阅读理解7阅读理解7.pdf

TEXTA The English language exists in a condition of everlasting danger,itsAmerican branch most particularly,assaultedasitisfromallsidesbythosewhowouldreduceittopuzzlingandobscure jargon, pop-psychologicalnonsenseandvaguebeautifiedwords,butitisnotwithoutitsdefenders. 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: abandoningthe language ofthe educatedyet givingbirth to its own self-glorifying words and phrases, favoring appearance over substance, broadness over precision, and loudness above all. It is sometimes 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 advertisingindustriesintheiremploy,whouseittospreadfogbeforefactstheywouldratherkeep hidden.Theresultis...aworldofhumbuginwhichthemorewereadandhear,thelessweknow. Smith is, of course, saying somethingnot true—it is difficult to imagine that Junk English will be noticed, much lessread, by those who most couldprofit 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, cliches,euphemisms,andexaggeration—buthe doesnt swingblindly. Although jargon often soundsugly to outsiders, it speeds communication within the community that uses it—and that clich6s, though popular objects of scorn, are useful when they most compactly express an idea; deliberate avoidance of an appropriate cliche sometimes produces even worse writing. Inotherwords,Smithmaybepassionatebuthesalsosensible.Inasectionaboutfree-for-all verbs, for example, he acknowledges that There is no law against inventing ones own verbs before citing a