Sample of written exam for Lingua inglese I
Part A.
Working with texts, slides from the lessons and other study material.
You will have to answer 3 questions selected from the following 50 questions to
demonstrate that you have read the material and have a grasp of the concepts. The 3 questions will be chosen
randomly for each person.
1. Name three kinds of register:
2. Give examples of four different language domains
3. What are the five levels of linguistic features that we can use in analyzing texts.
a) Graphic level –
b)
- the writing system of an individual language, distinctive use of the alphabet, capital
letters, spelling, punctuation, and ways of expressing emphasis
c)
d)
e)
4. Define the terms field, tenor and mode in the context of text analysis.
5. What do we mean by context?
6. What do we mean by the term cohesion?
7. What are the five kinds of cohesion?
8. What are general words?
9. What are anaphoric nouns?
10. What do we mean by collocation. Give two examples.
11. How is the book organized? How do the units you have read fit in with the overall plan?
12. What are the topics of the three units you have read?
13. Unit 2 The aim of this unit is to provide……
14. Unit 3
The aim of this unit is to……
15. Unit 4
The aim of this unit is to…….
Unit 2.
16. What is morphology?
17. What is a morpheme?
18. Name 4 kinds of morpheme.
19. Provide a diagram to represent i) Synonymy ii) polysemy iii) homophones with an example for each.
20. What are the implications of polysemy, homophones and synonymy for newspaper headlines and jokes?
Give an example.
21. What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
22. Identify the free and bound morphemes in the following words and specify whether they
illustrate derivation or inflection:
e.g. watched watch (free) + ed (bound) inflection
a) promised ____________________ ________
b) unhappy ____________________ ________
c) painter ____________________ ________
d) quickest ____________________ ________
e) girls ____________________ ________
23. Look at the extract below.
a) Identify examples of cataphoric reference, anaphoric reference and
conjunction. You can indicate them directly on the text.
b) Identify one semantic field. _________________________________________
As he put his hand to the door-knob, Winston saw that he
had left the diary open on the table. DOWN WITH BIG
BROTHER was written all over it, in letters almost big
enough to be legible across the room. It was an
inconceivably stupid thing to have done. But, he
realized, even in his panic he had not wanted to smudge
the creamy paper by shutting the book while the ink was
wet. (1984, George Orwell)
24. Give three examples of inflectional affixes.
25. Give 3 examples of derivational affixes
Unit 3.
26. What are the four types of patterns and associated grammatical forms you learnt about in Unit 3?
27. Give 2 examples of different noun phrases illustrating premodification and post modification.
28. What do the following illustrate?
Metal hub-bearing outer race
Low-friction disc brakes
Hexalite lightweight cushioning
Medially posted dual density midsole
29. What does the following extract from Bleak House illustrate?
London. Implacable November weather. Smoke lowering down form chimney
pots… Dogs indistinguishable in the mire. Footpassangers, jostling one
another’s umbrellas
Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by
the firesides…
Gas looming through the fog in diverse places
30. Give at least 8 examples of modal verbs
31. What is the difference between deontic and epistemic modality?
32. Give examples of modals of control versus modals of reassurance/possibility
33. What are deictics? Give two examples.
34. Give two examples of modal adverbs
Unit 4.
35. What is discourse analysis?
36. What is a text?
37. What are the patterns which are examined in Unit 4?
38. Give examples of the semantic relations of synonym, hypernym and hyponym.
39. Give an example of a lexical set from one semantic field illustrating with examples of nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs and phrases.
40. What is the difference between lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion? Give two examples of each.
41. Give seven examples of lexical cohesion.
42. Give four features signaling informal register in English.
43. There are four types of reference exophoric…… provide the other three and give examples of two of
them.
44. Give two examples to illustrate the term comparative reference.
45. Define the terms substitution and ellipsis as parts of grammatical cohesion and give an example for each.
46. Give five types of conjunction and a meaning and example for each.
47. What are the four main functions that sentences in English can perform?
48. What do we mean by the term theme? What does the following text illustrate in terms of the relationship
between lexical cohesion and thematic continuity? :
I got up early and fed my cat. Cats like cream. Cream is a popular colour
for paint. Famous painters include Michelangelo, who painted the Sistine
Chapel in the Vatican. The Vatican is where the Pope lives.
49. Look at the extract below and identify instances of grammatical cohesion. You can indicate
them directly on the text.
You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer
already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the
world.
50.
Task. Cohesion
Identify the substitution.
1. David Aaronovitch claims: 'George W Bush and his voters are not dumb. Those who
think so are the really dumb ones.'
2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. This highly autobiographical novel is the one
its author liked best.
3. Mrs Thatcher used to invite the political hacks in for drinks once a year, so did John
Major.
4. Q. Do you feel that the Guardian's news coverage has become more populist in the
last couple of years?
R: More populist? Don't think so.
5. Lord Janner regrets that there were not more prosecutions under the 1991 War
Crimes Act. So do I.
6. There seemed to be fewer problems after 9/11. Could this be because of the higher
profile and wealth of New Yorkers compared with people in poorer, less influential
Phuket and New Orleans? I hope not.
7. The best movies are the ones you probably won't see
Part B. Headlines
The questions are always the same, the texts, and headlines will be different for each person
Nome
Numero di matricola
1. These two headlines are about the same story. Which do you think is from a tabloid and which is
from a broadsheet? Explain your answer.
Kitchen porter at top private school arrested for ‘poisoning carrot
and coriander soup’
Poisoning alert chef so souper
2. Look at the following headlines (the leads have been included for clarity). What features of
headline language do they illustrate? Explain your answer.
Soldiers killed in Afghan blast
Two British soldiers died after an explosion in Helmand Province yesterday the MoD reveals
Brave mum tackled robber
Shopkeeper hurt trying to stop robber fleeing with £11k said she would do it again.
Navy sends sub to Falklands
Navy attack sub sent to boost security as speculation mounts since drillers found oil
Republicans in denial over health care
Republicans are desperate to persuade democrats that healthcare reform will spell disaster
Part C. Text analysis
Look at the following article
e. What type of article is it? Explain your answer
f. Identify and label the linguistic features which are typical of this kind of article
g Who or what is evaluated in the article? Favourably or unfavourably? Give examples to support your
answer
h. give examples of figurative language used. Identify the target, the source (the semantic field from
which the metaphor comes) and the grounds of comparison (the qualities of the source which form the
basis for the comparison). Is it an example of metaphor, simile or metonymy? Is the evaluation
favourable or unfavourable?
Part C sample article
Muddle Ed
RED Ed Miliband got something right yesterday.
He condemned as "absolutely wrong" the union campaign to strike on Royal Wedding Day and said he was
"appalled" by the idea.
Ed, and please keep repeating it.
But that's where the good news ends for the new Labour leader.
Judging by his outpourings this weekend, things are somewhat confused on Planet Miliband.
He said Gordon Brown made bad mistakes but he still takes his advice.
He said he didn't want Labour to return to the 1980s then called for higher taxes to punish anyone who had
got on in life.
He still won't apologise for Labour's destruction of the economy and thinks Mr Brown's insane borrowings
were justifiable.
Back to the drawing board, Ed.