全国2010年4月自学考试英语词汇学真题

I. Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the one that best completes the statement and put the letter in the bracket. (30%)

1. When we talk about a word in visual terms, a word can be defined as a ____ group of letters printed or written horizontally across a piece of paper. （ ）

A. small   B. meaningful

C. vocal  D. large

2. ____ belongs to the sub-standard language, a category that seems to stand between the standard general words including informal ones available to everyone and in-group words. （ ）

A. Terminology  B. Jargon

C. Slang  D. Argot

3. 'I'm sure that they will come today.'

There are____content words in the above sentence. （ ）

A. 2  B. 3

C. 4  D. 5

4. Which of the following is one of the three channels through which modern English vocabulary develops? （ ）

A. Acronym.  B. Blending.

C. Elevation.  D. Borrowing.

5. Social, economic and political changes bring about such new words as the followings EXCEPT____. ( )

A. kungfu  B.TV dinner

C. fast food  D. Watergate

6. In modern times, ____is the most important way of vocabulary expansion. （ ）

A. semantic change  B. borrowing

C, expansion  D. creation

7. The plural morphme '-s' is realizd by/Iz/after the following sounds EXCEPT____.( )

A. /s/  B. /g/

c. /z/  D. /ろ/

8. The word 'idealistic' comprises ____morphemes. （ ）

A. 1  B. 2

C. 3  D. 4

9. The following words have inflectional affixes EXCEPT ____.( )

A. happier  B. worker

C. harder  D. taller

10. 'Washing machine' is a word formed by____.（ ）

A. prefixation  B. compounding

C. conversion  D. blending

11. 'TV' is a(n) ____.（ ）

A. initialism  B. acronym

C. derivative  D. compound

12. The prefix 'mis-' in the word 'mistrust' is a ____prefix. （ ）

A. negative  B. reversative

C. pejorative  D. locative

13. Which of the following is NOT one of the meanings of 'word meaning'? （ ）

A. Reference.  B. Concept.

C. Sense.  D. Pronunciation.

14. Such synonymous pair as 'die-pass away' has the same ____but different stylistic values.

（ ）

A. reference  B. concept

C. motivation  D. style

15. The word 'airmail' is ____motivated. （ ）

A. onomatopoeically  B. etymologically

C. semantically  D. morphologically

16. Words are arbitrary symbols with independent identities so far as their spelling and pronunciation is concerned. But ____, all words are related in one way or another.( )

A. linguistically  B. semantically

C. grammatically  D. pragmatically

17, ____, the basic meaning of a word is the core of word-meaning called the central meaning. （ ）

A. Onomatopoeically  B. Diachronically

C. Synchronically  D. Etymologically

18. One important criterion to tell the fundamental difference between homonyms and polysemants is to see their____. （ ）

A. ideology  B. etymology

C. mythology  D. methodology

19. Vocabulary is the most ____element of a language as it is undergoing constant changes both in form and content. （ ）

A. unbalanced  B. unstable

C. unhinged  D. undoubted

20. In Shakespeare's well-knownHamlet,rivalmeans '____'andjumpmeans 'just'. （ ）

A. janitor  B. partner

C. collector  D. observer

21. In the sentence 'Just after two years he is quite a grown boy now.' The wordgrowncan be classified into ____sense of transfer. （ ）

A. physical  B. objective

C. sensational  D. subjective

22. In some cases, the meaning of a word may be influenced by the structure in which it occurs. This is called ____context. （ ）

A. non-linguistic  B. lexical

C. grammatical  D. cultural

23. The sentence 'He is a hard businessman.' is ambiguous due to____. （ ）

A. grammatical structure  B. lexical context

C. homonymy  D. polysemy

24. The extra-linguistic context may extend to embrace the entire____. （ ）

A. physical situation  B. grammatical structure

C. mental activity  D. cultural background

25. Which of the following is NOT one respect of the rhetorical features of idioms? （ ）

A. Phonetic manipulation.  B. Lexical manipulation.

C. Syntactical manipulation.  D. Figures of speech.

26.In nothing flatas an idiom is ____in nature. （ ）

A. verbal  B. nominal

C. adjectival  D. adverbial

27. The idiom 'failure is the mother of success' is a ____ as far as figures of speech are concerned. （ ）

A. simile  B. metaphor

C. metonymy  D. personification

28. Which of the following is NOT one of the three good general dictionaries mentioned in the textbook? ( )

A.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

B.Webster's Third New International Dictionary.

C.A Chinese-English Dictionary.

D.Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary.

29.Webster's Third New International Dictionaryis the best-known ______dictionary. ( )

A. unabridged  B. desk

C. pocket  D. encyclopedic

30. British dictionaries generally use____to mark the pronunciation.

A. British Phonetic Alphabet  B. American Phonetic Alphabet

C. International Phonetic Alphabet  D. Webster's Phonetic Alphabet

II. Match the words in Column A with the words in Column B according to 1) types of prefixes; 2) the functions of affixes; 3) types of antonyms; and 4) types of meanings. (10%)

A B

（ ） 31. appreciative meanings  A. maltreat

（ ） 32. parent/child   B. Jap/nigger

（ ） 33. pejorative prefixes  C. tremble (not quiver) with fear

（ ） 34. man/woman   D. famous/determined

（ ） 35. hyperactive/superfreeze  E. extraordinary/telecommunication

（ ） 36. collocative meaning  E prefixes of degree

（ ） 37. decompose/unwrap  G. inflectional affixes

（ ） 38. pejorative meaning  H. reversative prefixes

（ ） 39. radios/desks  I. contradictory terms

（ ） 40. locative prefixes  J. relative terms

llI. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions according to the course book. (10%)

41. Grammarians insist that a word be a ____form that can function in a sentence.

42. In modern English, word endings were mostly lost with just a few exceptions because English has evolved from a synthetic language to the present ____language.

43. The morphemes can be grouped into free morphemes and ____morphemes.

44. New words which are created by adding affixes to stems are called____.

45. Though having little lexical meaning, ____words have strong grammatical meaning.

46. The vocabulary of a language is in constant change; old items drop out, new items come in, and as the new replace the old, so the internal ____of the whole set alter.

47. The attitudes of classes have also made inroads into lexical meaning in the case of elevation or____.

48. The sentence 'I like Mary better than Jean.' will lead to____.

49. The fixity of idioms depends on the____.

50. Encyclopedic dictionaries can be further divided into ____and encyclopedic dictionaries.

IV. Define the following terms. (10%)

51. borrowed words

52. conversion

53. motivation

54. narrowing

55. replacement of idioms

V. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be clear and short. Write your answers in the space given below. (20%)

56. What are derivational affixes?

57. What is grammatical meaning of a word? Give an example to illustrate your point.

58. What type of transfer is experienced for the word in bold type?

The fairy tale 'The SleepingBeauty' is very interesting.

59. Decide whether the following statement is true or false, based on your understanding of the stylistic features of idioms.

Stylistically speaking, most idioms are neither formal nor informal.

VI. Analyze and comment on the following. Write your answers in the space given below. (20%)

60. Analyze and comment, with a diagram, on the italicized words increase, extend and expand in the following three sentences based on the concept of discrimination of synonyms.

[a] The company has decided toincreaseits sales by ten per cent next year.

[b] The owner of the restaurant is goingto extendthe kitchen by ten feet this year.

[c] The metal willexpandif heated.

61.State the roles of context in determination of word meaning. Illustrate your points with examples.