2011年4月英语词汇学自考试题

全国2011年4月自考
英语词汇学试题
课程代码:00832

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. The development of English vocabulary can be divided into the following particular historical period EXCEPT ______. (      )
A. Old English  B. Middle English
C. New English  D. Modern English
2. The definition of a word comprises the following points ______ . (      )
(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
A. (1) and (2) B. (1) (2) and (3)
C. (2) (3) and (4)  D. (1) (2) (3) and (4)
3. Words of the basic word stock can each be used alone, and at the same time can form new words with other roots and affixes, e.g. foot is the father of football, footage and footprint. This demonstrates that one of the characteristics of the words of the basic stock is ______ . (      )
A. productivity  B. polysemy
C. stability  D. collocability
4. The Indo-European language family is made up of most of the languages of Europe, the Near East, and ______ . (      )
A. India  B. the Far East
C. the West Asia  D. America
5. In the early period of Modern English, Europe saw a new upsurge of learning ancient Greek and ______ classics. This is known in history as the Renaissance. (      )
A. India B. German
C. Roman  D. Chinese
6. Which of the following statements is NOT true? (      )
A. Old English was a highly inflected language.
B. In early Middle English period, English, Latin and Celtic existed side by side.
C. The introduction of printing into England marked the beginning of modern English period.
D. The most important mode of vocabulary development in present-day English is creation of new words by means of word-formation.
7. The smallest functioning unit in the composition of words is ______.(      )
A. morpheme  B. affixes
C. root  D. stem
8. There is/are ______ monomorphemic word(s) in the following words: hot, dog, feet, matches. (      )
A. 1  B. 2
C. 3  D. 4
9. The plural morpheme "-s" is pronounced as/s/in the following words EXCEPT ______.(      )
A. packs B. bags
C. cheats  D. ships
10. 30% to 40% of the total number of new words in English vocabulary are produced through ______ .(      )
A. affixation  B. clipping
C. compounding  D. shortening
11. The formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class is called ______. (      )
A. prefixation  B. suffixation
C. acronymy  D. conversion
12. The method of creating words by removing the supposed suffixes is called ______. (      )
 A. back-formation  B. clipping
 C. blending  D. suffixation
13. ______ accounts for the connection between the linguistic symbol and its meaning. (      )
A. Sense  B. Motivation
C. Concept  D. Reference
14. By ______ motivation, we mean that the meaning of a particular word is related to its origin. (      )
A. onomatopoeic  B. morphological
C. semantic  D. etymological
15. In English there are ______ types of motivation that concerns the relationship between the sign and meaning. (      )
A. 2  B. 3
C. 4  D. 5
16. What is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages? (      )
A. Suffixation. B. Variation.
C. Allomorph.  D. Polysemy.
17. Red, scarlet, mauve, violet, lavender, pansy, black, purple, etc, make up the ______ field of ‘colours’. (      )
A. stylistic  B. semantic
C. elliptic  D. syntactic
18. What is applicable to contradictory terms of some antonyms may NOT be applicable to their ______ terms? (      )
A. connotative  B. collocative
C. relative  D. negative
19. When a common word is turned into a proper noun, the meaning is ______ accordingly. (      )
A. related  B. narrowed
C. created  D. suggested
20. Which of the following words was used during the American Civil War to refer to those northerners who were secretly aiding the South? (      )
A. Rattlesnake.  B. Villain.
C. Informer.  D. Copperhead.
21. People change word-meaning owing to various ______ motives: love, respect, courtesy, suspicion, pessimism, sarcasm, irony, contempt, hatred, etc. (      )
A. psychological  B. social
C. communicative  D. lexical
22. In a narrow sense, context refers to the words, clauses, sentences in which a word appears and is known as ______ context. (      )
A. non-linguistic  B. linguistic
C. grammatical  D. lexical
23. Which of the following is one of the main functions of verbal context? (      )
A. Elimination of ambiguity.  
B. Indication for referents.
C. Provision of clues for inferring word-meaning.
D. All the above.
24. Which of the following is NOT true about extra-linguistic context? (      )
A. It can be subdivided into grammatical context and non-linguistic context.
B. It refers to physical situation or environment relating to the use of words.
C. It embraces the people, time and place.
D. It may extend to embrace the entire cultural background.
25. The idiom "fall into good hands" is a ______ as far as figures of speech are concerned. (      )
A. synecdoche  B. metaphor
C. metonymy  D. personification
26. "Flesh and blood" is an idiom ______ in nature. (      )
A. verbal  B. nominal
C. adjectival  D. adverbial
27. The change of idiom "velvet paws" from the original form is ______.(      )
A. replacement  B. position-shifting
C. addition  D. shortening
28. American dictionaries generally use ______ to mark the pronunciation. (      )
A. British Phonetic Alphabet  B. American Phonetic Alphabet
C. International Phonetic Alphabet  D. Webster's Phonetic Alphabet
29. Which of the following dictionaries is NOT a specialized dictionary? (      )
A. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
B. Chamber's Encyclopaedic English Dictionary
C. Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs
D. Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms
30. Usage notes of the dictionary explain ______. (      )
A. the slight difference between words of similar meanings
B. difficult points of grammar and style
C. important British and American differences
D. all the above

II. Complete the following statements with proper words or expressions according to the course book. (15 % )
31. The general estimate of the present-day English vocabulary is over one _________