ThesedaysyoungpeopleinsomeEnglish-speakingcountriesarespeakingastrangelanguageespeciallywhencommunicatingonsocialmedia.

LookatthesewordschosenbyTheWashingtonPost:“DavidBowiedyingistotestradge”and“WhenCookiehuggedJamalitmademetotesemosh.”Orthissentence:“BAEletmeknowifyoustayintonight.”

Whatonearthdotheymean?Well“totes”isashortformof“totally”.Similarly“tradge”means“tragic”and“emosh”means“emotional”.Itseemsthatformillennials（千禧一代）typinginthisformisnotonlytime-savingbutfashionable.

Asyoucanseemanymillennialslangs（俚语）areformedbyso-called“totesing”—thesystematicabbreviation（缩写）ofwords.Thetrendmighthavestartedwith“totally”becoming“totes”butitnowhasspreadtomanyotherEnglishwords.

Theoriginsofothermillennialslangsaremorecomplexthan“totesing”.“Bae”forexamplehasbeenwidelyusedbyAfrican-Americansforyears.Itcanbeanexpressionofclosenesswithone’sromanticpartnerorlike“sweetheart”forsomeonewithoutromanticconnection.AfterpopsingerPharrellusedthewordinhiswork“bae”becamemainstream.

SomepeoplemightthinkmillennialslangslowerthevalueoftheEnglishlanguagebutMelbourneUniversitylinguist（语言学家）RoseyBillingtondoesn’tagree.Shesayswhenpeopleareabletousealanguageinacreativewaytheyshowthattheyknowthelanguageruleswellenoughtousewordsdifferently.TwootherlinguistsLaurenSpradlinandTaylorJonessharethesameview.Thetwoanalysedhundredsofexamplesoftotes-speakanddiscoveredtotesinghascomplexroots.

Itisn’tsimplyanadultversionofbabytalknoracleverwaytominimizeyourwordcount.Ratheritisahighlyorganizedsystemthatreliesonaspeaker’smasteryofEnglishpronunciation.ItisaboutsoundsfollowssoundsystemofEnglishandhasstrictrules.

28.Whydoyoungpeoplelikeusinge-slangs?

A.Theyaretime-consuming. B.Theyareinfashion.

C.Theyarecomplex. D.Theyareinorder.

29.What’stheauthor’spurposeofmentioning“Bae”inParagraph5?

A.Tosupportthattotesingisnobabytalk.

B.Toanalysetheusageofmillennialslangs.