Is there something unforgivably confusing about the unlimited use of adjectives and adverbs?

          Many famous stylists think so．Crime writer Elmore Leonard，who died last week，commented in his 10 rules of writing that using an adverb was almost always a “mortal sin(大罪)”．William Zinsser，author of On Writing Well，considers most adverbs and adjectives as “clutter(混乱)”，and Mark Twain advised readers to “kill” any adjective they could catch．

          Zinsser and Twain are quoted by Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn，assistant professor of public policy at Rutgers University Camden，in support of his view that the greater the number of adjectives and adverbs in academic writing，the harder it is to read．

He has published a paper in the journal Scientometrics analyzing adjectival and adverbial quantity in about 1,000 papers published between 2000 and 2010 from across the disciplines．

          Perhaps unsurprisingly，the paper，“Cluttered writing：Adjectives and adverbs in academia”，finds that social science papers contain the highest number of them，followed by humanities and history．Natural science and mathematics contain the lowest frequency，followed by medicine and business and economics．The difference between the social and the natural science is about 15 percent．

          “Is there a reason that a social scientist cannot write as clearly as a natural scientist？” the paper asks．

          Dr．Okulicz-Kozaryn told Times Higher Education that the analysis had been inspired by his own reading of academic papers，which suggested that political science in particular was “full of meaningless words that only add ornament(修饰)and weaken the meaning．”

He said the use of adjectives and adverbs also inflated article lengths，making it even harder for academics to keep up with the literature—a serious problem when the content of new papers published doubles every 15 years．

          He dismissed the suggestion that the complexity of issues addressed by social scientists demand more adjectives and adverbs．But he said he had no good explanation for overusing “fancy，meaningless language” in the discipline and aimed to investigate further．

However，he admitted that he had not analysed the frequency of adjectives and adverbs in his own writing．

“Maybe I am no better after all．．．But I'd bet I am better than average social scientists，” he said casually．

          Usually,when your teacher asks a question,there is only one correct answer．But there is one question that has millions of current answers．That question is "What's your name?" Everyone gives a different answer, but everyone is correct．

Have you ever wondered about people's names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?

           People's first names,or given names,are chosen by their parents．Sometimes the name of a grandparent or other member of the family is used．Some parents choose the name of a well-known person．A boy could be  named George Washington Smith;a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones．

          Some people give their children names that mean good things． Clara means "bright" ; Beatrice means "one who gives happiness" ;Donald means "world ruler" ;Leonard means " as brave as a lion"．The earliest last names,or sumames,were taken from place names． A family with the name Brook or Brooks probably lived near a brook (小溪) ;someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long,paved road． The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest．

          Other early sumames came from people's occupations．The most common occupational name is Smith,which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals．In the past,smiths were very important workers in every town andvillage． Some other occupational names are: Carter-a person who owned or drove a cart;Potter-a person who madepots and pans．

          The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village． The Carpenter's great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture．Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin,or their size,or their special abilities． When there were two men who were named John in the same village,the John with the gray hair probably became John Gray． Or the John who was very tall could call himself John Tallman． John Fish was probably an excellent swimmer and John Light-foot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer．

          Some family names were made by adding something to the father's name．English-speaking people added-s or -son．The Johnsons are descendants of John;the Roberts family's ancestor was Robert． Irish and Scottishpeople added Mac or Mc or 0． Perhaps all of the MacDonnells and the McDonnells and the O'Donnells are descendants of the same Donnell．