Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms-he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English “on paper plates instead of china”. A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.

　　37. The word “talking” (Line6, paragraph3) denotes

　　[A] modesty.

　　[B] personality.

　　[C] liveliness.

　　[D] informality.

　　[答案] D

　　[解题思路]

　　第三段最后一句话为“In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft”(无论是在口头英语和书面语中，说话胜过了谈话，自然发挥胜过了精雕细琢)，此外该段第一句话中提到了the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music(已经宣布了正式演讲、写作、诗歌和经典音乐的灭亡)，因此可以推断talking 代表的就是informal及非正式的形式，也就是D选项。

　　[题目译文]

　　“talking”(第三段第五行)这个词代表 。

　　[A] 谦虚

　　[B] 个性

　　[C] 生动

　　[D] 非正式