A The total number of the words in a language All the words used in a particular historical period All the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given discipline B His Chinese vocabulary is rather limited. Most technical jobs use a specialized vocabulary. Modern English vocabulary. All the words that an individual person knows, learns, or The English vocabulary is one of the largest and uses. richest. 二、There is plenty of slang in the following dialogue. Read the dialogue and see if you identify and understand. Person A: What's up man? Person B: Not much dude. A: How is it going?
B: I'm alright. I am good. A: What's going on? B: I am feeling down. A: Why?
B: My girlfriend dumped me. She said that we don't mesh well together. A: I am so sorry. I feel for you man.
B: It sucks. It's so horrible. I don't want to live without her.
A: There are plenty of other fish in the sea. You can't lose hope over a single chick. B: I guess you got a point. It's tough though, and it's hard to move on. A: You'll be good. No worries. Live life and have fun.
B: I can do that. Thank you so much for being there. You're the man.
A: I do what I can, lol. 三、Here are some of the slang expressions with their explanations
man: a term of familiar address to a man or a woman: Hey, man, take it easy. dude: a man, a fellow down: depressed
dump: to end one’s relationship with someone mesh: to match, coordinate, or interlock
suck：to be disgustingly disagreeable or offensive
feel for: to feel sympathy for or compassion toward; empathize with: I know you're disappointed and upset, and I feel for you. fish: person
chick: Often Offensive. a girl or young woman. lol: laughing out loud 四、Which of the following words are content words and which are function words? Put them in the correct category. denote never the did and sun clear in notion upon belong cloud 第 1 页 共 17 页
Seven Christmas Am Along have would are slowly 五、Read the following excerpt from George W. Bush’s Farewell Address in 2009 and underline the functional words used in it. Like all who have held this office before me, I have experienced setbacks. There are things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed the conscience and done what I thought was right. You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.
六、Guess whether the following statements are true or false.
1. Native words are words brought to Britain in the fifth century by the Germanic tribes: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes.
2. Native words are known as Anglo-Saxon words. 3. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are small in number.
4. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin form the mainstream of the basic word stock and stand at the core of the language. 5. What is true of the basic word stock is also true of native words. 6. The number of functional words is overgrowing. 7. Every morpheme has its variants.
七、Put the following borrowed words into the correct category. Pioneer Dream Fresh Dumb Ketchup port Change Kimono Kowtow cup Decor Intermezzo Black humour Masterpiece Gospel pork Denizens: pork port change cup
Aliens: Kowtow Kimono Intermezzo Ketchup Decor Translation-loans: Masterpiece Black humour Semantic-loans: Dream Fresh Pioneer Dumb
八、Explain the relationship between sound and meaning with examples.
九、Divide the following words into their constituent morphemes:
inaccessibility, unevenly, friendliness, overseas, minimalist, occurrences, assumption, retell, ex-wife, misleading, multimedia, automobile, microcomputer, vice-chairman, semiconductor, underdeveloped, telescope, maltreat, anti-government, forehead, illegal, disobey, unfair, prepaid, de-emphasis, readiness, discouraging, kind-hearted, undoubtedly, stockrooms, prepackaged
十、Judge how many morphemes the following words have:
unrespectable, recollection, irresponsibility, internationalists, impossibility, unpredictable 十一、Write the following words with hyphens between their morphemes. quickly downstairs fourth poisonous weaken worldwide internationally inject protrude
十二、Try to find out how many allomorphs does \"–ed\" has? Illustrate your answer with examples.
What would be considered as allomorphs of the morpheme ‘plural’ from the following set of English words? data oxen children deer films factories matches 十三、Analyze the words in terms of root and stem. impracticableness unbelievably
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十四、Underline each bound morpheme in the following words. island surname disclose duckling cranberry reading poets
flavourfulness famous subvert
十五、What are the inflectional morphemes in the following phrases or sentences? 1. the boy’s books
2. the greatest achievements 3. It’s snowing.
