Faculty of Arts

Informace o přijímacím řízení
obor Anglistika a amerikanistika

(pro červen 2002)

MODELOVÉ TESTY (PÍSEMNÁ ČÁST ZKOUŠKY)

1. Reading Comprehension
2. Grammar
3. Essay
4. Lingvistický test
5. Culture Test

a) READING COMPREHENSION (10 points maximum)

In some languages the incidence of stress within the word is fixed, e.g., in French all words are usually stressed on their final syllable, while in Czech, Hungarian and Finnish they are stressed on their initial syllable. In some other languages, such as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, rules can be given which cover the stressing of the majority of words, and in Spanish all irregular stresses are marked with an accent, a practice which facilitates enormously the task of the foreign student who has to study the language mainly from books.

In English, unfortunately, although simple rules for stress incidence cannot be formulated, word stress is not marked in orthographic texts, and there is no general agreement as to how it ⁽¹⁾ should be indicated in works of reference. It therefore devolves upon ⁽²⁾ the student – whether English-speaking or not – to make a study of the factors which govern stress incidence and of the exceptions to such rules as can be formulated.

While the irregularity of English stress is due in part to vagaries ⁽³⁾ introduced on the one hand by instinct or caprice and on the other by precedent or analogy, its ⁽⁴⁾ main cause is an etymological one, arising from the fact that the vocabulary has been drawn from two principal sources, in one of which, the Teutonic, the tendency is towards early word stress, while in the other, the Romanic, late word stress prevails. In fact one may go still further and say that by Teutonic standards one should think of how close the stress is to the beginning of the word, while under the Romanic canon stresses are best visualized in relation to the final syllable.

The interaction of these two opposing tendencies has led to a somewhat confusing amalgam, but investigation shows that the native habit of early word stress has proved strong enough to resist the rival system to such an extent that it is possible to lay down a rule that all words in English have some sort of full stress on one of their first two syllables. On the other hand it is also possible to draw up rules showing how suffixes influence stress; in most cases these rules are subject to remarkably few exceptions.

Note: There is only one correct answer. Mark the correct answer by a cross, e.g. 

b) GRAMMAR (10 points maximum)

Complete the passage by replacing each number in brackets by one word only. Write your answers according to the numbers in the table provided below the text.

I was born and brought (1) just outside Bristol and (2) the ages of seven and fourteen, I spent far more waking hours on the rink (3) at home.

When I was six, we went to Bournemouth on holiday and saw an ice show and (4) then on I was hooked. (5) was on that same holiday that we (6) a man who (7) us that an ice rink (8) being built in Bristol. As soon (9) it was opened, I (10) skating lessons and I never looked back.

Within a couple of years, I was skating (11) three hours before school, (12) lunchtime and then (13) the evening again. (14) the time I was nine, I was doing this at (15) three or four times a week.

Mum and Dad used to (16) it in turns to (17) me up at 5am with a cup of tea. Fortunately I wasn t the (18) one in the family needing all this attention because I had two older brothers (19) were already doing their own thing. One was a musician and (20) were sportsmen.

c) ESSAY (10 points maximum)

(maximum length – 10 lines)

Topic:

   "Immature writers borrow; mature writers steal."
   Consider this statement in relation to one writer of your choice.

Sample Answers (two variants):

1. If you borrow someone s car, you intend to return it unchanged; if you steal it, you have other intentions for it. You may crash it, sell it, paint it. So too with literature, for instance in the case of Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg began his career, American poetry was polite and restrained. As a mature poet, he stole poetry from the Establishment and transformed it completely with the themes of sex, drugs and political freedom. He had no intention of returning it unchanged, and American poetry is wider for that particular theft. The best poets steal, and the police will never catch them.
   
