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American 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 -$9~xX
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counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English. 1J&\,f&
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But the cult of the authentic and the personal, “doing our own thing”, has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought 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 over craft. *l{4lu
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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. 1@@y]s_.a
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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. Rf?%Tv0\
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36. According to Mc Whorter, the decline of formal English mYzcVhV
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A. is inevitable in radical education reforms. ng
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D. brought about changes in public attitudes in the 1960s. W8VO)3nmD
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37. The word “talking” (Linge6, paragraph3) denotes s&0*'^'O[S
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A. Logical thinking is not necessarily related to the way we talk. g&P9UW>qS
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39. The description of Russians' love of memorizing poetry shows the author's S;BP`g<l=
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In the following text, some sentences have removed. For Questions 41-45, choose ;I[.
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are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on PsacXZNs\N
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ANSWER SHEET1. (10 points) 2nVuz9h
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Canada's premiers (the leaders of provincial governments), if they have any breath left after complaining about Ottawa at their late July annual meeting, might spare a moment to do something, to reduce health-care costs. :+kg4v&r
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They're all groaning about soaring health budgets, the fastest-growing component of which are pharmaceutical costs. 3ZLr"O1l )
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What to do? Both the Romanow commission and the Kirby committee on health care-to say nothing of reports from other experts recommended the creation of a national drug agency. Instead of each province having its own list of approved drugs , bureaucracy, procedures and limited bargaining power, all would pool resources ,work with Ottawa, and create a national institution. !]n{l_5r
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But “national” doesn't have to mean that. “National” could mean interprovincial-provinces combining efforts to create one body. eA;j/&qH
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Either way, one benefit of a “national” organization would be to negotiate better prices, if possible, with drug manufacturers. Instead of having one province-or a series of hospitals within a province-negotiate a price for a given drug on the provincial list, the national agency would negotiate on behalf of all provinces. :Q0?ub]
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Rather than, say, Quebec, negotiating on behalf of seven million people, the national agency would negotiate on behalf 31 million people. Basic economics suggests the greater the potential consumers, the higher the likelihood of a better price. LbLbJ{68
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