Question

Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.

Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact(交流) and build relationship. These are a few of the recently recognized features of email, say experts, which should cause individuals and organizations to rethink the way they use email.

“Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits,” says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics(语言学) at an American university. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect(反映) a growing unconcern about the way we write.

Baron argues that we shouldn’t forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in email. “The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.

Others say that despite its poor writing, email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.

“Email is a critical new communication technology.” says Ian Lancashire, a professor of English at Toronto University. “It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”

Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are usually scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech. “It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says.

Still, he accepts that this new-found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble. Emails sent in a day almost exceed(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.

1. From what Baron says in the third paragraph we can see that ________.

A. careless people use email more than careful people

B. email requires people to change their native language

C. professors in universities don’t need to use email

D. people communicate by email full of mistakes

2.What does the underlined word “it”(in Paragraph 4) refer to?

A. The poor writing.  B. Email.

C. The good writing.  D. A new communication technology.

3.In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because _______.

A. it can be useful all over the world

B. it is the fastest way to communicate

C. we can express ourselves in a free way

D. we can save a lot of paper

4.This passage mainly shows us that ______.

A. people should stop using email to communicate

B. experts hold different opinions about email writing

C. Americans only use email to communicate

D. email makes people lose interest in English

Answer

1.D

2.A

3.C

4.B

【解析】

试题本文介绍了电子邮件使写信这种古老而传统的沟通方式又恢复了生机，但用电子邮件写信也带来了一些新的问题，专家们对此也有不同的看法。本文就陈述了这些不同的观点。。

1.D。细节题。根据第三段中的She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect(反映) a growing unconcern about the way we write.可知选D

2.A。词义猜测题。根据第四段中的“The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,”可知it指the poor writing。故选A

3.C。细节题。根据最后一段中的this new-found freedom to express themselves可以看出Lancashire的观点，他认为电子信件可以使人自由地表达思想和情感，类似于口头语言。故选C

4.B。主旨大意题。根据第一段及第五段等处可以归纳出：本文阐述了对电子邮件的不同的观点。故选B