世界节假日博览 第154期:国家标点日

National Punctuation Day is a very important holiday for teachers and students of English. In fact, anyone who writes in English should celebrate this day. Few of us feel we are experts at the small marks that make up the English punctuation system. The day was founded in 2004 by Jeff Rubin, a former journalist. He wanted to draw attention to the importance of proper punctuation and to promote good writing skills. He said:“Successful people have good communication skills, and that includes knowing how to write properly.“ He added:“I'm stunned at how many executives and CEOs send me articles and correspondence that are poorly written and punctuated…Magazines and newspapers routinely make punctuation errors.“

对于学英语的学生和英语老师来说，国家标点日是个非常重要的节日。事实上任何写英文的人都应该庆祝这一节日。小小的标点符号构成了英语标点系统，我们却几乎没人觉得自己是这方面的专家。国家标点日是2004年由一名前记者杰夫·鲁宾设立的。他想让人们注意到正确标点的重要性和提高良好的写作技巧。他说：“成功人士有好的沟通技巧，其中就包括知道如何正确书写。”他补充说：“我接到许多主管和首席执行官寄给我的文章和通信，我惊讶于他们糟糕的书写和错误的标点……杂志和报纸也经常有标点错误。”


Punctuation is everything in a written language except the actual letters or numbers. Punctuation marks and other things like spaces and indents help the reader understand the structure and organization of writing. Punctuation rules are different in every language. The oldest document containing punctuation dates back to the 9th century BC. English punctuation developed when large numbers of Bibles were produced. A standardized punctuation system emerged after the invention of the printing press. Many purists believe punctuation is under threat today. They say that the emergence of text messaging is killing off commas, colons and apostrophes. People are in too much of a hurry to bother with correct punctuation.

在书面语中，标点是实意词汇和数字之外最重要的部分。标点符号和其他如空格和缩进能帮助读者理解文章的组织结构。每种语言的标点规则都不一样。含有标点的最古老文件可追溯到公元前9世纪。英语标点符号在圣经大量出版时期得到完善。标准的标点系统出现在印刷机发明以后。许多纯粹主义者相信现在的标点受到了威胁。他们说短信的出现扼杀了逗号、冒号和省略号。人们太忙了，懒得写正确的标点符号。