At the other end of the scale, we have an equally imperturbable band, speaking with a similar degree of careless ease, because even if they are aware that their English is condemned by others, they are supremely indifferent to the fact. The Mrs. Mops of this world have active and efficient tongues in their heads, and if we happened not to like their ways of saying things, well, we ¡°can lump it ¡±. That is their attitude. Curiously enough, writers are inclined to represent the speech of both these extreme parties with -in¡¯ for ing. On the one hand, ¡°we¡¯re goin¡¯ huntin¡¯, my dear sir¡±; on the other, ¡°we¡¯re goin¡¯ racin¡¯, mate.¡±ª¥

In between, according to this view, we have a far less fortunate group, the anxious. These actively try to suppress what they believe to be bad English an d assiduously cultivate what they hope to be good English. They live their lives in some degree of nervousness over their grammar, their pronunciation, and their choice of words: sensitive, and fearful of betraying themselves. Keeping up with the Joneses is measured not only in houses, furniture, refrigerators, cars, and clothes, but also in speech.ª¥

And the misfortune of the ¡°anxious¡± does not end with their inner anxiety. Their lot is also the open or veiled contempt of the ¡°assured¡± on one side of them and of the ¡°indifferent¡± on the other.ª¥

It is all too easy to raise an unworthy laugh at the anxious. The people thus uncomfortably stilted on linguistic high heels so often form part of what is, in many ways, the most admirable section of any society: the ambitious, tense, inner-driven people, who are bent on ¡°going places and doing things¡±. The greater the pity, then, if a disproportionate amount of their energy goes into what Mr. Sharpless called¡° this shabby obsession¡± with variant forms of English¡ª especially if the net result is (as so often) merely to sound affected and ridiculous. ¡° Here¡±, according to Bacon, ¡°is the first distemper of learning, when men study  words and not matter ¡­. It seems to me that Pygmalion¡¯ s frenzy is a good emblem ¡­of this vanity: for words are but the images of matter; and except they have life of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is to fall in love with a picture.¡±ª¤

21. The attitude held by the assured towards language is

A. critical.         

B. anxious.ª¤

C. self-conscious.                   

D. nonchalant.ª¤

22. The anxious are considered a less fortunate group because

A. they feel they are socially looked down upon.ª¤
B. they suffer from internal anxiety and external attack.ª¤
C. they are inherently nervous and anxious people.ª¤
D. they are unable to meet standards of correctness.ª¤

23. The author thinks that the efforts made by the anxious to cultivate what they believe is good English are

A. worthwhile.       

B. meaningless.