4. John climbed the mountain.
十六、Give all the possible inflections for the following words. book, forget, short, snap, take, goose, heavy
Chapter 2 一、Point out the native words in the following pairs of synonyms: beak---bill break---sever feed---nourish amity---friendship wet---humid solitary---lonely people---folk deep---profound mount---rise world---universe answer-reply celestial---heavenly exterior---outer cordial---hearty dale---valley have---possess conceal---hide deed---action holy---sacred aid---help prevent---hinder begin---commence womanly---feminine inner---interior deadly---mortal motherly---maternal question---ask masculine---manly buy---purchase thin---tenuous earthly---terrestrial royal---kingly violin---fiddle fatherly---paternal domestic---homely bodily---corporal vivacious---lively brotherhood---fraternity aqueous---watery
二、Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. English is the language of the early inhabitants of the British Isles.
2. The first peoples known to inhabit England were Celts who mainly spoke Latin.
3. The Romans invaded the British Isles and occupied it until about 410. Consequently the Latin of the Roman Legions was a major language used by the early inhabitants of the British Isles. 4. As the German tribes invaded Britain, the Celtic languages gradually retreated. 5. Celtic made only a small contribution to the English vocabulary.
6. Indo-European refers to the family languages spoken originally in Europe. 7. Latin and French belong to the different language groups.
8. English belongs to the West-Germanic language group of Indo-European language family. 9. The first people in England about whose language we have definite knowledge are the Celts.
10. Old English is characterized by the frequent use of compounds which in turn is an important linguistic feature of Germanic language.
11. Old English has much less loan words compared with modern English. 12. Modern English is a language of leveled endings.
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三、Compare Old English with Middle English. What are their respective characteristics? Geoffrey Chaucer (?1343-1400) Middle English Period
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Early Modern English Period
Chapter 3 一、On semantic basis, prefixes are divided into nine groups: 1. Negative Prefixes
2. Reversative prefixes
3. Pejorative prefixes
4. Prefixes of degree or size
5. Prefixes of orientation and attitude
6. Locative prefixes
7. Prefixes of time and order
8. Number prefixes
9. Miscellaneous prefixes
二、Now, compare the meanings of the words with their roots or stems and judge what changes have taken place on meanings. Then please decide which group the prefixes above belong to. Just fill in the numbers that represent the different groups. An example has been done for you. re ex- mis- multi- 7 vice- semi- under- tele- mal- 第 4 页 共 17 页
fore- il- dis- un- auto- micro- anti- pre- de- 三、In the following table, there are 12 words of different part of speech. Match the words with the corresponding suffixes to form a new word. Write out the new word and its part of speech. An example has been done for you.
四、Analyze the new nouns in the above table. Are they abstract nouns or concrete nouns? Which suffixes will lead to an abstract noun and which to concrete ones? Write A for abstract and C for concrete in the following form. An example has been done for you. -dom -ity -ery -hood -ism -er A -ese -ess -sion -ee -tion -ent 五、Form negatives of each of the following words by using one of these prefixes dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, non-, un- smoker capable practical obey security relevant mature ability
officially willingness legal agreement logical loyal convenient athletic
Keys: nonsmoker，incapable，impractical，disobey，insecurity，irrelevant，immature，inability/disability，unofficially，unwillingness，illegal，disagreement，illogical，disloyal，inconvenient，nonathletic
六、用否定前缀in-（及其变体）、non-、un-构成下列单词的反义词
correct, friendly, wrap, free, rational, consistent, remarked, business, green, expected, smoker, balanced, empty, polite, complete, resistant, trivial, candidate, attention, science, logical, informative , literate, assuming, remitting, mortal, perishable, sane, forgettable
七、In English, there are quite a few prefixes that connote negation. They include “a-, un-, in-, dis-, mis-, non-, de-”, and the like. Can you give one or two examples for each.
八、How would you distinguish between “un-” and “non-” in terms of their meaning and use? Can we prefix “un-” to adjectives like “tall, ill” and “black”? Why or why not?
