Deck 6: Vocabulary

Question 1

Word choice determines which of the following?

A) Style
B) Tone
C) Meaning
D) Sentence structure
E) All of the above

Answer 1

E

Question 2

How many words does the English language have?

A) ¼ of a million
B) ½ of a million
C) ¾ of a million
D) 1 million

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is our receptive vocabulary?

A) Words we understand
B) Words we use
C) Words we understand and use
D) Words we have the potential to learn

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What is a lexical writing error?

A) Varying one's expression of ideas in order to reflect education level
B) Misusing a word because one doesn't fully understand its meaning
C) Putting a word in the wrong place in the sentence
D) Lacking paraphrases, summaries, or quotes

Question 5

Which of the following is a grammatical error, not a lexical error?

A) He quit the idea of buying a new laptop.
B) He decided against partaking a new laptop.
C) He deciding against buying a new laptop.
D) He quit the laptop buying idea.

Question 6

Beauty, school, justice, and golf are examples of what type of part of speech?

A) Verbs
B) Adverbs
C) Adjectives
D) Nouns

Question 7

Luggage, information, and advice are examples of what type of nouns?

A) Uncommon
B) Uncountable
C) Unconventional
D) Unconstructive

Question 8

What does it mean if a verb is a transitive verb?

A) It requires a subject.
B) It requires an adverb.
C) It requires a direct object.
D) It requires a past participle.

Question 9

A gerund is __________________.

A) the -ing form of a verb; they are used as nouns.
B) the base form of a verb, often preceded by to.
C) the -ing and -ed forms of a verb that are used as adjectives.
D) anything that functions as a main verb.

Question 10

Which of the following does not contain a verbal?

A) They were planning a trip to Spain.
B) The sleepy boy looked so angelic.
C) She likes to read every day.
D) Reading is the best way to increase vocabulary.

Question 11

Which of the following uses a phrasal verb?

A) She was raised in Regina.
B) The car exploded when it hit the guardrail.
C) I like to sleep in on the weekend.
D) She exercises at the gym downtown.

Question 12

Unfinished is an example of what part of speech?

A) Adverb
B) Preposition
C) Adjective
D) Superlative

Question 13

Which of the following -ly words is not an adverb?

A) Friendly
B) Seriously
C) Extremely
D) Diligently

Question 14

Which of the following adjectives is vague and overused and should therefore not appear in formal essays?

A) Intricate
B) Interesting
C) Intriguing
D) Incomprehensible

Question 15

Adverbs can describe __________________.

A) verbs
B) adjectives
C) other adverbs
D) whole sentences
E) All of the above

Question 16

What part of speech is the word light?

A) Noun
B) Verb
C) Adjective
D) All of the above
E) A and B

Question 17

What are the most common negative prefixes?

A) de- and re-
B) in- and un-
C) a- and an-
D) dis- and mis-

Question 18

What is collocation?

A) How words are tied to structures.
B) How words are changed by other words.
C) How words tend to occur along with other words.
D) How words often get placed at the beginning or ending of a sentence.

Question 19

Using words like item and product interchangeably is utilizing what to vary word choice?

A) Synonyms
B) Antonyms
C) Homonyms
D) Pseudonyms

Question 20

A thesaurus is a useful tool for what?

A) Increasing productive vocabulary
B) Reminding you of words that you know but didn't occur to you
C) Finding antonyms
D) A and C
E) A, B, and C

Question 21

What is a word's connotation?

A) Its use place within productive or receptive vocabulary
B) Its single focus
C) The circumstances that form the word
D) Its emotional implication

Question 22

What is register?

A) Technical language
B) Distinctions in terms of formal and informal language
C) Difference in meaning
D) Literal vs. figurative language

Question 23

Defamatory libel and hegemonic masculinity are examples of __________________?

A) Dialect
B) Slang
C) Idioms
D) Jargon

Question 24

Which of the following is an example of slang?

A) bucks
B) see the light
C) train of thought
D) kids

Question 25

They were ripped off is an example of what?

A) Dialect
B) Jargon
C) An idiom
D) Slang

Question 26

What part of speech is the word there?

