02:29.36]He is not arguing, as many do, that we can
[02:32.49]no longer think straight because we do not talk proper.
[02:35.61]在线英语听力室(www.tingroom.com)友情制作
[02:37.01]Russians have a deep love for their own language
[02:40.14]and carry chunks 7 of memorized poetry in their heads,
[02:43.96]while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech
[02:47.61]that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers.
[02:51.43]Mr. McWhorter acknowledges
[02:53.07]that formal language is not strictly 8 necessary,
[02:56.29]and proposes no radical 9 education reforms--
[03:00.73]he is really grieving over
[03:02.29]the loss of something beautiful more than useful.
[03:06.74]We now take our English "on paper plates instead of china."
[03:11.27]A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable 10 one.


1 aspire
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于
  • Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
  • I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。
2 degradation
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变
  • There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
  • Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。
3 linguist
n.语言学家;精通数种外国语言者
  • I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家,后来成了作家。
  • Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。
4 cult
n.异教,邪教;时尚,狂热的崇拜
  • Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书,但有一定的崇拜者。
  • The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。
5 disappearance
n.消失,消散,失踪
  • He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
  • Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。
6 authentic
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的
  • This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
  • Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
7 chunks
厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 ); (某物)相当大的数量或部分
  • a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
  • Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大,还能再切小一点吗?
8 strictly
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地
  • His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
  • The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。
9 radical
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
10 inevitable
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的
  • Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
  • The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。
学英语单词
.ro
a real jam
acastids
AcChR
Actihaemyl
all risks insurance
almost always
Anderson, Marian
apportioning cost
arterial arcades
astragalus membranaceus
at the coalface
automatic phototypesetting
Biloku
branch height
brasscoloured
bullock heart
canceration
Canella winterana
central control module
ch'u wu
channel firth
character metric
chemoes
chevron type (moisture) separator
class settling
coleopterist
color mixing tray
communication feed
concrew
conjugate pressure
connect-the-dots
converted command
couid
cuneiformis
cutaneous mucinosis
dandy reducer
desalinating
divisional court
electric still
estratriol
ESVCD (epitaxial silicon variable capacitance diode)
Eurya prunifolia
false-heartedly
family Castoridae
finish node
flexible rod string
foulard poile de chevre
free running multiple vibrator
glucocentric
grading foil
have a bear by the tail
heads-on
homer a. thompsons
inclusion body of rhinitis
Indian era
inner containment
interest rate arbitrage
j.c.r.
kacee
labio-scrotal swellings
larrousse
little theaters
maximal sustainable yield
meledandri
Mississippi Canyon
nast
National Quotation Bureau
necrotomy
negative aspect
newsmongering
nonslack
organic tuberculosis
palmoplantar pustulosis
pervasiveness
port cargo throughput
portmeirion
radicular arteries
ramp type
rock arm plunger
salt-sensitive
scrabbed
Seawell Airport
sentimentalisers
shhhhh
similar system of numbers
slope theodolite
soldono
static governor
strouce
sulfur ball
sylvester matrix
temboes
terminal double bone
thyroid treatment
took in bad part
unimodal current rose
vibrational degree of freedom
wayfinding
weigh in with
White's
yampees