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九、Turn the following nouns and adjectives into verbs with suffixes –en, -ify, -ize and then choose appropriate verbs you have formed to fill in the blanks in the sentences that follow.
hard horror modern memory false apology deep glory sterile length intense beauty fat sympathy a．He _________ for interrupting her.
b．She tried to _________ her room with posters and plants. c．A study has been ordered into the feasibility of _________ the airport’s main runway by two hundred meters. d．However much they _________ with her, they all felt it was her fault. e．Soya is excellent food to _________ cattle.
f．She laughed and that seemed to ________ her voice.
g．Forty thousand pound had been spent on _________ the station.
h．_________ the bottles by immersing them in boiling water for fifteen minutes.
十、Each of the following sentences contains a word printed in bold type. Complete the sentences by using this word to form a noun to refer to a person.
a．If you are employed by a company, you are one of its _________. b．A _________ is someone whose job is politics.
c．The ________s in a discussion are the people who participate in it. d．A woman who works as a _________ does the same job as a waiter. e．The person who conducts an orchestra or choir is called the _________. f．Your _________ is the person who teaches you.
g．A _________ is someone who earns their living by playing the piano.
h．If someone examines you, you are the _________ and he or she is the _________.
十一、What is the meaning of the prefixes in the following words?
indirect, endanger, dissimilar, unwind, interconnect, misconduct, oversleep, rewrite, untie, redraw, postgraduate, disallow
十二、Fill in the blanks with appropriate suffixes. 1. –able, -ible
consum , comprehens , exchange ,permiss 2. –ant, -ent
absorb , assist , differ , particip 3. –ar, -er, -or
construct , li , begg , edit , develop 4. –ary, -ery
element , station , brew , mock 十三、Change the following words into nouns:
admit, accept, allow, enter, expect, warm, strong, persuade, jealous
十四、Provide more examples suffixed with “-ling” (e.g. weakling) and “-ish” (e.g. womanish) that are negative in attitude.
十五、Identify the derivational affixes in the following words. Give a meaning or function for each one.
childish, declassify, freedom, illimitable, immovable, insufferable, misapprehension, prejudgment, reconnection, underdeveloped, withdrawal
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十六、Decide whether the statements below are true or false.
1. Non- differs un- in frequently expressing a binary contrast (without gradability) rather than the opposite end of a scale.
2. A number of suffixes yield items that can be used both as nouns and as adjectives, such as –ese, -an , -ist, -ite. 3. Some affixes may be polysemic. 4. Some affixes are synonymous.
5. Most of the prefixes may change the part of speech of the root they are attached to. Yet this is seldom the case with suffixes.
6. Suffixes usually do not affect the stress of the word they are attached to. Yet some prefixes may do.
7. Suffixes not only change the meaning of the roots or bases to which they are attached, but also change their word classes.
十七、Read the following compounds, and then guess their meanings.
1. American cloth 2. British warm 3. French leave 4.Spanish athlete
5. Chinese copy 6. Turkish delight 7. Indian meal 8. Dutch treat
美产布料 厚呢短大衣 不辞而别 西班牙运动员
彩色漆布 英国式的暖日 法式告别 吹牛者 中国版本 土耳其式狂欢 玉米粉 荷兰招待方式
与原物一模一样的复制品 土耳其软糖 印度大餐 各付己帐
十八、Decide whether the statements below are true or false.
a. Compounding are words formed by combining affixes and roots.
b. Open compounds look like free phrases as the elements forming each word are written separately. c. As a rule, the stress of compounds usually falls on the first element. d. The meaning of a compound is usually the combination of the roots.
e. A compound functions as a single grammatical unit, so its internal structure usually cannot be changed. 十九、Form compounds using the following either as the first or the second element of the compound as indicated. well- -woman -wide -minded self- -related -proof -in-law home- half- -conscious -based well-: well-behaved, well-qualified -proof: water-proof, fire-proof -woman: sportswoman, chairwoman -in-law: mother-in-law, sister-in-law -wide: nationwide, college-wide home-: home-made, home-baked -minded: strong-minded, narrow-minded half-: half-empty, half-forgotten self-: self-taught, serf-image -conscious: profit-conscious, status-conscious -related: work-related, age-related -based: campus-based, process-based 二十、Tell how the parts in each of the following groups are related to the meanings of the compound. 1. hotline, mainline, redneck, darkroom
2. bookshelf, breadbasket, mailbox, wineglass 3. letterhead, roadside, keyhole, hilltop 4. dropout, go-between, turnout, standby
5. bad-tempered, clear-headed, long-sighted, heavy-hearted
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6. grass-green, sky-blue, snow-white, milk-white
二十一、Read the following sentences; try to mark the part of speech of the word “up”. Can you lift that box up onto the shelf for me? We climbed slowly up the hill.
