Ⅰ. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that best completes the statement and blacken the corresponding letter A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET.
1. Which of the following does NOT belong to the characteristics of the basic word stock?
A.All national character.
B.Productivity.
C.Stability.
D.Terminology.
A B C D
D
[解析] 基本词汇的特征有:All national character,Stability,Productivity,Polysemy,Collocability。故选D项。
2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A.Words may fall into the basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary by use frequency.
B.Words may fall into content words and functional words by notion.
C.Words may fall into loan-words and notional words by the degree of assimilation.
D.Words may fall into native words and borrowed words by origin.
A B C D
C
[解析] 同化程度(the degree of assimilation)是进一步划分借词(loan-words)的依据,而非将词划分为借词与实意词(notional words)的依据。故选C项。
3. Which of the following is NOT true about the description of the relationship between sound and meaning?
A.There is intrinsic relationship between sound and meaning.
B.The symbolic connection of a sound and its meaning is almost always arbitrary.
C.The relationship between sound and meaning is conventional.
D.In different languages the same concept can be represented by different sounds.
10. The word “sandwich” now denotes a popular fast food. It originates from John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich in 18th century. This example shows one of the sources of English vocabulary is _____.
12. Which of the following words is NOT a noun compound?
A.Moon walk.
B.Ten-storey.
C.Outbreak.
D.Up-bringing.
A B C D
B
[解析] Ten-storey是由数词和名词构成的复合形容词。故选B项。
13. The meanings of many words often relate directly to their origins. In other words the history of the word explains the meaning of the word. This is called _____.
14. a) They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the loot. b) After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money. The above two sentences have the same conceptual meaning, but differ in _____ meaning.
A.connotative
B.affective
C.stylistic
D.collocative
A B C D
C
[解析] 句子a)中用到chuck,cop,do a bunk,比较随意,而句子b)中用cast,police, abscond,显然比较正式,可见二者文体意义(stylistic meaning)不同。故选C项。
15. _____ meaning indicates the speaker's attitude towards the person or thing in questions.
A.Conceptual
B.Stylistic
C.Affective
D.Denotative
A B C D
C
[解析] 感情意义(affective meaning)表达的是说话者对人或事物的态度。故选C项。
16. Words identical both in sound and spelling, but different in meaning are _____.
20. The meaning of the word “criticize” has changed from “appraise” to “find fault with”, such change is called _____.
A.elevation
B.generalization
C.extension
D.degradation
A B C D
D
[解析] criticize的词义由最初的appraise(评价)变为现在的find fault with(批评;挑剔),可见其意义由中性变为贬义,这一过程是词义的降格(degradation of meaning)。故选D项。
21. The word “meat” originally meant “food”, but now has come to mean “flesh of animals”. This is an example to illustrate _____ of meaning.
A.generalization
B.narrowing
C.degradation
D.elevation
A B C D
B
[解析] meat的词义由最初指food(食物)变为现在的flesh of animals(肉),可见词义有泛指变为特指,这一过程是词义的缩小(narrowing of meaning)。故选B项。
22. In grammatical context, the meaning of a word may be influenced by the _____, in which it occurs.
A.structure
B.sentence
C.phrase
D.clause
A B C D
A
[解析] 在语法语境中,词语出现在不同的结构中,意义也会有所不同,即词义受到结构的影响。故选A项。
23. The word “do” means “brush” in “do one's teeth”, while it means “arrange” in “do the flowers”. The above example shows that _____ affects the meaning of a word.
A.lexical context
B.grammatical context
C.non-linguistic context
D.structural context
A B C D
A
[解析] do在do one's teeth中表示brush,在do the flowers中表示arrange,说明其词义受到与其搭配的词的影响,这反映了词汇语境(lexical context)对词义的影响。故选A项。
24. Which of the following is NOT one of the major functions of context?
A.Elimination of ambiguity.
B.Indication of referents.
C.Formation of ambiguity.
D.Provision of clues for inferring word-meaning.
A B C D
C
[解析] 语境的三大主要作用是:Elimination of ambiguity,Indication of referents和Provision of clues for inferring word-meaning。故选C项。
25. Which of the following is NOT one of the variations of idioms?
A.Repetition.
B.Dismembering,
C.Addition.
D.Shortening.
A B C D
A
[解析] repetition属于习语的修辞特征,而非习语变体。故选A项。
26. “Through thick and thin” is a(n) _____.
