Post Utme Federal University of Technology, Akure English Language Past Questions and Answers

Question 1:

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Creoles, according to the most general account, arise when a pidgin language becomesthe native language of a new generation of children. One way this can come about is when a man and woman who speak different languages marry, both know a pidgin, and neither learns the other's language.

The pidgin then becomes the shared home language and becomes the mother tongue of the children. A setting in which this has happened occurred during the bleakest days of slavery in the Western hemisphere, when efforts were made to separate African slaves with the same native language in order to forestall insurrections.

Only pidgin languages were available as common languages and they became the basis for the mother tongue of new generations. Once a pidgin language becomes a mother tongue, it must support all the interactive needs of its speakers, since they have no other language to fall back on.

A creole becomes simpler (in the sense of more regular) and expands its grammatical machinery, as well as tabilizing and expanding its lexicon. If a creole is in touch with its lexifier language, it may'decreolize' and develop varieties increasingly like the lexifier language.

If the less decreolized varieties fall out of use, the decreolized remnants of the old creole may be seen simply as substandard dialects of the lexifier language. As we will see, this has been proposed as the origin for the US Vernacular Black English.

Creoles may be defined as ____________

A. A pidgin spoken by West African slaves
B. A pidgin that has acquired native speakers,
C. A native language of a new geration of children,
D. The mother tongue of children born in an inter-ethnic marriage.

Question 2:

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Creoles, according to the most general account, arise when a pidgin language becomesthe native language of a new generation of children. One way this can come about is when a man and woman who speak different languages marry, both know a pidgin, and neither learns the other's language.

The pidgin then becomes the shared home language and becomes the mother tongue of the children. A setting in which this has happened occurred during the bleakest days of slavery in the Western hemisphere, when efforts were made to separate African slaves with the same native language in order to forestall insurrections.

Only pidgin languages were available as common languages and they became the basis for the mother tongue of new generations. Once a pidgin language becomes a mother tongue, it must support all the interactive needs of its speakers, since they have no other language to fall back on.

A creole becomes simpler (in the sense of more regular) and expands its grammatical machinery, as well as tabilizing and expanding its lexicon. If a creole is in touch with its lexifier language, it may'decreolize' and develop varieties increasingly like the lexifier language.

If the less decreolized varieties fall out of use, the decreolized remnants of the old creole may be seen simply as substandard dialects of the lexifier language. As we will see, this has been proposed as the origin for the US Vernacular Black English.

African slaves who spoke the same language were separated ____________

A. In order to make them forget their first languages
B. So that there would be no rebellion
C. So that they would learn their master's language,
D. To make their days bleaker.

Question 3:

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Creoles, according to the most general account, arise when a pidgin language becomesthe native language of a new generation of children. One way this can come about is when a man and woman who speak different languages marry, both know a pidgin, and neither learns the other's language.

The pidgin then becomes the shared home language and becomes the mother tongue of the children. A setting in which this has happened occurred during the bleakest days of slavery in the Western hemisphere, when efforts were made to separate African slaves with the same native language in order to forestall insurrections.

Only pidgin languages were available as common languages and they became the basis for the mother tongue of new generations. Once a pidgin language becomes a mother tongue, it must support all the interactive needs of its speakers, since they have no other language to fall back on.

A creole becomes simpler (in the sense of more regular) and expands its grammatical machinery, as well as tabilizing and expanding its lexicon. If a creole is in touch with its lexifier language, it may'decreolize' and develop varieties increasingly like the lexifier language.

If the less decreolized varieties fall out of use, the decreolized remnants of the old creole may be seen simply as substandard dialects of the lexifier language. As we will see, this has been proposed as the origin for the US Vernacular Black English.

The following are characteristics of a creole language except ____________

A. An expanded vocabulary.
B. Varieties similar to the lexifier language.
C. Young native speakers.
D. A more regular grammatical system.

Question 4:

Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.

Creoles, according to the most general account, arise when a pidgin language becomesthe native language of a new generation of children. One way this can come about is when a man and woman who speak different languages marry, both know a pidgin, and neither learns the other's language.

The pidgin then becomes the shared home language and becomes the mother tongue of the children. A setting in which this has happened occurred during the bleakest days of slavery in the Western hemisphere, when efforts were made to separate African slaves with the same native language in order to forestall insurrections.

Only pidgin languages were available as common languages and they became the basis for the mother tongue of new generations. Once a pidgin language becomes a mother tongue, it must support all the interactive needs of its speakers, since they have no other language to fall back on.

A creole becomes simpler (in the sense of more regular) and expands its grammatical machinery, as well as tabilizing and expanding its lexicon. If a creole is in touch with its lexifier language, it may'decreolize' and develop varieties increasingly like the lexifier language.

If the less decreolized varieties fall out of use, the decreolized remnants of the old creole may be seen simply as substandard dialects of the lexifier language. As we will see, this has been proposed as the origin for the US Vernacular Black English.

Vernacular Black English is ____________

A. A pidgin
B. A creole,
C. A decreolized variety,
D. A less decreolized variety.

Question 5:

Choose the most appropriate option nearest in meaning to the italicized word/phrase.

He is a prolific writer as well as a human rights activist.

A. Well-known
B. Productive
C. Promising
D. Promiscuous