Is something up with Julie? She looks really miserable. Without saying another word, he upped and left.
Charlie seems to be on an up at the moment. I hope it lasts.
二十二、Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
a. Conversion refers to the use of words of one class as that of a different class. b. Words mainly involved in conversion are nouns, verbs and adverbs.
c. Partial conversion and full conversion are concerned with adjectives when converted to nouns. d. Such words as the poorer, the departed, a Republican are all examples of partial conversion. e. The conversion between nouns and verbs may involve a change of stress. f. An alternative for conversion is functional shift.
二十三、What is the difference between partial and full conversion? Explain them with examples.
二十四、Pick out the words which you think are converted in the following sentences and explain how they are converted.
a. We can’t stomach such an insult.
b. Robert Acheson roomed right next to me. c. He wolfed down his lunch.
d. There is no come and go with her. e. I’m one of his familiars. f. Poor innocents!
g. She flatted her last note.
h. The engineers ahed and ouched at the new machines. i. Come to the fire and have a warm.
j. Is Bill Jackson a has-been or a might-have-been? k. He Hamleted at the chance and then he regretted for it. l. These shoes were an excellent buy.
m. He turned his head and smoothed back the hair over one temple. n. Women have an equal say in affairs at home.
o. They lifted their rifle butts and hit him in the small of the back. p. The song quickly became the hit of the country.
q. We must train ourselves to distinguish right from wrong.
r. They braved a 40-below-zero snowstorm to rescue the farm cattle.
Keys: a. stomach (n → v) b. roomed (n → v) c. wolfed (n → v) d. come, go (v → n)
e. familiars (a → n) f. innocents (a → n) g. flatted (a → v) h. ahed, ouched (iht → v) i. warm (a → n) j. has-been, might-have-been (v → n) k. Hamlet (n → v) 1. buy (v → n) m. smoothed (a → n) n. say (v → n) o. small (a → n) p. hit (v → n) q. right, wrong (a → n) r. braved (a → v)
二十五、Pick out the words which you think are converted in the following sentences and explain how they are converted.
1. At once the villagers formed a circle and stated moving around me, singing to the accompaniment of a kora. 2. I name this ship Titanic.
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3. Agamemnon with the rest of the Greek army sailed away in their ships at night.
4. A few years ago the landlady locked the front door and installed a bell and buzzer system, which made
burglary more difficult though not impossible.
5. An upstairs tenant, who happened to be looking out of his window, came running down, questioned the men
and demanded their identification.
6. The children headed toward school, carrying slates and followed by their dogs. 7. Like the trunk of a tree, it rose in the air, branching out as it climbed.
8. They boarded boats and got away, living to tell the tale of the city’s destruction.
9. The day-t-day effect of dirty air is hard to measure, and most people take it for granted. 10. When these gases mix with fog, smog results.
11. There are a few success stories in battling air pollution.
12. Pollution can be trapped before they pour out of chimneys and a pollution-free car can be built.
13. If nation traded item for item, such as one automobile for 10,000 bags of coffee, foreign trade would be
extremely cumbersome and restrictive.
14. His place on the seat was taken almost immediately by a young man, fairly well dressed but scarcely more
cheerful than the other.
15. The young man quickly removed any doubt by pocketing the money.
16. Calming down, I convinced myself this was something that had to happen once in a lifetime.
17. Such was Pompeii on its last day. And so it is today, now that the volcanic ash has been cleared away. 18. Houses and clothes must be cleaned more frequently.
19. Born in 1879, in Uln, Germany, Einstein was two years old when his parents moved to Munich. There his
father opened a business in electrical supplies.
20. The Academy of Science was closed to him; his house was searched for weapons; he lost his professorship;
all his property was seized; and finally his German citizenship was taken away.
21. When the oil is heated, the first vapours to rise are cooled and become the finest petrol. 22. He emptied out all his pockets onto the table.