A.verbal idiom in nature
B.nominal idiom in nature
C.sentence idiom
D.adverbial idiom in nature
A B C D
D
[解析] through thick and thin属于副词性质的习语。故选D项。
27. There is a _____ in the idiom “by hook and by crook” as far as rhetorical features of idioms are concerned.
A.simile
B.reiteration
C.repetition
D.rhyme
A B C D
D
[解析] 从修辞特征角度而言,习语by hook and by crook中hook和crook都有发音/ʊ/,使用了押韵(rhyme)。故选D项。
28. Webster's Third New International Dictionary is the best-known _____ dictionary.
A.unabridged
B.desk
C.pocket
D.encyclopedia
A B C D
A
[解析] Webster's Third New International Dictionary是最著名的非节略词典(unabridged dictionary)。故选A项。
29. When we choose a dictionary, we should pay attention to the following aspects EXCEPT ____.
A.unabridged or abridged
B.British or American
C.early or late
D.monolingual or bilingual
A B C D
A
[解析] 选择词典时需要考虑的因素有:Monolingual or bilingual,General or specialized,British or American,Early or late。故选A项。
30. Which of the following is NOT true about a Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition) (CED) (1995)?
A.The new edition cut off the previous alphabetical order of entries.
B.The new edition revised some old entries.
C.The new edition has more single character entries and more multi-character entries.
D.The dictionary boasts of the quality of the English equivalents.
4. “A green hand” means an “ inexperienced person”, not “a hand that is green in color”. This example illustrates that compounds are different from free phrases in _____ unity.
semantic
[解析] a green hand表示“经验不足的人”,而不是“绿色的手”,这个例子表明复合词在语意的统一性(semantic unity)上与自由词组不同。故答案为semantic。
5. Tables, men and potatoes are all plural nouns, so we can say they have the same _____meaning.
7. The change of the meaning in the word “butcher”, which originally denoted “one who kills goats”, but has come to mean “one who kills animals” reflects _____ in the sense of word-meaning change.
extension
[解析] butcher一词最初专指“杀羊的人”,现在指“杀动物的人”,即“屠夫”。这一词义由特指变为泛指的过程,称为词义的扩大(extension of meaning)。故答案为extension。
8. Linguistic context can be subdivided into _____ context and grammatical context.
10. Bilingual dictionaries are written in _____ languages.
two
[解析] 双语词典使用两种语言编纂而成的。故答案为two。
Ⅲ. Define the following terms.
1. creation
Creation refers to the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements.
2. clipping
Clipping is a common way of making a word, which is to shorten a longer word by cutting a part of the original and using what remains instead.
3. antonymy
Antonymy is used for “oppositeness of meaning”; words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.
4. extra-linguistic context
Extra-linguistic is also called non-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place, and even the whole cultural background.
5. idioms nominal in nature
Idioms nominal in nature is a kind of idioms which have a noun as the key word in each and function as a noun in sentences.
Ⅳ. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be clear and short.
1. What is the difference between root and stem?
A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. A stem can be defined as a form to which affixes of any kind can be added. (2) A stem may consist of a single root morpheme or of two root morphemes. It can be a root morpheme plus one or more affixational morphemes.Stem can replace root and refer to any form which is larger than a root.
2. Please explain the difference between the following two examples from the viewpoint of word formation. (1) single ( adjective) — single (verb) (2) simple ( adjective) — simplify (verb)
Both single and simple are adjectives, but single can be used as a verb without changing the form, e.g. “She singled him out at once as a possible victim.” In contrast, simple cannot function as a verb without adding an affix, e.g. “Continental quilts simplify (not simple) bed-making.” The first instance is a case of zero-derivation or conversion whereas the second is one of suffixation as the suffix -ify is added to make simple a verb.
3. What are the major sources of English synonyms?
The major sources of English synonyms are: (1) Borrowing. (2) Dialects and regional English. (3) Figurative and euphemistic use of words. (4) Coincidence with idiomatic expressions.
4. What does the underlined word mean and what contextual clue is used in the following sentence? “It is undesirable to write with too many parentheses, a pair of brackets round words or phrases.”
The underlined word parentheses means a pair of brackets round words or phrases. The contextual clue used here is definition.
Ⅴ. Analyze and comment on the following.
1. Take “The dog is chasing a cat” as an example to explain its grammatical meaning.
The words “dog” and “cat” are nouns and both are singular used as subject and object in the sentence respectively; “is chasing” is the predicate verb in present continuous tense, and the and a are determiners, restricting the referent and indicating number.
2. Comment on the following piece of discourse in terms of superordinates and subordinates, so far as hyponymy is concerned. “There was a fine rocking-chair that his father used to sit in, a desk where he wrote letters, a nest of small tables and a dark, imposing bookcase. Now all this furniture was to be sold, and with it his own past. ”
In this piece of discourse, the general word furniture is the superordinate term, and the more specific ones rocking-chair, desk, table, bookcase are the subordinate terms. The writer uses a set of hyponyms under furniture, which gives the writing coherence and provides the key to understanding the text.