   
2. The statement is untrue and a good example of this is the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. He looked back to Walt Whitman and borrowed his long, conversational lines of poetry. There was no theft involved as Ginsberg did no damage to the Whitmanian tradition. He used Whitman s long line to talk about sex and the United States, just as the nineteenth-century poet did. His tone was also similar to that of his predecessor. So Ginsberg is above all a traditional poet, but that does not mean he is not a mature one also.

d) LINGVISTICKÝ TEST (10 points maximum)

1. Převeďte do pasíva:
   Have they agreed on a course of action?
   
   
2. Nahraďte oba podtržené výrazy ve větě (a) vhodným slovem stejného významu (synonymem), a ve větě (b) vhodným slovem opačného významu (antonymem):
   (a) The senator skirted the issue –
   (b) She was eventually acquitted of murder –
   
   
3. Přepište celou větu tak, že přítomný tvar realize nahradíte minulým tvarem realized a provedete příslušné změny ve zbytku věty:
   I realize that he has proved his competence and is likely to get the job here.
   
   
4. Nahraďte vedlejší větu ing-ovým tvarem:
   Do you mind if I turn the radio down a little?
   
   
5. Utvořte pomocí přípon (a) sloveso ze slov ritual a example; (b) podstatné jméno ze slov immediate a comply. Uveďte odvozená slova v plném znění:
   

   (a)	ritual –	(b)	immediate –
   	example –		comply –

   
   
6. Následující věta může být různě chápána v důsledku své dvojznačnosti:
   Unlike my brother I often buy her story books.
   
   Vysvětlete v čem dvojznačnost spočívá a podle toho věty přeložte:
   (b)
   (b)
   
   
7. Určete slovní druh podtržených slov ve větě (a) a (b):
   (a) His telegram reached us before his arrival.
   (b) Before you do a thing like that, think it over.

Hodnocení:
10 bodů celkem (1 bod za otázky 1, 3, 4, 6; 2 body za otázky 2, 5, 7, u otázek 2 a 5 lze získat 1 bod za dvě správně zodpovězené podotázky)

e) CULTURE TEST (10 points maximum)

If no instructions are given, only one answer out of the four options – a), b), c), d) – is correct

1. T.S. Eliot is associated with
   a) Romanticism
   b) Reductionism
   c) Modernism
   d) Minimalism
   
   
2. Some of these authors belong to the same period in English literary history. Cross out the one who DOES NOT.
   a) Tobias Smollett, b) Samuel Richardson, d) Laurence Sterne, e) Henry Fielding, f) George Meredith
   
   
3. Seamus Heaney is from
   a) Scotland
   b) U.S.A.
   c) Australia
   d) Ireland
   
   
4. Tick the correct answer. ELEGY is:
   a) a short ancient epic which was not sung but read (from the Latin legere).
   b) an exquisite passage in Classical poetry.
   c) a comic poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas.
   d) a mournful or plaintive poem or song, especially a lament for the dead.
   
   
5. Some of these American authors have a common cultural background. Cross out the one who DOES NOT.
   1. John Updike, 2.Flannery O Connor, 3.Ralph Ellison, 4.Carson McCullers, 5. Eudora Welty, 6. William Styron
   
   
6. Some novels of Jane Austen are about
   a) the cruel life of small farmers in England
   b) the events of English city life of all social classes
   c) personal or social difficulties of marriages
   d) historic events in Britain and on the continent
   
   
7. The dissenters are/were:
   a) all who publicly express disagreement with a political power or situation
   b) an English Protestant sect
   c) a minority in the Australian Parliament
   d) all who did not worship God in the Church of England and objected against its doctrine
   
   
8. Isaac Bashevis Singer is/was:
   a) a major nineteenth-century British banker
   b) a Russian Jewish writer who emigrated to England
   c) a Jewish writer born in Poland who emigrated to the U.S. and started to write in Yiddish
   d) an Israeli writer who started to write in Hebrew but published his major works in English
   
   
9. The first prominent writer associated with Transcendentalism was:
   a) Herman Melville
   b) Ralph Waldo Emerson
   c) Alexander Pope
   d) Saki
   
   
10. Harlem Renaissance is a term for:
    a) a movement of African-American art in New York City in the 1920s b) the flourishing of Renaissance painting and architecture in a Dutch city of that name c) a satirical treatment of the customs of former Dutch colonists in The History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker published by Washington Irving in 1808 d) a recent attempt of some enthusiasts to restore and gentrify several blocks of the notorious Black ghetto on the isle of Manhattan

The test will have twenty questions. Maximum number of points is ten: correct answer to each question – 0.5 points.