阅读理解

　　The English language is changing, and fast, thanks to the rapid progress of technology．We all have a choice：we can either bury our heads in the sand and spend the rest of our lives wishing Shakespeare were alive and well, or we can embrace(拥抱)the new English, enter into the spirit of the Internet age and call it “weblish”．

　　“You can’t avoid it, for the simple reason that whenever a new variety of language comes along, it inevitably impacts(冲击)on the language as a whole, ”says Dr．David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics(语言学)at the University of Wales in Bangor, whose book “Language and the Internet” has just been published．

　　The trouble with keeping up with the new English is not so much that there are so many new words but that the old words no longer mean what we thought they did．In the past, if someone said they did not have Windows, you would have to suppose they lived in a cave．These days, it is probably because they use a Mac(which is a computer, not a raincoat)．Spam is as disliked as it ever was, but whereas it once meant an unappetizing(没有食欲的)canned meat, it now stands for unwanted “junk” email．Spellings are changing, too．Not only is text－messaging playing “hvc wth vrbs” [havoc(混乱)with verbs], but the conventions of email communication place little emphasis on “perfect spelling”．

　　Weblish loves to see nouns happily become verbs(“Please bookmark this site”), and verbs become nouns(“Send me the download”)．Verbs and prepositions are regularly thrown together to become new nouns or adjectives(dial－up, logon, print－out, pull－down, upload), while others are created from simply pairing nouns：cyberspace, ethernet, Internet, hyperlink, metatag, netspeak．