A) Adjective
B) Pronoun
C) Contraction
D) Adverb

Question 27

Which of the following possessive pronouns requires an apostrophe to signal a possessive?

A) Its
B) His
C) Hers
D) Whose
E) None of the above

Question 28

Good writers have vocabularies with many __________________.

A) words they can use precisely
B) academic words
C) unfamiliar words
D) multi-syllable words

Question 29

Clarity in writing depends on __________________.

A) big word use
B) correct word use
C) consistent sentence length
D) reader attention span

Question 30

Developing a large vocabulary requires which of the following?

A) Reading often
B) Listening to conversations, radio, television, etc.
C) Being curious about unfamiliar words and looking them up
D) Consulting a dictionary
E) All of the above

Question 31

Clear and concise writing depends on using the correct, precise word. Why is using an imprecise word like "thingamajig" acceptable when speaking, but not in writing? In addition, give another example of an imprecise word that may be fine for speech, but not for writing. Provide a replacement for that word.

Question 32

Why is having a good vocabulary important? Give at least two reasons why.

Question 33

Why is making a vocabulary mistake worse than making a grammatical mistake? Give an example to support your answer.

Question 34

Why is it important to be able to recognize different parts of speech? Name at least two different parts of speech and provide a definition for each.

Question 35

What is the most common plural ending for a noun? Not all nouns use this ending. Give two or three examples of nouns that have irregular plural forms.

Question 36

Identify the type of error that appears in this sentence: They finally caught up him. Rewrite the sentence correctly.

Question 37

What is the difference between the comparative form of an adjective and the superlative form of an adjective? Provide an example of an adjective and its comparative and superlative forms.

Question 38

Some adjectives are vague (they provide little detail). Which words in the following sentence are vague adjectives? It was an interesting movie. The plot was good. The special effects were awesome. The characters were nice. What more specific words could you use to replace them?

Question 39

Consider the noun danger, the verb endanger, the adjective dangerous, and the adverb dangerously. What type of grouping are they? Why is it important to know these related words?

Question 40

Why is it valuable to learn to recognize the roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words? Provide at least two reasons.

Question 41

Why is it helpful to learn a few common Greek and Latin roots? In what professions or areas of study are these particularly useful?

Question 42

Why is sentence formation often more difficult for English-language learners? Name some specific challenges English poses when one tries to learn the language? Why are those challenges so difficult?

Question 43

In what ways can using synonyms and antonyms be helpful for essay writing? Give at least two reasons why and one example of each.

Question 44

A thesaurus is useful to remind you of words you know that did not occur to you and to introduce you to new words. However, there are some hidden dangers in using one. Give two pieces of advice to new thesaurus users.

Question 45

What is connotation? Give an example of a word that has different connotations and say what those connotations are.

Question 46

Consider the connotations of the following group of words: problem/ challenge/ issue. What are the differences in meaning? Which words are neutral, which are negative, and which are positive? How would you use the words?

Question 47

What is jargon? Give at least two examples of jargon. Why can using jargon be seen as negative when used in essay writing?

Question 48

What is register? Give a few examples of formal vs. informal register.

Question 49

What is slang? Give at least two examples of slang terms and say why slang should be avoided in formal writing.

Question 50

An idiom like spill the beans is an expression whose meaning is often quite different from the literal meaning of the words it's made up of. Why should idioms be avoided in formal essay writing? List at least two idioms and their literal meaning.

Question 51

What are the two main reasons why spelling is important? Why are these particularly important in academic essay writing?

Question 52

Since spelling is so important for writing, what are some ways you can improve your spelling ability? Name at least three. Explain why they help.

Question 53

The spell checker in your word-processor is a useful tool, but it is not foolproof. Name and explain at least two reasons why.

Question 54

A common error is mixing up their, there, and they're. Knowing which one to use requires thinking about the part of speech each is. What part of speech is each word? Name at least two other commonly confused words.

Question 55

Good writers have large vocabularies. Name at least two ways that someone can expand their vocabularies. Explain why those ways help.