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Quesito 1
The corruption of written and spoken English
Language is, and should be, a living thing, constantly enriched with new words and
forms of expression. But there is a vital distinction between good developments,
which add to the language, enabling us to say things we could not say before, and
bad developments, which subtract from the language by rendering it less precise.
A vivacious, colourful use of words is not to be confused with mere slovenliness.
The kind of slovenliness in which some professionals deliberately indulge is perhaps
akin to the cult of the unfinished work, which has eroded most of the arts in our
time. And the true answer to it is the same - that art is enhanced, not hindered,
by discipline. You cannot carve satisfactorily in butter.
The corruption of written English has been accompanied by an even sharper decline
in the standard of spoken English. We speak very much less well than was common
among educated Englishmen a generation or two ago. The modern theatre has
played a baneful part in dimming our appreciation of language. Instead of the
immensely articulate dialogue of, for example, Shaw (who was also very insistent
on good pronunciation), audiences are now subjected to streams of barely literate
trivia, often designed, only too well, to exhibit «lack of communication», and larded
with the obscenities and grammatical errors of the intellectually impoverished.
Emily Post once advised her readers: «The theatre is the best possible place to
hear correctly-enunciated speech.» Alas, no more. One young actress was recently
reported to be taking lessons in how to speak badly, so that she should fit in better.
But the BBC is the worst traitor. After years of very successfully helping to raise
the general standard of spoken English, it suddenly went into reverse. As the head
of the Pronunciation Unit coyly put it: «In the 1960’s the BBC opened the field to
a much wider range of speakers». To hear a BBC disc jockey talking to the latest
ape-like pop idol is a truly shocking experience of verbal squalor. And the prospect
seems to be of even worse to come. School teachers are actively encouraged
to ignore little Johnny’s incoherent grammar, atrocious spelling and haphazard
punctuation, because worrying about such things might inhibit his creative genius.
1) The writer relates linguistic slovenliness to tendencies in the arts today, in
that both:
A. occasionally aim at a certain fluidity
B. from time to time show a regard for the finishing touch
C. appear to shun perfection
D. may make use of economical short cuts
2) What is it claimed has happened to spoken English?
A. Writing problems are not reflected in poor oral expression
TESTDI VERIFICA