典型的是，他具有博士衔头，是一位颇有成就的教授和教科书的作者。我所指的这种文盲是“成绩全优的文盲”。本文试图对这类文盲的情况给以不亚于对其同僚——广为人知的普通文盲的关注。
2． 在过去的大约10年里，我认识了许多像他这样的学生，这些大学高年级的学生深受“聪明症”的困扰。这疾病专门侵害聪明的头脑，然后慢慢地损坏其关键重要的功能，使患者无法辨认自己或者他人文章里的废话。在接受高等教育的阶段，这病越发厉害，甚至达到巅峰状态，尤其是在其受害者拿到博士学位之际。显然，“聪明症”患者绝不是普通的文盲：他的文章绝不会存在的单词错拼和标点误用的现象；他决不会使用双重否定或者像“非不注意”这样的词语。然而，他却是最糟糕的文盲：因为他无法在文章里简单明白地表达自己的意思。
3． 正如我所提到过的，导致这种文章的主要祸根就是这堆东西——这些课本和专业期刊——这些成绩全优的文盲在接受高等教育期间不得不阅读的东西。通过阅读这些东西，并通过学会欣赏其中的奥妙，他学会了写废话连篇的文章。
4． 事情发生的背景是我的办公室。我在忙碌着，就像一个力图帮助治愈一种疾病的人那样，为其必须完成的工作而忙碌。许多年来，我已习惯于将这种疾病称为“成绩全优的文盲现象”。我不断地提出质疑，不断地悉心盘问，不断地旁敲侧击，不断地寻找一点蛛丝马迹，只为了弄懂一篇学生的论文。这名学生就读于大学高年级，各科成绩优秀，是一个十分聪明而且口齿伶俐的小伙子，刚刚荣获其渴望已久的一所国家重点研究生院的入学资格。我和他一起已经花了一个小时，逐字逐句地在反复研究他的论文。
IV. Cloze
Despite all the current fuss and bother about the extraordinary number of ordinary illiterates (1)w overpopulate our schools, (2)s attention has been (3)g to another kind of illiterate, an (4)i whose plight is, in (5)m ways, more important, (6)b he is more influential. This illiterate may, as often as not, be a university president, but he is (7)t a Ph.D., a successful professor and textbook (8)a . The person to whom I refer is the straight-A illiterate, and the following is (9)w in an attempt (10)t give him equal time with his widely publicized counterpart.
The scene is my office, and I am at work, (11)d what must be done if one is to (12)a in the cure of a (13)d that, over the years, I have come to (14)c_____ straight-A illiteracy. I am interrogating, I am cross-examining, I am prying and probing for the (15)m of a student?s paper. The student is a college senior (16)w a straight-A average, an extremely bright, highly articulate (17)s who has just been awarded a coveted fellowship to (18)o of the nation?s outstanding graduate schools. He and I have been at this, have been (19)g over his paper sentence by (20)s , word by word, for an hour.
V. Proofreading: Over the past decade or so, I have known many students like him, many college seniors suffering from Bright?s disease. It attacks the best minds, and gradually destroys 1.the critical faculties, making them impossible for the 1. 2.sufferer to detect gibberish in his own writing or in that of 2. 3.the others. During the years of higher education it grows 3. 25
4.worse, and reaching its terminal stage, typically, when its 4. 5.victim receives his Ph.D. Obviously, the victim of 5. 6.Bright?s disease is no ordinary illiterate. He would never 6. 7.turn a paper with misspellings or errors in punctuation; 7. 8.he would never use double negative or the word 8. 9.“irregardless.” Nevertheless, he is illiterate, in the worse 9. 10.way: he is uncapable of saying, in writing, simply and 10. clearly, what he means. Text II Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. While economical writing makes a minimum demand on the energy and patience of
readers, it returns to them a maximum of sharply compressed meaning.
It takes readers of economical writing _____________________ 2. Economical writing avoids strain and at the same time promotes pleasure by producing a
sense of form and right proportion.