23. Part of the old wall fell on the workman, and it took half an hour to free him. 24. The wet clothes will soon dry in the sun.
25. I know my friends from the feel of their faces.
26. But I cannot really picture their personalities by touch.
27. I will try to explain to you what has given rise to these slanders and given me a bad name. 28. And Fabin gave him an appealing look.
29. Rex could hold a baseball with ease in his mouth in one cheek, as if it were a chew of tobacco. 30. That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like.
31. To protect the whale from the cold of the arctic seas, nature has provided it with a thick covering of fat
called blubber.
32. No machine would work for long if it were not properly lubricated. 33. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. 34. There is no alternative for this.
35. But how could a busy person get the better of one who had nothing to do?
36. It includes land with enough soil and enough rain-fall or water, and enough heat, which, at present, we are
not using.
37. We pass from one form of activity to another; one we call work, and for that we receive pay; the other we
call play, and for that we receive no pay --- on the contrary, we probably pay a subscription.
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Chapter 4 一、True or false judgement:
1. Shortening is one of the three major processes of word formation in English. 2. Back formation may be applied to every word that has a suffix. 3. Words created through back-formation are mostly nouns. 4. Most of the blends are verbs.
5. Blending is the formation of new words by combining parts of two words or a word plus a part of another word. 6. Clipping, a way of making a word is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part off the original and adding a new part to the original.
7. Words formed through acronymy are called initialisms or acronyms, depending on the spelling of the new words.
8. Back formation is the method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes. 9. Motel is formed through clipping.
二、Blank-filling:
1. is considered to be the opposite process of suffixation. 2. The word “autocide” and “telex” are formed by .
3. are those created by clipping part of a word, leaving only a piece of the old word. 4. are words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as letters. 5. are words formed from the initial letters of words and pronounced as words. 三、Choose the best answer:
1. Initialisms can be divided into alphabetisms and acronyms depending on . A. the grammatical function B. the pronunciation of the words C. the spelling way D. none of the above 2. Word formation excludes . A. affixation and compounding B. conversion and shortening C. back formation and blending D. repetition and alliteration 3. Back formation is considered to be the opposite process of . A. prefixation B. suffixation C. conversion D.compounding
4. Back formation is the method of creating words by the supposed suffixes. A. removing B. shortening C. adding D. writing 5. The overwhelming majority of blends are . A. verbs B. nouns C. adjectives D. adverbs
四、What do the following short forms stand for？
kg ft. cf. cm $ ibid etc. VIP OPEC TOEFL IELTS GRE BEC keys: kg—kilogram ft.—foot cf.—confer cm—centimeter $—dollar ibid—ibidem etc.—et cetera VIP--very important person OPEC--Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries TOEFL--Test of English as a Foreign Language
IELTS --- the International English Language Testing System
GRE--- Graduate Record Examination BEC---Cambridge Business English Certificate 五、List as many shortening in daily life as possible, e.g. the shortening of month names, of the seven days in a week, etc.
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六、Choose words from among the following list to fill in the blanks.
SALT laser radar sonar AIDS WHO G-man BASIC a. There was a wide coverage of the _________ talks in the press. b. There are enemy aircraft on the _________ screen. c. _________ is still an incurable disease.
d. If one knows _________ language, one will find it easy to learn how to use computers. e. _________ has long been applied to surgery in medicine.
f. _________ is an international agency of the United Nations which is concerned with improving health standards and services throughout the world.
g. Passive _________ listens for noises emanating from a submarine.
h. The person who works for the Federal Bureau of Investigation is called a _________.
Keys: a. SALT b. radar c. AIDS d. BASIC e. laser f. WHO g. sonar h. G-man 七、Read some English newspapers and collect as many instances of blended words as possible. Give the original words from which the following words are back-formed. lase emote babysit beg orate drowse
八、Decide whether the following statements are true or false. 1. Proper nouns form an important source of English vocabulary.
2. Words derived from names include names of people, names of country, names of products and names of book. 3. All the words denoting products come from the names of places where they were first made. 4. Quite a few words come from names of books and thus take on the meaning of the books. 5. When proper nouns are communized, many of them have lost their original identity.
