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.

　　36. According to Mc Whorter, the decline of formal English

　　[A] is inevitable in radical education reforms.

　　[B] is but all too natural in language development.

　　[C] has caused the controversy over the counter-culture.

　　[D] brought about changes in public attitudes in the 1960s.

　　[答案] B

　　[解题思路]

　　做本题需要从文中一一对应信息。首先，最后一段中McWhorter“proposes no radical education reform”(并没有提出激进的教育改革方案)，因此A选项错误。第二段的第二句话说“he sees the gradual disappearance of “whom”, for example, to be natural”(他认为像“whom”这个词的逐渐消失是自然的)，这句话与B选项的意思符合。第一段最后一句指出，“sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English”(认为发生在20世纪60年代的反文化运动的胜利看成是规范英语退化的原因)，因此C选项是错误的。前三段都提到了the 1960s，但是都没有出现public attitudes，因此D选项也可以排除。