英语词汇试题及答案

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1. As far as the origins of the words are concerned, English words can be classified into __b___. A. content words and functional words B. native words and borrowed words C. basic words and borrowed words D. loan words and dialectal words

2. A word is ___a__ of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function. A. a minimal free form B. a basic part C. a minimal element D. a free element 3. English lexicology embraces __a___, semantics, etymology, stylistics, and lexicography. A. morphology B. phonology C. syntax D. pragmatics

4. The internal reason for the difference between sound and form is __d___. A. innovations made by linguists B. influence of the work of scribes C. stabilization of spelling by printing

D. the fact of more phonemes than letters in English

5. The relationship between sound and meaning is __c___ and conventional. A. logical B. objective C. arbitrary D. consistent

6. Pronouns and ___c__ are semantically monosemous and have limited productivity and collocability.

A. adverbs B. adjectives C. numerals D. prepositions 7. Which of the following is not a functional word? d

A. through B. But C. they D. four

8. Listed in the course book are __c___ features of native words.

A. Five B. Six C. seven D. eight

9. _a____ are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling. A. Aliens B. Denizens C. Semantic-loans D. Neologisms 10. The words borrowed from French or Latin are mostly __b___. A. neutral B. formal C. colloquial D. informal

11. There was _a___ agreement between sound and form in Old English than in Modern English.

A. more B. little C. less D. a bit more 12. Nonbasic vocabulary includes all of the following except __b___.

A. neologisms B. Anglo-Saxon words C. archaisms D. technical terms

II. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions given in the course book.

1. Etymology is traditionally used for the study of the _ origins____ and history of the form and meaning of words.

2. There are generally two approaches to the study of words, namely _synchronic_________ and diachronic.

3. English lexicology is a ___ Theoretically-oriented __ course and a practical course as well.

4. Lexicology is a branch of linguistics, inquiring into the origins and __meanings___ of words.

5. ___ Stylistics _______ is the study of style. It is concerned with the user?s choices of linguistic elements in a particular context for special effects.

6. A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and __meaning_________ and syntactic function

7. A word is a __symbol_______ that stands for something else in the world. 8. All the words in a language make up its __vocabulary___.

9.The basic word stock is the foundation of the vocabulary accumulated over centuries and forms the common ____core________ of the language.

10.Words may fall into content words and functional words by _nation____. 11. __argot___ generally refers to the jargon of criminals.

12. The word “internet” is a__neologism______, but the word “calculus” is a technical term.

13. Native words are words brought to Britain in the fifth century by the __Germanic_______ tribes.

14. According to the degree of ____ assimilation ____ and manner of borrowing, we can bring the loan-words under four classes.

15. ___ Denizens ______ are words borrowed early in the past and now are well assimilated into the English language.

III. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. 1. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language. f

2. In different languages the same concept can be represented by different sounds. t 3. Under no circumstances can sound and meaning be logically related. f

4. Prepositions, conjunctions, numerals and articles all belong to functional words. f

5. Lexicography shares with lexicology the same problems: the form, meaning, origins and usages of words. t 6. Content words are numerous and more frequently used than functional words on average. F

7. The basic word stock enjoys the same features as native words. F(nat.7, bas.5)

8. It is estimated that English borrowings constitute 80 percent of the modern English vocabulary. T 9. The expression of “black humour” from “humour noir” is regarded as a semantic-loan. F（tran.)

10. The word “port” from “portus” is a translation-loan . F(sem.)

11. Such words as kowtow, bazaar and ketchup are aliens. F (ketchup tran.)

12. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin are small in number, amounting to roughly 50,000 to 60,000. t 13. A word can be defined in different ways from different points of view. t

14.When the word “persuader” means “dagger”(匕首）, it is regarded as an argot word t 15.Words of the basic word stock are mostly root words or monosyllabic words. T

IV. Answer the following questions.

1. What is the publicly accepted definition of a word?

1) a minimal free form of a language; (2) a sound unity; (3) a unit of meaning;

(4) a form that can function alone in a sentence.

Therefore, we can say that ?a word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function?.

2. What accounts for the differences between sound and form?

four major reasons. The internal reason for this is that there are more phonemes than letters in English. Another reason is that the pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spelling. The third reason is that some of the differences were created by the early scribes. The fourth reason is borrowing.

3. What is the relationship between sound and meaning? Give examples to illustrate it.

The relationship between sound and meaning is almost always arbitrary and conventional, and there is no logical relationship between sound and meaning. The same concept can be represented by different sounds in different

languages. For example, ?woman? becomes ?Frau? in German and ?femme? in French. On the other hand, the same sound /mi:t/ is used to mean ?meat?, ?meet?, and ?mete?. 4. How are English words classified?

English words can be classified by different criteria and for different purposes. They may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency, into content words and functional words by notion, and into native words and borrowed words by origin.

