Passage 2 Choose the BEST option to complete each of the following two passages.
Note: the five blanks have different answers. What does Shakespeare offer the English language learner—apart from the
aesthetic, theatrical, and literary experience awaiting anyone who hears or reads his
poems and sees or reads his plays? A great deal. __36__ Indeed, he shows us how to
exploit the resources of a language to maximum effect.
He has, of course, been an important general influence on the development of
English, because many of his words and idioms have become part of everyday
modern use. You are quoting Shakespeare when you say that “truth will out, “the
game is up,” and “you haven’t slept a wink,” or if you’ve “knitted your brows,” “made
a virtue out of necessity,” and “laughed yourself into stitches.” If you look in the
unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, you’ll find over 2,000 words which have their
first recorded use in Shakespeare, such as “assassination,” “outswear,” and
“weather-bitten.” Some he coined himself； others he simply helped to popularize.
___37__ For example, he adds “un” to make new words, such as “unbuild” and
“unmusical.” Today we do the same thing with “ucool” and “unfunny.” Moreover, he
adds “less” to make “airless” and “languageless.” Today we say such things as
“computerless” and “iPadless.”
__38__ In particular, he readily turned nouns into verbs: his characters “nose
things as well as “smell” them: they “ear” things as well as “hear” them； they are
“windowed” (displayed in a window) and “mudded” (covered by mud). Today, the
internet provides many examples of people “texting,” “spamming,” “googling,” and
“tweeting,” and “doing many things that were originally nouns. This is well within the
spirit of Shakespeare. __39__ What would a Shakespeareless reader make of an article on population
control headed “To breed or not to breed,” or one on nutrition headed “To diet or
not to diet,” or one on a possible army invasion headed “To fight or not to fight?” All
derive from Hamlet’s “To be or not to be.”
__40__ Indeed, the courage to experiment is a sign of real fluency especially
when learners can take a rule and adapt it to suit their purposes. Perhaps we should
start using acronym ESP (English for Special Purposes) in a new way: English for
Shakespearean Purposes. 【題組】40. (A) Far more important, though, is the way his linguistic strategies provide
guidelines for modern users.
(B) It’s impossible to interpret many headlines in modern English newspapers if
you don’t know Shakespeare.
(C) He was one of the great manipulators of parts of speech, using words
unconventionally to craft new perspectives.
(D) Shakespeare teaches learners how to be daring in their use of English.
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