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In short, all of these publications are written in the language that the Third International describes, even the very editorials which scorn it.
总而言之，所有这些报刊上的文章都是用第三版所描写的语言写成的，连那些攻击侮蔑第三版的社论本身也不例外。
And this is no coincidence, because the Third International isn't setting up any new standards at all;
这不是什么偶然的巧合，因为第三版压根儿没有订立什么新的语言使用标准，
it is simply describing what Life, the Washing-ton Post, and the New York Times are doing.
它所作的只不过是对《生活》、《华盛顿邮报》和《纽约时报》等报刊所使用的语言进行描写而已。
Much of the dictionary's material comes from these very publications, the Times, in particular, furnishing more of its illustrative quotations than any other newspaper.
该词典的许多内容恰恰取材于这些报刊，尤其是《纽约时报》，它为该词典提供的例证比任何一家别的报纸都多。
And the papers have no choice. No journal or periodical could sell a single issue today if it restricted itself to the American language of twenty-eight years ago.
这些报刊也别无选择余地。今天的任何报刊，如果限制自己只使用二十八年前的美国语言的话，那它可能连一期也卖不出去;
It couldn't discuss halt the things we are inter ester in, and its style would seem stiff and cumbrous.
对于我们所关心的事物，它就会连一半也讨论不了;它的文风也一定会显得刻板呆滞。
If the editorials were serious, the public-and the stockholders-have reason to be grateful that the writers on these publications are more literate than the editors.
假如那些社论对第三版的评论不是开玩笑的话，广大读者--还有报纸的股东们-就有理由感激这些报刊的撰稿人，他们的文化水平比编辑老爷们高一些。
And so back to our questions: what's a dictionary for, and how, in 1962, can it best do what it ought to do? The demands are simple.
让我们再回到该讨论的问题上来：词典的用途何在?在1962年的今天，词典怎样才能最有效地执行自己的使命?人们的要求其实也很简单。
The common reader turns to a dictionary for information about the spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and proper use of words.
一般读者查词典的目的是为了弄清词语的拼写、发音、词义和正确用法。他想了解什么是通用的，什么是正确的。
He wants to know what is current and respectable.
他想了解-他也有权利知道-真实情况，绝对的真实情况。
But he wants-and has a right to-the truth, the full truth.
然而任何语占，
And the full truth about any language, and especially about American English today, is that there are many areas in which certainty is impossible and simplification is misleading.
尤其是今日的美国英语中的真实情况就是，许多语言现象要想说得确切明白是不可能的，而过分简单化的说明又易引起误解。
