Everyprofession or trade, every art, and every science has its technical vocabulary,the function of which is partly to designate things or processes which have nonames in ordinary English, and partly to secure greater exactness innomenclature. Such special dialects, or jargons, are necessary in technicaldiscussion of any kind. Being universally understood by the devotees of theparticular science or art, they have the precision of a mathematical formula.Besides, they save time, for it is much more economical to name a process thanto describe it. Thousands of these technical terms are very properly includedin every large dictionary, yet, as a whole, they are rather on the outskirts ofthe English language than actually within its borders.

Differentoccupations, however, differ widely in the character of their special vocabularies.In trades and handicrafts, and other vocations, like farming and fishery, thathave occupied great numbers of men from remote times, the technical vocabularyis very old. It consists largely of native words, or of borrowed words thathave worked themselves into the very fiber of our language. Hence, though highlytechnical in many particulars, these vocabularies are more familiar in sound;and more generally understood, than most other technicalities. The specialdialects of law, medicine, divinity, and philosophy have also, in their olderstrata, become pretty familiar to cultivated persons, and have contributed muchto the popular vocabulary. Yet every vocation still possesses a large body oftechnical terms that remain essentially foreign, even to educated speech. Andthe proportion has been much increased in the last fifty years, particularly inthe various departments of natural and political science and in the mechanicarts. Here new terms are coined with the greatest freedom, and abandoned withindifference when they have served their turn. Most of the new coinages areconfined to special discussions, and seldom get into general literature orconversation. Yet no profession is nowadays, as all professions once were, aclose guild. The lawyer, the physician, the man of science, the divine,associates freely with his fellow-creatures, and does not meet them in a merelyprofessional way. Furthermore, what is called “popular science” makes everybodyacquainted with modern views and recent discoveries. Any important experiment,though made in a remote or provincial laboratory, is at once reported in thenewspapers, and everybody is soon talking about it—as in the case of the Roentgenrays and wireless telegraphy. Thus our common speech is always taking up newtechnical terms and making them commonplace.

1．This passage is primarily concerned with______.

A. a newlanguage

B. technical terminology

C. variousoccupations and professions

D. scientificundertakings

2．Special words used in technicaldiscussion ______.

A. may becomepart of common speech

B. should beconfined to scientific fields

C. shouldresemble mathematical formulae

D. areconsidered artificial speech

3．It is true that ______.

A. the averageman often uses in his own vocabulary what was once technical language not meantfor him

B. variousprofessions and occupations often interchange their dialects and jargons

C. there isalways a clear-cut non-technical word that may be substituted for the technicalword

D. an educatedperson would be expected to know most technical terms

4．In recent years, there has been a markedincrease in the number of technical terms in the nomenclature of ______.

A. farming

B. government

C. botany

D. fishing

5．The author’s main purpose in the passageis to ______.

A. describe aphenomenon

B. argue abelief

C. propose asolution

D. stimulateaction

【答案与解析】

1．B 文章一开始就提及各行各业都有其技术语汇。就其功能、来源及其和常用词的关系进行论述。

2．A 可能会成为普通语言的组成部分。文章最后一句话：“因此，我们的普通语言总是在吸收新的技术语，并使它们成为常用词。”文章中好几处都提及这一点。第一段倒数第二句： 成千上万的科技术语都能恰如其分地包括在每一本词典内。第二段中间：有些行业，如农业、手工业、渔业等，其技术词汇绝大部分由当地日常用语或借用语组成。至于法律、医学、神学、哲学等领域专用语言，受过教育的人相当熟悉，很多成了普通语言。

3．A A项意思是“（普通）人在用语时常用一度是科技术语的词汇，对他来说毫无科技含义”。这在最后一段的结尾几句讲得最清楚：“今天任何职业领域都不是封闭的。”领域中专业人员接触各种人物，不一定是专来人员。最重要的，“科普”使每个人都知道最新发明和现代观点。即使在遥远地区进行的重大实验也可以通过媒介写出报道，人们就谈论。这都说明人们用语中经常采用“科技术语”。对他们来说这只是表达他们思想的常用语而已。这也是“科技术语”变成日常用语的途径之一。

4．B 根据第二段：近50年来，自然政治科学各部门增加了许多词汇。

5．A 论述一种现象，整篇文章，从开始到最后都讲述科技术语的情况。 9CpItTdBy/brqrBsq9FWNTvuLOyqZw2szUaskSkp2pdDHdzvLwMr0+hBQ/dheFNb