单选题
Texting has long been lamented as the downfall of
the written word, {{U}}"penmanship for illiterates,"{{/U}} one critic called it. To
which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isn't writing at all-it's
actually more akin to spoken language. And it's a "spoken" language that is
getting richer and more complex by the year. Historically,
talking came first; writing is just an artifice that came along later. While
talk is largely subconscious and rapid, writing is deliberate and slow. Over
time, writers took advantage of this and started crafting sentences such as this
one, from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "The whole engagement lasted
above 12 hours, till the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a
disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by the principal
leaders and the Surenas himself. " No one talks like that
casually-or should. But it is natural to desire to do so for special occasions.
In the old days, we didn't much write like talking because there was no
mechanism to reproduce the speed of conversation. But texting and instant
messaging do-and a revolution has begun. It involves the brute mechanics of
writing, but in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually
a new kind of talking. There is a virtual cult of concision and little interest
in capitalization or punctuation. The argument that texting is "poor writing" is
analogous, then, to one that the Rolling Stones is "bad music" because it
doesn't use violas. Texting is developing its own kind of
grammar. Take LOL. It doesn't actually mean "laughing out loud" in a literal
sense anymore. LOL has evolved into something much subtler and sophisticated and
is used even when nothing is remotely amusing. Jocelyn texts "Where have you
been?" and Annabelle texts back "LOL at the library studying for two hours." LOL
signals basic empathy between texters, easing tension and creating a sense of
equality. Instead of having a literal meaning, it does something— conveying an
attitude—just like the -ed ending conveys past tense rather than "meaning"
anything. LOL, of all things, is grammar. Civilization is
fine—people banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate
from the one they use .in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting
is ruining composition skills. Worldwide people speak differently from the way
they write, and texting-quick, casual and only intended to be read once—is
actually a way of talking with your fingers.
单选题
The phrase "penmanship for illiterates" (Line 1, Para. 1) implies that
______.
单选题
According to the text, which of the following statements is true of
writing?
A. Writing is merely a duplicate of talking.
B. Writing is less important than talking.
C. Writing is formal and carefully-worded.
D. Writing was separated from talking in the past.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 第三段第1句认为，No one talks like that casually(若不刻意，人们不会像那样说话)，反过来说明写作是非casually的，是正式的；第二段第2句表明，写作是deliberate(刻意的)，即C项所说的carefully-worded．因此C项为正确答案。
A项duplicate表明写作仅是说话的复制，与原文不符，如果仅仅是复制，后面就不需要进行二者的对比分析。B项认为写作不如说话重要，这是对原文talking came first的曲解，因为这里就是单纯的时间先后，并不是重要性的问题。D项separate完全割裂了写作与说话的关系，而第二段第1句指出写作是在说话之后才出现的一种技巧，二者具有历史的延续关系，与原文不符。
单选题
The Rolling Stones is cited in paragraph 3 to ______.
A. criticize the vulgarity of rock music.
B. indicate that texting is a revolution.
C. imply that texting is no poor writing.
D. show the cult of concision in texting.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 题干中Rolling Stones可以对应至第三段最后一句。该句考查了对be analogous to这一短语的理解，意思为那种认为短信息是“拙劣的写作”的言论，就好像是在说滚石不用中提琴就是“糟糕的音乐”一样，该句是对摇滚乐与短信息的不合逻辑的论断的类比，因此C项为正确答案。
该句只是用摇滚乐作类比，没有批评的意思，排除A项。B项revolution出现在该段第4句，强调短信息是一种新的说话方式，但与最后一句的例子没有关系。D项cult of concision则表明了短信息的特点，与例子无关。
单选题
We learn from the text that texting is ______.
A. more delicate and complicated than writing.
B. different from writing in grammatical uses.
C. responsible for the degradation of writing skills.
D. more of "talking" style than "writing" style.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段第3句作者表达了他对texting的看法，认为短信息更接近口头语言，最后一段作者也把短信息归纳为一种用手指说话的方式，因此D项为正确答案。
A项delicate and complicated分别对应原文第一段和第四段，原文指出短信息随着时间发展而变得日益细微而复杂，但没有谈到与写作的对比，A项放大了原意。B项grammatical uses可以定位至第四段，原文指出短信息逐渐形成自己的语法，并且以“-ed”的例子将其语法与写作的语法形式进行类比，说明了二者语法的相似，而非差异。C项degradation(衰退)为ruin的同义替代，可以定位至最后一段第一句，原文指出没有证据能够证明短信息会妨害我们的写作技能，C项与原文不符。
单选题
The author's attitude towards texting is one of ______.