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  3. Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the

Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the

admin2010-01-15  56
问题      Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of the verbal changes originate. But listening critically to their talk I hear hardly any new words. It is all a matter of using old words in a new way and then copying each other, for much as they wish to speak differently from their parents, they want even more to speak like people of their own age. A new usage once took time to spread, but now a pop star can falsify it across the world in hours.
     Of course it is not only the young who like to use the latest in-words. While they are describing their idols as smashing, great or cosmic, their parents and the more discriminating of the younger set are also groping for words of praise that are at once apt and fashionable. However, their choice of splendid, brilliant, fantastic and so on will in turn be slightly dimmed by over-use and need replacement.
     Magic is a theme that has regularly supplied words of praise (and the choice must betray something in our nature). Charming, entrancing and enchanting are all based on it. So is marvelous, which has been used so much that some of its magic has faded while among teenagers wizard had a great run. Another of this group, though you might not think it, is glamorous, which was all the rage in the great days of Hollywood. Glamour was a Scottish dialect form of "grammar" or "grammarye", which itself was an old word for enchantment. (Gram*mar means the study of words, and words have always been at the heart of magic. ) The change from "r" to "1" may have come about through the association with words like gleaming and glittering.
    On the whole, when a new word takes over, the old ones remain,-weakened but still in use, so that the total stock increases all the time. But some that start only as slang and never rise above the class can disappear completely. "Did you really say ripping when you were young?" my granddaughter asked me, rather like asking if I ever wore a suit of armor. Of course I did and it was no sillier than smashing, which some of her contemporaries are still saying.
Which of the following is NOT true about young people in their speech?
选项 A、They use words invented by pop stars.
B、They copy the speech of their contemporaries.
C、They give words new meanings.
D、They invent words that older people cannot understand.
答案D
解析 与本题相关的段落为第一段。四个选项与原文相比，D项与原文相悖，因为原文有这样的话“I hear hrdly any new words．It is all a matter of using old words in a new way”，就是说年轻人并没有发明创造一些年长者听不懂的新词，而是将老词新用。
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