2018考研英语双语阅读：英语正逐渐被美国主义扼杀

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　　2018考研复习进行时，考研英语阅读真题中的文章，多摘自英美主流外刊，有时候你认识所有单词、搞清全部语法还不够，还需要了解英美文化，掌握他们的表达方式，这就是阅读的潜台词。下面新东方网考研频道考研整理《2018考研英语双语阅读精选》，速来学习吧！
       
        　　How Americanisms are killing the English language?
        　　英语正逐渐被美国主义扼杀
        　　导读:英国人现在感觉到他们的母语正在逐渐被美国馋食，那么你学的到底是英式英语还是美式英语呢?
        　　A book released this year claims that Americanisms will have completely
absorbed the English language by 2120. Hephzibah Anderson takes a look.
        　　今年发行的一本书声称，美国主义将在2120年完全扼杀英语。赫弗齐芭.安德森看了一眼这本书。
        　　So it turns out I can no longer speak English. This was the alarming
realisation foisted upon me by Matthew Engel’s witty, cantankerous yet
nonetheless persuasive polemic That’s the Way it Crumbles: The American Conquest
of English. Because by English, I mean British English.
        　　原来我已经不能再说英语了。马修.恩格尔看过之后诙谐的说，虽然说法有些过于夸张，但还是具有一定程度的说服力。令人崩溃的是，美国人正在逐渐征服英语，这里说的英语是英式英语。
        　　Despite having been born, raised and educated on British shores, it seems
my mother tongue has been irreparably corrupted by the linguistic equivalent of
the grey squirrel. And I’m not alone. Whether you’re a lover or a loather of
phrases like “Can I get a decaf soy latte to go?”, chances are your vocabulary
has been similarly colonised.
        　　尽管我出生在英国海岸，并在这里长大和上学，但是我的母语似乎已经被异国语言的小灰鼠破坏了。当然我不是唯一一个。不管你喜不喜欢“我能喝没有咖啡因的咖啡吗”这样的短语描述，你的词汇量可能都已经被殖民化了。
        　　Speaking on the wireless in 1935, Alistair Cooke declared that “Every
Englishman listening to me now unconsciously uses 30 or 40 Americanisms a day”.
In 2017, that number is likely closer to three or four hundred, Engel hazards –
more for a teenager, “if they use that many words in a day”.
        　　1935年，阿利斯泰尔.库克在无线网络发表讲话时宣称:“每个听我讲话的英国人现在每天都在无意识地使用30或40个美式英语。”到了2017年，这个数字很可能已经接近300或400个了，青少年可能会更多，恩格尔说道，因为他们每天的话很多。
        　　But how did this happen and why should we care? After all, as a nation
we’ve been both invaded and invader, and our language is all the richer for it.
Words like bungalow, bazaar, even Blighty, have their roots elsewhere. Heck, go
far enough back and isn’t it pretty much all just distorted Latin, French or
German?
        　　但是什么原因导致这种现象的发生，而我们为什么要关心这个问题呢?毕竟，我们的国家被侵略过，我们也侵略过别的国家，所以我们的语言相对丰富。像bungalow、bazaar、甚至是Blighty这样的词，都有它们自己的根源。见鬼，其实追溯到最早，我们的英语不也都是拉丁语、法语或德语的变种么?
        　　The first American words to make it across the pond were largely
utilitarian – signifiers for flora and fauna that didn’t exist back in Merrie
England. Moose, maize and tobacco were among them. But there were others, too,
that in retrospect might seem laden with significance – words like
plentifulness, monstrosity and conflagration.
        　　第一批在美国和英国之间的通用词汇是带有一定功利性的，那时在英格兰的梅里埃地区，植物和动物还没有名字。其中包括驼鹿、玉米和烟草。当然还有其他一些词汇，想在回想起来有点意思—比如像plentifulness、monstrosity和conflagration这些词汇。
        　　With no means of swift communication or easeful passage between the two
countries, American English merely trickled back into its source to begin with.
But as the balance of power between Britain and her former colonies shifted, as
America ascended to military, economic, cultural and technological dominance,
that trickle swelled to a torrent, washing away any kind of quality control.
        　　由于那时两国之间没有快速便捷的交流通道，美式英语渐渐的回到了其最初的源头。但随着英国和美国之间的力量平衡发生变化，美国在军事、经济、文化和技术上的逐渐处于主导，语言的涓涓细流最后汇成了洪流，冲击了现在的英式英语。
        　　It might seem tactless to bemoan the state of any branch of all-conquering
English when so many other languages are being wiped out entirely. But
ultimately, the battle isn’t really one of British versus American English, but
of individual experience versus the homogenising effects of global digital
culture.
        　　当许多语言被彻底取代或消灭时，对任何形式英语分支的消失感到惋惜其实是不太得体的。因为这场战役并不是英国人与美国人的对决，而是个人经历与全球数字文化的同质化效应。