In defence of obscure words.docVIP

A Point of View: In defence of obscure words 一种观点认为: 保护晦涩的词汇 We chase fast culture at our peril - unusual words and difficult art are good for us, says Will Self. Self说道：“我们冒险追逐着所谓快捷的文化（怪癖的词语）和我们喜欢的复杂艺术。 We are living in a risk-averse culture - theres no doubt about that. 我们现在生活在一个毫无危险的文化里—关于这一点是毫无疑问的。 But the risk that people seem most reluctant taking is not a physical but a mental one: just as the concrete in childrens playgrounds has been covered with rubber, so the hard truth about the effort needed for intellectual attainment is being softened by a sort of semantic padding. 但是人们似乎更加不愿意谈论这种危险。这种危险不是指肉体上的而是指精神上的。由于孩子的操场是用橡胶做的，所以关于知识分子获得的这份努力难以相信的事实也让语言修饰变得可信了。 Our arts and humanities education at secondary level seems particularly afflicted by falling standards - so much so that universities are now being called upon to help write new A-level syllabuses in order to cram our little chicks with knowledge that, in recent years, has come to seem unpalatable, if not indigestible - knowledge such as English vocabulary beyond that which is in common usage. 我们的艺术和人文教育处于二流的水平似乎让下降的水平所击垮—如此的严重。许多的大学被号召起来有助于写出一流的教学大刚是为了用知识来充实自己。近年来，知识似乎很难让人消化，如果知识是容易让人消化的，那么例如，英文单词的知识超过了普通的用法。 Both general readers and specialist critics often complain about my own use of English - not only in my books, but also in my newspaper articles and even in radio talks such as these. I have to look them up in a dictionary, they complain - as if this were some kind of torture. 不论普通读者还是专家评论对于我自己使用的英语经常有着牢骚—不但出现在我的著作中，还是报纸杂志中，甚至在广播中的谈话都有。例如这句话，“他们抱怨道”：“我不得不用词典来查它们的意思”—就好像这些词的意思变了。 In over twenty years of publishing fiction and journalism, Ive become pretty much inured to these slings and arrows, regarding them as par for the anti-intellectual course. I used to remonstrate with those who raised the S-word (S being for sesquipedalian, an obscure word that means a lover of obscure words). 我已经出版科幻小说和杂志二十多年了，早已十分习惯于这些闲言碎语了，把它们看成是反对知识分子课程的标准。我过去常常劝告那些提出S词的人（S 代表冗长的单字，一种含糊的词，意思是一位忠爱晦涩单词的人。） Id point out