Unit_9__Text__I_Pigskin_English.doc

UNIT 9 TEXT IPigskin English Robert MacNeil1Pre-reading questions1. Have you heard of the Super Bowl? What do you know about it?2. Do you sometimes watch a ball game televised live? What do you think of the China language the commentators use?_1_ In this essay, Robert MacNeil recounts his investigation into the language of sportscasters. MacNeil, who with Robin Lehrer co-anchors the “MacNeil- Lehrer Newshour” on public television and is also the author of The Story of English, expected to discover that popular football commentators such as John Madden2 were mangling English grammar and setting a poor example for viewers. Instead, he found that sportscasters really dont speak any worse than anyone else, including many news reporters._2_ When I sat down recently to assess football commentators English, I thought it would be a snap. Not a big football fan, I assumed all I had to do was to turn on the television, watch a little football and fill a notebook with mangled grammar. After all, wasnt this the frontline for the decline of the English language? Hadnt the Gothic hordes captured sports television, driving frail civilization before them-burning, pillaging and raping the language as they came?3 And the Super Bowl4! The Visigoths festival!5 Language vandalism on an epic scale!_3_ No, even grander than epic-universal, because the Super Bowl is now seen around the world. People in 59 countries watched last year, seven million in Britain, God knows how many millions in the Peoples Republic of China. This year the penguins in Antarctica will watch the clash of the titans on CBS and hear Pat Summerall6 and John Madden describe it._4_ English is already the worlds most widely used language, the first or second language of almost a billion people. Countless millions are studying it avidly-250million people in China alone. Events like the Super Bowl are watch hypnotically not only as sport but as lessons in American culture-and English. So, what do they hear?_5_ First, sheer verbal energy; energy in decibels-a relentless barrage of words; a collision of words as fierce as the crunch of linesmen, when the smack of their action occasionally interrupts the torrential talk. Words shouted, words bellowed, words screamed; voices raised to be heard above a crowd the commentators cant hear because they are inside a glass booth -in short a pandemonium of words._6_ The game may be dull. Football can be dull and television has made it duller by stretching a game into house and hours of fragments to accommodate commercials and promotions. Tex Schramm7, the Cowboys owner, said: “I think its wrong to confuse dullness with length.” It may be wrong, but it is human nature, Tex. Things interesting for two hours may be intolerable for four. Television knows that. So to compensate for the dullness TV has imposed on the game, the sportscasters keep up the verbal razzle-dazzle. _7_ It is like colorizing old movies to make them compelling, after chopping them into seven-minute segments, to insert the commercials and then arguing that people wont watch them in black and white._8_ They talk so hard and so fast at each other often in the two-shots so comically close together that you wonder about bad breath there must be a competition for Most Valuable Mouth (MVM). USA Today fosters that by devoting a special column to TV sports coverage, rating commentators for “best lines”, “best fact”, “worse line”, etc._9_ One way to win MVM is to have a handy supply of reach-for-it metaphors, and John Madden waiting for an instant-reply decision8: “Its like paying alimony and then waiting for the rabbit to die”; Madden on Jim MacMahon; “He doesnt worry about the horse being blind. Hes going to load the wagon”; or, “Randy White is like an all-day sucker. You never get it licked.”9_10_ It is bizarre to think what those metaphors tell a football fan in China about American life and morals. More important, how does football languages affect American fans? When I and my colleagues worked on the television series and the book, The Story of English, we found an interesting paradox. Despite the vast influence of television, people do not talk like television._11_ American broadcasters-radio and television-have grown their own variety of English: Linguists call it Network Standard, an accent drawn from the Midwest, generally admired for its clarity, intelligibility and neutrality. Consciously or unconsciously, broadcasters adopted it early in their careers, ironing out their own regional speech patterns. Dan Rather told us he took speech lessons to rid his speech of his Texas “tin” for “ten.” Although Rather is enormously admired, his fellow Texans still say “tin.”_12_ In short, despite its impact on the rest of American life, television is not leveling out regional dialects. Football commentators are even more popular than television newsmen, yet they do not seem to be creasing their speech of their fans but reflecting it._13_ To begin with, football commentators do not mangle the language nearly to the extent I believed10. You have to go out of your way to look for really glaring examples. Here are some -Musburger (CBS):A player “was to have been the intended receiver.” Trumpy (NBC): “It appears Miamis weakness is defensing the run.” Vermeil11 (CBS): “Its hard on young players technique wise and mentally-wise,” and, “In college football you teach people to be a team guy.”