首页
登录
职称英语
Why should anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of N
Why should anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of N
游客
2023-12-15
11
管理
问题
Why should anyone buy the latest volume in the ever-expanding Dictionary of National Biography? I do not mean that it is bad, as the reviewers will agree. But it will cost you 65 pounds. And have you got the rest of volumes? You need the basic 22 plus the largely decennial supplements to bring the total to 31. Of course, it will be answered, public and academic libraries want the new volume. After all, it adds 1,068 lives of people who escaped the net of the original compilers. Yet in 10 years’ time a revised version of the whole caboodle, called the New Dictionary of National Biography, will be published. Its editor, Professor Colin Matthew, tells me that he will have room for about 50,000 lives, some 13,000 more than in the current DNB. This rather puts the 1,068 in Missing Persons in the shade.
When Dr Nicholls wrote to The Spectator in 1989 asking for names of people whom readers had looked up in the DNB and had been disappointed not to find, she says that she received some 100,000 suggestions. (Well, she had written to "other quality newspapers" too.) As soon as her committee had whittled the numbers down, the professional problems of an editor began. Contributors didn’t file copy on time; some who did send too much: 50,000 words instead of 500 is a record, according to Dr Nieholls.
There remains the dinner-party game of who’s in, who’s out. That is a game that the reviewers have played and will continue to play. Criminals were my initial worry. After all, the original edition of the DNB boasted: Malefactors whose crimes excite a permanent interest have received hardly less attention than benefactors. Mr John Gross clearly had similar anxieties, for he complains that, while the murderer Christie is in, Crippen is out. One might say in reply that the injustice of the hanging of Evans instead of Christie was a force in the repeal of capital punishment in Britain, as Ludovie Kennedy (the author of Christies entry in Missing Persons)notes. But then Crippen was reputed as the first murderer to be caught by telegraphy (he had tried to escape by ship to America).
It is surprising to find Max Miller excluded when really not very memorable names get in. There has been a conscious effort to put in artists and architects from the Middle Ages. About their lives not much is always known.
Of Hugo of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century illuminator whose dates of birth and death are not recorded, his biographer comments: "Whether or not Hugo was a wall-painter, the records of his activities as carver and manuscript painter attest to his versatility." Then there had to be more women, too (12 per cent, against the original DBN’s 3), such as Roy Strong’s subject, the Tudor painter Levina Teerlinc, of whom he remarks: "Her most characteristic feature is a head attached to a too small, spindly body. Her technique remained awkward, thin and often cursory." Doesn’t seem to qualify her as a memorable artist. Yet it may be better than the record of the original DNB, which included lives of people who never existed (such as Merlin) and even managed to give thanks to J.W.Clerke as a contributor, though, as a later edition admits in a shamefaced footnote, "except for the entry in the List of Contributors there is no trace of J.W. Clerke" [br] The author quoted a few entries in the last paragraph to ______.
选项
A、illustrate some features of the DNB
B、give emphasis to his argument
C、impress the reader with its content
D、highlight the people in the Middle Ages
答案
B
解析
推断题。作者的写作日的不是为宣传DNB的特点,亦不是为介绍中世纪人物,而是为强调自己的观点,即DNB编辑人员的词条目的选择标准是不科学的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.tihaiku.com/zcyy/3276080.html
相关试题推荐
Havingsaidallofthis,Ishould,perhaps,locatemyself.Iteachandwritea
Havingsaidallofthis,Ishould,perhaps,locatemyself.Iteachandwritea
[originaltext]Thelaborproblemswerethelatestbadnewsforanindustrytha
[originaltext]Thelaborproblemswerethelatestbadnewsforanindustrytha
KimiyukiSudashouldbeaperfectcustomerforJapan’scarmakers.He’sayoung
KimiyukiSudashouldbeaperfectcustomerforJapan’scarmakers.He’sayoung
Patents,saidThomasJefferson,shoulddraw"alinebetweenthethingswhicha
Youshouldnotfearspidersthankstotheirpoison.Ofallthespidersin【M
Youshouldnotfearspidersthankstotheirpoison.Ofallthespidersin【M
Youshouldnotfearspidersthankstotheirpoison.Ofallthespidersin【M
随机试题
[originaltext]Theword"sports"firstmeantsomethingthatpeopledidinth
版税属于( )等。A.直接成本 B.间接成本 C.变动成本 D.固定成本
A.运铁蛋白饱和度 B.血清铁蛋白 C.红细胞转酮醇酶活力 D.红细胞游离
波形梁板总直线度不得大于波形梁板定尺长度的()。A.0.1% B.0.15%
下列各项中,属于非货币性资产的有( )。A.可供出售金融资产 B.银行本票存款
在新课程推进过程中,课程的建设、实施与发展将成为学校评价中的重要内容。()
音乐鉴赏教学无论采用何种方式,都应坚持以()。A.聆听音乐为主 B.学生为主
下列关于股权回购的说法错误的是()。A.发起人不可以是被投资企业股东和管理层
通过分散患者注意力的方法达到消除紧张情绪,减轻疼痛,缓解和促进睡眠的目的,称为(
建筑设备监控系统中,下列信号属于DI点的有()。A.冷却塔启停控制;B.空调机
最新回复
(
0
)