6. Proper nouns have rich cultural association and thus stylistically vivid, impressive and thought-provoking. 7. Proper nouns can not take suffixes. Keys: 1. T 2. T 3. F 4. F 5. T 6. T 7. F 九、Study the following sentences and pick out the words which used to be proper nouns and explain the meaning in relation to their origins.
1. One of the goals of high-powered advertising is to tantalize us with items we can't quite afford. 2. We have decided that it is impossible to cheat when that Argus-eyed professor gives an exam. 3. The number of mirrors in the average home suggests that there is a little narcissism in each of us.
4. The terrorists have embarked on a scheme to sabotage as many factories in the Common Market countries as possible.
5. Our new football coach is a real martinet; he even calls our homes at night to see whether we are in. 6. How can such a disgusting yahoo really think he has charm and style?
7. This Shylock demands 10 percent per week on all loans, and he has the enforcers to guarantee payment. 8. She began the daily round of washing and hoovering.
9. The Christian heaven can be seen as a sort of spiritual utopia.
10. Simply because a black person is polite to white people doesn't make him or her guilty of Uncle Tommism. Keys: 1. Tantalize-Tantalus 2. Argus-eyed-Argus 3. Narcissism-Narcissus
4. Sabotage-sabots 5. Martinet-Martinet 6. Yahoo-Yahoo 7. Shylock-Shylock 8. Hoovering-Hoover 9. Utopia-Utopia 10. Uncle Tommism-Uncle Tom
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Chapter 5 一、Consider the following two sentences, do you find anything inappropriate in them? *He mounted his gee-gee. *He got on his steed.
In the first example, mounted is a very formal word, but it is used with a very informal word, that is, gee-gee, while in the second sentence, got on in a relative informal expression, but it is used with a very formal expression, that is, steed. In both these two examples, there is a disagreement of style.
In many cases, the appreciative or pejorative meaning of the words is brought out in context. Look at the following examples and decide whether ambitious and ambition are used appreciatively or pejoratively. (1) He is bright and ambitious.
(2) The reactionary's chief ambition is to become the emperor. (3) One who is filled with ambition usually works hard.
In (1), the italicised word is obviously used in good sense showing approval on the part of the speaker. In sentences (2) and (3), however, ambition undoubtedly conveys a pejorative overtone. Therefore, to a large extent the affective meaning of the word depends on the context where the word is used.
Chapter 8 (1) Native and foreign words
Native Foreign room chamber foe enemy help aid leave depart wise sage bodily corporal earthly terrestrial warlike bellicose buy purchase
Native French Latin ask question interrogate fast firm secure
fire flame conflagration fear terror trepidation holy sacred consecrated goodness virtue probity time age epoch (2) dialects and regional English
Read the following sentence, and notice the italicized synonyms.
[17] Autumn is British while fall is American. The British live in flats and take underground to work while Americans live in apartments and take the tube. More example words of this source are like: railway (BrE) railroad (AmE) mother (BrE) minny (ScotE) charm (BrE) glamour (ScotE) ranch (AmE) run (AusE)
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job (StandE) gig (BlackE)
jim (BlackE) male person (StandE) (3) Figurative and euphemistic use of words. e.g. occupation (profession) walk of life (fig) dreamer star-gazer (fig) drunk elevated (euph) lie distort the fact (euph) (4) Coincidence with idiomatic expressions, e.g. win gain the upper hand decide make up one's mind finish get through hesitate be in two minds help lend one a hand
Exercises on synonymy
1. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. 1) Synonyms must be similar in meaning and in part of speech.
2) Most synonyms belong to relative synonyms and absolute synonyms are nonexistent. 3) Foreign words provide a most important source of English synonyms.
4) Synonyms are identical in denotation but only different in style and affection.
5) Foreign words are generally more formal than native words and French words are less formal than Latin words. 6) The major difference between unlike—dissimilar, homely—domestic is stylistic and that between black—nigger, determined—pigheaded is affective.
7) To choose the right synonym in a group, we should find out the difference in conceptual meaning, in colouring and in usage.