_14_ Much more common is that these commentators speak very regular, colloquial American, filled with “lotsa”, “gotta”, “musta”, “woulda”12. It is nonstandard in grammar but often used informally by Americans who use standard grammar otherwise. It is the language of the beer commercial that sustain the games. Speaking it is like hanging up the business suit and pitting on jeans for the weekend._15_ It is very much the language you will hear from John Madden in the Super Bowl: “All this guy does is get open. It seems like for years anytime they need yardage, they use Joe Jacoby There are things you have to like about Schroeder. This Gary Clark is something. Ill guarantee ya hes loosenin up this defense. That what its all about.”_16_ Leaving anxious language students in Singapore aside for the moment, is such language influencing American speech, corrupting standard usage, undoing the work of our schools? Edwin Newman13 thinks so. Citing Maddens repeated misuse of “like, as well as using “I tell ya”11times and “y know”39 times in the second half of one NFL game, Newman says: “That sets a fairly deplorable example example for those listening.” Perhaps._17_ But the English Madden speaks so colorfully is already a widely used variety, something to relax with, like the act of watching football itself. It is a way of crossing the lines of economic class and finding fellow feeling. There is still in this culture a residue of the frontier suspicion that a man too finicky with words, who talks like the schoolmarm, is not quite masculine. Relaxed, untutored speech is associated with outdoor jobs that seem more virile. Football is an easy way to bridge the gap._18_ The truth is that we all move up-and down-market, so to speak14, in our language. Language is the great excluder and includer and most of us unconsciously play it both ways: keeping some people at a distance with one form of talk, ingratiating ourselves with others by adopting theirs._19_ Maddens is not only style. There are football voices that would please the prickliest English teacher: NBCs Ahmad Rashad15 talking about “the consummate tight end”, and Dick Enberg16 talking about “this penchant for the close game” are using elegant English. So is Maddens co-worker on the Super Bowl, Pat Summerall, when he says: “The interception at which we will take another look in a minute.” How about that, Edwin Newman?_20_ Newsmen tend to look down a little on the sportscasters. But to be honest I doubt the network football commentators are much harder on the language than a lot of TV newsmen left to ad-lib for more than a few minutes. Besides, the football guys have the added advantage of knowing what they are talking about.GLOSSARYpigskin avidlyrecount hypnoticallysportscaster verbalco-anchor decibelcommentator barragemangle collisionsnap crunchfrontline linesmanGothic smackhorde torrentialcapture bellowpillage boothrape fragmentVisigoth accommodatevandalism promotionepic compensategrand keep uppenguin razzle-dazzleclash colorizetitan two-shotcomically sustainbad breath yardageleague undoinstant-replay residuealimony frontiersucker finickylick schoolmarmbizarre virileparadox down-marketintelligibility ingratiateneutrality includeriron out ingratiatelevel out pricklynewsman consummateglaring tight endreceiver penchantdefense closerun ad-libcolloquial 1. About the author Robert MacNeil, born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1931, has worked for Reuters News Agency, the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC and the BBC. He coanchored with Jim Lehrer coverage by the Public Broadcasting Service of the Senate Watergate Hearings, for which he won the first of several Emmy awards. In October, 1975, he and Lehrer launched a half-hour nightly news program, The Robert MacNeil Report with Jim Lehrer (later The MacNeilLehrer Report), which dealt with a single issue each night. Eight years later, this innovative approach was expanded to The MacNeilLehrer NewsHour, the first hour-long evening news program in the United States, which earned major broadcasting awards several times. He has written several books, including The People Machine: The Influence of Television on American Politics, The Story of English and two memoirs, The Right Place at the Right Time and Wordstruck. 2. John Madden (Paragra1) former head coach of the Raiders team, who was named AFL (American Football League) coach of the year in 1968,when, at age32,he was the AFLs youngest coach.3. Hadnt the Gothic hordes captured sports television, driving frail civilization before them burning, pillaging and raping the language as they came?(Paragraph2)It was those barbaric Goth-like “invaders” who had taken over sports television, trampling on the delicate intellectual and cultural achievements of civilized people by abusing the English language. Gothic hordes is an allusion. Goths were ancient Teutonic people, who in the 3rd to the 6th century AD were an important power in the Roman world. During the 3rd century AD, Gothic Athens in 267 to 268AD, and threatened Italy. For about a century, wars between the Roman emperors and Gothic rulers devastated the Balkan territory and the northeastern Mediterranean region. In about 370AD the Goths divided into two separate groups: the Ostrogoths, and the Visigoths who destroyed Rome in 410AD and took over parts of Spain and southern France, where they established a powerful kingdom that lasted until the beginning of the 8th century.4. the Super Bowl (Paragraph 2)an annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL),the major professional football league in the Unite States. The game is played between the champions if the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The Super Bowl is typically held at the end of January to conclude the United States.5. The Visigoths festival (paragraph 2) the festival kept or celebrated by the Visigoths, West Goths who were members of the branch of the Goths who settled in France and Spain in the 5th century and ruled much of Spain until 711AD.6. Pat Summerall (Paragraph 3) regarded as the signature voice of sports broadcasting in America. As a professional football player, Pat was best known as the kicker for the legendary New York Giants championship teams of the late 1950s and 60s. After his retirement, he became the mainstay of the CBS Sports broadcasting team for 32 years. In 1994, Pat and broadcast partner, John Madden, joined the Fox network. For 21 years, they were the strongest sportcasting team in the history of the game. 7. Tex Schramn (1920-2003)(Paragraph6)an American professional football administrator who was president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys from 1959 through 1989.Schramn helped build Dallas into one of the most successful franchises in the National Football League(NFL) and played an instrumental role in the development of professional football in the 1960s, 1970s,and 1980s.8. an instant-reply decision (Paragraph9)In American football, the referee sometimes has to review a questionable ball on videotape to finalize a decision or penalty. 9. “Its like paying alimony and then waiting for the rabbit to die; Madden on Jim MacMahon: “He doesnt worry about the horse being blind. Hes going to load the wagon”; or, “Randy White is like an all-day sucker. You never get it licked.” (Paragraph9)All these are examples of metaphors cited from John Madden. 10. football commentators do not mangle the language nearly to the extent I believe (Paragraph13) football commentators do not spoil the language so much I expected . Not nearly is often used to emphasize that something is not the case.11. Musburger, Trumpy, Vermeil (Paragraph13) former football players, now serving as football commentators 12. “lotsa”, “gotta”, “musta”, “woulda” (Paragraph14) colloquial terms for “lots of”, “have got to”, “must have”, “would have, respectively13. Edwin Newman (Paragraph16) a journalist and writer and longtime television anchorman of NBC News14. so to speak (Paragraph18) used to indicate that you are expressing something in an unusual way, for example, that you are being euphemistic15. Ahmad Rashad (Paragraph19) an Emmy award-winning sportscaster, mostly in an NBC Sport16.Dick Enberg (Paragraph19) a CBS sportscasterTest comprehensionI. In assessing football commentators and their English, the author agrees with all of the following EXCEPT_.A. Their English is no worse than of the TV news reporters.B. The English they use in covering the Super Bowl made the language most widely used.C. They compensate for the dullness TV has imposed on the game.D. They speak informal, nonstandard English not so much as to corrupt the language.II. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.1. The Super Bowl is now televised live in 59 countries every with seven million audience in the Peoples Republic of China.2. English is the most widely used languages in the world, with almost a billion people using it as a first or second language, and as many as 250 million learners in China alone.3. TV viewers are watching events like the Super Bowl not only as a sports program but as lessons in good, natural English.4. Football is so popular a game all over the world that the sportscasters naturally influence people in terms of their everyday talk.5. A football fan in China can learn a lot about American culture by listening to the football commentators.III. Answer the following questions.1. Why do some critics think the Super Bowls English is “the Visigoths festival” and “the language vandalism on an epic scale”?2. What are football commentators utterances like in terms of their voice?3. Why has television made football duller?4. What does the tone of the author suggest when it comes to commercials?5. What does the author think of the metaphors John Madden uses?6. What can you infer from football commentators speech in terms of language usage according to Edwin Newman?7. How does the authors view differ from that Edwin Newman?8. Think of a few words and phrase that can aptly describe the impression of football commentators English the text has left on you.IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text.1. When I sat down recently to assess football commentators English. I thought it would be a snap.2. Hadnt the Gothic hordes captured television, driving frail civilization before them_ burning, pilling and raping the language as they came?3. This year the penguins in Antarctica will watch the clash of the titans on CBS.4. You have to go out of your way to look for really glaring examples.5. Speaking it is like hanging up the business suit and putting on jeans for the weekend.6. There is still in this culture a residue of the frontier suspicion that a man too finicky with words, who talks like the schoolmarm, is not quite masculine.Writing strategies The essay by Robert MacNeil is characterized by a vivid style and an objective tone. In order to render his accounts more vivid, the writer employs