5. What is the difference between denizens and aliens?

Denizens which are words borrowed early in the past are now well assimilated into the English language and have come to conform to the English way of pronunciation and spelling, but aliens are borrowed words which have retained their original pronunciation and spelling and are immediately recognizable as foreign in origin.

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I. Choose the best answer and put the letter of your choice in the brackets.

1. The prehistoric Indo-European parent language is thought to be a highly __d___ language A. advanced B. developed C. complicated D. inflected 2. The following languages are all Germanic except _a____.

A. Scottish B. Swedish C. Flemish D. Danish

3. In the Western set, Greek is the modern language derived from _b____.

A. Italic B. Hellenic C. Celtic D. Germanic 4. Words such as Kent, London, bin and crag are from ___a__.

A. Celtic B. Germanic C. Scandinavian D. Latin 5. We find the following languages in the Italic except __c___.

A. Spanish B. Roumanian C. Norwegian D. Portuguese 6. The early inhabitants of the British Isles were _b____.

A. Germans B. Celts C. Scandinavians D. Romans

7. It is estimated that at least __c___ words of Scandinavian origin have survived in Modern English.

A. 1200 B. 1000 C. 900 D. 800 8. The word “candle” came from ___d___.

A. French B. Danish C. Celtic D. Latin

9. Old English began to undergo a great change when the __d___ invaded England in 1066.

A. Romans B. Angles C. Danes D. Normans

10. Between 1250 and 1500 about _b____ words of French origin poured into English.

A. 8000 B. 9000 C. 10000 D. 12000 11. Modern English is regarded as a/an __a___ language.

A. analytic B. inflected C. synthetic D. advanced

12. In modern times, __c___ is considered to be the most important way of vocabulary expansion. A. semantic change B. meaning change C. creation D. borrowing

II. Complete the following statements with proper words and expressions given in the course book. 1. The language of the early inhabitants of the British Isles is ___Celtic__. 2. World languages can be grouped into roughly ___300_____ language families on the basis of similarities in the basic word stock and grammar.

3. Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and ___Swedish______ are generally known as Scandinavian languages. 4. The second major language known in England was the ___Latin_____ of the Roman Legions(军团）. 5. Now people generally refer to __Anglo-Saxon____ as Old English.

6. The introduction of ____Christianity_________ at the end of 6th century had a great impact on the English vocabulary

7. Old English was a highly inflected language just like modern __German_________. 8. In the 9th century the land was invaded again by Norwegian and __Danish___Vikings. 9. Modern English began with the establishment of _printing_______ in England.

10. In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient __Greek______ and Roman classics.

11. English has evolved from a ___synthetic__ language ( Old English ) to the present analytic language 12. Modern English vocabulary develops through three channels: creation, ___semantic__ change, and borrowing.

13. Reviving _archaic_______ or obsolete words also contributes to the growth of English vocabulary though quite insignificant.

14. In modern English, word __endings______ were mostly lost with just a few exceptions. 15. Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, _affixes________ and other elements.

III. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1. The surviving languages of the Indo-European language family fall into ten principal groups, which can be grouped into an Eastern set and a Western set. F 2. Celtic is generally known as Old English. F

3. Spanish, French and Italian all belong to the Italic. T

4. Danish, Icelandic, Dutch and Norwegian are generally known as Scandinavian languages. F

5. The Germanic tribes were considered to be the first peoples known to inhabit the British Isles. F 6. In the 6th century many Scandinavian words came into the English language. F（Latin) 7. Old English refers to the language used between 450 and 1150. t 8. Middle English lasted for more than three hundred years. T

9. During the Middle English period, about 2,500 words of Dutch origin found their way into English. T 10. French, Celtic and English existed simultaneously for over a century. F

11. Social and economic terms make up more new words than science and technology terms. F 12. In modern times, borrowing is still the most important way of vocabulary expansion. f 13. Middle English retained much fewer inflections than Old English. T 14. English, German, Irish and Flemish all belong to the Germanic. f 15. Modern English is a synthetic language f

IV. Answer the following questions.

1. What does the Germanic family consist of? The Germanic family consists of the four Northern European Languages: Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Swedish, which are known as Scandinavian languages. Then there is German, Dutch, Flemish and English.

2. What major families can be found in the Indo-European language family? In the Indo-European language family, we can find eight main groups, which can be grouped into an Eastern set: Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Armenian and Albanian; a Western set: Celtic, Italic, Hellenic and Germanic.

3. What are the characteristics of Old English? Old English was mainly Anglo-Saxon spoken by the Germanic tribes called Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. It had a vocabulary of about 50,000 to 60,000 words. It was a highly inflected language just like modern German. It was a synthetic language.

4. What are the characteristics of Middle English? Middle English (1150-1500) borrowed a large number of words mainly from French. It had a much larger