Keys: 1) T 2) F 3) T 4) F 5) T 7) T 8) T
2. Give a word of similar meaning beginning with the letter \"f\" to each of the following words: a. woman f____ f. goodbye f____ b. scare f____ g. banquet f____ c. enemy f____ h. dirt f____ d. untrue f____ i. story f____ e. prestige f____ j. strange f____
Keys: woman——female scare——frighten／fright enemy——foe untrue——false／fake
prestige——fame goodbye--farewell banquet——feast dirt——filth story—— fiction／fable strange—foreign
3. In each of the following contexts, two words are given for the blank. In one case both words are interchangeable and in the other, only one can be used. a. I'm afraid they will____ (refuse, reject) our offer.
b. We____ (reject, refuse) goods that do not meet the required standard. a. Our____? (target, goal) is a profit of $ 50, 000 for the coming year. b. Montcrieff scored a fabulous____ (target, goal) in the second half. a. His approach to his studies is rather____ (shallow, superficial). b. The water is very____ (shallow, superficial)—let's paddle.
a. Could you____ (fetch, bring) me my glasses? They are on the table. b. Come to our party but don’t forget to____ (fetch, bring) a bottle. a. I'm going to be late—I'll have to____ (hurry, rush).
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b. The hostages decided to try to____ (hurry, rush) the terrorists to make him drop his gun. a. I____ (think, believe) he'll be here this evening. b. I don't____ (think, believe) in Father Christmas. a. From then on, the world (begin, start).
b. Since the plan is announced, let's ____ (begin, start) to do our share.
Keys: a．refuse，reject b．reject a．target，goal b．goal a．Shallow，superficial b．shallow a．fetch，bring b．bring a．hurry，rush b．rush a．think，believe b．believe a．began b．begin，start 4. For each of the italicized words in the text we have suggested two synonyms. Choose the best one in each case and decide if the synonyms need to be qualified in any way.
A recent poll (1) revealed that many parents felt there was too much violence on TV. Interestingly enough, only eight percent felt that sex was more harmful (2) than violence.
What emerged most clearly from the mass of figures was that parents exercise little control over their children’s' viewing, even when it worries them. They put the onus (3) on the programme makers which is both irresponsible and unfair. Even if children cannot be prevented from watching television, at least there could be a warning before the programme starts if it includes scenes likely to upset minors (4)This already happens in America.
Personally I would like to attach a warning to all those nasty (5), smutty (6) comedy shows. However, when I suggested that to a number of TV programme producers I was accused of being biased (7) --such are the problems of setting oneself up as a censor.
(1) survey | investigation (2) damaging | noxious (3) responsibility | blame (4) children | youngster (5) unpleasant | vicious (6) dirty | filthy (7) prejudiced | subjective
Keys: (1) po1l = survey (2) harmful = damaging (3) onus = responsibility. But onus is a much lower frequency item (4) minors = children. There is a stylistic difference；minors is a 1egal term． (5) nasty = unpleasant (6) smutty = dirty. Filthy is slightly more extreme and pejorative. (7) biased = prejudiced. Prejudiced has negative connotations.
Exercises on antonymy
1. Find the words, beginning with the letter d or g as indicated, that are the most logical opposites of the ones listed below.
a. surplus d i. lose g b. hope d j. sudden g
c. accept d k. disgrace g d. victory d 1. stingy g e. affirm d m. decrease g f. harmony d n. harsh g g. giant d o. release g h. add d p. scatter g
Keys: 1. surplus--deficit hope--despair accept--decline victory--defeat affirm--deny harmony--discord giant--dwarf add--deduct lose--gain sudden--gradual disgrace--glory stingy--generous decrease-- grow harsh--genial release--grab scatter--gather
2. In linguistics, often a phenomenon is given different alternative names. The same is true of antonyms. Column A contains the terms for the three types of antonyms in this book; Column B is a list of alternative names you might meet with in other books. Try to match them.