Readers of economical writing feel _______________________ 3. Suffice it to say here that whatever the topic, whatever the occasion, expository writing
should be readable, informative, and, wherever possible, engaging.
It is ____________________________________ 4. Part of this humanity must stem from your sense of who your readers are.
Whether you are human or not in your statement partly ___________________ 5. Without such definite readers in mind, you cannot assume a suitable and appropriate
relationship to your material, your purpose, and your audience.
Only if you have visualized such definite readers, __________________ TEXT I
Unit Eleven
ON CONSIGNING MANUSCRIPTS TO FLOPPY DISCS
AND ARCHIVES TO OBLIVION
II. Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. Manuscripts, those vital records of an author?s creative process, are an endangered
species.
Like an endangered species, manuscripts as vital records of an author?s creative process
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are being threatened and_____________ 2. Edna St. Vincent Millay may have burned the candle at both ends and wondered at its
lovely light, but her first drafts are treasures for future generations.
It is probable that Edna St. Vincent Millay had worked _______ 3. Almost a century later his manuscripts in the National Library in Dublin still glow with
the power his passion.
By reading his manuscripts almost a century later, in the National Library in Dublin, people can still_____________________ 4. How appropriate, even ironic, it might have been had his various drafts gone the way of
the burning books that he deplores and disappeared into a memory bank.
Like the disappearance of the burning books that he deplores, his various drafts may _______________________________ 5. Manuscripts are our gift to our heritage, and we have no right to deprive future
generations of learning how we think and feel, simply because we find word processing more convenient.
The convenience of word processing should not be a reason ____
III. Translate the following into English
1． 手稿是我们奉献给历史遗产的一份礼物。我们无权仅仅因为觉得文字处理器使用起来比较方便就剥夺了子孙后代了解我们的思想和感受的机会。是精心修改过的手稿，而不是软盘，能够告诉那些学习写作的人们和未来的历史学家，写作是一件充满艰辛的工作，它需要付出反复修改的辛勤劳动——而这一切，应该在纸上，而不是依靠电子束在屏幕上来完成。
2． 一个艺术家所犯的错误其实是他艺术新发现的门槛。不幸的是，如果干净、整洁、毫无瑕疵、却是准确无误的软取代了陈旧破烂、潦草涂写、几经剪切、颜色发黄、再三修改和打印的手稿，我们将永远无法得知那些错误。图书管里珍藏着这些手稿，学生们从中获取知识，拍卖商们为之漫天叫价，收藏者们对之倍加珍惜。然而文字处理器却无情地把他们斩草除根。我们的损失将是无法形容的。
3． 我们应该为手稿的绝迹而扼腕痛惜。试问有哪位学生和学者能从一张软盘上了解到作者创作过程的艰辛？这张不结实的塑料软盘能够展示出辛勤创作所耗费的分分秒秒吗？在这漫长的日子里，他的完美之作源于曾令他悲观失望的艰苦思索，而他的聪明智慧则出自使他熬红双眼的通宵之夜。手稿，作为艰辛创作的真实写照，往往是汗渍斑斑，咖啡四溅或者是烟痕累累。手稿使我们了解到作家的创作思路与激情。
4． 一个城市的档案往往是一堆堆带有霉味儿的宗卷，其中有字迹潦草的纸片，有关于边界线的意味深长的草草勾勒，或者是有关结婚，离婚，业绩，出生和死亡的没完没了的笔头记录。我们国家的各种各样的文献是一份无价的遗产。国家档案管里堆满了破破烂烂的各种文件，完整地保留下来，让历史学家们仔细地研究。
5． 手稿，作为一个作者创作历程的重要写照，正濒临绝迹。文字处理器的问世，及其价格相对便宜，操作日趋简单的优点，促使那些即使是潦倒穷困，尚未成名的准作家们（好像那些名列最畅销书榜首的人们一样）转而使用Wang、 IBM和Apple等电脑
27
制造公司的产品，安装WordStar、 Scriptsit或者Apple Writer等程序，紧张地开始记下，编辑并修改他们的创作成果。结果如何？一张软盘！
IV. Cloze
Manuscripts, those vital (1)r of an author?s creative process, are an endangered (2)s . The advent of word processors, and their relatively (3)l cost together (4)w____ increasing simplicity, (5)m that even impoverished, unpublished, would-be (6)w (as well as the Names who (7)t the best-seller list) have turned to their Wangs, IBMs and Apples, (8)i Wordstar, Scriptsit or Apple Writer programs and busily (9)b writing, editing and revising their creative efforts. The (10)r ? A floppy disc! Moreover, put a lot of manuscripts (11)t and you have an archive. Memoranda, diaries, journals, jottings, first, (12)s and third drafts --- these (13)a are important to all of us. The archives of a (14)c are often musty (15)c of scribbled scraps of (16)p , meaningful doodles (17)a boundary lines or endless handwritten records of marriages, divorces, deeds, births and deaths. Our country?s archives of (18)a___ kinds are a priceless heritage. The National Archives is jammed (19)w ragged papers, preserved (20)f the scrutiny of historians.
