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GCC QUEENS ACADEMY OF ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
--- Where english becomes
your forte --- |
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Ever
wondered why words are so important? Well, can
any language ever exist without its words? Words
are the building blocks of any language. The vocabulary
of English is irrefutably very vast. Assigning
a fixed number to the size of the English vocabulary
is more a matter of definition than that of calculation.
Everyday new words are being coined in the field
of science, research, technology; as such neologisms
are making their way into the language every day.
English, like any other language is dynamic, and
more so because of its flexibility. It becomes
all the more important for us to keep ourselves
abreast of the changing aspects of the English
language. We must understand the idiosyncrasy
of the English words in order to use them correctly
and effectively. English relies mainly on word
order (usually subject-verb-object) to indicate
relationships between words. Generally people
look up a word in a dictionary, to find its meaning
and, very few to see the correct pronunciation
of that word. Apart from the meaning and their
pronunciation, there are a few other tenets also,
which affect the usage of the words. Those factors
are:
- Gender: In English there are three genders
namely, masculine, feminine, and neuter. This
is not very complicated as it is very simple to
understand the gender of a word
- Number: It could be either singular or plural. Caution should
be exercised here as there are a few words which
are always written in either singular or plural
form. For example words like aircraft and fruit
are not written in plural form. Words like news,
crossroads, and shambles though appear to be in
plural form are always taken in the singular form.
- Countabilty: words are either countable or
uncountable. Words like furniture, luggage, money
advice and information are uncountable. We cannot
use them as countable words; as such we cant say,
a furniture, few luggages, an advice or informations.
Indian speakers of the language have this tendency
of using uncountable words as countable words.
This should be avoided
- Nature: words could
be positive, negative or neutral, depending upon
the meaning they convey. Aggravate means to worsen
something, to irate someone or to increase the
strength of something. This word cannot be used
in a positive sense like, when I saw my bother
after five years, it aggravated my joy. Care should
be taken in understanding the nature of the words
and they should be used accordingly
If we keep
these factors in mind, we may become adept at
using these words effectively.
GCC Queen's Academy
is back with the III set of questions of I series
of the English quiz series called “DIVINERS”.
The first series of the quiz is based on the most
important element of the speech called “word”.
All you have to do is answer these questions.
You can email your answers to GCC Queen's Academy
at info@gccqueens.com. The winner would be getting
an Advanced Oxford Dictionary with a CD-ROM, free
of charge.
Please mention your telephone number,
so that we can contact the winner.
Please choose
the correct alternative.
- Kiosk means [(a) a
vendor's small structure, (b) open air theatre,
(c) Russian pastry, (d) wooden barrel]
- Lucre
means [(a) money, (b) good fortune, (c) clear
in thought, (d) lack of conviction]
- Ilk means
[(a) sort or kind, (b) Asian fabric (c) type of
hardwood tree, (d) none]
- Caprice means [(a)
a large beetle, (b) ankle-length garment, (c)
leap, (d) impulsive notion,]
- Winsome means
[(a) victorious, (b) cheerful, (c) thoughtful,
(d) annoying,]
- Any remark which shows little
evidence of original thinking can be termed as
[(a) caustic, (b) bromide, (c) men]
- A needless
repetition of the same idea in different words
is called [ (a) pleonasm, (b) colloquialism, ©
journalese]
- Dialect and accent mean same. [
(a) yes, (b) no]
- Allusion means [(a) reference,
(b) A dream or imagination, (c) A substance which
can cause an allergy]
- Callous means [(a)
bitter, (b) piquant, (c) unkind or cruel]
-
Equivocal means [(a) not clear, (b) having the
same amount of value, (c) easily managed]
-
Equestrian means [(a) a person who considers everyone
equal, (b) a person who thinks about others first,
(c) connected with the riding of horses]
-
Dirge means [(a) sharp edge, (b) paucity, (c)
song of grief]
- Neophyte? He's a
- newly
born baby
- newcomer
- psychopath
- Fledgling
means
- coward
- a young bird
- wandering
-
pander means
- praise
- to cater to others weakness
- wasteful
- Dervish means
- one who dances
wildly
- layer of skin
- root vegetable
-
Bumpkin means
- unsophisticated person
- country
road
- a poor person
- Chortle means
- to
jostle
- chuckle
- resist
- Hobnob mean
-
to avoid
- approach warily
- associate familiarly
Answers to the first set of questions of I series
of the English quiz:
1)b, 2)b, 3)a, 4)b, 5)a,
6)a, 7)b, 8)b, 9)a, 10)a, 11)b, 12)a, 13)b, 14)a,
15)b, 16)a, 17)c, 18)b, 19)a, 20)c
The winner
of the first set of the series is Riku Sayuj,
a final year CMG student. We congratulate him.
The prize can be collected by contacting our office.
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