A B contrary terms complementaries ungradable opposites contradictory terms converses
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gradable antonyms relative terms binary antonyms relational opposites contraries
Keys: contrary terms= gradable opposites, gradable antonyms, contraries contradictory terms = complementaries, binary antonyms
relative terms = converses, relational opposites
3. Put the following words under Contradictory terms, contrary terms, and relative terms.
right—left lend— borrow male—female same—different small—large doctor—patient dog— bitch teacher—pupil good— bad man—woman love—hate boss— employee Keys:
contradictory terms contrary terms relative terms male--female small--large right--left dog--bitch good—bad lend--borrow same--different love-- hate doctor--patient man--woman teacher--pupil boss--employee
4. To each of the following contrary terms add the rest of the scale as indicated by the lines. Refer back to the section concerning Contrary terms. 1） | |hot | | | |cold| 2） |interesting| | |boring| 3） | |good| | | | |bad|
Keys:1) boiling | very hot | hot | quite hot | warm | tepid | cool | cold | freezing
2) fascinating | interesting | fairly interesting | rather boring | boring| very boring
3) marvellous, fabulous | very good | good | quite good |OK| not very good | mediocre | bad | awful, dreadful 5. Finish John's utterances with the missing word, so that he contradicts Jane every time. 1) Jane: The newspapers very seldom tell lies. John: No, they very tell lies. 2) Jane: French is a very hard language. John: No, it's a very language. 3) Jane: The water is very hard here. John: No, it isn't, it's quite .
4) Jane: You should put the blanket over him. John: No, it's better to put it him. 5) Jane: A general is below a colonel in rank. John: No, he isn't, he's him. 6) Jane: Potatoes are scarce just now. John: No, they're quite . 7) Jane: I have very forward opinions on most things. John: On the contrary, your opinions are rather ? .
Keys: 1) often 2) easy 3) soft 4) under 5) above 6) plentiful 7) backward
Exercises on hyponymy
1. Group the following words and give a term to cover each: hearts, Mercury, earth, lunch, diamonds, fire, Venus, breakfast, spades, dinner, Earth, water, Mars, supper, clubs, air, Saturn, Jupiter Keys: patterns: hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs
planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn natural elements: earth, fire, water, air
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meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper
2. One word of each pair is general in meaning and the other is more specific. Circle the general word
1) cat, animal 5) liquid, water 9) ceremony, wedding 2) instrument, flute 6) emotion, love 10) metal, iron 3) chair, furniture 7) occupation, teaching 4) food, fruit 8) captain, officer
3. Comment on the following two sentences and then improve them by replacing the superordinates with subordinates.
1) One of my relatives got a beautiful flower from the well-known market not long ago. 2) The millionaire spent a large sum of money for the picture by the famous artist.
Keys: 1) This sentence conveys a very vague idea as a number of words are superordinates: relative, got, flower, well-known market, not long ago, which are too general. It can be improved by using their respective subordinates. My niece bought for two yuan a rare white rose at the Friendship Store Wednesday afternoon. The use of my niece, bought, a rare white rose, Friendship Store, Wednesday afternoon makes the sentence specific and definite.
2) Just like sentence 1), this sentence is also vague and general in terms of meaning. The words millionaire, a large sum of money, picture, famous artist belong to superordinates because each could be replaced by a more specific term. For example, Lock feller bought the painting \"The Last Supper\" by Leonardo da Vinci for $ 3 million (Note: This is made up). The improved sentence becomes clear and definite. Exercises on semantic field
1. Arrange the following words into semantic fields, and add five words to each field.
train plate sandals socks taxi dish bus glass bicycle cup slippers shoes stockings saucer aeroplane
Keys: (1) train ship (2) socks hat (3) cup pot bus minibus stockings shirt plate dish taxi tricycle slippers skirt glass knife bicycle van sandals trousers saucer fork plane hovercraft shoes cloak spoon
2. Try to put the following words in different semantic fields to illustrate their different meanings:
orange earth spring 1) 1) 1) 2) 2) 2) 3) 3) Keys: orange
1 ) orange, coffee, beer, coke, milk: drink 2) orange, red, purple, green, black: colour 3) orange, apple, pear, peach, apricot: fruit earth
1) earth, moon, sun, star: planet
2) earth, mountain, water, grass: material spring
1) spring, summer, autumn, winter: season
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2) spring, pond, river, lake: water
3) spring, wire, lock, screw, nut: spare- part
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