James Joyce once wrote that the (21)e of an artist are the portals of discovery. (22)U , we?ll never know (23)o those errors if clean, neat, immaculate (24)b____ errorless floppy discs (25)r tattered, pen-scratched, scissored, taped, yellowed, rewritten, retyped (26)m . Libraries preserve them, students (27)l from them, auctioneers cry them at fabulous (28)p , owners cherish them. And (29)w ____ processors totally eliminate them. Our (30)l would be incalculable.
V. Proofreading: We should deplore the disappearance of manuscripts. How can anyone, student or scholar, learn anything about the creative process from a floppy disc? Can this wobbly plastic reveal the hours, the endless hours, where beauty 1.was born of its own despair and blear-eyed wisdom out 1. 2.of midnight oil? Manuscripts are these records of creative 2. 3.agony, which often sweat-stained, coffee-splattered or 3. 4.cigarette-charred. Manuscripts tell us what went on in a 4. 5.writer?s soul, what he or she felt during the agony of 5. creation. Manuscripts are our gift to our heritage, and we have 6.no right to deprive future generations learning how we 6. 7.think and feel, simply because we find word processing 7. 8.even more convenient. Patiently corrected manuscripts, 8. 9.not floppy disc, can tell any novice writer or future 9. 10.historian that writing is a hard work, that it takes vision 10. and revision alike --- and that it should be done on paper, not with electrons on a screen. Text II 28
Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. Far from depersonalizing the individual and dehumanizing this society, the computer
promises a degree of personalized service never before available to mankind.
The computer does not depersonalize__________________________ 2. High-speed communications devices, linked to satellites in space, will transmit data to and
from virtually any point on earth with the ease of a dial system.
A dial system will make it possible ____________________________ 3. For all its potential to stretch the mind a thousandfold, it is perhaps necessary to point out that the computer is still a thing—that it cannot see, feel, or act unless first acted upon. Its potential to stretch the mind a thousandfold _____________________ 4. It is my conviction that society will adjust itself to the computer and work in harmony with it for the genuine betterment.
To better life genuinely, in my conviction,___________________________ 5. Quite evidently the threshold of the computer age has barely been crossed.
Quite evidently the computer age ______________________ TEXT I
Unit Twelve
GRANT AND LEE: A STUDY IN CONTRAST
II. Rewrite the following
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as close in meaning as possible to the original sentence by using the given words as the beginning.
1. These men were bringing the Civil War to its virtual finish.
Due to these men?s act, the Civil War ______________ 2. The little room where they wrote out the terms was the scene of one of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history.
One of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history _____ 3. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a pronounced inequality in the social structure.
A pronounced inequality in the social structure was ___________ 4. No part of either man?s life became him more than the part he played in this brief meeting in the McLean house at Appomattox.
Nothing in the life of either of the two men could show_________
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