英语词汇学习题集 Chapter I A General Survey of English Vocabulary 1. Which of the following is NOT correct? _________ A. A word is a meaningful group of letters. B. A word is a unit of meaning. C. A word is a sound or combination of sounds. D. A word is a form that cannot function alone in a sentence. 3. After the invading Germanic tribes settled down in Britain, their language almost totally blotted out ______. A. Old English B. Middle English C. Anglo-Saxon D. Celtic 4. In the early period of Middle English, English, ______ existed side by side. A. Celtic and Danish B. Danish and French C. Latin and Celtic D. French and Latin 9. Both English and ______ belong to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. A. Celtic B. Dansih C. French D. Scottish 12. Words can be classified according to the following criteria EXCEPT _________. A. notion B. use frequency C. foundation D. origin 7. Which of the following is NOT one of the main sources of new words?（ ） A. The rapid development of modern science and technology. B. Geographical and political changes. C. The influence of other cultures and languages. D. Social and economic changes. 6. The major factors that promote the growth of modern English are ______. A. the growth of science and technology B. economic and political changes C. the influence of other cultures and languages D. all the above 7. Since the beginning of this century, ______ has become even more important for the expansion of English vocabulary. A. word-formation B. borrowing C. semantic change D. both B and C 9. The term "vocabulary" is used in different ways because of all the following reasons EXCEPT that ( ) A. it can refer to the common core of a language B. it can refer to the total number of the words in a language C. it can represent all the words used in a certain historical period D. it can stand for words in given dialect or field 10. is considered to be a highly-inflected language. A. Old English B. Middle English C. Early Modern English D. Late Modern English 14. Early Modern English refers to the language spoken ______. A. from 1066 to 1500 B. from 1150 to 1500 C. from 1500 to 1700 D. from 1600 to 1800 12. The introduction of at the end of the 6th century had a great impact on the English vocabulary. （ ） A. printing B. Christianity C. French words D. all the above 14. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? （ ） A. The English language is noted for its modest borrowings. B. Loan words only refer to those borrowings in form. C. Loan words are all unrecognisable as being foreign in origin. D. Loan words can be grouped according to manner of borrowing. 8. From the historical point of view, English is more closely related to（ ） A. German B. French C. Scottish D. Irish 12. The written form of English is a(n)（ ）representation of the spoken form. A. selective B. adequate C. imperfect D. natural 15. The four major foreign contributors to the English vocabulary in earlier times were French, Latin,（ ） A. Scandinavian and Italian B. Greek and Scandinavian C. Celtic and Greek D. Italian and Spanish 3. Which of the following is NOT one of the obvious characteristics of the basic word stock? A. Creativity. B. Stability. C. Duality. D. All national character. 11. Which of the following is NOT true about Old English? （ ） A. Uses of Old English borrowed heavily from Latin and other languages. B. Old English has a vocabulary of about 50,000 to 60,000. C. Old English refers to the English language used from 450 to 1150. D. Old English was a highly inflected language. 12. Neologisms are newly-created words or expressions. Which of the following is NOT an example of neologisms? （ ） A. SARS. B. Can-opener. C. Futurology. D. Freak out.

II. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions. 19. The basic word stock forms the common of the language. 20. According to semanticists, a word is a unit of ______. 20. Middle English refers to the language spoken from 1150 to___________. 16. The Norman Conquest in 1066 started a continual flow of ___________ words into English. 20. Content words have both meanings, and ___________ meaning in particular.

V. Define the following terms. 44. jargon 42. functional words 42. borrowed words 41. loan words

Give clear and short answers to the following questions. 47. Is it true that archaic and obsolete words in English will remain for ever out of use? 48. What are the major differences between basic word stock and nonbasic vocabulary? 49. Some people hold that Shakespeare is more difficult to read than contemporary writings. Do you agree or disagree to this comment? State your reason(s) with at least three examples.