To Be, or Not To Be

William Shakespeare - To be, or not to be (from Hamlet 3/1)
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
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* noble – having fine personal qualities that people admire, such as courage, honesty and care for others
* sling – (in the past) a simple weapon made from a band if leather, etc., used for throwing stones
* outrageous – very shocking and unacceptable
* take against sb/sth – to start not liking sb/sth for no clear reason
* end – a person’s death. People say ‘end’ to avoid saying ‘death’.
* heir – a person who has the legal right to receive sb’s property, money or title when that person dies
* consummation – the fact of making sth complete or perfect
* devoutly – believing strongly in a particular religion and obeying its laws and practices
* perchance - perhaps
* ay – aye - yes
* rub – a problem or difficulty
* shuffled – to walk slowly without lifting your feet completely off the ground
* pause – a period of time during which sb stops talking or stops what they are doing
* calamity – an event that causes great harm or damage
* whip – a hit by a long thin piece of rope
* scorn – a strong feeling that sb/sth is stupid or not good enough, usually shown by the way you speak
* oppressor – a person treats sb in a cruel and unfair way, especially by not giving them the same freedom, right, etc. as other people
* pang – a sudden strong feeling of physical or emotional pain
* spurn – to reject or refuse sb/sth, especially in a proud way
* merit – the quality of being good and of deserving praise, reward or admiration
* grunt – to make a short low sound in your throat, especially to show that you are in pain, annoyed or not interested
* dread – a feeling of great fear about sth that might or will happen in the future; a thing that causes this feeling
* hue – a color
* resolution – the power of a computer screen, printer, etc. to give a clear image, depending on the size of the dots that make up the image
* sickly o'er - sickly over – to become paler then usual, and unhealthy
* pith – the essential or most important part of sth
* regard – attention to or thought and care for sb/sth
* current – the fact of particular ideas, opinions or feelings being present in a group of people
* awry – not in the right position
* nymph – a spirit of nature in the form of a young woman, that lives in rivers, woods, etc.
* thy - your
* sin – an offence against God or against a religious or moral law

Unit 7 Language & Literature 1

Fixing the English Language

1. What is the evolution of language from Old English, Middle English and Modern English? What are their features?
Old English, developed from the Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, was characterized by limited vocabulary with word endings that identified the gender, number and case of words.
Middle English was distinguished by a large influx of French words into the language, and the shift to more simplified word forms.
Modern English featured a move toward standardization of the language by formalizing both usage and spelling.

2. In the 17th and 18th century, why did some writers hold a low opinion of English? How did English writers at that time solve the problem?
Because French and Latin followed specific patterns and rules, these languages were more prestigious than English.
They advanced the idea of a language academy, modeled after the Italian and French academies, as a move toward standardization.

3. What is the purpose of English academy?
The English academy should create a standardized grammar and dictionary for the English language.

4. Describe prescriptive and descriptive grammar.
Such rules of double negatives, contractions, and spelling are known today as prescriptive grammar.
Descriptive grammar objectively described the rules native speakers seemed to follow.

5. Give me some examples of the debate between the prescriptivists and the descriptivists.
(1) Prescriptivists view that English sentences should never end with a preposition. In common usage, prepositions show up quite regularly at the end of sentences.
(2) Prescriptivists also view the usage of “ain’t” as a contraction of “am not” as inelegant and wrong, whereas many dictionaries list “ain’t”, indicating the word is used by speakers of English.
(3) Prescriptivists also disallow regional usage that does not follow the standard rules of English.

6. Is corruption of the English language a problem? What are the opinions of prescriptivists and descriptivists?
Prescriptivists claim the change of the English language is corruption, but descriptivists’ answer is contrary. The descriptivists say that English is changing as all languages, whether change is good or bad is not the question, because change is inevitable.